Purpose collaborated with the staff and board of the AWA to help guide the organisation to undertake a body of work internally to develop a refreshed brand identity.
The Australian Wind Alliance (AWA) has played a pivotal role in the uptake of wind energy. As a trusted intermediary between industry, regional communities, local government and regulators, the AWA has worked to ensure benefits flowed into communities.
With the member base shifting to encompass the wider renewables sector, there was a need for the name and brand identity to evolve to reflect this changing remit.
As the AWA looks ahead there are a number of significant opportunities to expand on existing success and grow the organisation’s reach and impact. A key focus was to uncover support from local communities in target renewable energy zones, and ensure benefit sharing practices are in place and build the social license to operate for incumbents.
The following considerations were seen as critical to the success of AWA:
Hold onto the legacy of the existing brand at the same time as reflecting a growing and evolving membership base
Create a brand that can build on the existing base of trust and support as well as be able to flex to a variety of new stakeholders
Conduct research to understand the new landscape of the renewables sector including audiences, allies and targets
Collaborate with key stakeholders to accurately identify core constituencies influential to state and federal governments
Develop a cohesive brand identity and assets to bring Australian Wind Alliance in alignment with their services.
We identified two audiences that provide a strong opportunity to raise targeted reach of the issue. These were selected for their investment in both the land and the sector.
Regional Australia
Regional community leaders: they are AWA’s conduit to the wider community and their support and endorsement of the organisation offers leverage and credibility with the community
Regional community residents: wider support from local community voices provides social license required to operate in the community and be a trusted intermediary to industry
The Renewables Sector
Existing donor companies (wind sector): AWA needs to retain their backing to remain credible and to continue to retain the existing level of financial support
Future donor companies (renewables sector): AWA needs to expand their supporter base to the wider renewable sector to increase reach and impact across new projects and communities and secure additional financial support
AWA had an obvious problem – it spoke directly to the WIND part of the Australian Wind Alliances portfolio, but is excludes the rest! Purpose created brand surveys and workshops to figure out the essence of what the new brand name needed to encapsulate.
Working closely and co-creating with stakeholders at AWA was essential for this process. It was an invaluable way of creating a cohesive vision with the AWA board, and Purpose’s vision for the future of the brand.
What we came out with at the end of this process was RE-Alliance Connecting People & Power.
The new AWA brand was created to reflect changing times. To speak not only to the wind-powered sector, but to represent all the sectors RE-Alliance work in. Eg. Wind, Hydro, Solar + Storage and regional Australia.
The modern and playful rebrand creates a slick, bold new brand to take RE-Alliance into the new world of renewable energy.
As part of the re-brand and re positioning, it was important for us to help equip staff with ways of communicating their new position and brand, so as part of this process we created an ‘elevator pitch’ to live within their guidelines, so help assist in articulating their strategy in a cohesive and unified voice across the business.
The launch of Re-Alliance has achieved its goal in repositioning the organisation outside of the wind sector into the broader renewables sector.
It has allowed them to engage new stakeholders, who see them as operating in a different category to where they were before. Most recently, this has bought them a seat at the table to consult on large-scale transmission projects, working with transmission companies, regulators, peak bodies and network companies, where the brand enables stakeholders to feel like they are engaging with a organisation that serves them.
With this repositioning, RE-Alliance have been able to retain their existing donors and supporter base, who have only had positive things to say about the new brand.
for Equity & Evidence