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Since its creation, CBA has been working with brands on design problematic by placing Human being at the very core of its approach. For the agency, it is together, by associating various talents and expertise but also by listening to consumers, that it detects and brings to light the meaning and purpose of brands, through design. For CBA, design is a tool for positive transformation; it shapes differences and allows brands and consumers to leave a lasting positive impact on society, on environment; and on the world.
However, nowadays, having and claiming a purpose is no longer enough. Now, it requires tangible evidence to embody our message with honesty and authenticity.
With a “raison d’être” already detected, the agency decided to undertake this exercise by its own, in order to be able to manage the best possible collaboration with brands.
That is why, in 2021, CBA has decided to reassert its positioning, its missions and its values through the redefinition of its brand platform, its graphic territories and its consumers’ experience on digital.
The results? A new brand speech and a new digital ecosystem, merging meaning with performance, in order to live up to its convictions.
With the aim of focusing on what makes the design agency unique, international workshops were set up to redefine the CBA brand platform. This collaboration has allowed the association of various talents in the world. The main idea was to create a flexible design identity ecosystem to allow each agency around the world to customize it accordingly to its cultural and local influences.
This collaborative work has enabled the agency to create an agile brand platform that reflects CBA’s international standing, and that is consistent with a common and meaningful message.
This web design project has been initiated by CBA’s digital teams in Paris.
A major challenge with a double goal:
From the beginning of this project, we’ve put the user at the core of our thinking to make it easier for them to understand the new positioning of CBA as they navigate.
Digital Artistic Director
Although the precedent version was a true showcase of its “savoir-faire”, the agency wanted to give a more human and design dimensions to its digital ecosystem; hence making its websites a mirror of its expertise and personality.
The goal was to create a true brand experience, with flexible design to allow its various international offices to encounter their own cultural singularity, specific to each country and each team.
The agency needed to give more meaning to its websites, through its speech regarding its new positioning, for its design with the idea of reflecting the core of its business and finally, from a technical point of view, to be suitable with its international development and with the best web practices in 2021.
Thus, thanks to a collaborative and international work, CBA proves the successful association of its talents throughout the world.
Today, the agency has got a relift and is equipped with new websites matching with its creativity. It offers a brand experience that highlights the meaning hidden behind the design, the purpose embodiment of the agency and its savoir-faire.
One thing is certain, this year, marked by a global health crisis, followed by an economic crisis, will remain etched in our memories! And yet, as Albert Einstein said so well, “in the midst of every crisis lies a great opportunity”.
And yes, 2020 will not have stopped the world from turning, reinventing and innovating! Innovate for what? Simply to survive, to improve, to give more meaning to our actions. Governments, citizens, consumers and businesses have understood this well. Without change, there will be no after.
At CBA, our teams around the world have also been able to seize the opportunities that 2020 has brought:
In short, the creatives of CBA knew how to use design as an element of positive transformation – for the environment, for society, for brands and for the company as for employees.
The result ? A multitude of small positive actions summarized in a few figures!
2020 has also brought us all back down to earth to anchor ourselves in reality, to open our eyes to what really matters: people. Because without Human, there will be no after.
That’s why at the end of the year, CBA wanted to say THANK YOU.
Thank you to our customers who have continued to place their trust in us.
Thank you to our employees who continued to keep the machine running, innovating and challenging themselves a little more every day.
Simply thank you for not giving up so that we can finally say goodbye to such a chaotic year!
So on behalf of our 300 collaborators, thank you.
We are ready to make 2021 an exceptional year with you!
At CBA, we believe that the successful brands of tomorrow are those that will place People at the heart of their approach, embody a cause and have meaning to leave a memorable mark beyond what they sell. To do this, we are convinced that understanding cultures and consumers is key.
By opening an office in Singapore, CBA is establishing itself on a whole new continent in order to be as close as possible to local cultures. This new agency is coordinated, in collaboration with London and Paris, by Marion Micoud.
