Overview

On the evening of January 13, 1888, 33 men traveled on foot, horseback and in horsedrawn carriages through the streets of Washington to the Cosmos Club. The topic of discussion was "the advisability of organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge." The entity they were about to create became the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institution in the world: National Geographic.

Business Issue

Following a brand identity refresh in 2001, National Geographic wanted to roll out the new identity as swiftly as possible, erasing any vestige of former logos and guidelines from its network of licensees, partners and employees.

BrandWizard Response

BrandWizard built a Brand Identity Toolkit to house the artwork for the core elements of the identity and a range of templates, with instructions on how the different elements of the identity should be used. Users groups, such as licensees, employees and partners are assigned access privileges depending on area of need.

The system includes a photo library of approved images. A National Geographic administrator can quickly and easily upload images, allowing for centralized control while offering up-to-date material for users.

To encourage brand compliance and reward good behaviour, we built a showcase section that features on-brand representations alongside examples of off-brand usage to demonstrate incorrect implementation.

Business Result

Rollout took place at the National Headquarters in Washington DC across a diverse network of employees and licensees.

Estimated cost savings in the first two years of launch totalled US$165,000. However, the ongoing financial benefit is in greater consistency and integrity of the National Geographic brand.