The highly successful ‘Countdown to Rebrand’ campaign developed by Bonfire Creative Intelligence for Randstad Education has been shortlisted in the Transform Awards 2011.
The vibrant campaign is a finalist in the ‘Best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition’ category of the annual awards, which are run by Communicate Magazine, and winners will be notified at a fabulous gala dinner on 7 April at The Grange St Paul’s Hotel in London. The other finalists are Age UK, and Siegel and Gale for their work with Blizoo.
Bonfire CI designed an integrated campaign to promote and raise awareness of Select Education rerband Randstad Education in January 2010. Randstad, the world’s second largest staffing services group, had acquired Select Education and was entering UK education recruitment for the first time.
A rebrand strategy was developed to raise awareness amongst clients, and internal and external stakeholders, in the period leading up to the switchover. The aim was not just to inform the target audience of the change but to reinforce key brand values, and this was achieved through a range of media and channels.
The strategy was to deliver the campaign across five monthly phases, following a ‘five-four-three-two-one’ pattern, primarily through direct mail and press ads in key industry titles such as The Times Educational Supplement (TES). In addition, a parallel PR campaign saw the launch of a schools competition to increase engagement with primary and secondary schools, and an internal awareness programme focused on keeping staff informed and engaged.
The first creative, based around the simple tagline ’5 months to go before Select Education becomes Randstad Education’ listed ’5 reasons to count on our teachers’ and a visual that mixed in the answers with popular trivia and quiz questions linked by the number five. This continued with ’4 reasons to count on us’, ’3 services in one name’ and so on, building up to a ‘blast-off’ launch in January.
The content highlighted key advantages of the Randstad Education service, such as comprehensive background checking, value for money and quality guarantees. The contemporary design, vibrant colours and witty copywriting were a slight departure from Randstad’s fairly formal brand tradition, and was intended to introduce Randstad Education as approachable and exciting.
Bonfire CI Director Stephen Judge said: “We’re absolutely delighted that our campaign for Randstad Education has been recognised in this way for the second time. It’s a great example of an agency and client working closely together to create something memorable, exciting and, above all, effective. As a result, what could have been a standard corporate rebrand became a lively, high-impact, multi-channel engagement initiative that really resonated with its target audience. We are over the moon and to stand in the ring with the likes of Interbrand, Landor Associates, Rufus Leonard and Siegel and Gale is something we are all very proud of.”
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