Most rebrands work backwards. A firm decides it wants to feel more modern, more tech-forward, more something. A creative agency builds visual concepts. Research gets commissioned to validate the direction already chosen. The new logo launches. Nothing fundamentally changes. The PwC rebrand went the other way. The global professional services firm announced a major brand revitalisation in April 2025, built around a new positioning, refreshed visual identity, and a new advertising campaign. The work, developed with FutureBrand and McCann, was built on extensive client research before any asset was designed. What the research found shaped everything that followed.

The insight

Clients did not describe PwC as the source of momentum in their businesses. They described themselves as the origin. PwC, in their telling, was the enabler. Not the hero. The catalyst that made the client’s own momentum possible.

The client is the one who moved. PwC is offstage.

That distinction matters enormously in B2B brand positioning. The instinct in professional services marketing is to centre the firm: “We helped Company X achieve Y.” PwC’s research revealed that this framing annoys the client, because the client knows they did the hard work. PwC was there. PwC made it easier, faster, more certain. But the momentum belonged to the client. The new positioning reflects this: PwC helps clients “build, sustain and accelerate momentum.” The campaign line, “So You Can,” places the client’s outcome at the centre of every communication. PwC is offstage. The client is the one who moved.

What changed visually

The visual identity evolution was deliberate rather than disruptive. PwC retained its orange and its wordmark, both carrying strong equity after decades of investment. What changed was the overall brand system: a smaller logo mark, updated photography direction, and a more consistent verbal identity framework designed to unify how 370,000 people across 150+ countries write and communicate under the same brand. Global CMO Antonia Wade described it as building on strong foundations rather than starting over: “We are building on the strong foundation of our existing identity, retaining the things that work well for us, while modernising it for today’s market.”

The Next Era for PwC. Video: PwC / YouTube

The Ritson read

Mark Ritson covered the rebrand twice, which is unusual. In The Drum, he praised the strategic process as a rare example of a corporate rebrand done properly: patient, disciplined, and genuinely grounded in what clients believe. In a second piece, he took issue with the name “So You Can,” finding it more functional than compelling. Both responses are instructive. The strategic process was sound. The creative output was more debatable. That gap between good strategy and great creative is common in B2B, where rigorous research tends to produce safe language rather than memorable ideas.

The BTC read

PwC’s rebrand will not win many creative awards. The campaign line is serviceable rather than sharp. The visual identity is evolution, not reinvention. But the brief was followed. The research was done. The client insight was real. For B2B brands especially, that discipline is rarer than it should be, and the result is a brand that is at least coherent: grounded in something true about how clients actually experience the firm. That is a better starting point than most corporate rebrands reach.