Rebranding an industry icon

Does the name nVent ring a bell? Well, it’s as B2B as it gets: global footprint, chopped into a dozen divisions, and a legacy that dates back to your great-great-grandfather.

When the nVent Thermal division – a leader in industrial heating – was acquired by a private equity firm, the brand hit a crossroads, and BBC stepped in.

To get to the heart of the newly born Chemelex, we hopped on a plane to Houston for a one-week strategy sprint.

The scorching Texas sun was nothing compared to the heat in the room, as we dug for insights together with the CEO and Commercial Leadership team.

In a mission-critical industry, you need a bulletproof promise. So, from the blazing boardroom, we forged a story that sealed in legacy values and signaled Chemelex’s uncompromising standards. A story tied together in the tagline: ‘Excellence is Everything.’

At the same time, you want to give the +1000 employees worldwide a North Star to guide the brand’s internal transition and structure sub-brands consistently under the new umbrella.

Chemelex engineers for excellence. We design for it. To outsmart logistical constraints, we deployed a custom AI workflow to produce high-tech, ultra-realistic visuals across dozens of sites. In 2024 AI-terms, this was some really advanced digital artistry.

• Bright hero shots in industrial backdrops, along with turquoise color grading, made things unmistakably Chemelex, while legacy-red accentuated the sub-brands.
• A distinct cut-out, inspired by the new logo, further shaped a high-tech identity with an unmistakable color branding.
• An online brand portal was indispensable for maintaining consistency across all global teams and communication assets, long after the brand launch.

And there you have it. An industry icon reborn, with all its legacy kept alive, and its future bursting with excellence.