10 great brand extension examples to inspire your branding strategy

Feeling like your creative brand is stuck in neutral? Time to hit the gas. In business, standing still isn’t safe — it’s just a slow way to fall behind. That’s where brand extension comes in: evolving without burning it all down. Or, as Jeff Bezos put it (because of course he did):

For creative brands, growth doesn’t have to mean reinvention or chaos. It can be smart, strategic, and built on the good stuff you’ve already nailed — whether that’s adding a new service, launching a product, or experimenting with fresh digital tools.

In this guide, we’ll break down what brand extension really means, the different types out there, and how you can pull it off without losing your brand identity. We’ll also check out some brand extension examples. Ready to grow without starting over? Let’s get into it.

Brand extension is a business strategy of launching new products or services under an established brand. Companies can use their existing brand equity to test new markets or categories at a lower launch cost. In the creative industry, some brand extension strategies are particularly powerful.

Maliha Tariq and Emadul Karim, researchers behind the paper “Analyzing brand extension techniques and the impact on brand personality,” say:

Now that we have a broad definition of brand extension, let’s look at the top six types for creatives and the benefits of using brand extensions. This will help zoom in and give you a better idea of what it entails.

There are many types of brand extensions used across different industries, but not all of them are a good fit for the creative field. Here are six types of brand extensions that are commonly used and tend to work exceptionally well for agencies, studios, and independent creatives:

Many creative studios start with a single service and slowly diversify as they notice a trend in the industry. By adding other new service categories outside their original service, they leverage their reputation and start to offer their existing clients more. An example of this would be a print-specialist design agency launching a social media management arm.

Some agencies need to work with other services to get a job done for a client. It makes more sense to add that missing link to their offering to make things easier for both the agency and the client. Companion product extension isn’t a standalone new category; it’s a complement to your core offering. An example would be a motion graphics agency introducing an in-house sound design service, so video packages become a turnkey service.

However, you need to do product branding right for it to work as an extension.

Unlike category extension (which is totally outside the existing service scope), a service extension stays in the same creative realm but expands the role. It often involves a move upstream into strategy or downstream into execution. An example of a downstream move would be a digital brand-strategy agency launching a web development arm.

Customer base extension is when the service offer stays the same, but it’s repositioned for a different market segment. In other words, the existing service is opened up to a new audience. An example of a customer base extension would be a real-estate photographer expanding to interior-design photography. Instead of limiting themselves to real estate agents and brokers, they can now target interior designers, architects, and decor brands as potential clients.

A company may test digital extensions by creating templates, tools, or courses and making them accessible on their website. These digital assets leverage the brand’s expertise and add to the passive income. It also positions them as a subject matter expert. An example would be a designer selling fonts they created on Envato. Or, Envato putting out AI tools to spark creativity and streamline content generation.

Larger agencies that have grown well in one location can expand by taking their existing services into new ones. This could be a neighboring state or a different country across the globe. The geographic brand extension gives access to a fresh new pool of clients. An example would be a London-based digital marketing agency opening a satellite office in Singapore to serve APAC clients.

Here are five key benefits that the most effective brand-extension strategies deliver for creative agencies:

Reliance on a single line of revenue puts all your eggs in one basket and is not a smart business approach. Spreading activity across services, geographies, and markets gives you a buffer against downturns. Create passive income or higher-margin deliverables by trying out digital or category extensions. Or open up to fresh client pools with a customer base or geographic extensions.

Chris Lutz says in the book Modular Career Design:

Adding more offerings to your brand helps position you as an expert in the industry. This could be achieved by trying out companion services, categories, or even digital extensions. Besides building brand authority, extending into new formats, platforms, or service areas puts your brand in front of broader and more diverse audiences.

What’s the difference between using a brand extension versus starting a new brand for a new service? Starting a whole new second brand means incurring those high business and marketing startup costs. By just using a brand extension, you can limit the extra business launch cost and leverage the existing brand equity with minimal marketing costs, too.

If you pair this with low-cost business ideas with high profit potential, you’ll be golden.

Offering more services and positioning your brand as a one-stop shop for all your clients’ needs positions you as a trusted partner. Companion service extensions are a great way to achieve this; they may even lower costs for your client, as it’s all under one roof now. Service extension also helps position you as a trusted advisor, not just a vendor.

Brand extensions open up new creative and leadership opportunities. This not only attracts new talent but also keeps your current team engaged. It encourages your team to experiment beyond the familiar and fosters a culture of learning and adaptability. It exposes them to valuable traits in our fast-evolving creative industry.

