Rolling out a new identity: the thirty-day checklist.

The moment a new identity is approved, the hard part begins. Hundreds of touchpoints, dozens of teams and partners, and a launch date that does not move. Most rollouts go wrong not in the design but in the logistics.

We have taken identities live across single countries and across nine markets at once. The work always falls into the same four weeks. Use this checklist as a starting point, and tick each item as your team completes it.

Before day one

Rollouts succeed or fail on preparation. These items should be complete before the thirty days begin.

• A full inventory of every touchpoint, from website and app to vans, uniforms and email signatures.
• A priority for each touchpoint: change on launch day, within thirty days, or at natural replacement.
• One programme owner with authority to make decisions quickly.
• Brand assets, tokens and templates published where every team can reach them.
• A short internal story explaining why the brand is changing, ready for every employee.

Week one: prepare the ground

• Brief every agency, printer and partner in person, with the new system and the timeline.
• Train the internal teams who will produce brand material day to day.
• Order long-lead items: signage, vehicle livery, packaging and printed stock.
• Set up digital templates for documents, slides, social posts and email.

Week two: build and test

• Build the new website, app updates and digital assets in a staging environment.
• Proof every printed item on the real paper and check colour against the physical master.
• Test the new identity in its harshest settings: small screens, dark mode, low-quality print.
• Prepare launch communications for customers, staff, investors and press.

Week three: launch

• Tell employees first, before any public announcement.
• Switch digital touchpoints together, so customers never see two brands at once online.
• Publish the launch story on owned channels, then with press and partners.
• Keep a small team on call to fix anything that slipped through.

Week four: sweep and settle

• Search for every trace of the old identity online and in shared drives, and replace it.
• Collect questions from teams and answer them in the brand guidelines.
• Review the first wave of new material for consistency and give quick, kind feedback.
• Plan the replacement of physical items that were left for natural renewal.

Where rollouts usually stumble

The same few problems appear in almost every rollout we are asked to rescue. Most are avoidable with a little foresight.

1. The forgotten touchpoint: the invoice template, the app store listing or the recruitment page that nobody owned, still wearing the old brand months later.
2. The partner surprise: a distributor or franchisee who learns about the change from the press release and prints their own version in the meantime.
3. The staff gap: customers asking about the new brand before employees can explain it.
4. The half switch: a website on the new identity linking to a booking system on the old one.
5. The early relaxation: the launch team disbanding the day after launch, just as the questions start.

Every one of these is a problem of ownership and timing, not of design. That is why the programme owner matters so much. One person who can see the whole list, chase every item and make a decision on the spot will save more time than any tool.

Rolling out across markets

International rollouts add translation, local regulation and time zones. Build the templates to handle longer languages and right-to-left scripts from the start, check trademark clearance in every market before launch, and give each region a local lead who joins the central programme calls. A single launch day across markets is achievable, but only when every region has rehearsed it.

The thirty-day checklist

The essentials in one list. Print it, share it, tick it.

After thirty days

A rollout is complete when the new identity is the easiest one to use, not when the last sign changes. Keep measuring how quickly teams can produce on-brand work and how often it needs correcting. If those numbers improve month by month, the identity has truly arrived. The stories below show what that looks like in practice.