British Council
The British Council amplifies brand impact across 200+ countries using Bynder
For almost a century, the British Council has built connections, understanding, and trust between the people of the UK and countries worldwide, supporting peace, prosperity, and new opportunities for millions.
With 12,000 employees supporting people in over 200 countries, the organization has used Bynder for six years to scale its global brand presence consistently while staying adaptable to different continents, audiences, and cultures.
“Over the last 20 years, our brand identity has evolved an awful lot. I've seen the organization become much more digitally focused, with a big shift towards using our brand more consistently across the globe. These days, our brand looks and feels much more joined up. 20 years ago, countries and programs often did their own thing with less central oversight. Now things are more centralized, which helps us present a clearer, more unified brand. And it feels like we're one British Council now.”
The challenge
Before Bynder, the British Council’s assets were scattered across disconnected shared drives, while brand guidelines were buried in static, hard-to-find PDFs. For a global organization running hundreds of campaigns across education, culture, and international relations, the lack of a system of record for digital content created duplicate work, inconsistent branding, and uncertainty about which assets were up-to-date and brand-approved.
We in the brand team had limited visibility of what was being created, making it hard to maintain a clear and consistent view of our brand.Jamie Allan
Global Senior Brand Manager
The solution
Building a dynamic brand hub for global scale
To solve the above challenges, the British Council strategically deployed Bynder as a foundational system of record for all its digital assets. Content Experiences for User Community (CXUC) operates as the starting point for every brand interaction, equipping stakeholders worldwide with the right assets for the right context, fit for global scale.
By curating context-specific brand guides and campaign hubs tailored to different regions, channels, and audiences, everyone knows how to apply the brand correctly without constant handholding from the brand team. Regional markets and agency partners can instantly access approved logos, messaging, templates, and campaign toolkits to go to market quickly and strengthen the impact of the British Council’s global initiatives.
Bynder’s CX User Community has been a valuable tool for our brand, design, marketing, and digital teams. It’s where teams find the latest campaign assets, monthly social content, and master brand guidelines all in one place.Jamie Allan
Global Senior Brand Manager
Launching a refreshed brand with confidence
Bynder’s CXUC has also become a springboard for the British Council’s upcoming brand refresh. Its in-house designers have built a dedicated homepage that brings the evolved brand to life in a way that is anything but static. Beyond hosting updated assets and guidelines, it’s onboarding new users and familiarizing teams with the new identity through an interactive, visually dynamic experience—inspiring consistency by showing the brand in action across different contexts.
Early feedback from our designers and agency partners has been really positive. They're picking up the refreshed look much faster, which means we're seeing more consistency and fewer variations in how our brand is being applied.
Storytelling through photography, powered by Bynder AI
Reducing reliance on external stock images and encouraging the use of authentic, brand-owned photography has been a key goal for the brand refresh project. Bynder AI has been instrumental in encouraging this shift, enabling users to find context-specific imagery using simple, natural language prompts.
It's really important that our users can surface images that are authentic quickly. Bynder’s Natural Language Search makes it easier to find and reuse existing images, which means we are commissioning less of our own photography and reducing costs on stock images.Jamie Allan
Global Senior Brand Manager
“The early wins following embracing Bynder included quicker access to assets, less duplication, greater, better cross-regional collaboration, stronger brand consistency. And it's also reduced our reliance on SharePoint, meaning, there's better asset visibility and improved governance for us in the central brand team.”
“The benefits of the CX User Community have included faster turnaround times for campaigns, improved consistency in how the brand is applied, and less reliance on central teams for guidance. Brand guidelines are now always up to date and accessible online. Just removing that need for managing PDF versions.”
Results at a glance
- Faster campaign execution: Reduced turnaround times with instant access to brand-approved campaign assets, design templates, and go-to-market guidelines
- Global brand consistency: The central brand team has visibility and governance across markets, leading to fewer off-brand variations
- Higher self-sufficiency: Teams and agencies can self-serve independently, spending less time searching or waiting on the central brand team
- Cost reduction: Lower spend on new photography and stock libraries through better asset reuse and discoverability
- Smoother onboarding: Centralized brand guidelines and training resources help employees and agency partners apply the brand correctly from day one
- Stronger collaboration: Closer cross-regional alignment through centralized access to campaign toolkits and monthly social content
Looking ahead
With its brand refresh primed for launch, the British Council is already planning its next chapter with Bynder. This includes integrating the platform with its content management system (CMS) for faster workflows; building targeted design templates to scale content output across markets, and expanding Bynder AI usage to drive greater ROI on marketing efforts.
It's really about making things simpler, more joined up, and more efficient, so colleagues can focus on delivering great work and less on chasing down the right assets or guidance.Jamie Allan
Global Senior Brand Manager
