Australian Made kangaroo ‘here to stay’, despite new branding for Australia
The iconic ‘Australian Made’ logo featuring a yellow kangaroo on a green background isn’t going anywhere, the chairman of the campaign has confirmed.
Glenn Cooper released the statement today in a bid to clear up confusion around Australia’s future marketing efforts overseas after the country’s new international identity was revealed.
Australia’s new Nation Brand is an attempt to unify Australia’s various fragmented brands and images oversees, and present the country to investors, travellers, students and businesses as a sophisticated and unrivalled destination.
Australia’s new ‘wattle-inspired’ international branding
The new national branding – developed before the COVID-19 pandemic reached its current scale – is an abstract depiction of a wattle flower.
The Nation Brand Advisory Council admitted the national flower is not immediately recognisable in international markets, but “it will become so over time”.
“The hearty resilience of the wattle has come to represent the enduring spirit of the Australian people. This small, beautiful flower is an organic burst of positivity – in bright joyous gold. It speaks of warmth, expanding ideas and horizons, with the pollen laden stamens radiating a sense of energy and dynamism. It is an authentic national symbol that is elegantly and undoubtedly Australian,” the report explained.
Geographic alternatives to Australia’s new nation brand
The Council conceded the kangaroo was “the most internationally recognised shortcut to Australia”, but it would likely fail in shifting perceptions of Australia and instead “reinforce what people already knew about us”.
In addition, it said adopting a kangaroo as Australia’s international trading symbol would require that there was one ‘roo to rule them all – that is a single, agreed-upon depiction of the animal – “as dual-branding situations of multiple kangaroos sitting side-by-side will not work”.
The report noted that for goods made in Australia, the ‘Australian Made’ logo would remain, however it would adopt the slightly altered colour palette.
Australia’s new international colour palette
Yet, since the new branding has been revealed, the future of the kangaroo and ‘Australian Made’ has been a cause for confusion, with Cooper attempting to clarify its future.
It will remain as Australia’s global product symbol, he said, and will continue its pivotal role in Australia’s domestic and overseas branding strategy.
What’s old is new again
“The iconic green-and-gold kangaroo logo has been clearly identifying Australian goods in export markets for more than 34 years with great success,” he sad. “It is by far Australia’s most recognised and trusted country-of-origin symbol and is central to the export strategies of Aussie exporters taking their goods abroad. There is no need to make a change in this space.”
Cooper cited Roy Morgan research which said the existing logo is recognised by 99% of Australians and trusted by 88%. It is also part of the Government’s mandatory country of origin food labelling laws, and won a three-year grant last year to promote the logo in key export markets.
“The Australian Made logo is entrenched in the domestic and export activities of thousands of Aussie brands,” he said. “The kangaroo will continue to connect overseas customers within Australia and help businesses leverage Australia’s reputation for creating products in its clean, green environment to high-quality and safety standards.”
In the current environment, as the world grapples with COVID-19, the Australian Made Campaign said it was in extraordinarily high demand, with a four-fold increase in applications to use the logo and a 300% increase in engagement with its social media platforms.
Should the government proceed with the new national branding, Cooper and the campaign said Australian Made and its logo are perfectly positioned to complement it.
“For now, it’s business as usual for the Australian Made logo – providing recognisable and trusted country of origin branding that makes the Australian connection instantly and clearly, here and overseas.”
topics
Austrade
Australia's brand
Australian Made
Clemenger BBDO Sydney
Glenn Cooper
Nation branding
The argument about conflicting co-branded roos does not hold. Just use one updated roo mark with a “made in” or whatever version for products. No-one will fail to get it because everyone recognises the roo as Australian.
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The gold on dark green is very difficult to read.
Clems should be embarrassed as should the panel of experts at the department.
Start again.
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I quite like the new Primary Colours. The darker green and the gold really speak to me.
Love to know how much all this cost
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Yeah – the “we can’t have multiple kangaroos, so we’ll instead go with an absolutely new and untested device no one wanted or asked for” doesn’t hold a drop of water.
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So pleased they have cleared that up. Not sure how many locally made products we could have purchased for $10, million , but I dare say more than artists impression of a wattle radiating its sense of warmth and burst of positivity, what a load of BS,
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Obviously someone who has never been out in the country to see a wattle was responsible for designing this. What a waste of money. Can’t imagine anyone wanting to use it. The kangaroo does the job.
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An Australian Made logo being produced at great expense by a majority internationally owned advertising group – go figure.
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