How Do You Redefine an Agency’s Voice? From the Inside.
When you work somewhere long enough, you start to sound like the brand. You know the shorthand, the stories, the in-jokes, the borrowed phrases from old pitch decks. But what happens when that voice no longer fits?
India Johnson
That was the challenge — and the opportunity — when Greenlight Digital kicked off its rebrand.
At the time, I was their Lead Copywriter. I knew the agency inside out. I’d written campaign copy, pitch decks, internal comms. But now, I was part of a rebrand team tasked with something bigger: crafting a new tone of voice that would define how Greenlight showed up in the world.
Throwing out the agency-speak
We knew we wanted to break away from the typical digital agency clichés. No more “solutions” and “synergies.” No more generic claims to be “different” without ever sounding like it. The brief was clear: make it sharper, braver, more human.
I started by helping to craft the agency’s new mission and manifesto — not in a vacuum, but by working closely with stakeholders across brand, strategy, and leadership. These weren’t just sign-off sessions. They were proper, sometimes fiery, collaborative debates about who Greenlight really was — and who they wanted to be.
Once we landed the tone, I brought it to life across key web pages. From the punchy new manifesto to the content marketing and digital PR pages, my job was to make sure the voice didn’t just sound good — it sounded right. Like the people behind it. Smart, curious, a little irreverent, and actually fun to read.
Editing with intent
Not every page was mine from scratch. Time being what it is, some content was outsourced. But I took the lead on editing those pieces to make sure they felt consistent — giving everything the same rhythm, tone, and clarity. Because that’s the thing with brand voice: it doesn’t just live in the words. It lives in how they move.
What we built
The final tone was bold but grounded. Strategic, but never stiff. The kind of voice you could use in a client pitch or a cheeky newsletter intro. And best of all, it helped bring teams together — giving everyone a clearer, more confident way to talk about what they do.
This wasn’t just a copy job. It was a culture project. And I was lucky to help shape it.