HCML
HCML is one of the UK's leading providers of rehabilitation, case management, occupational health and workplace wellbeing, work that lives or dies on trust. Planning for serious growth, HCML had everything a strong brand needs except the brand itself: a respected name and deep expertise, wrapped in a corporate identity that no longer told the story. So we did what we always do and started with the people. Human centred design sits at the core of everything we make, and for HCML that meant a behavioural study into how intermediaries select a corporate health provider. What we learned reshaped everything that followed: the identity, a year of content and communications, two generations of website, and an interactive case manager finder that maps expertise to the way clients really search.
Overview
HCML spans two connected sides of one business. Its specialist rehabilitation and case management division supports insurers, solicitors and the public sector, helping people recover or live with serious injury. Its Corporate Health and Wellbeing division, gives employers a nationwide suite of services including occupational health, workplace health and wellbeing, management referrals, health and lifestyle programmes and support for Trusts.
Entering a new chapter of growth, HCML wanted a brand that matched its ambitions across both divisions. The name was well established, so the opportunity lay in sharpening the identity, positioning and straplines, and bringing consistency across every touchpoint. We ran a full brand audit, combining competitor and marketplace research, with a facilitated brand sprint and interviews with the stakeholders who matter most.
Brand in Action
The brand sprint gave the team a shared language and a clear set of vision and values to build on. From there we developed a range of logo routes and brand elements, refined the chosen direction to final artwork, and produced brand guidelines so the new look stayed consistent everywhere it appeared.
The result is a confident, modern identity, anchored by HCML’s purple and mint palette, that works as hard in print as on screen. Around it we created a suite of assets to bring the proposition to life: streamlined sales decks, info packs, infographics and an exhibition stand, all built to convey the company’s expertise and integrity while showing its more human side.
Behavioural research & website
We focused first on HCML’s corporate health proposition, interviewing the intermediaries who recommend and buy these services to understand how and why they choose a provider and what really moves them to act. A few themes came through clearly.
Relationships are everything, and intermediaries rely on suppliers to deliver and to validate what they recommend to their clients.
They hunt constantly for trends and credible content to share onward, and turn overwhelmingly to LinkedIn to find it.
They want to hear from a provider all year round rather than be bombarded, and real stories land harder than messaging built around services.
These insights shaped a year of content and communications built around ethical, behavioural nudges: a LinkedIn calendar, segmented email programmes, landing pages and lived experience storytelling. They also shaped the websites. We delivered a WordPress rebuild that repositioned HCML around both its corporate health and rehabilitation offerings, then a full relaunch this year that carries the brand forward. And for the rehabilitation side, where insurers and solicitors choose by location and specialism first, we built an interactive case manager finder at search.hcml.co.uk, letting them filter HCML’s case managers by location, profession, specialism and region and shortlist the right expert in seconds.
I’ll be honest, plenty of agencies promise they’ll get to know your business. Ideate actually did it. They started with our customers rather than our logo, and the behavioural research they came back with told us things about how all our various customer groups choose a provider that we genuinely hadn’t seen before.
That insight then ran through everything, from our messaging and LinkedIn content to the new website and case manager search tool. We came away with a brand that finally sounds like us and a content strategy that speaks straight to the people we most want to reach. Smart, generous with their thinking, and a real pleasure to work with.
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