Let’s Hear It For Thirty6: The Orange Panther Collective (OPC) Rebrands

The year was 1936, and the invention? Noise-cancelling. That very practical technology is also a metaphor for what brands must do today to reach consumers. It’s likewise the new name adopted by the independent agency formerly known as The Orange Panther Collective (OPC) — stylised as Thirty6.

Simon Hewitt, founder and client partner of Thirty6 said, “A massive 89% of all marketing communications are being ignored, skipped or scrolled past. And every CMO in the world wants to make sure that theirs isn’t part of that. They need to know that their strategic and creative partners aren’t going to take the line of least resistance (and least effort) and just follow the tropes and the trends of whichever sector they’re in. They need to show up and behave differently to, and better than, their competitors.”

The new name also better reflects the agency’s strategic direction and creative work which aim to bypass the deluge of ads, messaging, and communication going mostly ignored by consumers. Instead, Thirty6 will aim to earn attention through persuasion, building brand affinity. “Our new company name, and more importantly the logic behind it, is part of helping brands see whether or not we’re right for them,” he added.

Nigel Roberts, creative partner at Thirty6, reflected,“While OPC’s original name had the benefit of being unusual, the new name’s about what we do. We know that creating work that stands out is hardly a new concept in advertising, but, for whatever reasons, it seems to have become the motivation for fewer and fewer agencies over the years. And the problem isn’t that the industry’s less funky for it, it’s that the growing amount of ‘noise’ being produced is making brands and the public care less and less about advertising. That’s why noise-cancelling’s the whole focus behind how we work and what we produce. And why we changed the company’s name.”

Simon told LBB that OPC, when it was established five years ago, “was always a working title” which allowed him to accomplish two things, “set the agency up and keep momentum going”.

“That's not to say it was just a random name. It was about our model — the new collective approach,” though he conceded that “the Orange Panther part was random”. The change, then, has been long in the works and carefully planned. “We didn't just want to pick a generic name, or one that made us look a bit wanky. So we did a deep interrogation of our positioning, and once we nailed our colours to the noise-cancelling mast then it was about finding a simple link to that,” he explained.

Sometimes a rebrand reaches beyond the skin to reshape how a company operates too. For Thirty6, they’ll be approaching their work as they always have, it’s just that they’ve created a brand that gives that working philosophy and name and a shape. It brings a sense of precision to the market, to clients and, most importantly, to the internal team . “We have always tried to make work that doesn’t just disappear into a sea of tropes, we just hadn’t given it a name and a defined anchor point. So the work and the way we work won’t change, however we think the clarity of our new positioning will create a much clearer and tighter alignment of what we do and what certain marketeers want,” said Simon.

The new name will also continue to affect the kind of culture Simon and the leadership team are keen to instil and nurture. “Our big thing is wanting to build a team that is full of people who are very good at what they do, like to challenge the norms, sweat the details and, as a result of all that, enjoy the benefits of making the kind of work that genuinely stands out. Our approach should also appeal to people who like the honesty, our work is about calling bullshit on the bullshit, so we like people who play things straight and keep their feet on the ground.”

Simon is clear that while brands must work to earn attention not all attention is created equal. “We don’t abide by the ‘fame at any cost' philosophy. It has to be positive, we are here to build affinity. We do that by combining big strategic thinking, working with some of the best big thinking strategists in town to get to an organising thought for a brand that stands out from any competitor, and then using our own unique take on what makes work that earns attention. The latter is always shaped by the analytical, considered, crafted and fundamentally insightful creative thinking from Nigel.”


Thirty6, formerly known as the Orange Panther Collective offers brands, in every sector, strategic and creative thinking, plus production across all media. It continues to work from its offices at 2 Cowcross Street, Farringdon, London EC1M 6DR.