Sometimes you get it right. Really right. That’s what happened when I had the courage to say “yes” to taking Kiwanis’ brand message into uncharted territory and advocate for a big change. Rather than talk about clubs, leaders and 100 years of blah, blah, blah, same old, same old, we would focus the brand directly on Kiwanis’ mission: The kids Kiwanis clubs serve. Those goofy, messy, energetic and vulnerable kids who need help in communities around the world.
And we’d finally stop taking ourselves so seriously. We’d stop being boring. We needed a message that attracted new members
We help kids, and we have fun.
It took courage to say “yes” to a brand campaign that included the header “The average four-year-old eats more boogers than broccoli,” —but it wasn’t that brave. I had quantitative and qualitative data to inform that this was the right move to attract the new members we wanted to recruit. And I had the good sense to hire Borshoff whose team of talented creatives and leaders get mad, mad props for this stuff.
Our research* showed that while 28% surveyed said they were familiar with Kiwanis, of those 28%, only 67% said they had a favorable opinion of the organization and a mere 9% said they would consider joining the organization. Interestingly, only 12% of the 28% could correctly identify Kiwanis’ mission/motto. In our research, we also asked what would cause them to want to join a service organization.
Their priories: Missions that help children, are global, address issues such as clean water, poverty, disadvantaged people. All the initiatives served by Kiwanis clubs around the world.
In fact, Kiwanis’ motto for several decades was: “Serving the Children of the World.” We had just proven, scientifically, that there was a clear disconnect between what Kiwanis does and how Kiwanis was branding itself to the public.
A brand campaign would not be inexpensive, but I knew it was the right thing to do. And it needed to be significantly different. Borshoff knew that, too, and wow, did they go for it. Skip ahead if you want to see the cool stuff.
But it wouldn’t have been enough to just push out ads and graphics. Kiwanis had a real identity problem. Because the organization relies on volunteers around the world to carry out its brand, it’s at the mercy of people’s interpretations of the brand and their understanding of why brand standards matter. Over 100 years, there were few, if any, standards, and Kiwanis was in dire need of a “brand solidification.” And, I needed to help everyone understand that in order to make Kiwanis the recognizable name they wanted it to be (and to attract members) , there had to be maximum visual and verbal cohesion. We needed everyone singing from the same songbook.
This is the abridged version of what happened next and a year’s worth of hard work, a lot of presentations, and careful development: I built consensus with the international board, secured funding, worked the “brand solidification” with actual useable graphic standards, educated PR volunteers around the world to carry out the work and educate others (and serve as liaisons to clubs), developed a self-serve toolkit to make it easy for clubs to use our branded material and maintain the brand, and led a full rebuild of our aging website.
Then, we flipped the script.
We launched “Kids Need Kiwanis” leading into Kiwanis International’s 100th anniversary, showcasing the ad pieces and the “new” brand identity. In Indianapolis for Kiwanis’ 100th anniversary, for example, the billboards with the new tagline read: 100 Years Old. Kids at Heart. Giant hopscotch squares greeted people coming down the escalators at the Indy airport with the words “After a long flight, you know you want to” and the new tagline.
Kids Need Kiwanis and the brand solidification are two of my favorite projects I’ve ever done, because they made a difference for an organization I not only worked for but really cared about personally. Again, big credit to Borshoff as the creative mastermind and partner in this project.
This is a taste of what the new brand feels like. I’m proud that Kiwanis is still using this brand identity. (Note: This is not an ad, but rather the brand promo. Two ads are below. Credit to Borshoff for the creative.)
Here are two of the ads we produced for clubs to use and for paid advertising launched in select markets (with a 30% increase in awareness gained, measured from awareness benchmarked the prior year.)
Want to see some of the :15’s? https://vimeopro.com/kiwanis/kids-need-kiwanis/
*Scientifically and statistically valid random sampling among a target demographic, among individuals who had no prior experience being a member of a service club organization. Backed up by focus groups conducted by a third party.
Read my personal blog, Wanderlust here: WanderfulThoughts.com
