B&C collaborated with N Buchanan Consulting to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research. Focus groups were held for community input. There was a particular need for realistic Southland community demographics to be included such as a wide age range, including both in-active and active, any and all cultures/ethnicity across the region, and a good mix of genders. Together, we also held whiteboard sessions to get stakeholders and executive teams really involved and engaged in the process.
We were able to look at how members of the Southland community and stakeholders viewed ‘Sport Southland’.
The result of the research supported Sport Southland, in their view that over time, the word ‘Sport’ in their name didn’t truly reflect their current vision, mission, and purpose and for some community members it even felt intimidating.
Having considered many other options and with their vision statement being ‘Everyone Active Every Day’ and a real push worldwide for people to be active, it made sense to rename Sport Southland to Active Southland. The rebrand also includes the Te Reo Māori name, gifted by the Waihopai Runaka, Te Tākaro Ora O Murihiku, meaning Active for Wellbeing Southland.
B&C also conducted brand strategy workshops with the core Active Southland team and board members to delve deeper into what they thought their new brand should be all about. We uncovered their ‘why’ and did a deep dive checking and challenging the current vision, mission and purpose as well as studying audience, brand personality and voice.
With the new name and strategy settled on, we were then able to start working on concepts for the new logo that supported the sentiment and insight gained during the research phase. We wanted to place emphasis on a cultural, as well as community, connection and developed a concept based on the Taurapa (stern of the waka) which would become the final logo for Active Southland. Our designer described the idea behind the concept as using the Taurapa to represent leadership, guidance and direction, while the koru references nurture, perpetual movement, and growth and the arrow shape pointing forward references a play symbol and positive movement forward. This motif was used to create a multitude of deeper ideas when developed into a graphic device that would go on to be used across the brand in various ways.
We were heavily involved in other aspects of the rebrand and brand rollout in a project management and creative direction capacity, working as an extension of their team to help activate and guide their internal team to execute a lot of creative work before their brand launch. We created concept ideas and design styles for pullup banners, vehicle signage, stationery and presentation designs and helped internal staff to design signage, meeting room murals and an interactive installation for the launch.
