AWP Safety

Case Study

Developing brand, portfolio, messaging, and rollout strategies for North America’s largest family of safety brands, owned by leading private equity firm Kohlberg & Company.

Key Strategic Question

How can the owner of North America’s largest family of traffic control safety brands best communicate its unmatched and growing footprint and ongoing innovations in a highly commodified and fractured industry?

H&S conducted research in the field and worked with executive leadership to develop brand, portfolio, messaging and rollout strategies that leveraged existing brand equity and assets. We established a new brand system big enough to accommodate the company’s rapid growth through acquisition and its category-defining suite of innovative products and services.

Old Logo

New Logo

"Adding Safety to our name makes the mission and vision of our company clear, protecting lives and progress on critical utility, broadband, and infrastructure projects. With our continued strategic acquisitions, we've grown to own the traffic control space. Further growth and company-led innovations will take us into adjacent safety categories."

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Rob Sehnert

President and CEO, AWP Safety

Tradeshow Concept: Corporate Brand

Tradeshow Concept: Acquired Brand

H&S Role & Services

Capabilities: Research, Strategy, Design, Communications

Conducted extensive stakeholder interviews with customers across six regional brands
Evolved name of corporate brand Area Wide Protective (AWP) to AWP Safety preserving existing brand equity, while creating a larger brand system and category to accommodate new marketplace opportunities
Created brand integration playbook for current and future M&A activity
Developed mission, vision, and values for AWP Safety
Created verbal and visual brand guidelines for AWP Safety, including updated logo
Developed visual assets for AWP Safety and current acquired brands, including vehicles, equipment, trade shows, and digital properties
Provided strategic guidance and communications support for brand launch

Key Results

Developed and successfully launched new corporate brand and acquisition integration within eight months. AWP Safety debuted at The Waste Management Open 2023 and Super Bowl LVII.

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A Growing Relationship

Advisors to C-suite
Ongoing development and implementation of strategic initiatives, including CSR vision and inaugural report