James Barrow, Creative Director in Group Marketing
Last month saw the launch of the University’s new brand campaign – a major milestone for the Shared Identity project. We asked James Barrow, Creative Director in the Group Marketing team, to answer some of the questions staff have been asking about the campaign.
What is ‘Shared Identity’?
Shared Identity (or ‘Shared ID’) is an ongoing project that aims to improve Macquarie’s relevance and distinctiveness in the higher education sector. Stage 1 of the project – launched in 2014 – saw the establishment of Macquarie’s new logo and visual identity.
Why did we need a stage two of Shared Identity?
A successful brand needs to be regularly tested and refined to ensure it continues to be relevant to its audiences. Our extensive market research revealed that Macquarie needed to more clearly articulate its position as an innovative university that delivers outcomes and impact, in a way that both differentiates us from our competitors and that is relevant to our many target audiences. By doing this we will become the preferred choice for more students, staff, researchers and industry partners.
What is actually changing with Shared ID 2.0?
Following quantitative and qualitative market research across all our external and internal audiences, we developed a new brand narrative that will help us better articulate our strengths to our various audiences and help us tie all our marketing activities together.
What is our ‘brand narrative’?
A brand narrative (also sometimes referred to as a ‘brand proposition’) defines what an institution stands for and usually expresses how the brand meets its target audience’s needs and how it is differentiated from competitors, so the audience has a clear reason to choose the brand.
The short-form version of Macquarie’s new brand narrative is:
“Macquarie is a vibrant university engaged with the real world. We foster collaboration across diverse fields of knowledge and human perspectives, pursuing innovative ways to address society’s complex problems and create a better future.”
A long-form version of the narrative can be found in section 1.2.6 of our brand guidelines.
What is a ‘brand essence’?
A brand essence is a distillation of the brand narrative, capturing what an institution stands for in just a few words. A brand essence differs from a tagline in that it’s not used externally – rather, it is used internally to inform and bring consistency to marketing activities.
Our new brand essence is ‘connected intelligence’, reflecting Macquarie’s unique position in the higher education sector. While some universities celebrate innovation through technology, we are the university of human-powered innovation – innovation that is brought to life through collaboration and connectivity, and that seeks solutions for real-world challenges.
What is a ‘brand campaign’?
A brand campaign is an external-facing series of advertising and marketing activities that brings a brand narrative to life and motivates audiences to find out more . Macquarie’s brand campaign centres around the equation (YOU)us (or ‘You to the power of us’) – a human equation for success. It highlights the power of human collaboration and our belief that when we all work together, we multiply our ability to achieve remarkable things.
Is our logo changing?
No, our logo and visual identity (including our brand colours and fonts) remain unchanged.
Should I be putting ‘(YOU)us’ or ‘connected intelligence’ on my newsletter/flyer/website etc?
No. All ‘(YOU)us’ brand campaign activities (including a specific recruitment campaign highlighting Macquarie’s priority courses) are being managed by Group Marketing, in consultation with the faculties.
‘Connected Intelligence’ should not be used on external-facing material, though we welcome ideas from staff about how their work demonstrates this concept. Staff can use the Suggest a story form to alert the Group Marketing team to these ideas, or they can contact their relevant portfolio partner.
Where can I find the brand guidelines?
The current brand guidelines are available on the Group Marketing team’s website. The site also provides branded templates (including Word and PowerPoint), as well as a style guide that outlines the correct spelling and format of commonly used terms.
Have any of the branded templates changed?
There are new versions of some templates – they won’t look different to the previous templates, but do contain some bug fixes.
How can I make sure my material is brand compliant?
All material that features the Macquarie brand should be emailed to sharedidentity@mq.edu.au for a brand compliance check prior to publishing. You can learn more about brand compliance on our website.
Does Group Marketing provide any training for creating branded material?
Aside from the advice provided on our website, we run various workshops on good marketing practice through the year. Staff should contact their relevant portfolio partner if they have a specific training need for their team and we’ll do our best to accommodate it.
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I like the idea it promotes, however as a student (now PhD), I don’t think it has the same level of engagement as the Western Sydney University “Be Inspired” campaign. I also found the notion of (You)^us quite dehumanising at first, as it originally made me think that the university just thought of everyone as numbers.
It would also be good to know which of the groups targeted by the market research phase was most positive to the campaign. For example if it was students then that would bode well for the universities future, but if it was corporate interests then that would deviate, in my opinion, from the founding principles of the university as I know them.
Quite obviously I hope the campaign is successful and trust the university has made the right call because when the university succeeds we all benefit.
HI Anthony, we suggest you contact James by email (James.Barrow@mq.edu.au) to see if he can give you some further information on the market testing of this campaign.
One of the problems with identirying Macquarie is in overseas presentations. People in, say, the US have no idea where “Macquarie Unive4rsity” is (unlike, say, the University of Sydney or University of Melbourne etc., which are geographically self-explanatory). You need to add “, Sydney” at least, and probably add , “Australia” too.