KRISZTINA USTINOV
Public Sector Rebrand · Surrey County Council · 2018 — 2022
The Chartered Institute
of Marketing —
The privilege of being
in the room
A hundred-year-old institution. A major rebrand. And a lasting shift in how a professional body looked, communicated and presented itself to the world.
100+
Years of history honoured
1
Year of intensive
rebrand process
Global
Membership still wearing
the brand with pride
40,000
Children fed
every day
400+
∞
Catering managers at new brand launch
Rollout
physical & digital at scale
A century of authority.
A moment of change.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is one of the world's oldest and most respected marketing bodies. More than a hundred years of history. A global membership. A qualification and designation associated with professional seriousness.
When the decision was made to rebrand, the task was significant. The new identity had to respect CIM's heritage while making it feel current, relevant and fit for the next phase of its development.
I joined CIM as a student of its Professional Diploma and later became part of the organisation, contributing to the transformation of the institution I had studied with.
This was not a surface-level rebrand. It was a repositioning exercise designed to make an overlooked service feel valuable, modern and worth backing.
The Rebrand
In the room where
decisions were made
My role in the rebrand was not to lead it, but to work as part of the core team alongside leadership throughout the process, contributing to direction and execution at every stage.
That meant being close to the thinking behind key decisions — the visual identity, the brand personality and the way the institution would present itself to its global membership. A strong new logo and brand system emerged from that process, and the membership adopted it quickly.
The next stage was launch and rollout.
A high-pressure rollout, done properly.
The launch and rollout required precision and consistency at scale.
Introducing a new identity across a global membership meant ensuring every touchpoint aligned — from communications to physical environments.
At this level, execution is not just delivery. It defines how the brand is understood.
Core rebrand team
Contributed to decision-making and execution throughout the rebrand process
Launch leadership and rollout execution
Led the practical execution of the brand launch across channels, collateral and touchpoints
Headquarters transition
coordinated the physical rollout of the new brand across CIM's headquarters
Member communications
supported the introduction of the new identity to a global membership with clarity and consistency
Global campaigns
delivered multi-channel campaigns for CIM Academy qualifications and professional development programmes
The Brief
The Modernisation
Raising the standard
of how CIM communicated
Alongside the rebrand, I introduced and established a new standard of audiovisual communication across the institution. Not a dramatic overhaul, but a consistent improvement in how CIM created content and how it presented itself.
Bite-size videos, vox pops, teasers and promos made the institution feel more current, accessible and engaging — without losing the authority it had earned over a century.
That quality was applied consistently, from major campaigns to recruitment communications. Every touchpoint contributed to how CIM was understood.
This shift was not about content alone — it was about raising expectations. Once the standard changes, it changes how an organisation communicates permanently.
Bite-size video
Short, purposeful, crafted to hold attention. Built for the way people actually consume content.
Vox pops
Real voices, real opinions. Making the membership visible and giving the institution a human face.
Teasers & promos
Content that builds anticipation and earns attention rather than demanding it.
Campaign support
Audiovisual assets that made every campaign feel cohesive, considered, and alive.
Recruitment comms
Quality applied all the way down — how CIM presented itself when finding and attracting the best people.
Photography
Professional photography produced personally to support campaigns and bring the institution to life visually.
The Result
The rebrand gave CIM a visual identity that was authoritative, current and durable. More than a decade later, it remains the public face of one of the most important professional bodies in marketing.
The work also contributed to a more consistent, confident and modern presence across the institution's communications — internally and externally — setting a standard that continued beyond the rebrand itself.
For me, CIM was a formative experience: I joined as a student and later contributed to the transformation of the institution I had studied with.
