Research | Strategy | Branding
The future of healthcare
Maridulu Budyari Gumal is an academic health science partnership – fourteen leaders from diverse organisations working together as one, a radical shift for industries more commonly known to operate in silos.
Developing the brand meant untangling a complex web of perspectives, audiences, geographic footprints, and local and global competitors, alongside weighty academic, health, and science literature. It also required careful consideration of how brand intersects appropriately with culture.
The result is a multi-award-winning brand that aligns fourteen leaders around a shared purpose. A brand that rallies the Australian healthcare community to come together to change the future of healthcare. A brand that is creative, compelling, and unexpected in its category – and that embodies the spirit of co-creation at its core.
Research
The project began with each of the fourteen partner organisations, exploring their aspirations, investment, and vision for the future. Consideration was also given to Maridulu Budyari Gumal’s diverse geographic footprint—a region that encompasses more than two million people, representing 140 nationalities.
Government healthcare agendas, cultural perspectives, and the needs of the community were examined, alongside the reasons why industry peers and supporters value the partnership.
The partnership’s unique name became the focus of the strategy. Gifted by the Dharug people, it means “working together for good health and wellbeing.” More than a name, it is a promise to engage with the health of Australia’s First Peoples and all communities. It is an invitation to co-create a better future for everyone, reflecting the partnership’s commitment to work together for the benefit of all.
Strategy
As a new partnership, Maridulu Budyari Gumal needed a strategy that would launch their ambition with gravitas and excitement.
The whole process of creating the brand was an exercise in co-creation. This began with the brand artwork – a series of contemporary Aboriginal artworks inspired by place, community, and partnership – co-created with Professor Lisa Jackson-Pulver. Art is an important communication tool for the partnership. It bridges the gap between the complex world of research and the community’s experience of healthcare.
Brand insights were brought together with Lisa’s artistic talent and knowledge of Aboriginal culture to extend the artwork into a tool fit for the brand. Imagery of landscapes and waterways was also included in the visual language, reflecting Maridulu Budyari Gumal’s geographic footprint, the interconnected waterways that bind them, and the diverse communities it represents.
Results
It is a gargantuan effort to bring people together in a partnership of this size and complexity.
The brand has given Maridulu Budyari Gumal’s fourteen partners, 50,000 staff and 100,000 students a reference point, and has rallied a diverse community of people and disciplines around a call for change.
The Maridulu Budyari Gumal brand has been employed as so much more than a traditional brand; it is a tool to both connect and reflect the population Maridulu Budyari Gumal serves.
This has helped the partnership reach more people and see their work translated across different health silos: Work which is expanding beyond their footprint, out into the rest of the country, bringing Australian healthcare into the future.
The Maridulu Budyari Gumal rebrand has won two awards.
Transform Awards
The Transform Awards honours and rewards the most innovative, creative and successful brand work in ANZ.
Gold | Best strategic or creative development of a new brand
Gold | Best visual identity from the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector