Challenge

Throughout its 150-year history, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) had never undertaken a serious rebranding project. This was fine for a number of years, as the veterinary industry remained close to its roots: mostly older males in rural locations. In recent decades, though, the profession has begun to skew much younger and more female-based, with more practitioners than ever in urban areas. The AVMA needed an entire brand overhaul—they not only needed to look better and sound better; they had to do so in a way that finally spoke to its evolving membership.

Process

Working with QNA Group, we contacted nearly half of AVMA membership—over 40,000 individual veterinarians— to learn how the AVMA can best serve their needs, and what they want from a refreshed AVMA brand. We delivered a new logo that paid homage to AVMA’s longtime mark—something recognizable yet reenergized; a modular brand system that could be adapted for AVMA’s many different product lines, services and strategic business units; and a new strategy with positioning and messaging that truly reflect the organization’s current member makeup.

Results

Awareness of the AVMA brand increased substantially within the first year of its launch. Brand tracking research found that recognition of the new AVMA tagline by AVMA members measured nearly 50%, a sweeping improvement over the 4% recognition of the previous tagline. On top of that, 57% of respondents identified the new logo correctly; the old logo was only correctly identified by 34%. And, most crucially, year over year, membership numbers for the AVMA have increased steadily, 2–3%. In the four years since the rebranding, the organization added over 5,300 new members, or 6% more than at the start of the rebrand in 2015. We continue to work with the AVMA on a daily basis as their agency of record.

Evolution

It has been four years since the rebranding, and we continue to work with the AVMA on a daily basis, as the organization’s agency of record. Because of the work we executed and the positive relationship we established with the AVMA, we were asked to perform similar branding projects for its two for-profit insurance trusts, AVMA LIFE and AVMA PLIT. Furthermore, we recently designed and built a website featuring interactive tools to help younger veterinarians prepare and plan for their personal, professional and financial futures.