St John’s brand is iconic. We are consistently in the ‘Top 5’ most trusted and respected charity brands in Australia (RepTrak, 2024).
This reputational excellence is due, in no small measure, to the dedication and commitment of all our volunteers, staff and supporters.
Thank you for your service.
The Way Forward
That said, complacency is our biggest challenge, and in a highly competitive and crowded environment St John needs to stand out from the competition.
To achieve the recognition we deserve, we must operate and look like the large national charitable organisation that we are.
In Australia our brand has a 141-year heritage and an even longer international history.
The St John Brand Unity Initiative is an All States and Territories program to strengthen, unify and grow our brand identity together. This strategic priority for St John has undergone a rigorous process of audit, planning, co-design, and consensus building, with input from business analysts, brand strategists and designers. This new direction will be a subtle evolution, but will remain true to our history. All good brands regularly assess and innovate, and the time is right for us. The St John Brand Unity Initiative will:
- enable us to remain strong and competitive while contributing to our long-term sustainability
- assist with the way we position ourselves with various audiences, consumers, governments, funders, sector partners and community members
- enable greater efficiencies, assets sharing, improved collaboration across borders, increased competitiveness in our markets, stronger partnerships, and better sustainability
- maintain our pride in our people, our work and our impact, but help us to be better and stronger together.
This initiative has been unanimously endorsed by the Priory Board, Federal Council, State Boards and the National Leadership Group.
Together we are stronger.
The Brand Unity Brief is attached for your review. An announcement by the Chancellor of the Priory in Australia for The Order of St John, Cameron Oxley GCStJ was issued on 28 April and is also attached for your information.
Watch the Brand Unity Education Video here!
Announcement by the Chancellor
What this means practically
Until now, you may have noticed that we have had similar but differing brand applications across States and Territories in Australia, and internationally. There is now an opportunity for more efficient and consistent ways of working, whilst always maintaining our local, community-centric focus.
Our shared, core brand will include how we position ourselves, the way we talk about St John, the way we ‘look and feel’ and how we ‘show up’ together. This will include a shared brand positioning wheel, consistent logo marks and new, flexible creative elements, which are more in line with our Australian and International St John network.
The direction has been developed on a principle of ‘philosophically tight, yet locally flexible’. This means that St John NSW will be nationally consistent yet maintain a great deal of control for local targeting, adaptation and interpretation.
Work is continuing on how the brand will translate into a broader platform and day-to-day marketing, commercial and advocacy use. Further information about this direction will be shared over the coming months, and development will include discussions across many functional areas.
New brand guidelines and templates will be disseminated through the Engagement Team as they become available.
Timing for changes
St John NSW is committed to this change, and a soft launch rollout will commence in July 2025. This means that you may start to see some things changing, particularly on our digital assets.
A roll out plan will be formalised and shared nearer the launch date. Suffice to say St John NSW will make any future material changes such as signage, uniforms etc. in a considered and controlled manner to ensure the achievement within sustainability and brand objectives.
Exciting times ahead
This is an exciting and rigorously developed initiative. It is a potential game changer for St John as a strong, iconic and impactful organisation.
This initiative is an important pillar in our national strategy to ensure St John is seen and funded alongside other National organisations such as Red Cross, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Surf Lifesaving, and Disaster Recovery Australia, all of whom are recognised at every level of government.
We punch above our weight in every respect of our service. It is time we coalesced our respective state and territory strengths into one impregnable brand.
We are definitely better and stronger together.
We look forward to sharing details as they develop, and engaging you further with this exciting initiative as we plan the roll out and activation of the brand.
Yours sincerely,
Dom
