Asked what made 2023 a successful year for Collins, CEO Leland Maschmeyer has a succinct answer. “We stayed focused on what matters most: working to inspire our people and increasing our value to our clients. That’s it.”

The branding and design agency turned transformation consultancy helped a variety of companies better distinguish themselves in 2023, all while Collins tweaked its own model to strengthen its financial health and crystallize its proposition.

By the time Collins got to work on Freeform TV, most people had changed the channel. The Disney-owned broadcaster, which had roots as a religious cable channel in the 1970s, has seen its parent company change four times and its name change seven times. In 2022, Freeform ranked 43rd in viewership—down by 30% from 2021.

Freeform under Collins took on a new mission to serve not a demographic or stage of life, but a state of mind, focusing on the alternative lifestyles and marginalized voices Gen Z wants to see. A new logo—full of twists and turns—suggests an unfinished story. Freeform saw its rankings jump five places as the changes took hold.

Bose, which saw its market share collapse and all 119 of its branded stores shutter under competition from companies including Apple, Google and Sonos, found a new purpose, a new product focus and new branding through Collins. The work reestablished Bose’s distinction by reinterpreting its origin story and claiming a stake to a desirable positioning—“lifelike audio”—that competitors could not claim.

YouTube Gaming under Collins found an unexpected and profitable niche in livestreaming, going after small- and medium-sized creators vs. the top gamers favored by Twitch. And Collins reconceptualized Guild, recasting the tuition finance company as an “education market maker,” with a sharpened purpose to increase the socioeconomic mobility of America’s low-wage workforce. That addressed a chasm between Guild’s offering and relatively low take-up rates.

Collins in 2023 also got a firmer grip on its own business challenges, improving its operating margins by clearing out “low-quality” revenue and flipping the “everything-as-a-service” model to what it calls “service as a product.” Revenue increased by 22% in 2023 and recurring revenue represented 37% of Collins’ business—up 64% from 2022. Operating margin outperformed the industry by 33% for the year.

Employee retention was 93%. One reason? A company-owned vacation home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, free for employees to use for remote work, team events or vacations. The company is now shopping for a second vacation home.

“A big part of any success is your mindset,” Maschmeyer said. “For us, as we work to move our clients into better futures, we never see our task as helping them become a contender or a challenger brand or even the best. Our ambition has always been to make our clients ‘the only.’ From there, they can rewrite the rules of the game.”

Collins’ message to clients is clarified in a phrase Maschmeyer coined last year and today greets visitors to its website: “Make your future so irresistible, it becomes inevitable.” That speaks to the notion of the promise of “beauty” at the end of change, he explained.

“People have a love-hate relationship with change. Mostly hate,” Maschmeyer said. “People will say they like change. But the truth is, people do not like to be changed. … We draw people across the chasm of change by making the other side beautiful. And it works.”