You’re home now

The plan we made

First things first, we went in strong with our fact-find process and brand workshop, involving people from all across the organisation – from apprentices to staff who’d been there for years. We put together a tenant panel, too, to find out what their experiences were like in communicating with Two Rivers and what their expectations were.

Throughout the process, we learned a lot. Ultimately, after a bit of digging and a handful of Haribo, we found that the way Two Rivers spoke about themselves, and the way they spoke to everyone else, was a bit outdated. It didn’t reflect the warmth of the team, or the way they went the extra mile to help out when tenants needed it. It had those paternalistic council vibes, with letters that made you feel a bit like a naughty child. It wasn’t how Two Rivers saw themselves or how they wanted their tenants to see them, either.

The story we told

Therefore, the first part of it was figuring out where the brand stood. How are we going to position it? There’s still a transactional relationship between tenant and company, but it goes deeper than just a surface benefit – in fact, you’re dealing with people’s lives. Where they go to rest their head at night. The place they should feel safe and supported.

Our new strapline is You’re Home Now. It’s not just a strapline – it’s a statement. It’s a feeling. It’s human, warm and unmistakably clear.

And it works on a number of levels. For tenants, it’s security, belonging and community. For staff, it’s finding a home for their skills and having a place to belong to.

We also gave the values that the comms team had already started to develop more meaning. We don’t really like one-word values without anything to back them up, so we took everything we learned in the brand workshop and the fact-finds and gave each value more context, based on how the Two Rivers team saw them.

The words we’re using

For an organisation like Two Rivers Housing, they’re only as good as their word – they talk with heart, not corporate blather. Their words should feel as solid and dependable as the roofs over their tenants’ heads.

In our workshop, one team member said he just talks to people like they’re human – how he would to anyone, anywhere. So when it came to the tone of voice, we knew exactly how we could sum it up.

Forget B2C, we’re H2H – Human to Human. In other words, we call it Liam’s Law. Here’s how we’ve put it:

“We should never use language to sound impressive. We choose clarity over cleverness – always. If a phrase or word would need explaining in a pub, at the bus stop, or the supermarket, then our writing isn’t clear enough.”

The picture we painted

The original brief was a brand refresh – they didn’t want to change the logo, but just freshen everything up a bit. So we did that, but we knew that a whole new brand was the only way that both staff and tenants would see that the work’s been done.

Our new brand brings the two rivers they’re named for together, rather than sitting apart like before, with a line like a heartbeat rhythm incorporated into one of the rivers to show how Two Rivers sits at the heart of the community.

With lots of talk about people and culture, we reflected the way DNA is structured in the way our rivers cross, while the circular marque acts like a badge of honour so tenants and staff alike can feel like they’re part of something.

The new brand totally blew their minds, in the best possible way. In fact, their chief exec said “It’s like you’re in my head”, which is really all we could wish for.

The Mighty change

When the rebrand officially went live, it was a hit with staff members all across the organisation – from the exec team to the people on the ground. By going all in, we’ve helped to unify the team through what could have been a difficult transition, and the mood around the rebrand has been really positive.

We’ve rolled the brand out across a variety of collateral, and we’ve put together templates that the team can use themselves to bring it all to life. We don’t do massive brand guidelines (unless you really want them) but Two Rivers have everything they need to make staff and tenants alike feel totally at home. Now, that’s some Mighty change.