France
Paris
Welcome to
Welcome to
With 320 experts across 9 studios in Europe, the U.S., Asia, and Latin America, CBA brings together the strengths of a big agency, including tech and data muscle via WPP, with the flexibility and personal touch of a smaller, entrepreneurial structure. As Cécile Ayed explains: “After more than 30 years in branding, having the chance to write the next chapter of CBA, with this entrepreneurial spirit and backing from a group like WPP, was immediately appealing.” This setup ensures strong senior involvement and a tailor-made service for each client.
“What people buy are ideas that move them, surprise them, and leave a mark,” Ayed says. CBA refers to its work as “Unordinary Ideas” – for instance, their concept for Nescafé Espresso Concentrate: identifying that a third of young people’s coffee consumption happens as iced coffee outside the home, they designed a “barista & mixology house,” transforming coffee into a social experience.
Their “AI-E” approach (which combines synthetic research with insights from ethnographers) refines their understanding of consumers and speeds up the identification of differentiating signals – freeing up the team to focus on where they add real value: bold, strategic creativity. As Ayed puts it, “At CBA, we are strategic in our creativity, and creative in our strategy.”
CBA’s recent integration with Coley Porter Bell in 2025 strengthened its foothold in mature markets like the UK and USA, building on its already solid presence in Latin America and Asia – regions that continue to grow rapidly. In a context where 80% of large brands struggle to maintain differentiation, Ayed gives a clear piece of advice to business leaders: “To succeed, a brand must dare. Not daring is today’s biggest risk.” This bold mindset underpins CBA’s “Unordinary Ideas,” which aim to emotionally engage audiences and drive lasting growth.
Since Covid, 80% of leading brands have lost their edge in differentiation. Today, brands have no choice but to surprise, and to co-create with their audiences.
People expect brands to take action.
First, a brand needs the legitimacy to stand for a cause.
Then, it must have the means to act on it consistently over time.
The brands that thrive today don’t just follow – they inspire and resonate. They dare to break conventions, define their own rules, and express a unique and authentic identity.
At CBA, we see ourselves as catalysts of this transformation. We encourage brands to trust themselves, embrace boldness, and use innovation as a real driver of impact. We don’t just listen to cultures and communities; we aim to transcend them. Guided by this philosophy, every act of communication can become a defining, meaningful, and coherent moment.
If you’re ready to bring your brand vision to life, get in touch with us.
We’d love to spark Unordinary Ideas together.
In a market overwhelmed with messages and offers, differentiation is no longer a strategy. It is the condition for relevance. Attention, now the rarest of currencies, disappears within seconds. Loyalty is eroding, trends are accelerating, and consumers, more demanding than ever, seek authenticity beyond the noise. In this landscape, sameness has become the norm and caution a brake, leaving brands with an existential dilemma: how to exist, stand out, and balance uniqueness, commitment, and cultural relevance?
This is a bold alternative to the pursuit of mere visibility: a call for relevance, memorability, and, above all, differentiation through risk-taking.
As Cécile Ayed, President of the CBA and Coley Porter Bell network, explained in an interview with Le Figaro: “Branding is not about following trends, it is about creating them.” This bold perspective underpins our philosophy at CBA. It is made possible through a deep understanding of cultures and audiences, strategic coherence, and local adaptation — without losing sight of the brand’s heritage.
Today’s landscape is a battlefield for attention and relevance, where brands face several critical obstacles:
In this environment, playing it safe is tempting. Yet the numbers are clear: only 13% of companies consider themselves ready to take creative risks (Lions, 2025). Meanwhile, bold brands grow 33% faster (Deloitte, 2025). The real risk is no longer boldness, but inertia.
A striking example is Lux (Unilever), the feminine hygiene brand, which embraced women’s empowerment; but adapted its message to each market. In Saudi Arabia, where women are more educated than men but only 16% are employed, Lux supported local women (doctors, photographers, and more) by improving their online visibility through Google search.
Instead of launching a generic feminist campaign, Lux created a subtle yet powerful gesture of empowerment, one that respected cultural codes while offering lasting impact.
This measured approach embodies a new kind of engagement: rooted in local realities, faithful to brand values, and expressed through concrete action.
It begins with a step too often overlooked: understanding the starting point, the audience, and the cultural context. This is the principle of grounding that CBA stands for.
It is no longer a service provider but a true partner, an architect of boldness, a catalyst for distinctiveness. Its mission is to help brands carve their own path, break free from convention, and unlock their unique potential.
We bring in experts from the human sciences, anthropologists, ethnologists; who, supported by AI, help us gain a qualitative and precise understanding of consumers in every market. This enables us to define sharp insights and test creative concepts quickly, accelerating the design process.
At CBA, our philosophy rests on three core principles:
As Cécile Ayed sums it up:
By building confidence and encouraging informed risk-taking, aligned with audiences, we help brands break free from limitations and define their own standards of success.
People expect brands to act.
First, you need legitimacy to take on a cause.
Second, you must have the means to act consistently over time.
The brands that succeed do not follow, they inspire and resonate. They dare to break conventions, shape their own rules of the game, and express a unique, authentic identity.
