Order Journey
Parcel2go Rebrand: Bringing Character to Delivery Services
A heroic makeover of the UK's leading parcel delivery comparison service – because nothing says "personality" quite like a cardboard box with ambitions. We've injected enough character into every customer touchpoint to make even the most mundane package delivery feel like it's having an identity crisis, all in a desperate bid to create meaningful connections in a market where everyone's fighting over who can move your stuff from A to B with the least amount of drama.
Project Overview
We unleashed a character-driven rebrand for Parcel2go in Q3 2024 that featured Sven the Stork, a delivery expert with impeccable timing (though not exclusively for babies). Our dream team of 8 specialists—each with egos barely fitting into meeting rooms—collaborated over 6 months to transform the UK's leading parcel delivery comparison service from "who?" to "wow!" The results speak for themselves: a staggering 32% increase in brand recognition (seems Sven made quite the impression) and an 18% uplift in conversion rates (translation: more people trusting our feathered friend with their deliveries instead of flying the coop).
The Challenge
Outdated Identity
The existing brand lacked distinctiveness in a competitive marketplace. It was functional but unmemorable, while competitors were creating strong brand impressions at every customer touchpoint.
Inconsistent Experience
Our visual language lacked cohesion across digital platforms, creating disjointed user experiences as customers navigated between different touchpoints in our service ecosystem.
Emotional Disconnect
Customer interactions were purely transactional, missing opportunities to create emotional connections. We needed to transform basic service delivery into meaningful relationships that would encourage customer loyalty.
Market Pressure
Competitor brands were advancing with both aesthetic appeal and functional improvements. We needed to develop a distinctive market presence while ensuring existing customers recognized our evolution as authentic rather than reactive.
Strategic Approach

Character Implementation
We slapped personality onto every touchpoint (yes, even the boring bits)
Design System Development
Created a visual language so consistent it makes matching socks look random
Persona Development
Built a character with enough empathy to make therapists jealous
Research & Analysis
Stalked competitors and interrogated customers (legally, we promise)
Let's be honest - we went a bit overboard with research. We grilled 250+ customers about their delivery nightmares and spied on 12 competitors before we even sketched a stork. The result? A character-driven rebrand that hits you in the feels while still getting your parcels where they need to go.
My Role as Experience Design Director
Team Leadership
Wrangled a squad of 6 brilliant minds across UX, UI and motion disciplines. Think of me as the design shepherd, minus the staff and flowing robes.
Strategic Direction
Created the North Star for our rebrand journey. I'm the one who said "we're going that way" and somehow everyone followed.
Stakeholder Management
Charmed the C-suite with workshops and presentations until they nodded in agreement. Part designer, part diplomat, occasionally therapist.
Implementation Oversight
Kept £180,000 from disappearing into the void while orchestrating changes across 14 digital touchpoints. Spreadsheets were my sidekick.
Design Process and Methodology
Discovery
We dug deep - grilling users, stalking competitors, and getting executives to actually agree on something in our alignment sessions.
Definition
Here's where we gave birth to our brand character (less painful than actual childbirth) and crafted guidelines that everyone pretended to read.
Development
From rough sketches to pixel-perfect designs, we built everything from wireframes to prototypes that actually worked (most of the time).
Delivery
The handoff - where we translated designer-speak into developer-friendly instructions and stuck around to help when things inevitably got weird.
We ran the whole show in 2-week sprints, critiquing each other's work relentlessly (but lovingly). Nothing keeps you honest like showing unfinished work to your peers every fortnight.
TV Ad Spot - Pre Brand and Logo Launch
Before we unleashed our full rebrand on the world, we tested the waters with this little beauty. Think of it as our "first date" with the public — we weren't quite ready to introduce them to our parents or let them see our new logo, but we wanted to see if there was chemistry.
The response? Let's just say people started swiping right on Parcel2go. This ad delivered a 32% increase in brand recall and a 17% jump in consideration scores — not bad for a company still wearing its old clothes, right?
We caught viewers' attention before they even knew we were planning a makeover. It's like getting compliments on your personality right before you reveal you've also got a secret talent for parkour.
Character and Branding Concepts for Testing
Here's where the magic happened – our branding concepts in their raw, unfiltered glory. We threw these against the wall to see what would stick. Spoiler alert: quite a bit did.
These weren't just pretty pictures. Each concept was battle-tested with real humans who told us exactly what they thought – sometimes more honestly than we were prepared for.
We ran extensive user testing sessions across six major UK cities, recruiting participants from various demographics to ensure our brand would resonate broadly. Our focus groups featured lively debates about character traits and visual elements, while our quantitative surveys gave us hard data on emotional responses. We even set up guerrilla testing booths in shopping centers where unsuspecting consumers provided unfiltered, spontaneous reactions – these proved particularly valuable in refining our character's personality.
The testing revealed fascinating insights: our character connected strongly with 25-45 year olds, and the vibrant color palette triggered positive associations with reliability and efficiency – exactly what we were aiming for. Some concepts bombed spectacularly too, teaching us that animated boxes with human faces fell firmly into the uncanny valley territory.
Results and Impact
32%
Brand Recognition
Increase in overall brand recognition metrics
18%
Conversion Rates
Improvement in customer conversion post-launch
27%
Cart Abandonment
Reduction in abandoned transactions
22%
Repeat Customers
Increase in return customer transactions
The rebrand achieved exceptional results across all key metrics, earning a 4.8/5 star average rating in post-interaction surveys and featuring in prestigious industry publications like Design Week and Creative Review.
Lessons and Reflections
Character Consistency
Turns out, keeping our character consistent across touchpoints wasn't just nice-to-have – it was make-or-break for brand recognition. We lived and died by our guidelines, with regular check-ins to make sure everyone was playing from the same songbook.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Our best stuff? It happened when we threw different minds at the same problem. Breaking down walls between design, marketing, and dev teams wasn't always pretty, but the messy middle is where the magic happened.
Balancing Expression & Usability
Finding that sweet spot between "look at our cool brand!" and "can people actually use this thing?" was a constant tightrope walk. We tested. We tweaked. We made sure our character enhanced the journey rather than getting in the way.
Measuring Design Impact
Let's be real – we needed numbers to back up our pretty pictures. Setting clear metrics from day one helped us prove that good design isn't just window dressing – it drives business results that even the most skeptical finance folks could get behind.
Curious to learn more about me?
Dive deeper into my design philosophy, creative process, and UX insights on my personal website unknown link. There you'll find case studies, thought leadership articles, and a behind-the-scenes look at how I approach experience design challenges.

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