AkzoNobel
How AkzoNobel uses Bynder’s CX for User Communities to bring its “Paint the Future” brand refresh to life
1,000+
man-hours saved every month
90
minutes saved per approval
15,000+
global users
AkzoNobel is a global leader in paints and coatings, known for world-class brands like Dulux, International, Sikkens, and Interpon. Headquartered in Amsterdam and active in over 150 countries, the company employs 32,000 people committed to shaping the surfaces and spaces of tomorrow.
In 2024, AkzoNobel unveiled a bold brand refresh, spearheaded by its “Paint the Future” program focused on transforming the industry through sustainability and collaborative innovation. Designed to unify internal and external audiences around a more future-facing identity, the refresh called for a complete overhaul of brand assets, messaging, and content experiences.
To bring this transformation to life, AkzoNobel turned to Bynder’s Content Experiences for User Communities (CXUC) to launch and scale its brand refresh across teams, partners, and platforms.
The need
A Bynder customer since 2013, AkzoNobel has long relied on the platform to centralize brand assets and simplify global content operations: automating workflows, safeguarding brand consistency, and accelerating time-to-market, to name a few benefits. With a complex brand hierarchy of more than 100 distinct brands, AkzoNobel needed Bynder to coordinate all aspects of its rebrand and ensure a smooth, high-impact rollout across markets.
Customized to align with its evolving needs and identity, CXUC acted as a self-serving brand hub to support each stage of the rebrand: updating assets, evangelizing its new positioning internally, and driving consistent, omnichannel content experiences through partners and distributors.
Today, AkzoNobel’s Bynder platform operates as the face of its new, dynamic, and future-facing identity, equipping users and external partners with the messaging and assets they need to promote AkzoNobel’s new brand positioning at scale.
We love the ease of use—organizing and finding assets is simple. The ability to create and customize asset metadata ensures that we can quickly find what we need, maintain structure, and keep everything aligned with our brand’s needs.Katelijne Vermeulen
Brand Operations Manager at AkzoNobel
The solution
In just five days, AkzoNobel used Bynder’s CXUC to transform its Bynder portal homepage into a one-stop shop for everything related to the “Paint the Future” rebrand, from updated brand guidelines and campaign assets to self-serving content templates and go-to- market messaging.
By giving the brand team full control over layout, navigation, and featured content, CXUC has made it effortless for AkzoNobel employees and partners to deliver content experiences that are fresh, relevant, and always on-brand.
Embedded tools like Bynder Express simplify file sharing with external stakeholders, while customizable templates for seasonal campaigns (e.g. Valentine’s Day designs) using Studio allow employees to quickly create personalized, omnichannel brand assets for a range of use cases.
Bynder’s Asset Workflow has also transformed the way AkzoNobel manages approvals. Every asset follows a clearly defined, brand-approved path with role-based responsibilities, deadlines, and version control to ensure everything meets brand standards. By automating workflows and eliminating bottlenecks, AkzoNobel is launching omnichannel content and campaigns quickly and with confidence across every market
Empowering 15,000 users to bring “Paint the Future” to life
With a global footprint spanning 150+ countries, AkzoNobel’s rebrand demanded an enterprise-ready solution capable of aligning thousands of users, teams, and external partners from day one. As the starting point for every brand experience, Bynder enables AkzoNobel to amplify the business impact of its new “Paint the Future” positioning and deliver a range of growth-driving benefits.
- Mobilizing 15,000+ users and high-profile partners like UNESCO and McLaren with self-service access to the latest brand assets, go-to-market messaging, and brand guidelines.
- Improving operational efficiency through automation, saving an average of 90 minutes per content approval task and over 1,000 hours per month.
- Strengthening brand engagement and cohesion with embedded campaign toolkits, seasonal collections, and brand stories directly within the DAM for easy access and distribution.
- Safeguarding brand governance with clear usage rights, granular permission controls, and copyright information for every asset stored in Bynder.
Bynder helps automate our workflows and provide a single system of record for all our brand assets, ultimately empowering our teams to collaborate efficiently and manage our brands with precision and control.Katelijne Vermeulen
Brand Operations Manager at AkzoNobel
Looking ahead
With its renewed focus on sustainability, innovation, and collaboration, AkzoNobel continues to use Bynder as a living, evolving expression of what it means to “Paint the Future”. As the brand refresh continues to roll out globally, the company is scaling Bynder’s CXUC across more teams and touchpoints.
Building on growing internal engagement and adoption, AkzoNobel also plans to deepen its use of Bynder Analytics to better understand how assets are being used across markets, optimize content performance, and drive even more value from its content investments.
