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SoftwareOne is smashing it; they’re a global company employing some 9,000 people across 90 different countries. Whilst continuing to innovate their technology services, they also wanted to evolve the way they built a pipeline of future talent. And so they conceptualised a brand new Academy.
The Academy brings employment opportunities to grassroots communities and activates the next generation of technology-focused employees. But because this target audience differs immensely from their target customers, the learning team behind the Academy sought our advice on branding.
Initially, it was thought the Academy would just adopt the SoftwareOne brand look and feel, however after our extensive market and competitor research, we recommended developing a new sub-brand. The audience was just too different, and with this market already saturated, we needed to differentiate. Our brief was simple: disrupt.
Working closely with key stakeholders including Marketing, Communications, Talent Acquisition and L&D, we rapidly determined that whilst the brand should deviate from the primary SoftwareOne brand, it still needed to nod to its master. Our creative in-house team developed three new concepts, all aligned to our primary target audience and all playing nice with the hero brand.
Once the SoftwareOne team selected their favourite concept we further developed it, bringing it vibrantly to life. And as you’ll well know, here at MAAS we believe a brand is much more than a logo or some pretty pictures so we gave the Academy a well-rounded personality.
It came complete with a new look and feel, including a new logo, tagline, tone of voice and messaging framework, new visual language including new colour palette, a striking range of enhanced photography and even new brand guidelines.
The brand was incredibly well received both internally and externally, attracting students from across the globe and exciting key stakeholders with the new energy the brand brought to the business.
“It has been an absolute pleasure getting MAAS Marketing involved from the very beginning of our project. MAAS Marketing has allowed us to look at L&D in a different light.
We now reach the right audiences and they understand what we are bringing to the table. MAAS created a brand and an identity and helped us express our vision and mission in a way our audiences understand. And for that, we will always be grateful.”
Since we rolled out the Academy’s new branding we also closely collaborated with their team to bring the brand to market by developing a go-to-market strategy. We also supported regional business partners to bring the brand to life with branded items such as popup banners, brochures and swag boxes. We’ve even helped enter the Academy into awards!
Since then we’ve been introduced to other functions and have provided marketing support for both their Talent Acquisition and People and Culture teams.
This has been a true partnership and we’re not gonna lie, we’re pretty proud of this one. Thanks for letting us help you make marketing magic SoftwareOne Academy. You’re the best and we loves ya ❤️