Moving a Market Leader Beyond the Cliché

The Growth challenge, leading from the front

If you’ve been to a casino in the UK, chances are it was a Grosvenor casino. They’re the market leader by some distance, so our challenge wasn’t just maintaining market share, but shifting brand perception so we could attract more people to the live casino experience.

This huge ambition within the Rank Group, Grosvenor’s parent company, meant moving the brand into new territory - emotionally, culturally, and visually.

Working from the inside out

To effectively reset the Grosvenor brand, internal alignment within Rank was as important as consumer engagement.

We began with senior stakeholder interviews and then brought together teams from across the business (including casino managers, regional leads, food & beverage, finance and marketing) into our Collisions™ Workshop.

Not only did this harness a range of opinions and category knowledge, it also created shared ownership early on, removing the need for a big ‘sell-in’ later.

From taboo to entertainment

Our category and consumer work led to a clear insight: for many people, casinos were still behind a closed door, seen as secretive, intimidating, or even taboo. The category was defined almost entirely by gambling.

But Grosvenor offers something far broader. Stylish venues. An electric atmosphere. Unrivalled hospitality and a warm welcome. The experience is immersive, exciting, and open to all.

This thinking was captured in our Brand Idea: Entertainment for All.

Delivering the shift

Internally, we brought the new brand positioning to life through a ‘call to arms’ manifesto, strategic brand pillars, and a launch brand film for the Rank Group annual conference.

Visually and tonally, we shifted the brand away from the dark, masculine world of ‘dice and chips’ into a softer, brighter, and more inviting space, one rooted in ‘thrills and fun’. This ensured standout and firmly stepped away from tired gambling clichés.

We built a comprehensive brand playbook, including new brand guidelines, photography, colour ways, and a refreshed logo, designed to flex across a diverse estate, from high-stakes glamour in Central London to sports-led venues in Luton.

Over 18 months, the new identity was rolled out across all Grosvenor sites as part of a major refurbishment programme. And we delivered it online, across their website, social and digital platforms.

We also created OOH advertising, rooted in the brand idea, to support new and relaunched sites.

Energising an organisation

The new brand positioning energised every part of the organisation. It brought departments together, inspired new casino openings, and led to record-breaking consumer sentiment.

New customer traffic levels beat forecast, and Grosvenor now has the brand platform it needs to grow into the future.