Autoclenz. Where expansion goes, rebrand follows.

Sigh of relief and beers all round, our team at Dulay Seymour are thrilled to announce that we've won the chance to work with multi-million pound motor vehicle service company, Autoclenz. And how did we win the pitch? By doing the quite the opposite of what was asked of us!

No, we're not rebels without a cause. We have a cause all right... and that's advising the best possible solution for our clients, even if it's not necessarily what they want to hear. When first invited to pitch, we were informed that Autoclenz had recently expanded, and was no longer the same valeting company it had built its 40 years of reputation on. As well as valeting, Autoclenz now offers a fantastic range of services to the motor sales industry, including cosmetic repairs, premises cleaning and imaging to name but a few. For the pitch, our brief was simple. To "increase awareness of Autoclenz's new service offering." How we proposed to do it was completely up to us - the board of directors were open to creative ideas. The only restriction was that on no account must we suggest a re-brand.

So you can imagine our dilemma when the more we analysed the company and its services, the more convinced we became that a re-brand was pivotal in making any marketing campaign a success. We felt the only way we'd be able to truly demonstrate to customers that Autoclenz was new and improved, was to make their brand look new and improved.

Our conscience wouldn't allow us to not present what we believed was the very best long term solution for Autoclenz, even if it jeopardised our chances of winning the work. And to our delight, the risk paid off! The board appreciated our brutal honesty and expert advice, and are behind our vision to re-brand 100%.

Since we heard the good news, we've been working closely with the Chairman, Grahame Rummery, on the marketing strategy and have put a full campaign schedule in place to span the year to come. First task, the new re-brand. We look forward to showing you what we come up with.

• posted 02/04/12