Experimenting with the right brand extension is vital for growth and staying relevant in an ever-changing creative landscape. Creatives today use brand extensions to sharpen their positioning, expand their reach, and deepen client relationships. It’s time to identify which ones could be the best fit for your brand.

Here are ten brand extension examples as inspiration, highlighting how agencies, studios, and other creative brands are branching out in 2025 without changing their core brand identity.

The first example of brand extension is DJI, a pioneer in drone technology, primarily serving filmmakers and photographers seeking aerial shots. Over time, the brand extended into handheld camera gear like gimbals and action cameras, maintaining its focus on high-quality visual storytelling in a new field.

This is a category extension—leveraging the brand’s expertise in image stabilization and optics to enter a new but closely related product space. By doing so, DJI expanded its customer base beyond drone users to content creators and vloggers working on the ground.

Susanne König is a tattoo artist celebrated for her unique, whimsical, narrative-driven illustrations under the Suflanda brand. She has now extended her brand into art prints, notebooks, sweaters, and other merchandise sold on her online store.

This category extension moves König’s distinct visual style from the world of tattoos into physical artwork. She expands her audience beyond tattoo clients by keeping the creative look and feel consistent. This allows fans to engage with her work differently across multiple media.

The following example of brand extension is from PenTips, which started with a niche product — stylus tips that enhance the iPad drawing experience for digital artists. Over time, the company expanded into other iPad accessories like grips, gloves, PenMats, and PenPads.

This is a companion extension, where the brand builds around its core product by offering related products that improve the overall experience for iPad artists. By expanding its product line for digital creatives, PenTips stays relevant while reinforcing its identity as a go-to brand for iPad art gear.

Envato offers unlimited downloads of creative resources, including fonts, photos, videos, templates, 3D, and more. It recently introduced an AI stack, a suite of innovative tools powered by generative AI.

This move represents a service extension as it adds a new utility layer for its existing creative audience. By integrating AI-powered tools into its platform, Envato expands into solutions, helping users create faster and more efficiently while staying within the Envato ecosystem.

MGMT Digital began as a digital agency focused on core services like SEO, branding, paid media, and web design. Over time, it expanded into a fuller marketing ecosystem by adding offerings such as email marketing, lead generation, video marketing, and traditional advertising.

This is a service extension, where the agency builds on its existing skill set to offer adjacent services that meet more of its clients’ needs—growing into a one-stop creative and marketing partner without altering its core identity.

Julie Hrudová, known for her street photography under the Hrudography brand, has expanded her brand beyond capturing moments in public spaces. She now sells fine art prints, publishes photography books, and offers workshops — all rooted in her signature visual storytelling.

This is a customer base extension, where Hrudová turns her photography enthusiasts and followers into buyers and students. Each extension deepens engagement with her work while creating new revenue streams without straying from street photography.

VisualFizz is a creative marketing agency that has expanded its services across 16 different industries, from tech to hospitality. This brand extension example involves a customer base extension, where the core offerings of branding, strategy, content, and digital marketing remain consistent, but the agency actively tailors its expertise to each client sector. By doing so, VisualFizz broadens its reach and reduces dependency on a single niche.

Pink Pony Creative is a branding and design agency known for its bold and memorable aesthetic. In addition to client services, the agency has launched an online shop selling design templates like brand guidelines and proposals.

This is a digital extension in which the studio turns its creative expertise into scalable digital products. It allows the company to reach solo entrepreneurs and small businesses that admire its style.

IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy, launched IDEO U as a platform offering online creativity, leadership, and design thinking courses. It’s a digital extension, where the brand translates its core expertise into an educational format accessible to individuals and teams worldwide.

IDEO U allows the company to scale its influence, build thought leadership, and reach learners who may never hire IDEO as a consultancy. It strategically extends its brand into the digital learning space, without altering its core identity.

The last example of brand extension is Monks, a global creative production agency that has rapidly expanded its footprint by opening 33 offices and studios across multiple continents. This geographic extension grows the Monks brand by entering new regional markets while maintaining a unified brand identity.

By building a global presence, Monks can more effectively serve international clients, tap into diverse talent pools, and scale its creative operations without rebranding or repositioning. This is a powerful example of how creative agencies can grow globally.

We’ve looked at what brand extension is, the benefits of using a brand extension, and ten great brand extension examples as inspiration. It becomes clear that growth doesn’t always mean reinventing your brand; it can simply mean expanding it step by step. Whether you’re a solo creative, a boutique agency, or part of a larger studio, the right extension can open up new audiences and diversify your revenue stream. The key is to stay true to your brand’s core values while taking calculated risks to explore new territory.

While you’re here, learn more about inclusive branding, employee influencers, brand activism, and seasonal color trends.