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Key Takeaways:
- Brands stay relevant by balancing heritage and innovation while delivering a total brand experience.
- A strong, flexible brand identity built on strategy helps businesses adapt and grow in changing markets.
- The best agencies are values-driven, collaborative, and multidisciplinary, ensuring impact and consistency.
What keeps a brand relevant in 2025? Some might say the ability to adapt, innovate, and engage.
For Paul West, strategy and transformation director at creative agency Dalziel and Pow (D&P), the answer lies in a powerful but overlooked combination:
“Heritage and innovation are intrinsically linked through storytelling. Understanding what’s special about the business, its founding ideas and principles, and how it is truly innovating today are stories that need to be told and should be evidenced through the total brand experience.”
In our interview, we take a look at how D&P’s creative, forward-thinking design solutions help global brands stay relevant and succeed in competitive markets.
Who Is Paul West?
Paul West is the Strategy & Transformation Director at Dalziel & Pow, helping brands find their purpose, stand out, and stay ahead. With a background that spans architecture, service design, brand consulting, and digital, he connects the dots between disciplines to create meaningful brand experiences. He’s held leadership roles as Creative Strategy Director at Household and Creative Director at Imagination, working with some of the biggest names in the industry.
With a "total brand" mindset, D&P looks at the bigger picture when it comes to branding.
The agency takes a holistic approach — covering everything from purpose and personality to the complete experience — and works closely with clients to shape and achieve their business goals.
“We do all of this with a human-first approach and a mindset of curiosity - always asking the important and often challenging questions that are necessary to find the right solution to a problem or brief,” Paul says.
With a dedicated focus on the context, consumers, market, and businesses it speaks to, the agency builds deep partnerships.
These values are rooted in the agency’s “6P’s”, an approach that helps guide the process and brings different areas of expertise together.
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For example, it recently celebrated a major success for Guinness at the Storehouse in Dublin.
Through its new “Ingredients Experience” D&P raised the bar for net promoter score and conversion — attracting more than 1.6 million visitors in the first year.
Future-Proofing Brand Identities
This commitment to a strategic, big-picture approach is especially important as consumer expectations continue to change.
For example, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell in March by 7.2 points (92.9).
Meanwhile, the Present Situation Index, based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions, dropped by 3.6 points to 134.5.
Conversely, the Expectations Index — based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions — also decreased by 9.6 points to 65.2. This is the lowest level in 12 years.
These shifts illustrate why it’s so important for brands to build brand identities that are flexible yet grounded in a solid strategy.
After all, a strong but flexible brand helps businesses adapt, stay strong, and grow long-term.
“Branding is more than skin-deep and should be built on a visionary strategy. Crafting a brand with a strong strategic foundation gives us the foresight and adaptability for sustainable growth, scalability, and long-term success,” Paul says.
One way to do this is through a ‘complementary channel’ strategy that explores which channels best support the consumer. Paul also reminds brands not to disregard the power of some positive friction or “magic”:
“Those are often the moments that are memorable and we are always looking to inject joy into the experience wherever possible. ‘Time well saved and time well spent’, to put it simply.”
What Makes an Agency Stand Out to Global Brands?
It’s simple: being purposeful and values-driven.
According to Paul, agencies should also add being collaborative, bold with ideas, curious, and not afraid to ask the right (and even the difficult questions), to the list.
“For us, it’s about people. D&P is an independent studio that puts people first: the studio has engaged consumers through brand storytelling and experience design for over 40 years,” he explains.
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He tells me that connecting with clients on a “human level” and empowering employees has been a boon for the agency.
“Whilst we’re ambitious for our clients, we’re a very relatable and friendly bunch, and we're committed to the challenge. Some of our client relationships span over 30 years and show no signs of slowing down!”.
Choosing the wrong agency, though, can lead to costly missteps that hamper creativity and brand consistency.
Paul points out that sticking to agencies with specific expertise can lead to similar results across different projects. On the other hand, working with too many specialized agencies can cause problems with communication and coordination.
The better option, he says, is to choose a multi-disciplinary agency that can handle strategy, branding, and design all in one place. This will help result in a more coherent, creative, and effective impact.
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Working with Startups vs. Global Brands
The right agency can make all the difference, but the challenges shift when you're working with startups versus global brands.
The main point to remember, though, is that pace is important — whether big or small.
A bonus is having insightful and objective ideas that can be brought to life and deliver results.
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And metrics can vary: sometimes brand awareness and story are enough, while global brands might focus more on reappraisal and reach. It all depends on the brief and the stage of growth or reinvention a brand is at, Paul says.
“Working with global brands can also feel like working with a start-up, depending on the team behind the challenge or the company culture. Equally, start-ups can be spearheaded by ex-leaders of global brands, so the conversation and dynamic can be similar.
Above all, the power of a brilliant idea always brings people together and creates momentum no matter the size or scale of the business!”
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Ultimately, Paul believes focusing on the work and the results and “an opportunity to distill everything into one simple story” is the key.
“We look to solve each brief in its unique way that fits that particular client’s needs, and we always look to create impact and lasting results,” he explains.
Paul’s advice to brands looking to innovate their customer experience? “Stay curious, be ambitious, and never settle.”
In 2025, the brands that stay relevant will be those that evolve, challenge the norm, and genuinely connect with their audience.
It’s clear: Setting the pace for the future will matter more than just keeping up.
