GLA internal comms – blogpost
When it comes to branding, recognition is all.
McDonald’s golden arches are either a sight for sore eyes or an eyesore (depending on your point of view), from Albuquerque to Zurich. Apple’s current brand value of 947 million dollars proves Steve Jobs’ faith in thinking different. And Nike have cornered the power of positive thinking in three syllables. All these brands have instantly recognisable visual identities, be it a swoosh, a pair of golden arches or an apple with a small chunk bitten out of it.
The Mayor of London and Greater London Assembly brands don’t occupy the same stratospheric brandwidth as McDonald’s, Apple or Nike. But that doesn’t mean to say the same brand principles shouldn’t apply.
Based within External Relations, the Creative Team generates ideas for campaigns to promote the work of the Mayor. We are the organisation’s brand guardians.
Coming up with engaging ways of communicating the Mayor’s wide-ranging agenda to Londoners is the essence of what we do. London is the greatest city in the world, after all.
But it’s more than that. It’s also about communicating a set of brand values that are recognisably those of the organisation. Openness, inclusivity, fairness, for example. A broadcaster like Channel 4 is successful because their branding makes it clear what they stand for. Their purpose is to create change through entertainment. They are a trailblazer in diversity.
A similar sense of purpose underscores the work of the Mayor of London – notably present in the recent ‘have a word’ campaign to help end violence towards women and girls. The campaign urges men to call out unacceptable behaviour and attitudes towards women and girls. It is purposeful and powerful.
And, while we don’t have the same budgets as multinational companies like Nike or Apple, we can still harness our brand values to create work that is strong and meaningful. But to do so we need to be single-minded in our comms. We need to make our campaign spend work hard for us to get the best value for our brand.
That’s why we don’t have sub brands or separate visual identities for different strands of the Mayor’s agenda.
If we were to create individual sub-brands for all the many projects and campaigns that fall under the umbrella of the organisation, the result would be a mish mash. Mish mashes don’t cut through. They confuse and dilute the main brand, and, in doing so, they diminish the role of the Mayor in Londoners’ eyes.
We want Londoners to know that the Mayor of London is behind the brilliant projects and campaigns that our organisation works on or supports. Improving air quality, building more council homes, greening the streets, showcasing the arts, celebrating the many faiths and cultures that make up our great city. And so much more. And for that, we say, long live the Mayor of London brand!
Ariadne Birnberg 