Solving the greatest challenges

Audience research

Impressed by our work on an earlier project to create its EngineeringX sub-brand, the Royal Academy of Engineering invited IE Brand to review their core brand messaging.

Following a competitive tender, the charity commissioned IE Brand and Digital to undertake a comprehensive research and repositioning exercise, to expand on the insight they’d captured to date and better understand the wants and needs of members, beneficiaries and other key stakeholders. IE led a listening exercise which included:

• Internal stakeholder workshops with staff and trustees
• A brand audit
• One-hour interviews with members and beneficiaries
• Student and graduate panels
• Surveys with members, trustees, beneficiaries, industry and members of the public

 
Having heard from thousands of people, it became clear that actors and stage managers were finding it harder than ever to thrive in the industry, and that the charity’s work offered a vital lifeline. We heard a lot of positive feedback about the ABF – including that it was caring, compassionate and generous to name but a few. But we also heard some challenges:

Awareness was low. Over half of survey respondents hadn’t heard of the ABF (or weren’t sure) and three quarters didn’t know what they did.

Accessibility was a challenge. We heard the ABF needed to become more accessible, and their website needed to be more user friendly.

Modernisation was needed. Some felt the brand was a bit old fashioned and needed to recapture the charity’s pioneering spirit. 

Their name was confusing. Younger audiences didn’t understand what ‘benevolent’ meant, and even the word ‘fund’ was deemed unhelpful in a world where people are looking to the charity for more than just financial support.

£180m

is being invested in the engineering profession by the Academy over the next five years

Brand messaging and tone of voice

Our draft tone of voice tested positively overall, and the research helped our copywriters to tease out the main language hooks that resonated with the Academy’s audiences. Certain key words came through loud and clear like credible, expert, and ambitious.

Incorporating audience feedback

Our test audiences were also keen to see an emphasis on simplicity and accessibility for top-level communications – but never at the expense of credibility. It’s important that the Academy keep things simple and concise for its introductory comms. But once they have established a relationship with the reader, they are free to share content that’s authoritative, technical, and detailed.

Testing also showed that the Academy should highlight its role in bringing people together. They assemble leading engineers in business and academia alongside policymakers and educators to advance engineering’s contribution to society. And they act as a catalyst for finding creative solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Messaging matrix and strapline

Following our research, IE Brand honed the final messaging matrix to incorporate these insights and reflect the confidence and ambition of the new five-year plan.

Our new brand messaging captures the essence of the Academy’s mission and runs across all of their comms, including campaign materials and published research.

450,000

engineers are working together to improve people’s lives

IE Brand provided invaluable support... I was impressed by how quickly they were able to grapple with and unpick our complexity, and understand the needs of our many different stakeholder groups. They were collaborative, not afraid to challenge, and eminently professional throughout. Importantly, as a client, I felt IE Brand understood and were sensitive to the challenges of facilitating such a process in-house, and as invested in delivering a good outcome as we were. Highly recommended!

Jo Trigg, Director, Communications and Engagement, Royal Academy of Engineering

Visual identity and logo design

With the final brand messaging approved, the Academy needed a new visual identity to take it into the next five years and beyond. They needed a modern, progressive brand to show the Academy as a leading voice in engineering and technology.

Having already been impressed by IE's messaging work, the Academy appointed IE Brand to develop the brand’s look and feel too. Our design team created a bold, colourful and exciting visual identity, with a new logo at its centre.

Re-imagining the logo

The Academy’s previous icon was inspired by a Stone Age flint, one of humanity’s first engineering triumphs. The new marque is an evolution of the flint, making it sharper and more precise. It has a three-dimensional, geometric feel and suggests engineering systems and processes. It’s intriguing, open to interpretation, and lends itself well to animation.

Bespoke font, vibrant colours and geometric shapes

We created a distinctive custom font – Montserrat Engineered – to be used sparingly in campaigns and on covers for maximum impact and differentiation. This sits alongside the brand’s core sans serif font.

The brand uses high-impact monochrome visuals, complemented with a vivid palette of arresting colour gradients. A set of geometric shapes inspired by the logo is used across comms to contain dynamic photography, quotes and statistics. Finally, we created a set of bespoke geometric patterns that can be used alone or together to bring collateral to life.

The new visual identity can flex between being public-facing – such as a campaign to promote careers in engineering – and appealing to engineering professionals and Fellows in prestigious reports. It epitomises an organisation that is creative, energetic, intelligent, and inspirational – while exuding the prestige and credibility of a Royal Academy.

Rolling out the brand

Finally, IE Brand created detailed brand guidelines for the Academy. Along with a set of key templates, these allow the Academy to roll out the new brand easily and consistently.

The brand book shows the visual identity in a wide range of applications – from STEM resources aimed at secondary school pupils, through to prestige publications for formal landmark events, and everything in between. It also demonstrates how the new brand works alongside partners and existing subsidiary brands.

Meanwhile, the messaging matrix is a practical tool, supporting the Academy to write and re-write on and offline comms in the new tone of voice and hit the right calls to action.

Later, IE Digital designed a modern, user-centred and flexible new website for the Royal Academy of Engineering, to bring the new brand and visual identity to life. The new site strengthens the Academy’s position as a leading voice in engineering and technology, and celebrates what they do in a more dynamic and engaging way.

40

countries across six continents, reflecting the Royal Academy of Engineering's global influence in advancing engineering and technology.