Royal Charter: re-branding & re-launching to match new status
Success achieved
Successfully re-branded and re-launched following the award of a Royal Charter- Website
- https://www.citma.org.uk
- Project dates
- November 2016 – November 2017
Project team
- Keven Bader, Chief Executive
- Richard Hayward, Head of PR & Communications
Introduction
It has been a long-standing vision for The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys to gain ‘Chartered’ status for our members. ‘Chartered’ professional status is a badge of honour and we wanted to make sure that businesses who use our members’ services were fully aware of the quality of service and differentiation they provide over unregulated professionals. This is also important from a consumer protection point of view. Consumers should be able to trust that whoever is providing legal advice is qualified and is regulated.
The Royal Charter is only awarded to organisations which are pre-eminent in their field, and we wanted to position CITMA as this using our new status as the catalyst. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do that, therefore we wanted to maximise the opportunities being awarded a Royal Charter would offer.
Our members are the most important element of our organisation. We needed to bring them on the journey with us to help make these changes and to make the campaign even more successful.
We launched CITMA in November 2016 and sought to shape perceptions and re-position the organisation and profession.
In this entry we focus on the PR and communications campaign to bring the Royal Charter to life and help maximize the opportunities for our members.
Discovery
We conducted an extensive background research project to help us decide on a strategy and how best to implement our plans and ideas.
CITMA’s Chief Executive met with a number of bodies who had became Chartered in the previous few years to benchmark and gather ideas and inspiration for how to obtain the status, and once awarded how to maximise the benefit.
Once the Royal Charter had been granted by the Privy Council, we set about researching how best to implement and ensure our members saw sizeable benefit.
Objectives
To maximise the opportunity to position Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys as the leading trade mark & designs law experts we set the following objectives:
- To position CITMA as the pre-eminent body for trade mark & design law
- Publicise to end-users, i.e. businesses the difference between Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys and non-registered practitioners
- Bring the title Chartered Trade Mark Attorney into spotlight and ensure correct usage
- To ensure members are proud to be part of CITMA
- To reinforce the value to membership
- To successfully implement the new CITMA visual identity
Activities
We interviewed a range of members to gauge what would be useful for them and what the organisation meant to them. The insight we gained directly from our members would form the basis of our new tone of voice and shape our methods of communication going forward.
Many members rely on CITMA for marketing and helping to generate business leads, therefore to help ensure our members are successful, the promotion element of having a Royal Charter was vital.
We also looked at members’ profiles and find opportunities to utilise those to promote our message and for members to promote their newly acquired status.
The first step was to develop a new brand vision and visual identity – our brief was to position CITMA as a modern and forward-thinking organisation that reflected our new Chartered status, but with a nod to our heritage. The new identity should be bold and make members feel proud to be part of CITMA.
The second part was the implementation, and introduction of the brand and of the Chartered Trade Mark Attorney title to the wider world. Utilising the opportunity to re-position our members and the organisation in people’ minds.
We wanted to target primarily a business audience, as they are the ones who use the services of trade mark attorneys.
Our members were vital to the success of the campaign, a large element was the internal engagement in the build up to launching CITMA
We identified two key messages:
- Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys are expert and trustworthy in dealing with trade mark and designs legal matters
- CITMA is a valuable membership organisation which is proud of its history but is forward thinking and progressive
To reach out to business leaders and influencers we would seek to place thought leadership articles in relevant publications. This would introduce the concept of Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys to the business community. It would also help demonstrate the expertise of those in the profession and help position Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys as the go-to experts.
We would empower our members to use their networks to spread our messages. To do this we would put together a digital package of content for members and their firms to share – if the message comes from the members themselves it is amplified. They will also have a large business following already due to the work they do.
Innovation
Within a small budget, the campaign needed to utilise social media to create a buzz around the launch. The creativity in the project had been outlined in the marketing section.
By providing the tools, in the form of social media graphics, we were able to equip our members to shout about their new status. Many of our members have brands and business leaders following them – so it was another way to engage with this vital audience.
The media pieces such as the trade mark hall of fame, were examples of where we used our creativity to generated earned media coverage about our profession, but in an interesting and engaging way.
All this is ultimately to the benefit of our members.
Marketing
We wanted to amplify the voices of our members, and use them to tell the story. We wanted to magnify the importance of the profession and demonstrate the benefits of using a Chartered and regulated professional.
