A rebrand is an exciting yet challenging project that requires a great deal of bravery. Whether it’s a small update to the logo or a complete overhaul of the brand identity, a rebrand can be a make-or-break moment for an organisation. In this blog, we’ll discuss why bravery is essential in a rebrand and how it can lead to success.
Firstly, rebranding is all about change. It involves stepping outside of the comfort zone and making bold moves to refresh the brand’s identity. This is where bravery comes in, as it takes courage to break away from the familiar and take a leap of faith. But, without change, a brand can become stagnant, and customers and stakeholders may lose interest. Therefore, being brave enough to embrace change is critical to a successful rebrand.
Secondly, rebranding requires authenticity. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy and can quickly detect inauthenticity. Therefore, it’s essential for brands to be brave and stay true to their values and beliefs when rebranding. Staying true to one’s beliefs can sometimes mean going against the norm. But being authentic is critical in creating a brand that consumers can connect with on an emotional level.
Thirdly, rebranding is all about taking risks. A rebrand is an opportunity to differentiate the brand from its competitors and make it easily identifiable. However, to stand out from the crowd, a brand needs to take risks and push boundaries. This can be unsettling and scary. But, if done right, it can lead to a unique and memorable brand identity that resonates with consumers.
Fourthly, rebranding requires a great deal of communication. The rebranding process involves communicating changes to employees, stakeholders, and customers. It’s essential to communicate the reasons behind the rebrand and the changes being made. Communicating changes can be challenging, and there may be pushback. But, being brave enough to have open and honest communication can lead to a smoother transition and a better understanding of the rebrand.
Lastly, rebranding can be a vulnerable moment for a brand. It involves putting oneself out there and exposing the brand to potential criticism. However, being vulnerable is essential in building trust and creating an emotional connection with consumers. It takes courage to be vulnerable and put oneself out there.
In conclusion, bravery is an essential component of any rebrand. It takes courage to embrace change, stay true to one’s beliefs, take risks, communicate changes, and be vulnerable. However, being brave can lead to a successful rebrand that resonates with consumers, differentiates the brand from its competitors, and builds trust and loyalty. So, if you’re considering a rebrand, remember that bravery is key to success.
MYA is a charity dedicated to providing innovative support and opportunities for young people across Merseyside.
Why MYA matters to us
Since 1890 MYA has been creating real, wide-reaching change that ensures children and young people are better equipped to shape their own futures.
Alternative Futures Group (AFG) is one of the largest not-for-profit Health and Social Care charities in the North West.
Why AFG matters to us
AFG has been changing lives, creating independence and achieving great outcomes for the brilliant people it supports for over 30 years – that is something that really matters.
Creating an explainer animation is a great way to communicate complex ideas in an engaging and easy-to-understand way. Whether you’re explaining a new product, service, or concept, an explainer animation can help you grab your audience’s attention and keep them engaged. In this post, we’ll take you through the steps involved in creating an explainer animation, from planning and storyboarding to animation and sound design.
Step 1: Planning and Scripting
The first step in creating an explainer animation is to plan out the overarching aim, messages and script. Start by identifying the key concepts you want to explain and write them down in a clear and concise way. This will help your project stay on track and ensure that your animation is focused and effective from the outset.
Once you have your key concepts in mind, start writing your script. This should be written in a tone and style that reflects the audience you want to engage. Keep in mind that your goal is to communicate complex ideas in a simple and engaging way, so use simple language and avoid jargon.
Step 2: Storyboarding
Once you have your script, the next step is to create a storyboard. A storyboard is a visual representation of your script that shows how each scene will be presented in your animation. It’s a critical step in the process because it allows you to visualise your animation and make sure that it flows smoothly from scene to scene.
To create a storyboard, start by sketching out your scenes on paper or on screen. You don’t need to be a great artist; simple stick figures and rough sketches are enough. Your storyboard should include all the key elements of each scene, such as characters and backgrounds.
Step 3: Visual Design
The next step is to create the visual design for your animation. This involves creating the characters, backgrounds, and other visual elements that will be used in your animation. This can be based on your brand identity and a suite of existing assets, or you may want to develop something from scratch.
When designing your visuals, keep in mind your target audience and the tone of your animation. If your target audience is young children, for example, you might want to use bright colours and simple shapes. If your animation is more serious or professional, you might want to use more muted colours and realistic designs.
Step 4: Animation
Once you have your storyboard and visuals, the next step is to create the animation itself. This involves bringing your visuals to life using animation software. There are many animation software options available, such as Adobe After Effects, Toon Boom, and Animaker.
