Bynder is a Dutch-born DAM provider that has grown to serve 1.7 million users across 4,000+ brands. But upon emerging as a global market leader, it became clear that the tools Bynder used to tell its own brand story were no longer fit for purpose.
The team managing Bynder’s brand were seeking a strategic overhaul that empowered B2B communications that were consistent, clear and free from background noise. Verve delivered.
We visited Bynder HQ to chat with Ljubica Jovanova, Senior Director of Brand & Content Marketing, about collaborating with Verve to create a new and scalable visual system (as well as an injection of fresh energy).
Verve was brought in to evolve Bynder’s brand in 2024. Where was the company at then?
When I started at Bynder, it was in the startup phase and we were building the creative team. Everything related to our brand was done way back then, but now we’ve been in a period of really fast growth for a long time.
So, as we started to brief Verve on the kinds of improvements we wanted, we realised that this kind of evolution was long overdue. It was time to solidify our position as a global leader in the digital asset management [DAM] space.
How did you know that a brand refresh was long overdue?
It was multiple things at once. Back in January of 2022, we were acquired by a private investment company. Since then, with their experience, we’ve been looking deeper into what steps we could take to fuel growth.
One primary driver was shifting our focus to enterprise customers. We really wanted our brand to appeal to this segment, so we needed it to better reflect our position as a market leader. Part of this strategy meant introducing more maturity to our communications, but we also needed to improve consistency across all of Bynder’s marketing materials and align our tone of voice with these new target enterprise audiences.
Our marketing materials were also overdue for a refresh. We wanted them to be less text heavy and more visually engaging. We knew that would really help to communicate our USPs to each of Bynder’s audiences with greater clarity.
Many companies view a brand evolution as just a “nice-to-have”. Why did you decide to meaningfully invest in this refresh?
I think it’s because we’re a different kind of B2B company. We’ve always been proud of our brand first and foremost.
“When we were solely an Amsterdam-based company, everyone we’d meet already knew Bynder. As we grew internationally, we just didn’t feel like ourselves anymore.”
People weren’t recognising us across all touchpoints—they remember us from time to time, but we’re not standing out. When competing with companies and products like Adobe’s Experience Manager, you need to step up your game. Branding quickly became a way for us to stand out.
How did you manage the Bynder brand, before reaching out to Verve?
We did everything in-house. One of Bynder’s designers created a helpful foundation during our startup era. And even though we had never invested specific time and resources into dedicated branded content, our people have always cared about how we look online.
Once we formalised the creative team at Bynder, we started to more consistently look at creating proper guidelines with a color palette, type, templates and so on. So our team got really excited by the prospect of a more holistic approach. And, in the end, it's passion that drives the work behind any great brand.
Bynder’s in-house creative team has safeguarded your brand for so long. When Verve got involved, what shifts did you notice?
Verve added to being proud of the brand.
External perspective for sure. We’ve always missed that part where you can actually focus on the creative expression and do something bigger with it.
“Since we started working with Verve, Bynder has been able to shake things up at a very core level. This means we’re no longer stuck with a collection of short-term brand fixes. Now we’re creating all assets with our global future at the front of mind.”
What do you think holds scale-ups from being able to shake things up internally?
More than anything else, we’re all just too busy. Nobody has time to sit down and say, “I'm gonna work on the brand, holistically, for three months straight.” Nobody gets that.
Before Verve, we had tried a brand shake up but it was honestly quite painful. We worked with an agency that didn’t understand our needs. Because of that, I was expecting for the process to involve a lot more internal back and forth this time around. And it can take a lot of time and energy to convince people of why we were doing what we were doing.
In reality, it was surprisingly easy. From the original brief to the first creative concepts Verve showed us, everyone at Bynder was excited from the very beginning. And our collaboration always retained its focus on making the brand functional for the people and teams who actually work with it every day.
Armed with a fit-for-purpose brand, where is Bynder in the market now?
We’re more confident in how our brand appears alongside our position as a market leader in DAM. Now, I feel like that comes across in every single facet of Bynder’s brand experience.
I’ve also felt internally and externally that our brand is getting more recognition. During our Bynder Connect event, back in September, we got plenty of compliments on the rebrand from leading global brands. They’re also our customers, so that kind of engagement means a lot to us.
What would you say to other in-house brand specialists who want to bring in external expertise?
You want to know what the exact goal is and have a really good briefing. If you’re waiting for an agency to try and figure everything out during the creative process, you definitely won’t get everything you want out of them. This also means being aligned internally about what everyone on your team should expect.
I feel like there are so many B2B brands in terrible need of a rebrand. They should go and do it right now. We welcome the competition.
Bynder office photography by Jordi Huisman.
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