Protecting every day
Allied had a mission and a team in place. With their collective service and subsequent experience in corporate and government roles, they knew how to deliver. However, they weren’t clear on how to position Allied’s offer to get maximum impact and the engagement they desired. They had an aversion to following the visual norm in the national security space, believing that this could hamper their communicative effectiveness, misrepresent them to two-thirds of their audience and compromise their potential for success.
During our early conversations, we got beneath the surface of the individuals and the business, discovering a unique mix of steely determination, innovation, analytical and critical thinking, humour, practicality, dedication, loyalty and drive. We interrogated the need for a business like Allied, looked at other organisations working in the space and discovered the opportunities Allied would open up for those it partnered with. Importantly, we understood the purpose (beyond financial success) that fuelled the founder and the wider employee group.
Given where Allied are working, in the liminal space between government, technology and finance, our first task was to find a universal truth and express it in a way that these seemingly disparate audience groups could get behind. It also had to sit well within the company and be something they could all get behind.
‘Protecting every day’ expresses Allied’s mission, purpose and vision in three words. It is simple, but it has significant depth and meaning. It is active and has a sense of urgency, reflecting the mindset of the people working in the business. It serves as an elevator pitch, teaser, rallying cry and hook, depending on how and when used and defined in myriad ways for different audiences. It is a constant truth because the result of Allied’s work will protect us all, whatever our ‘every day’ looks like.
We helped Allied to see themselves from an outsider’s perspective, from their audience’s perspective. To understand, accept and feel comfortable talking about the impact their work would have. Only once we had a position for the business did we build a visual and verbal identity that would allow them to engage meaningfully with investors, partners and nation-states.
Project deliverables
Brand & Design Strategy, Identity design, Website design & build, Pitch deck design, Copywriting across all material, Brand & Identity Application Guidelines.