Re-Branding Our State

[Goya's Line]

The S.A. Government should be chasing up celebrities who have endorsed Adelaide without inducement; Billy Connolly has said it's his favourite place in Australia, Kelly Preston loved studying here, Maynard Keenan loves our wine, Neko Case loves our SA Museum. Not news for most of you but this state has produced world-renowned figures in politics/sport/science/arts, we just don't talk it up as much as Victoria - John Doyle has described Sydney in the same way but their brand is more easily recognised.

[Wayno]

Six groups to vie to rebrand SA

From Skynews

Six companies have been short-listed to come up with a new brand for South Australia.

The agencies have been chosen from 36 from across Australia and overseas that bid for the job, after Premier Jay Weatherill said South Australia is sometimes confused with South Africa by people overseas.

Economic Development Board member and project leader Darren Thomas says the state's new brand will help project the state to local, domestic and international audiences.

Thomas says the brand will be used for investment, education, tourism and migration.

[Nathan]

Any word on who the six are? Obviously our hat didn't make the short-list, but I would hope that they've veered towards graphic-design/branding agencies rather than advertising agencies. Chosen from 36 though? It was an open expression-of-interest, I'm sure there was way more than 36 that put in a submission.

[Wayno]

Ken Cato and his team created the branding for Commonwealth Bank, Wolf Blass, Cascade Brewery, LJ Hooker, Lend Lease, Channel 7, Macquarie Bank, ING, The Ghan, The Victoria 'pages in a book' promotion, Burswood Casino, Forty Winks, Coles, Freedom Furniture, NSW City Rail, Crown Lager, VB, Express Post, Medibank, Beyond Blue, and King Gee. Just to name a few. No really!

South Australia aims to rebrand with Ken Cato

The Cato Purnell Partners agency, which has delivered the new identity for the Victorian Government, as well as Dubai Airpot and Air India, among more than 1,500 corporate clients, took out the brief from a competitive tender of six agencies.

The new project, called Branding South Australia (BSA), aims to help draw more people to live and work in the state.

BSA project leader Darren Thomas, said: “They have an outstanding history and global track record of building brand identities of international significance that stand the test of time.

“With the benefit of a very comprehensive and convincing ‘brand DNA’ analysis of South Australia undertaken by local marketing industry leader Peter Joy, we are confident of Cato Purnell Partners’ ability to deliver a very powerful and exciting brand proposition for South Australia.”

Linda MacAuley, Cato Purnell Partners’ general manager for South Australia added: “Mr Cato has worked in South Australia for the past four decades and the South Australian office had been operational for the past six years.

“Cato Purnell is delighted to be trusted with developing sustainable and cut?through place branding for South Australia.

“We love South Australia, we recognise its diversity and respect its authenticity and hope to direct our passion into delivering an unmistakable presence for the state in the global market place across a range of sectors in a way that is true to the values and beliefs of all South Australians.”

Thomas had told a business gathering in Adelaide on Tuesday they were “not looking for just a logo, a slogan or a tag line.”, but to “condense the essence of our state from the extensive international, interstate, and intrastate consultation and research which has been undertaken, into a single brand and message”.

[Nathan]

They could do a lot worse than Cato. Whilst it was disappointing that we didn't, nor any of our fellow studios in Adelaide, get the nod, I'm pleased that it has at least gone to a design studio, and one that has a lot of experience in doing branding of this kind of scale. As mentioned above, my fear was that it would be handed over to an advertising agency, and thankfully smarter heads have prevailed.