The Duke of Edinburgh Award was in its 50th anniversary year when ASHA were commissioned to help them better communicate better with potential participants, addressing the desire to get back to the Award’s original focus of helping to get young people off the streets and to re-engage with a wider demographic range.
With the widest reach of any UK youth charity, the organisation touches around 250,000 young people each year in 2/3rd of the country’s schools, and in all of the national uniformed groups and also runs in 111 prisons. By defining a driving brand idea ‘Live life as an adventure’ and articulating a a positioning ‘ It’s an adventure’ ASHA re-branded the DofE – bringing the strong sense of value already associated with prospective employers to the fore. This strategy also allowed ASHA to incorporate the desire to focus on the value of participation as well as attainment - giving the staged awards/engagement mechanisms along the journey more recognition and profile in order to keep the young people interested and engaged, and thereby lower the initial drop-out rate.
What we did:
Brand Strategy
- Naming
- Positioning
Corporate Identity
Brand Architecture
Tone of Voice
Photography
Literature
Website
Merchandising
Accepting the award is universally known as the "D of E", we created a strong,
iconic logo that looks modern but stays true to its royal heritage. For occasions
when the abbreviation is not appropriate we created a logotype incorporating
the full name.
Our application to literature design, website and merchandising resulted
in a brand identity that was consistent, accessible and ‘cool’.