With 15 years of experience, Marion brings a new perspective on Asian markets as well as effective expertise in understanding local needs and cultural nuances in order to develop, refresh or create new brands, products and services ( Identity, Digital, Retail, Packaging, Activation).
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Marion Micoud
I am very happy to join the talented team of CBA and coordinate its development in Asia. As we launch our first office in Singapore, the World Economic Forum will hold its annual meeting there in 2021 and are announcing 6% growth for this region (Euromonitor data).
In 2021, one thing is certain: brands and companies must continue to adapt their offers and their working methods while remaining attentive to the desires of consumers and creatives are essential rules.
To support this, at CBA, we have developed a “Critical Imprint” offer. Indeed, we are convinced that the successful brands of tomorrow will be those that combine purpose and utility. If creativity has always been at the heart of our business, our goal is to reconcile the meaning and the raison d’être of the brand through design. Thanks to our collective intelligence and our network of 13 offices, we have a team of experts allowing us to exploit all categories and all markets through brand identity, packaging, retail as well as to digital.
Marion Micoud
General Manager & Head of Business, CBA Singapore
This new establishment allows CBA to strengthen its international presence and thus cover almost all world markets. This network will allow CBA teams to continue to develop synergies between its 13 offices, thereby promoting its ability to challenge itself and innovate on a daily basis.
Years follow one another but don’t look alike. This is the conclusion we can make for 2020. Despite the particular atmosphere and context, things are changing and we are all making progress. This year will also be the sign of multiple celebrations at CBA.
We all have a year of birth, a beginning and over the years, an evolution. The years go by and offices grow, clients join the adventure and place their trust, stories are told, some familiar faces leave but others join the adventure.. Simply, agency life.
At CBA, our story is about people. Everything started with one man, Louis Collinet -still at the direction of the company after more than 38 years. Louis Collinet founded the agency with a pragmatic, business-like approach and a ‘flair’ which still remain today. A creative entrepreneur, who likes to combine effectiveness with joy.
“That’s what will create the right atmosphere, recruitment and the approach we want to have with our customers. Our business and our network are primarily built on meetings: personalities are as important as market opportunities”.
Today, 3 offices are celebrating their birthday.
Let’s start with an office rich in history and one of the oldest:
our Latin American office created on June 29, 1995.
Everything started in a room with 2 partners: Luis Bartolomei (B from B+G) and Marcos Guilherme (G from B+G). In a few years, the agency had grown modestly and moved into the heart of downtown Sao Paulo with 6 people. The first client to take a chance on this fledgling venture was Nestlé Maggi. After 5 years, the agency began to make creative impact, hiring more employees to end up with 20 people. The 2 people room is now far away. During this period, two new big clients appeared: Purina and Nazca Cosméticos -2 clients that are still partnering with us and trusting us. In 2007, the team doubled, B + G increased to 40 employees and moved to their current office in São Paulo, in the Brooklin district which leads us to 2014 when B + G merged with CBA and thus became CBA B + G, the LatAm office of CBA.
Today, CBA B+G:
Let’s continue in Europe, with the office in Turkey created in October 2005
The story begins with Müge Tandogan, marketing manager for chocolates for 13 years at Nestlé Turkey. Müge was a client of CBA while the agency was working on branding identity for the Chocolove entity. It was love at first sight and followed the logical sequence with the opening of an office in Istanbul. Once again, the opening of a new office was about meeting, people, trust and entrepreneurship.
One of the flagship clients of the Turkey agency is Dogus Group, leading Corporate in the country and more globally with a wide scope of projects including Corporate Strategy, Corporate Branding for the Holding and Group Companies and Branding of Gobeklitepe which is the oldest temple of the world (and, yes, we show off a bit); thanks to our dear Fulya who entrusted the project to CBA. Luckily for the office, Fulya was then hired and promoted to managing director of CBA Istanbul in early 2020 -further proof that the agency’s former clients are satisfied and can warmly relate to CBA’s values which are shared.
