Iris Worldwide charges ahead with bold rebrand

Iris Worldwide has unveiled a bold new global rebrand, positioning itself as the “global creative micro-network” for brands ready to break free from what it calls the “bland, templated marketing” dominating today’s industry.

Spearheaded by a newly revitalised global leadership team, the rebrand features a striking visual identity centred around a charging wild boar and the Latin rallying cry "Participa Aut Peri" ('Participate or Perish'), a clear provocation to brands to act with more courage and cultural relevance or risk irrelevance. 

The rebrand comes on the back of nine months of global leadership evolution across key markets, including the appointments of Zoe Eagle as UK CEO, Menno Kluin as global chief creative officer, Eduardo Maruri as global creative chair, Katy Hopkins as UK ECD, and Jill Smith as CEO of the Americas. Together with global CSO Ben Essen, the team is repositioning Iris around creative bravery, cultural participation and a rejection of “safe” marketing.

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The agency has also reframed its longstanding philosophy of participation into a strategic framework grounded in its proprietary Participation Index. Now distilled into three core outcomes, the framework is designed to help brands stand apart in saturated categories, plug into culture in real time, and move behaviour in measurable ways.

Describing itself as “big enough to be dangerous, small enough to stay creatively agile,” Iris said it is challenging the increasingly automated, consolidated and indistinct nature of modern marketing. With in-housing on the rise and integration often reduced to systems and processes, the agency is making a renewed case for creativity as a cultural act.

The global rollout will include a new website, refreshed credentials, case studies, social channels, and branded environments across all Iris offices.

“In a market where brands are buying their marketing like they buy broadband – cheap, functional and forgettable – we’re standing up for creativity. We believe the agencies that thrive will be the ones that give clients something they can’t get anywhere else: original ideas, creative courage, and the power to participate visibly and vibrantly in people’s lives," said Ian Millner, founder and chairman of Iris. 

“Clients aren’t coming to us for what they can get from their in-house teams or corporate networks,” added Menno Kluin, Global Chief Creative Officer at Iris.

“They’re looking for something that’s impossible for them to do themselves - and that’s where we come in. While there are many boutique specialists, we're the only integrated boutique agency and micro-network. Integration has become systemised, but for Iris, integration has always been about creativity and colliding different disciplines together to produce things that have never been done before," added Kluin. 

Meanwhile, Eagle said the rebrand isn't just about how the agency looks. "It’s a rallying cry for our people and our clients – a reminder that standing apart and moving culture requires a different kind of agency. One that leads with spirit and courage. That’s Iris," she added.

Smith added “In 2025, being bold isn’t just brave – it’s necessary. Playing it safe is the riskiest move a brand can make in a world where audiences call the shots.”

In all, Millner summed it up as “less about reinvention and more about rediscovery – of the creative, pragmatic, culturally-attuned DNA that made Iris a standout agency to begin with.”

This marks Iris’ most radical identity shift since its last rebrand in 2017, when it introduced the proposition "For the Forward", streamlined its multi-specialist structure, and rebranded acquired agencies to unify the network. The rebrand at the time also feature a new logo centred on the "I" and signaled a shift towards helping clients navigate disruption through bold, decisive moves rather than playing it safe. 

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