Project Overview
Cure Cancer was in need of a new 5-year strategy that spoke to their role in early-stage research in breakthrough cancer treatments. This remodel sought to increase brand awareness and audience size to ultimately improve the scale and reach of donations.
Although what Cure Cancer do within the cancer sector is unique, their original branding didn’t allow their work and scale of ambition to shine through. Their messaging, tone of voice and brand behaviour didn’t encourage engagement with their cause.
To help them achieve their donation targets and improve brand saliency, Principals were engaged to develop a clear and unique brand strategy, voice and visual identity.
This work was done through our Good Idea Foundation. This initiative allows us to donate a large portion of our services to clients inspiring positive change, who may not have extensive budgets. We believe that actions speak louder than words and look to strengthen our local communities where we can. So, for Cure Cancer, we donated around $120,000 of billable time.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Tim Riches, Group Strategy Director & Principal
Martin Hopkins, Creative Director
Ben Ashley, Senior Writer XXVI
David Cunningham, Head of Production
Ben Williams, Senior Creative Artworker
Sam OBrien, Senior Creative Artworker
Hayden Mathys, Motion Graphics Designer
Karen Adriano, Designer
Federica Pala, Account Director
Anna Kan, Senior Account Manager
Project Brief
Cure Cancer needed a brand model that reflects the good they’re doing. One that achieves their targets for awareness and engagement. One that represents their drive for innovation. One with the energy of a start-up, the cut-through of a challenger, and consistency across fundraising and engagement.
There are many not-for-profits (NFPs) working in the cancer sector, including big names like McGrath Foundation, Cancer Council, and Movember. Cure Cancer needed a brand strategy that would clearly and firmly establish its place in this highly competitive landscape.
In collaboration with Cure Cancer’s board and senior team, and informed by market research, Principals sought to define Cure Cancer as Australia’s only NFP that funds early-stage research across all forms of cancer. We built a brand that amplifies this unique mission and stands out in a busy sector, capturing the support and imagination of key audiences, including donors and researchers.
Project Innovation/Need
Principals sought to develop a brand strategy framework for Cure Cancer. It needed to do justice to its unique place as the only NFP funding early-stage research, across all forms of cancer. To achieve exactly this, we worked with their board and senior team and were informed by client market research.
Most cancer charities adopt one of two personalities: highly sympathetic, or combative in waging war against the disease. None look at cancer in the multi-focal way Cure Cancer does. They steadfastly believe that bold thinking, brilliant minds, and new ideas can cure cancer. We captured this reason for being with a single brand essence: ‘A leap of the imagination’.
With this idea, we were able to create a totally unique personality. One that spoke to their undeniable enthusiasm, captured their desire to do things differently and highlighted the energy and urgency behind their mission.
The traits we developed for them — infectious optimism, surprisingly creative and serious ambition ¬— fill people with hope, bring positivity into the conversation, and inspire action. These traits position the organisation as more than a charity or a grant provider, and turn it into a movement everyone can get behind.
Design Challenge
Using the new brand idea and personality, we built a distinct and contemporary digital-first visual identity that translates across channels.
Starting with the logo, we evolved the old ‘signet’ symbol into one with greater meaning and distinction:
The new ‘c’ has been created from 14 colored overlapping circles, with the cool to warm color spectrum symbolizing the ‘leap of the imagination’, the journey towards a cure, a connected sense of community, and their research into all types of cancer. These were areas that resonated most in our consumer research.
This kaleidoscope of colors provides a strong point of difference in a sector where ownership of a single tone has become a convention.
The multicolored circles inform the entire design system and can interact with both static and animated imagery. They’re useful as content-holding shapes and for the styling of diagrams or infographics.
We bolstered the primary palette of black and white with a secondary palette of six select cool and warm colors. This adds vibrancy and highlights important information. With each type of cancer and its research given an associated color, content can be visually segmented.
We also implemented a ‘master brand’ architecture. This involved removing the individual identities of Cure Cancer’s sub-brands to create one striking, clear, and cohesive system.
All these elements can be manipulated, depending on the audience.
Effectiveness
The revitalized identity tells Cure Cancer’s unique story. It stands out in the sector to build real, meaningful connections with the organization’s diverse audience. The revised architecture increases brand attribution, while the shared visual elements make for increased flexibility, reduced spending, and straightforward brand management.
Ahead of the rebrand launch in August 2023, Cure Cancer’s Head of Communications and Marketing, Joanne de la Mare, complimented us with the below statement:
“We are incredibly grateful to Principals for donating their time and expertise to this project.
The Principals team has enabled Cure Cancer to develop a strong, single-minded brand position, which is built on insight, stands out, and differentiates us within our competitive set. It has set Cure Cancer up to better engage and achieve the growth we need to fund more new cutting-edge research.
The use of brand ID and narrative truly brings to life our new positioning in an incredibly creative and innovative way. In essence, their whole process took us on a ‘leap of the imagination’. The guidelines are very comprehensive and the team at Principals have worked incredibly hard to think of every platform usage and make them easy to implement by both our internal team and fundraisers alike.
Our team, wider organization, and board love the concept and can’t wait to start working with it. When I started this project, I really couldn’t visualize where we would end up, but the work from the Principals team and the final result has really surpassed expectations.”
Graphic Design - Identity and Branding - Community
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the traditional or digital visual representation of ideas and messages. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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