A proud moment: today we can say that half of the packaging of major brands in supermarkets in Turkey is produced by CBA Istanbul. And, as we never stop reinventing and challenging ourselves, the company is now planning on expanding its activity in more regions in this part of the world thanks to the intensification of talent and expertise collaborations between CBA offices.
To end this good vibing anniversary article, now we are heading to the United States.
The story starts in 2008 when the CBA Group began to study the opportunity of a presence in North America and the best way to approach the market. A year later, Jean-Marc Rinaldi – who started in 2000 the brand activation department for CBA in France – decided to set up the new US office in San Francisco as a global innovation center. In order to serve its best potential clients, CBA’s pilot brand in the USA was launched as CBA Brand Ignition, partnering with Brand Engine and its founder Will Burke. Brand Engine retained their local clients and International business and global brands were serviced under CBA Brand Ignition. The operation was based in Sausalito, Marin County, San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2011 and after winning several clients together, including a 3 year contract with a global consumer electronics player – Motorola for their worldwide packaging operations-, Brand Engine and CBA Brand Ignition formed a single entity called CBA BE (CBA Brand Engine). Will Burke becomes CEO of CBA BE and Jean-Marc Rinaldi takes on the role of COO.
In the years that followed, Jean-Marc Rinaldi returned to Paris in 2013 as Global Chief Operating Office of the CBA Group for a 2-year assignment, keeping his COO cap for CBA BE. A year later CBA BE moves from Sausalito to the financial district of San Francisco. In 2015, Jean-Marc Rinaldi returned to San Francisco as CEO and formed the current company of CBA USA. It was at this time that he selected Elainne Roberton, who had been a part of the CBA story since 2010, to become a Partner for the US operation. In 2018 Elainne relocated to New York to open an office on 5th Avenue in the Flatiron district, which now manages all the US operations. CBA USA continues to attract new clients, in addition to retaining its historical ones such as Nestlé and is known for its innovative and agile approach to design and collaboration : Sprint Mode by CBA USA.
To be continued
Founded in Paris in 1982 by current Chairman, Louis Collinet, CBA is a global design and branding agency with a human touch. For more than 35 years, CBA has created brand experiences and identities based on a combination of strategic analysis, creativity and a human-centric approach.
The key is listening to and understanding both cultures and consumers. Despite 2020’s unprecedented global crisis, CBA is opening new international locations so it can be as close to local cultures as possible, including Lima and Mexico under the agency’s São Paulo arm, CBA B+G.
Ever since the B+G Agency was fully integrated into CBA Design in 2014, creating CBA B+G, the focus has been on consolidating our Brazilian presence through expertise in four key areas: Branding, Design, Research and Innovation. In 2015, the 80-person agency expanded its presence throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, becoming one of the continent’s major branding agency. Peru and Mexico have become two key strategic platforms for the establishment of an agency that is deeply rooted in Latin America, due to their very unique consumption patterns, creative proprietary cultures, strong growth of local historic brands and the resultant need to know their consumers more closely.
These two satellite offices are flexible structures that will serve as creative and strategic relay points for the parent agency in São Paulo. Their main objectives are to help teams identify local consumer traits and major national trends, as well as to strengthen relationships and partnerships with clients supporting us in this move towards greater regional development, including Colgate-Palmolive, Nestlé, Purina, Pernod-Ricard and Kimberly-Clark.
———– Ludovic DAPOIGNY, Managing Partner & Head of Business Latin America.
Today, CBA is:
Along with these new locations, 2020 is a year of celebrations: the 10th anniversary of CBA USA; the 15th anniversary of CBA Turkey; the 25th anniversary of CBA B+G (Latin America) and the first anniversary of CBA North Europe, whose continued growth includes expanding its teams at the end of the year.
Thanks to this well-established network covering all markets, CBA can develop greater collaborations and synergies between its teams, and thereby constantly challenge and innovate on a global scale.
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