When creating your animation, it’s important to keep your storyboard in mind and make sure that each scene flows smoothly into the next. Use sound effects and music to enhance your animation and make it more engaging.
Step 5: Sound Design
Finally, the last step is to add sound to your animation. This involves creating sound effects, a voice over and adding music to your animation. Sound effects can help enhance the visuals and make your animation more engaging, while music can help set the tone and mood of your animation.
When creating your sound design, it’s important to use high-quality sound effects and music that match the tone and mood of your animation. You can find many royalty-free sound effects and music tracks online, or you can hire a sound designer to create custom sound effects, voice over and music for your animation.In conclusion, creating an explainer animation takes planning, storyboarding, visual design, animation, and sound design. By following these steps, you can create an engaging and effective explainer animation that communicates complex ideas in a simple and engaging way. With a little practice and patience, you can create explainer animations that educate, entertain, and inspire your audience.
We work with many organisations to create a wide range of animations to being their brands, projects and campaigns to life – get in touch if you’d like to explore working together on your next project.
A reading revolution
The Reader
Education, Health
Design, Strategy and Planning
National charity The Reader, which has spent more than 20 years bringing people together and books to life, commissioned Kaleidoscope to refresh and redefine its brand as it prepared to re-open its headquarters in Liverpool’s Calderstones Park following a £5m refurbishment.
The Reader believes that literature is a tool for helping us to survive and live well.
Radical and dynamic
The visual identity was developed to communicate the warmth and connection of the ‘reading revolution’ at the heart of The Reader’s work.
It aims to communicate all aspects of The Reader’s brand to reflect who they are today – a warm, radical and dynamic organisation that has literature and people at its heart.
The updated identity includes a refined version of The Reader’s previous organisational logo that will help the charity to attract a more age-diverse audience as it looks to scale its reading revolution. The simplified design has been chosen to work better across digital platforms.
We also created a family of sub-brands for the visitor experiences on offer at The Reader at Calderstones. These range from The Reader Storybarn, an imaginative playspace dedicated to the delights of reading for pleasure in families, to The Reader’s social enterprises, including the Café and Ice Cream Parlour, which generate revenues to support the charity’s work with communities.
The identity was developed in a pragmatic fashion, using practical working sessions with senior leaders from The Reader to define a clear brand hierarchy and strategy, ahead of developing visual approaches and brand guidelines in a timeframe of just eight weeks.
Why it matters
The Reader believes that the unique power of literature has the potential to connect individuals, help us feel better and to rebuild lost social bonds.
It brings people together and books to life in order to make warmer, healthier, stronger communities.
This was a wonderful project to be involved with an organisation that has incredible ambitions to grow its social impact and deliver lasting impact to the communities it serves and the wider health and well-being sector.
In the health sector, it’s essential to create meaningful connections with patients and service users. So if you’re wondering how your brand can help you do that, keep reading.
At Kaleidoscope, we work with a variety of sectors, including health. From crafting communications campaigns to building unforgettabke brand messaging and activation. That’s why we feel we’re well positioned to share some advice when it comes to curating a strong and effective brand got the health sector.
Why your brand matters in healthcare
A brand isn’t just about making money; it’s about creating an impact – the right kind of impact. And in the health sector, where a brand can define a patient experience through everything from signage and uniforms to appointment reminders and patient portals — there’s no sector more important when it comes to creating a brand that understands its audience.
You need to build trust and credibility amongst patients at every turn, and to do this, you need a brand that’s easy to connect with, identify with, and, most importantly, a brand you can recognise.
So here are three key things your health brand should zero in on.
1. Focus on co-creation
It’s important you work alongside stakeholders to map out what the brand should stand for — stakeholders could be anyone from patients, service users, health professionals or regulators.
Give stakeholders the opportunity to collaboratively design a narrative and identity that is robust and evidence-based. Nothing is guessed or assumed. Instead, you’re gaining multiple perspectives from the people who matter most.
2. Establish a trusted brand with partnerships
When it comes to making a decision, whether a professional, patient or commissioner, this decision isn’t determined by just one person or one organisation alone. There are many different touchpoints, all of which play an important part in the process. The health sector is a complex one, and all these different players have value; that’s why building effective partnerships are vital to the success of your brand.
You want a trustworthy brand that has the reach and impact necessary to be successful — and partnerships are what help you achieve that.
3. Make your brand flexible
Regardless of sector, your brand needs to be flexible to change, but in a healthcare setting in particular — an industry characterised by change — your brand needs agility at its heart. Whether it’s changing systems, processes or regulations, your brand has to be ready to move quickly when opportunities arise, ensuring it remains relevant.
To achieve this, your brand has to be underpinned by a clear and comprehensive brand narrative, which provides the spine for your brand to work from.
