THE CUSTOMER
Having just celebrated its 220th anniversary, Colgate-Palmolive has an unwavering legacy as a global consumer product goods leader, selling in more than 200 countries and territories and with its Colgate brand found in more homes than any other. The company boasts a comprehensive health and hygiene portfolio that spans oral care, personal care, home care and pet nutrition, and has built leading brands known worldwide and trusted in the daily lives and healthy habits of billions of consumers.
Colgate Palmolive’s North Star is its purpose:
We are Colgate-Palmolive, a caring, innovating growth company that is reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet.
The company's new tagline, "Make More Smiles," serves as the emotional expression of that purpose, and as a reminder to employees every day to advance that purpose and remember the positive impact CP makes through their iconic brands, innovative science-backed products and community impact initiatives.
THE CHALLENGE
The Colgate-Palmolive corporate mark had remained largely unchanged for more than 40 years. During that time, the existing mark communicated trust, quality and stability. But the company has evolved dramatically, embracing digital transformation and new technologies, changing how employees communicated across channels, markets and audiences.
In 2024, Colgate-Palmolive embarked on its most significant corporate brand refresh since the 1980s. But updating a logo was only part of the challenge. The company needed a future-ready, modern brand system capable of supporting a digitally transformed organization operating at a truly global scale.
We were looking for a creative, strategic partner to help us build a new design system and corporate brand that could scale across every touchpoint.
The challenge wasn't simply creating a new logo. It was building a living brand ecosystem that would be flexible, yet consistent, uniting hundreds of markets and thousands of employees with vastly different levels of design expertise.
At a company with 33,000 employees worldwide, maintaining brand consistency can quickly become complex. Colgate-Palmolive needed a framework that could empower professional designers while also enabling non-designers to create polished, on-brand communications every day.
At the same time, the refreshed identity needed to remain authentic to the company's heritage and culture. The company wasn't looking for an agency to execute creative requests. It needed a strategic partner capable of translating its 220 year old legacy into a modern, scalable design system.
THE SOLUTION
Colgate-Palmolive partnered with Superside to co-create a comprehensive global brand system designed to activate the refreshed corporate identity across every touchpoint.
Most of the work we did with Superside was strategic—taking parts of the brand identity that already existed and storytelling around them to make them make sense within the cultural DNA of our company.
"A lot of the magic that happens at Colgate-Palmolive is this deep human care and incredible science-driven innovation—and it's expressed literally in the logo," said Bender.
Building a brand system that scales
Superside expanded the refreshed logo and "Make More Smiles" platform into a complete design language rooted in three core principles: Connection, Variation and Momentum.
The team developed:
- Comprehensive brand guidelines
- Logo and tagline usage systems
- Color palette and typography standards
- Iconography and photography frameworks
- Digital and physical application guidelines
- Social media launch creative
One of the most impactful innovations was the creation of a Visual Communication Graphic Scale, a framework that helps employees determine the appropriate level of visual expression for different communication needs—from minimal internal updates to highly expressive brand storytelling.
It was important to work with an agency with a global presence, as we wanted to be sure we could bring an inclusive perspective to the design systems and messages we were creating together, since Colgate-Palmolive is a company that operates in over 200 countries and territories.
Just as importantly, the system was designed for usability. "We worked to create the right balance—more complex assets for designers, but also really simple, easy-to-use tools so any employee, across any geography, regardless of design skill level, could create more on-brand, polished communications," Bender explained. Because Colgate-Palmolive operates globally, cultural inclusivity was a critical consideration throughout the project.
Any employee, across any geography, regardless of design skill level, could create more on-brand, polished communications with the new design system we built with Superside.
THE RESULTS
The impact of the rebrand extended well beyond aesthetics. By creating a scalable system rather than a static identity, Colgate-Palmolive successfully launched a brand experience that resonated both internally and externally.
The results included:
- ~98% positive sentiment at launch on social, significantly outperforming industry benchmarks
- ~99% of Colgate-Palmolive employees feel proud when they see the new brand, according to global employee surveys
- More than 500,000 organic LinkedIn impressions during launch month alone
- 1,008+ assets delivered to support adoption and implementation
- 2,956 hours invested in strategy, design and system development
Today, the new brand system is active across digital and physical touchpoints globally, including the corporate website, social channels, recruitment materials, internal communications, reports, signage and more.
Building a scalable brand for the future
By partnering with Superside, Colgate-Palmolive transformed its identity into a living brand ecosystem—one that empowers employees, strengthens consistency and reflects the company's promise to Make More Smiles around the world. For Bender, the partnership feels deeply aligned with the company's purpose. "Make More Smiles is an incredible purpose to wake up to every day," he said. "I feel like our partners at Superside are really excited about getting this mission out into the world as well."
It feels like a shared mission to amplify this wonderful work that Colgate-Palmolive is doing.
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