Cranfield Executive Development (CED) was looking for a fresh sub-brand identity that was not a dull carbon copy of other business schools. Importantly, the team needed to keep the central brand team happy by reflecting the established heritage and authority of the Cranfield University brand while delivering something exciting and different at the same time.
After speaking to those in the know and picking their brains in a series of 1-to-1 interviews, we discovered what was so unique about CED's offer. We realised that we needed to focus on the power of transformation and personal self-discovery.
We all desperately wanted to avoid the cheesy 'businesspeople' stock imagery which is so overused in this market. Instead, we used our insights to create a brand story animation to evoke the themes and values of CED - all told via immersive, conceptual 3D visuals. We loved creating this as it gave us free reign to use all our creativity and imagination. As everything was created as bespoke graphics, an awesome bonus was the resulting image library created from the stills - absolutely no fake boardroom shots required!
We created a brand story animation to evoke the themes and values of CED - told via immersive, conceptual 3D visuals
Appealing to such a diverse audience (senior business leaders, individual and HR teams) was always going to be a challenge - so a multi-channel strategy was the perfect approach. With additional tools at their disposal, and a new flagship video (thanks to the brand story animation) CED looked the part and were much more confident to go out there and deliver what they are great at!