At CBA, we are proud to act as catalysts of this transformation. We invite brands to trust themselves, embrace boldness, and use innovation as a lever for impact. We remain attuned to cultures and communities not to be led by them, but to transcend them. With this foundation, every act of communication can become a defining moment — meaningful, consistent, and aligned with both brand identity and future ambition.
With boldness and cultural insight, the era of brand differentiation can truly begin.
The future belongs to brands that dare.
Each market has its own symbols, habits, and expectations. Integrating them doesn’t dilute the brand—it ensures credibility. This is about coherence with the brand’s DNA, not just image.
Consider Bel in Japan: selling cheese portions as in France wasn’t viable. Instead, the product was reinvented as a healthy, bite-sized “sweet cheese” snack—evoking French macarons while fitting Japanese tastes. The result: a product that feels new, yet unmistakably Bel.
This cultural translation is also a narrative one: ensuring the brand remains consistent and credible, even far from its origins.
With the constant questioning of women’s rights around the world and still today, we are well aware that some of the rights are still sensitive and unstable. The group CBA means to fight against gender discrimination and sexism and do believe that design is an extraordinary tool to shape the world into a better place, both for women and men.
Thus, CBA launched a campaign in March highlighting the women and men who fight gender inequality on a daily basis and the role of design in the inclusion of women.
We have sought to analyse the theme of women’s rights from all angles, in order to enlighten and raise public awareness.
CBA Paris launched an interview campaign highlighting employees and their experiences as women or men in the world of work and their perceptions of gender inequality. Here are a few questions they answered:
Margaux Lhermitte, Head of Retail & Architecture
Anthony Charton, Art Director
Léa Richard, Project Manager Assistant
Laurence Bethines, Brand Strategist
Nathalie Aupetit, Senior Artistic Director
Barbara Duavy, Managing Partners & Head of Culture CBA B+G, looks back on her experience as a woman in the professional world and especially as a board member. A touching, transparent and necessary testimony still today!
An interesting look at her childhood, her schooling and the objectives of CBA B+G in terms of people, culture, diversity and ESG, in the long run.
Thank you Barbara for your testimony!
In this special month, we decided to focus on the theme of inclusive design. More and more brands adopt inclusive design to celebrate accessibility! In order to respond to issues that are still major today as fight against gender discrimination and sexism, celebrate a more intuitive and accessible design and adopt equity thanks to inclusives identities.
In this special month, we decided to focus on the theme of inclusive design. More and more brands adopt inclusive design to celebrate accessibility! In order to respond to issues that are still major today as fight against gender discrimination and sexism, celebrate a more intuitive and accessible design and adopt equity thanks to inclusives identities.
In this special month, we decided to focus on the theme of inclusive design. More and more brands adopt inclusive design to celebrate accessibility! In order to respond to issues that are still major today as fight against gender discrimination and sexism, celebrate a more intuitive and accessible design and adopt equity thanks to inclusives identities.
Carmen Beer, content manager at CBA B+G, highlights the ‘All Bodies are Normal’ trend from our recent Design Trends Report, which has everything to do with empowered women.
Embracing and celebrating the natural shapes and cycles of all bodies is the core of many new brands, designing products & services that speak directly to a target group previously forgotten.
Subjects as the well-being, mental health and acceptation are much more taking into account by brands. Authenticity and transparency is key!
Sandra Garcia, our Managing Director at CBA Spain, took part at the BCREATIVE session of the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week with the key theme « Impact creativity led by women ».
A keynote about the power of design applied to business strategies to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
A scene shared with Sisón Pujol, founder and CEO at Nonon Design agency, Ana Fornt, CEO at Group Efebé and Arantxa Bernadí, CEO at Bernadí.
Sandra Garcia, our Managing Director at CBA Spain, took part at the BCREATIVE session of the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week with the key theme « Impact creativity led by women ».
A keynote about the power of design applied to business strategies to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
A scene shared with Sisón Pujol, founder and CEO at Nonon Design agency, Ana Fornt, CEO at Group Efebé and Arantxa Bernadí, CEO at Bernadí.
Sandra Garcia, our Managing Director at CBA Spain, took part at the BCREATIVE session of the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week with the key theme « Impact creativity led by women ».
A keynote about the power of design applied to business strategies to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
A scene shared with Sisón Pujol, founder and CEO at Nonon Design agency, Ana Fornt, CEO at Group Efebé and Arantxa Bernadí, CEO at Bernadí.
CBA’s global team of designers, strategists and content experts have selected from out there what they considered top-notch in terms of design, branding and consumer trends, focusing on positive impact.
From this great curation we highlighted 15 trends that, in this year, will continue to encourage brands – large and small, from all categories – to innovate in order to become more useful to society.
Trends are segmented into 5 pillars -pillars from the utility map of our Critical Imprint methodology:
There is no Planet B, and we ought to take care of the one we live in.
Designing environmentally friendly packaging is a must: we need to consider the use of different packaging materials and formats.
Brands are increasingly celebrating
a boom of digital healthcare solutions catered to communities, and a playful integration between beauty and food brands.
The pandemic and the ongoing process of globalization
have many of us questioning what is it that we want for
our future as a society
by making their offer more economically affordable, or expanding their presence in the metaverse and on social media.