Another logo for London in the countdown to 2012
Under the leadership of Mayor Boris Johnson, the Greater London Authoirty has commissioned a design agency with links to the company which designed the notorious 2012 Olympic Games logo, to produce a unified brand identity for the capital’s key promotional bodies, including: VisitLondon and ThinkLondon.
With the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games in mind, Mayor Johnson wants to establish a cohesive marketing theme across the various promotional organisations.
“We need to have a multitude of promotional banners that encapsulate the vivacity of this wonderful city… We need to tell international audiences what a great place London is to visit, study and work.” Said Mayor Johnson.
Dan Ritterbrand, director of marketing for the GLA, was looking forward to:
”A powerful brand identity that will be clearly understood, underpinning the story of London and the many messages we want to communicate to the world.”
Timing
Originally the new identity, which was reported to be costing Londoners £500,000, was planned in time for next month’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
However Ian Stephens, Principal at Saffron which has been commissioned to produce the brand campaign, said that the launch will not come ‘much later’ than the GLA’s original deadline of next month.
Whilst many in the media will scoff at the project fee, in terms of corporate branding, providing that the final execution is more than just a simple logo, in terms of marketing a major world capital, many in the branding industry argue that the reported budget is relatively modest.
(The BBC suggested that the London 2012 logo execution cost a purported £400,000).
Saffron will create the marque as well as promotional activities and events to take place in Trafalgar Square, at international trade fairs and at major sporting events.
Indirectly Saffron is no stranger to branding and London.
Saffron’s Chair is the internationally acclaimed Wally Olins who, in addition to working on branding London, has worked for a number of other cities and cities and countries including Mauritius, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Vietnam.
Olins previously co-founded Wolff Olins, the company that some time after his departure, devised the notorious 2012 Games logo.
Will the lessons from the past be learnt?
A sign of hope
Founded in 2001,Saffron has offices in London, Madrid, New York and Mumbai.
Its clients have included Nationwide, Grant Thornton, the government of Poland, Corus Steel and Coca-Cola.
From a brand Forensics perspective, let’s just hope that in terms of effect, the new brand will be as pervasive as saffron itself, whilst in terms of perception, pound for pound, the lessons from the Olympic 2012 logo won’t be as costly to ‘brand London’ as the spice is to the markets.
Jonathan Gabay
www.brandforensics.co.uk
Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 3:59 pmand is filed under 2012 brand logo, Brand expert, Branding, Olympic branding, Tourism and travel, brand london. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
January 31st, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Hang on @JonathanGabay, The London 2012 identity wasn’t a failure. How could it be, we’re only just coming to the end of January 2010.
London 2012’s BIG mistake was it’s launch — releasing a dynamic and versatile identity through static methods and means — and not maximising on the platforms the identity was actually created for. The result: The Press driving the Public to disapprove and disown. If I’m honest: I don’t think the £400,000 spent was enough — failing to appreciate the value of a good launch!
Other than both being best-in-class, practising the art of institutional and corporate branding (as inspired, like most brand practitioners, by the same leader) and having a strong and valuable association to his surname, today, Wolff Olins and Wally Olins have little else in common. Wally relinquished his shareholdings, partially in a management buy-out in the 90s, later, as Chairman selling WO to Omnicom.
As for the perceived costs argument: Well, the brand identity creation process, when conducted thoroughly and properly — engaging with all necessary stakeholders to capture and define the essence, personality and values of an institution, helping to articulate the intentions and ambitions of its leaders, and creating an appropriate visual interpretation and language of a brand, suitable for on and off-line use — is certainly no mean feat. Time is money, and if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well, non? Also, it’s worth noting, some programmes can take up to 18-24 months, from start (strategic positioning) to finish (implementation and rollout).
Branding is both an art and a science — a key leadership tool that relies on strategic expertise and creative execution. I suspect the budget is for the entire programme, which would include collateral printing, marketing literature etc, costly web-development and possibly the manufacture of signage and hoarding.
As a branding professional, I despise The Press for never questioning the physical stuff, and for always focusing on the total cost. It’s the time spent, the expertise and deep strategic thinking that the Media have a hard-time getting their ‘head’s around’ — which is the valuable stuff — and always questioning a discipline that so few understand or appreciate.
So, taking the above in to consideration, is £500,000 still too much?
Let’s never forget, a logo does not a brand make!
http://www.whatsthebeef.net/post/363505804/lets-never-forget-a-logo-does-not-a-brand-make
January 31st, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Very true.
All valid points
Let’s see what happens next
February 8th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
The original 2012 logo was great, cheap, won us the bid! It appears people with too much money and not enough brain cells, forget this too easily.
The new London 2012 logo launch was a disaster because of the company behind it and how greedy they were. After a lot of jokes involving the Simpsons and the fouth country (top left) in the logo (above). A lot of normal UK citizens put a lot of effort into putting REAL creativity into the logo variations you see today.
Please give credit, where it is due, which is not Saffron but people working for free.