Moving to our new brand – how small steps can make a big difference

Last month, we were pleased to welcome over 50 District Commissioners to Gilwell Park. They were here for a support day to get information and advice on a huge range of topics, from safeguarding to our new strategy. What was most striking was the passion and energy of these volunteers. Equally interesting was the number – just over half – who’d embraced our new brand and visual identity a year on since its launch in May 2018. 

Updating our brand locally 

One DC was proudly wearing his hoodie featuring the new brand. ‘I love the new brand,’ he said, ‘It’s confident, it’s contemporary; it’s just what we needed.’ He told us how he’d used the Scout brand centre to update the District’s social media, website, flyers and banners. ‘The best part for me,’ he said, ‘was that we didn’t have to spend a penny designing anything new. It was all there ready for us to use.’  

A review of Scout websites and social media suggests that around half Districts across the UK and around three quarters of Counties have taken steps to update their brand and visual identity. ‘There are always competing priorities,’ says the DC I spoke to, ‘but the key thing for me is that a better, more appealing brand makes everything else easier. It makes recruitment more effective and we can appeal to new and different people.’ 

You can see this in the research – 44% of parents from black and minority ethnic backgrounds said they were more likely to volunteer after seeing materials in the new brand. 69% said they’d be more likely to send their children to Scouts (Populus 2018).

Simple steps to get on brand  

With just a year to go until the end of the transition period, now’s the time to take action if you haven’t done so already. It’s as simple as registering on the Scout brand centre, downloading your personalised logo, and updating your website and social media. Remember to update your words too. Show fun and adventure in the images but talk about our key benefit: skills for life. It’s a great idea to update the ‘About us’ bit on your social media with a simple message such as ‘We prepare young people with skills for life.’ Remember, when people understand what we do, they’re more likely to support, volunteer and send their children to Scouts. Here are just five steps to get on brand. 

• Register on the Scout brand centre 
• Download your local logo
• Update your social media and website with a skills for life message
• Order a new sign for your meeting place on the brand centre
• Show one of our videos at your AGM or meeting with parents 

You might also find it helpful to look through the Activation Guide, which takes you step by step through the process of updating local materials. 

Updating our brand nationally 

We’ve made significant steps to embed our new brand and visual identity at a national level. You’ll have seen the beta version of our new website, which has received some great feedback, and we’re working to update key areas such as the Compass login page. The magazine, over 50% of printed resources, and new tools such as the programme planning tool now reflect our new brand. 

Badges are being updated in the new identity as they naturally come up for renewal, whether that’s a new commercial partner coming on board or simply new stock being ordered. Around 50% of badges are currently available in the new branding. 

To be clear, there’s no need to dispose or remove any badges that feature the older version of the fleur de lis. This is transition period and it’s perfectly fine to have a mixture of the old and new branding on badges. The aim throughout the project has been to minimise disruption and especially cost to local Scouting. 

The fleur de lis range at Scout Store has also been incredibly popular. Remember it’s not just our Chief Scout and Scout Ambassadors who can change people’s minds about Scouts. Wearing a Scout hoodie or polo shirt in public and talking about skills for life to friends and colleagues is a simple but effective way to help us be more visible and understood. Look out for a new personalisation service coming from Scout Store to help you create locally branded clothing.    

Finally we will be sharing some posters, banners and other templates on the brand centre in early July to support your local recruitment.  

A united family of Scouts 

Our Skills for Life strategic plan is helping us grow and improve how inclusive and youth-led we are, while allowing us to a bigger impact in our local communities. Our brand helps us achieve all these aims – helping take our skills for life message to new audiences, and showing Scouts as a united family; more visible, more relevant and more appealing to Scouts and volunteers of the future.

When we have a more inspiring, consistent brand visual identity locally and nationally, it really shows the power and scale of what we do. Let’s use our brand to talk about the difference we make to so many lives. 

A huge thank you to all those who have updated their materials so far. If we all take these small steps together, the overall impact will be huge.