The Ebbsfleet brand story began atypically, with a brief to propose a name: for a new international station connecting south east England with St Pancras to the north and the continent to the south. However, the station would also mark the site of a new community, eventually comprising commercial and industrial developments and 30,000 homes. Both station and community would need to be put on the map and share a place name. This involved a number of stakeholders, few of whom agreed on the name. brandstory was to provide independent counsel on that issue.

After its exploration of research, attitudes and name alternatives, brandstory found for the most frequently suggested new name – Ebbsfleet – though it based its proposal on the revelation that this was not a new name at all but one with a rich and ancient story. Thus the task was not to put Ebbsfleet on the map but to put it back on the map.

brandstory discovered that Ebbsfleet was an Anglo-Saxon name, though its site had seen even earlier visitors: Stone Age hunters, Bronze Age craftsmen, and Roman builders. Its strategic location close to Roman road and Thames estuary continued to bring visitors from afar: Anglo-Saxon horsemen from Germany, Norman soldiers from France, pilgrims bound for Canterbury, merchants and entrepreneurs en route to Empire.

The clue lay in the name that Anglo-Saxons gave their Roman road – Waeclinga (eventually and famously Watling Street, today a motorway) which meant the Street of Foreigners. The story of Ebbsfleet – a microcosm of the island’s story – was of visitors who had used the place as a gateway and stayed, to create a culture of international significance. This had long been England’s Gateway and this is what it would be once more.

The story united all the stakeholders, as the right brand story can. Today it can be read on exhibits within the station, where signs proudly proclaim Ebbsfleet International itself as England’s Gateway. Yet the story travels beyond the station, as the client himself intended. The Managing Director of London & Continental Stations and Properties, godfather of the project in its widest sense, envisioned a landmark to make its location famous again.

An international art competition was held for a giant sculpture, to stand high on a hill nearby, commissioned on a budget of £2 million. The brief to the competing artists was based on the story of England’s Gateway. The winning submission of a white horse 50 metres tall (taller than the Statue of Liberty and England’s largest public artwork) has received considerable media coverage and widespread acclaim.

Thus, in the hands of a client with vision, a brand story can help create an icon: in this case, to put a place back on the map.