Before you go
Making any changes to your brand, regardless of how insignificant it might seem, can impact the way your brand is perceived.
We’re experts in communication and all things branding. And just over the last few years, we’ve helped many healthcare brands reinforce their trustability through carefully crafted communications. Let us help you too — get in touch.
At Kaleidoscope, we’re all about open, honest and clear communication. So what better way to show you how we operate than through interviews with team members? You want to know who’s working on your campaigns, and we figured this would be a pretty easy way to show you.
Graciously, Andy Malone, our Digital Director, has put himself forward for the first interview! Learn more about Andy and what matters to him below.
So, how long have you been at Kaleidoscope?
I joined the team as Digital Director five years ago. I was brought in to build the digital offering up — starting from scratch; we’ve built up to a team of four now.
I’ll rewind a bit to give you an idea of how I ended up here. During my Computer Science degree, I worked as a freelance web developer. After graduating, I had a pretty strong portfolio, so I decided to lean into it while I considered what my career was going to be, but I never looked back. I started solo as a freelancer, then took on some longer-term contracts, and spent some time as part of in-house teams until settling into full-time agency life, moving from mid-weight developer up to a Head of Digital role in my last agency. It was here I met our current MD, James, and we shared a common love of working on innovative projects that deliver good.
So a few years later, when the opportunity arose to help James and the Kaleidoscope team kick off their digital offering, I couldn’t wait to get started.
Tell us a bit about your job in a nutshell…
As Digital Director, my primary role is to run Kaleidoscope’s digital services and the team that delivers them. I also act as the senior project director for websites, apps, email and social campaigns — basically, anything online or on devices is my territory.
Bethany, our digital project manager, oversees projects day-to-day (and is much better at it than me), but when it comes to strategy, planning and scoping out tech solutions, that’s where I thrive. I also love that for some projects I can still get stuck in and dust off my coding skills!
When it comes to the digital side of the business, what matters most to you?
As a business, our proposition is “communications that matter”, which means working on projects that matter to the wider community and us. So it’s vital that our digital offering reflects that proposition, too.
With that in mind, for me, inclusion and accessibility are two things that matter massively to me. That means building websites, apps and tools that are easy for everyone to use, regardless of their level of understanding or background — from considered UI/UX to mobile performance, keyboard navigation to adhering to accessibility best practices. It all matters when building effective digital communications.
My favourite thing about this job is that you can go beyond just communicating well with digital transformation. Although it’s essential to build traditional campaigns with bus adverts and posters, digital adds another layer of opportunity to campaigns. It gives people something to interact with and can help change people’s lives more directly.
What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on at Kaleidoscope?
A few projects spring to mind here, all for very different reasons. My first is Dyslexia Scotland, partly because I’m working on it at the moment. Their website is their hub for content, resources and membership and needed to be refreshed. As part of that, we are really focusing on optimising the design for the primary audience, which means pushing our design capabilities in terms of accessibility and testing it rigorously with the end-user group we are collaborating with.
Another project which I’m very proud to have worked on is the Happy Hearts Blood Pressure Tool. This tool was part of a wider blood pressure campaign for the region and allows people to have meaningful conversations with a healthcare provider, using an engaging and simple interface to give them a personalised experience. The tool helps drive meaningful conversations that could change their lives.
Another smaller project that I really enjoyed working on was with the University of Liverpool Career Studio, which was exciting because it meant getting into some pretty new tech and was a fusion of both print and online. We produced marketing materials and brochures for the studio, but alongside this, we also did all the environmental branding and, as part of that, created wall vinyls that included digital marker codes, which enabled users to view an augmented reality experience on their phones while in the space. The experience was fully content managed, so the team could maintain it, and also showed the user personalised career advice based on some simple options such as their preferred industry.
Communication is no doubt at the heart of what we do here at Kaleidoscope, but driving real change through a mixture of traditional and digital communication is what fuels us to deliver exceptional campaigns. Learn more about our services.
Brand development
Liverpool University Hospitals
Health
Campaigns, Design, Strategy and planning
We worked with one of the largest acute trusts in the country, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to develop a new brand to enable it to bring its vision, values and future ambition to life.
With multiple sites, a range of legacy brands and an emerging new strategic direction this was a wonderful challenge to develop a robust brand for a significant new organisation.
Our future together
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) was formed through a merger of Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital Trust.
As a new organisation, it became one of the largest acute trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers in the region with an annual budget of £930 million. Unlike many other NHS mergers, the merger was driven by the clinical staff, who made the case for bringing the two organisations together in order to improve patient care.
