Truly Deeply rebrands BirdLife Australia

New brand proposition and identity helps national bird conservation charity grow and activate its member base.

Truly Deeply is proud to share its rebrand work for Birdlife Australia.

The new strategy and identity supports the organisation’s growth imperative and will enable BirdLife’s newly developed Bird Conservation Strategy to fly.

BirdLife needed to dramatically shift their brand perception from being perceived as “bland, dated, conservative and passive”, to standing out amongst nature conservation charities with a “fresh, bold, prominent and compelling” image and proposition.

After extensive consultation with stakeholders, staff and supporters, a new strategic proposition was created. “Birds are in our nature” was replaced with a more powerful promise and positioning that centred on “Save birds. Save Life.”

charity, non profit, rebrand, brand refresh

The new promise is clear about BirdLife’s core purpose, saving birds, and it is driven by a clear why. Bold, positive and engaging, the new proposition shifts the conversation to the importance of birds to humans, and all life on the planet.

While bird lovers and scientists have always understood how important birds are to our world, the new promise is now compelling and motivating for a much broader audience.

Truly Deeply worked closely with BirdLife’s stakeholders and Board to consider several options to evolve the brand identity, including refinements to all aspects of the logo and visual identity. After consultation with stakeholders and existing supporters, there was a strong preference for a refinement of the current brandmark, with more focus on developing a new visual language.

“Truly Deeply did an incredible job, balancing the existing stakeholder voice with the growth audience insight, while supporting us to move into new brand positioning and visual language territory.

They invested time to truly listen to stakeholder and audience voices, engaging both internally with our Board, leadership and staff and externally with stakeholders, carefully challenging us to move beyond comfort zones and bring brand positioning into alignment with strategic intent.”

Diana Gibson, Head of Communications, Engagement & Development – BirdLife Australia

The original brandmark has been evolved and strengthened with the boldening of the bird icon and a more balanced lockup of type and icon. Using a simpler, contemporary and accessible font the brand also has the flexibility to be used consistently with local groups or location names. This all works in a streamlined identity system that places the BirdLife brandmark at the centre of everything.

A new visual language celebrates the beauty of Australia’s birds. The brand now has three colour palettes; the reserved corporate palette, the bird palette and finally an active palette with vibrant primary colours reserved for activist campaigns.

“As we start the implementation journey, the positive response of supporters and stakeholders is matched by BirdLife staff. They are enjoying bringing to life the new positioning, using refreshed voice and visual identity, and having such a vibrant colour palette that plays to the beautiful and bold imagery of Australia’s birds. Importantly, ‘brand’ is now becoming experienced as integral to our organisational strategy.”

Diana Gibson, Head of Communications, Engagement & Development – BirdLife Australia

BirdLife Australia is the national bird conservation charity that’s fighting to save birds and the natural life systems on which they depend.

BirdLife works with scientists, nature and bird lovers to protect the most threatened species and restore local environments. The organisation’s vision is that by 2050, birds and nature are valued, conserved and restored, sustaining a healthy planet for the benefit of all people.

Read more about the BirdLife rebrand, see the full case study here.

Michael Hughes


Michael is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at Truly Deeply. His deep expertise is in unlocking the strategic power of your brand to create a differentiated, compelling and authentic brand proposition that will engage all your audiences and drive your business growth. Michael has extensive experience working with leading Australian and International organisations across just about every sector.

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