Fifteen and Fortified: Double Forte Celebrates 15 Years with Brand Recharge

By Lee Caraher

When I started Double Forte 15 years ago with my friend and colleague Dan Stevens, the PR industry, indeed the economy, was very different than it is today. Traditional media reigned supreme, public relations often still bowed to advertising and conventional corporate work environments were still going strong. Social media had yet to take hold – Facebook wouldn’t even exist for another 2 years!

Today, while our purpose has remained the same, our work has changed dramatically to reflect the seismic changes that technology has brought to our industry and our culture. Double Forte has evolved three times in 15 years to deliver the skills, expertise and services the new standards of communication demand. We are better for it, I’m sure. In fact, I’ve never been so optimistic about our industry and the company. In our crazy, multi-dimensional communication ecosystem, nothing is more important than the message, how you deliver it, and then how you engage with the people you are trying to reach. The need for our work will only increase over time, although the methods will surely change again and again.

As we contemplated this fifteen-year milestone, we decided to examine our company from top to bottom and side to side. We saw many things we really like and are proud of. We saw others that need some attention which are now well underway, and we saw one thing that we felt needed a total refresh – our brand identity and the different ways it comes to life. So, in honor of the agency’s fifteenth anniversary, Double Forte today announced the rollout of our updated brand identity, which includes a new logo, website and the relaunch of our wine division, The Barn Group, as Double Forte Wine.

We still wake up every day ready to help our clients achieve their goals and make a positive difference in their categories. We still love to write and tell the compelling stories that engage people with our clients. We still relish the task of crafting crisp, compelling messaging that can be easily delivered in different mediums to help customers and users find and relate to our clients. And we still laugh out loud whenever possible (and not always at the right time). And now we have a new brand identity we think conveys that energy and purpose in today’s market, and delivers the message that we are really good at making our clients really loud to the people who matter to them.

(Of course, in the process, I found out that I was, perhaps, unhealthily attached to our original and “good enough for the first 15 years” logo that hearkened to the musical roots of the name. That’s how I knew we were on the right path!)

As we look to the future, here are 6 reasons why we’ve recharged the Double Forte brand:

To celebrate our 15-year milestone!

Why now? The rebrand has been in the works for some time, and our fifteen-year anniversary warranted a thoughtful celebration that properly represented Double Forte in 2017 and beyond. From an image standpoint, the old logo didn’t reflect the energy of our offering. Now was the time to invest the effort and thought to ensure that the visual representation of our brand demonstrated the energy and future potential of Double Forte.

To communicate a more cohesive offering

As part of our updated brand, we transitioned The Barn Group, our wine division, to Double Forte Wine. This decision means all the agency’s offerings—corporate, technology, food, wine, lifestyle and consumer packaged goods—are presented under the Double Forte brand umbrella. Uniting under one cohesive brand simplifies our approach for new business prospects and employee candidates – anything that is simpler is better in our book.

To honor our brand evolution

Double Forte has evolved throughout the years – V1, V2, and now V3. When we first launched Double Forte in 2002, our business model was perfect for the time – we only hired people with at least ten years of experience who had had significant in-house experience. Today we strive for a team that is equally weighted above and below ten years of experience, and fostering young talent is a major tenet of the company.

To attract our key audiences

Brands often change their look and feel because, with time, tastes and aesthetics change as well. As society evolves and develops new ideas, design industries adapt to fit the new “standard.” The goal of a brand is to make your company appealing to your clients, employees, and potential clients. That’s why we turned to branding firm EAT. A beloved client and creative studio, EAT helps some of the most relevant brands today, including Red Bull, Just Fab and The New York Times, tell their story through best-in-class design and visual branding.

We continue to see positive reactions to organizations and companies that modernize their brand identity. This is why rebranding is necessary and why we at Double Forte chose a refreshed look that reflects our talent, strength and capabilities today and for years to come.

To stay current

I’m always amazed at how fast the road to irrelevance is, and how it’s speeding up in many places. It’s important to always be one step ahead and look at what’s coming down the line. I’ve learned many invaluable lessons throughout Double Forte’s journey over the last 15 years, but staying current is particularly crucial, especially within the communications industry.

A brand is much more than the company’s logo or the product or service being offered. A brand is your identity that will be with you for years to come and for all to see. That’s why creating a visual representation of your brand that reflects the present and projects to the future is an important communication medium. If, as Marshal McLuhan has so convincingly proven, the medium is the message, then the brand identity should speak to the people you’re trying to reach.

To remain true to our brand

Even though we’re rebranding, Double Forte still has the same underlying message and drive. We still place the upmost importance on our high level of client service, creative and results-driven work, and a supportive workplace culture that values our colleagues’ success as much as our own.

The energy of our new brand represents that there is even more opportunity for our employees and clients as well as the work that we do. It also represents that there’s joy in what we do at Double Forte every day. Our work remains individualized and tailored – there’s no cookie cutter mentality at Double Forte. Our team draws everything from scratch and that’s something that will never change.

We hope you like it!