We were commissioned by LUHFT to establish a clear brand framework for how it communicates its vision, values and strategic objectives in a way that is meaningful to all stakeholders.
Using an evidence-based approach we initially carried out a wide range of engagement with LUHFTs diverse stakeholders from patients, staff and senior management through to partners, regulators and Board members. This was used as a foundation that informed a written brand narrative, positioning and tone of voice that:
Communicates what LUHFT stands for
Reflects its vision and values
Is distinctive, yet authentic
Provides a mechanism to engage staff and instil a sense of pride so that they become brand ambassadors
Becomes something that the local community can believe in, be proud of and engage with.
With the written brand story in place we then moved on to consider the visual expression of the brand; developing a unique look and feel, brand architecture and a comprehensive set of brand guidelines to inform how the brand should be brought to life across the organisation’s many touchpoints.
Following a period of robust testing of all aspects of the new brand amongst key stakeholder groups, it was approved for roll-out and we worked with LUFHT to deliver a range of priority communications initiatives including the roll-out of the new organisational values and strategic reports; alongside collateral to embed the new brand across video, screensavers, email, posters, infographics and more.
Why it matters
LUHFT is an anchor institution for the Liverpool City Region. It has a huge role to play in the future health and prosperity of our region, so it was vital to deliver a brand that connected with the region and the future ambition of the organisation to facilitate its growing impact.
This was a fantastic project to work on with a flagship organisation in our region. The close collaboration with multiple stakeholders throughout from initial research through to testing and implementation allowed us to develop a brand that was authentic to LUHFT and its future.
Building a brand
Bethell
Infrastructure
Design, Strategy and planning
We worked with Bethell to develop a new brand identity to support its ambitious growth plans in the construction and utilities sectors.
Key to this brief was the need to deliver a solution that was practical as well as creatively engaging through fully understanding how the brand would be implemented by the client across its many sites and operations.
A brand for expansion
Bethell Group is one of the UK’s leading privately-owned integrated construction and utility services companies. We were commissioned to review and develop a new brand identity for the organisation as it embarked on an ambitious expansion plan.
A collaborative creative development process, involving workshops with Bethell’s senior leadership, enabled us to identify the core requirements for a new brand that would support the future business.
We then developed a range of creative options for a new core mark and wider visual language that would not only represent the organisation effectively but critically work across a diverse range of touchpoints for an organisation that has employees across offices, in transit and on site across the country.
The final solution provides clarity on the new Bethell proposition, clearly defining its portfolio across two service areas (civils and utilities), with a visual language that provides flexibility for the utilities service to deliver targeted communications to its specific market.
Why it matters
Bethell are moving into an ambitious period of growth and recognised that a clear and strong brand identity was crucial to their aspirations as the organisation expands into new areas – providing a strong foundation to engage new clients and attract new employees.
Organisations like Bethell are critical to the flow of our society, putting in place the roads, networks and infrastructure that we need to live, work and play.
My Riverside
Riverside
Housing
Campaigns, Design, Strategy and planning, Video and animation
We worked with Riverside to develop a campaign to lead the roll-out of its refreshed customer portal, My Riverside.
Key to the brief was a need to deliver a concept that cut through wider customer communications
Making life easier
Riverside have redeveloped their customer portal, My Riverside, and commissioned Kaleidoscope to develop a new campaign to spearhead the launch and drive customer engagement with it.
My Riverside is a digital platform that enables Riverside customers the ability to easily manage their home through reporting repairs, checking accounts and making payments online.
Our initial role was to establish a distinctive creative concept that would set My Riverside apart from wider Riverside communications.
The platform had already been launched previously but did not achieve the required engagement, so this concept had to stand out and demonstrate that the platform was something to take notice of.
The concept used customer insight which highlighted the primary perceived benefit of the platform to be speed and ease of use.
We therefore built on this and brought it to life using a blend of copy lines and abstract photography, alongside a bright and vibrant colour palette, to articulate how My Riverside was quick and easy to use, and that customers could use the time they saved to do things they really wanted to do.
This was supported by a consistent logo device which reinforced the convenience of the platform and how it could be accessed anywhere, anytime and on any device.
The campaign was launched in a targeted way across Riverside’s customers using multiple print and digital channels, with different content being delivered to a range of customers segments to reflect the differing levels of service’s available in regions and variations in customer engagement with digital tools.
Why it matters
Managing a home can be complex and time consuming, and for many of us can seem overwhelming at times. The My Riverside platform aims to help make this simpler and easier and enable its customers to get on with the things that are really important to them.
Using customer insight to inform our creative direction was vital to the effectiveness of this concept – it provided absolute clarity on what was really important to Riverside’s customers.