We set about securing earned media coverage in selected national business and trade press with thought leadership pieces in support/celebration of the announcement. The thought leadership articles were authored by prominent members of the trade mark attorney profession to add gravitas to their messages. We received coverage in a number of business publications including Business Grapevine and Real Business.
We put together a trade mark ‘hall of fame’ piece celebrating the rich history and impact of the profession. This was featured on Business Insider, which reaches millions of business influencers every year.
We encouraged individual and legal firm members to share on social media and internal channels an image with text overlay announcing their new status. This gave reach and engagement to our campaign. It also engaged our members and encouraged them to actively be part of the campaign.
We also produced a video featuring prominent stakeholders – including a leading intellectual property judge – to talk about the importance of the Royal Charter to the profession.
This is an ongoing project, and we continue to promote the title Chartered Trade Mark Attorney through our marketing and communication activities.
Challenges
Communicating a major change is always a challenge, and it is crucial to bring your key stakeholders on the journey with you. To meet this challenge, we ensured that all major internal stakeholders were consulted and involved.
Another major challenge was to get our messages in front of our key business audience while working within a tight budget. To deem the project a success, we needed to bring the title Chartered Trade Mark Attorney before an audience that might not have even known about trade marks or trade mark attorneys before.
We made sure we did our research into the kinds of publications and the areas this audience would be interested in. This allowed us to be very targeted in our approach. By commissioning prominent members of the profession, and working with an agency to ensure the messaging was on point, we were able to deliver excellent media coverage in our target publications.
Achievements
We achieved all our objectives. Not only to be granted a Royal Charter, but to successfully implement a new identity for the organisation has been a big achievement for a small organisation.
We were able to introduce and position Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys as experts to our intended audience by gaining media coverage in influential business and legal publications.
- Number of media pieces placed 17
- Total reach charter launch 463,259
- Total reach of thought leadership articles 241,856
- Total reach 705,115
- Hall of fame Business Insider: unique monthly views 13,120,000
- Number of journalists briefed 30
Our social campaign saw over 100 shares by members and their firms, reaching an estimated audience of over 10,000.
The new visual identity was successfully implemented across the organisation, with many members proudly displaying the new logo on their digital profiles. By September 2017 over half of all members were using the new status on their company website profiles.
Financials
We set a budget of £85k, not including staff time, to deliver the whole project, covering legal advice and document production, Charter design and scribing, new brand development and the launch communications campaign. With an annual turnover of circa £1million this was a big investment for the organisation to ensure that our life as a Chartered body got off on the right footing.
The investment wasn’t intended to provide any direct returned revenue, however it was expected that the enhanced status of the profession and the organisation could lead to further commercial partnership opportunities in the future.
What would we do differently?
While this project was a success, as with any project there is always room for improvement. As you might expect from such a large project, there was some element of working up to the wire to get everything across the line. There were elements to the project, particularly around the communications campaign on launch that we could have completed sooner. However, because of the extensive planning, everything was delivered on time.
Feedback & Testimonials
“This status is a strong badge of quality assurance for businesses and the public. This is great news for the protection and promotion of trademarks and designs, which of course is good for business, for consumers and for the economy.”
Baroness Neville-Rolfe, then Minister for Intellectual Property
“We are delighted that our qualified ITMA team members will become Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys.”
Fieldfisher
“Previously, there hasn’t been an easy way to differentiate qualified trade mark attorneys from other trade mark advisers. It offers peace of mind and an assurance that they’re dealing with an expert in trade marks and designs. We’re delighted to congratulate the CITMA on this momentous day.”
Alistair Hindle, CITMA member
“We are delighted that trade mark attorneys are now being recognised as having earned their chartered status. Congratulations!”
Thorntons Law
Wider impact
Our three strategic objectives were:
- To be the pre-eminent body for Trade Marks and Designs in the UK
- To represent, promote and engage the membership and the wider profession
- To equip and support our membership to be competitive and successful
This campaign has helped advance all three. A Royal Charter is only given to the pre-eminent body in its field. We have used the Charter to raise the profile of both the organisation and the profession.
By having the title Chartered Trade Mark Attorney, it enables our members to distinguish themselves from non-registered practitioners. An essential point of differentiation and to help effectively market their services.
