Our brand journey

through charity

merger

Myra Johnson

Director of Communications

About Together for Short Lives

We merged in Oct 2011 to be one voice for UK children’s palliative care. We represent the UK’s 49,0000 children and young people with life-limiting

and life-threatening conditions. We support everyone who loves and cares for children with life-limiting and

life-threatening conditions – families, professionals and services, including children’s hospices. Our work helps to ensure that children can get the best possible care,

wherever they are, and whenever they need it. In doing this, we help children, young people and their families to make the

most of precious time.

Our members

Our work is strengthened through our members Families are at the heart of all our work

Families

Professionals

Organisations – including children’s hospices and other support services

Four strategic aims

Together for Short Lives wants to see a world where every child and family gets: The right information from the moment of diagnosis so they can make

choices about the care they receive. Easy access to services so that they can spend more time with their

children. The best quality of care.

Support they can rely on now and throughout their journey.

Our brand journey through merger

Merged in October 2011

We have come a long way. Two new names in two months (more on that later)

A unique branding journey

We love our brand and are proud of all that Together for Short Lives has

achieved. One of the most challenging projects – but equally most exciting.

Couldn’t have achieved it without our fabulous Comms Team and all at

Together for Short Lives So where did it all begin?

Life pre merger

Two national charities based in Bristol with a long heritage

Both had a similar mission – to provide the best possible care to children

with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions and their families. Different emphasis and different key stakeholders – but essentially had the

same vision Long history of collaborating and partnership working.

Long history of talking about merger.

Brands pre merger

• Sector wide – for families,

professionals and organisations.

• Focus on research, good practice,

and clinical focus

• Representing all children’s hospices.

• Focus on fundraising, awareness

raising and PR and supporting hospice

development

The merger journey

In 2011 – funding available to fuller explore merger and merger steering group established. Comms Team started planning in April

30 August 2011 – decision to merge announced internally

All happened very quickly indeed

2 October the two organisations had “moved in” and we publicly announced

our merger We had become one voice for children’s palliative care

Two phases of branding

Parallel process of planning for decision to merge or not

Stage 1 – a short term interim identity which brings the organisations

together Stage 2 – the development of a new permanent name, brand and visual

identity for the organisation once the merger had been well established internally and externally We knew it would be challenging to deliver new brand in the early days

Challenges

Two teams joining together had only just happened All staff and trustees needed to get used to the change in each of the two

charities’ missions and values. Yet to develop our three year strategy

Focussed on merger

Two operational plans to deliver

Towards a new brand

Merger communications team

Low level initial rebrand in the short term – with a small budget spend

A “merger” brand that showed the partnership of the two charities

Addressing all our key stakeholders

One voice for children’s palliative care in the UK Positioning of ACT & Children’s Hospices UK together with uniting strapline:

Our first name

Brand collateral

Tweaked the typefaces and colours Only rebranded key documents – and did the minimum to get us to the point

of merger Website landing page

Minimal rebranded collateral

Social media

Soft launch of name and merger

A short lived brand

By1 November we had changed our name The ultimate Communication challenge or Communication nightmare? One new charity and two names in two months!

A calculated risk

Why would anyone do that?

Calculated risk

Unique opportunity to raise awareness of the needs of children and families Raise valuable funds for our members

Promote our charity brand BUT, we didn’t have a memorable name or identity - long, complex, difficult

to remember Should we press ahead regardless or fast track a rebrand?

Whatever – X Factor needed our logo in six weeks!

A new name in 6 weeks

Emergency Board, SMT and Comms meeting. Remember we still hadn’t officially launched the first brand!

Risk assessment

Decided we should explore possibility

Established brand team

Developed a creative brief

The comms challenge

Bare bones of a brand in six weeks, the rest would have to follow Research and naming

Logo development, colour palette and brand guidelines Basic brand collateral

Website landing page and social media

Communications plan for launch

6 weeks to go...should be easy!

Stage one: Naming

Develop a Creative Brief and researched agencies

Identify budget

Out to tender, interviews, appointment

All this, at the point of merger!

We still had to implement our interim brand

Confidentiality – had to keep things pretty tight as we didn’t know if it would

really happen

Spencer du Bois

Max du Bois and John Spencer

Brutally Sensitive

Loved the challenge

Could meet our deadline

Worked round the clock to develop our name – they said they didn’t need

much sleep! We didn’t get much sleep either.

Developing the scope

Immediate briefing session with John and Max Agreed timetable

Process for consultation, feedback to Brand Steering Group, timetable for

trademarks and legal checks Revolution or evolution

Iconic, descriptive or indirect

Talking to stakeholders

Authoritative yet friendly

Mission and vision Audiences – families, professionals, organisations, funders, general public

Values

Challenge of the language of children’s palliative care

Sensitivities

Descriptive

Looked at our heritage

Name short list

Workshops with staff team and trustees

Limited time to test with stakeholders

Family brand group

Three key dates:

4 October Long list

5 October Short List and Survey

By 11 October we needed to agree the name

Our short list

We ended up with a short list of five options. Clear winner: Short Lives

Short Lives

Softening words Treasuring Short Lives

Making the most of Short Lives

Short Lives: Precious Time

Short Lives: One Dream

Nothing felt right...so we locked ourselves in a darkened room

Together for Short Lives

Thought long and hard about where we had come from, our stakeholders and the spirit of merger. We found our name: Together for Short Lives

So all we needed now was:

Board approval

Legal and trademark checks, buy url

Develop a logo and colour palette in 10 days

Simple! Just another few days locked in a dark room

Links to the past

ACT’s strapline: Valuing short lives and Children’s Hospice UK – butterfly icon ACT & Children’s Hospices UK – working together to make the most of short

lives Taking elements of the merged charities’ brands

We needed a butterfly: just had to draw the right one to represent children

The essence of our work with children – fragile, precious, beautiful and

fleeting Vibrant colours, plus a font that represented our charity – a desire to be

authoritative but friendly

We made our deadline

Next steps

Just the start of a journey

We made the X Factor deadline Launched on 1 November, with minimal collateral

Brand guidelines

Landing page

Stationery and basic branded documents

New social media names

It was just the beginning...We now had a brand to build

18 months on

Our brand has arrived

We now have a full range of brand collateral – but some still needs updating But it has taken 18 months to really feel at one with our brand. We are all very proud of our brand and very much owned by all the team Some important milestones in our journey: Developing our visual identity

Brand positioning

Key messages and tone of voice

Making our brand come to

life

Review of brand positioning/messages

Suite of regular publications

Strong visual identity and colour palette

Range of brand styles for different audiences

We needed to have all of this in place to inform the development of our new

website

The secret of our success

The best Communications and External Affairs Team A strong SMT and Board of Trustees

Commitment, energy and loyalty

Excellent internal merger management – taking the team and organisation

with us on the journey A branding agency who you can get on with

You can’t rush or do it all overnight. Be patient – a good brand will take time

Sharing our journey

Playing the long game – name, brand, and merger – not everyone is going to be happy The name and logo are just the start of your brand journey – Building your

brand is a lifetime commitment Involve and empower your team to build the brand

Listen to feedback – good and bad

Put as much energy into managing brand internally and externally Review, review and review

Guiding principles

At times it felt impossible and nothing seemed to right But – the guiding principle that really helped me and the team were:

Don’t expect the ‘eureka moment’ Be prepared for flack Be brave

Ultimately, a name is just a word and only part of a brand, and it’s important

to appreciate how much it can do and also how much it can’t do.

Do people like our brand?

Any questions