Case Study: The Economist Group achieves growth through brand strategy with Wolff Olins

The Economist Group grows social reach 5x with Wolff Olins

The Economist Group, a global media and information firm, sought to accelerate a new era of growth under its new CEO. The challenge was to double its subscriber base and clarify its expansive B2B portfolio, which spanned data, analytics, and events, all while preserving the core publication's esteemed reputation for independent journalism. They engaged the brand consultancy Wolff Olins to develop a brand strategy to meet this mandate.

Wolff Olins developed a new value proposition, "independent journalism for independent thinking," to attract a wider audience. The solution included evolving the brand architecture and creating a unifying design system to simplify over 50 B2B offerings into four clear sub-brands. This strategy had a pronounced impact, with one new sub-brand, Economist Impact, growing its social media reach by five times. Overall social followers across the group grew from 30,000 to over 250,000, a result attributed to the new cohesive identity.

The Economist Group