New style guide and expanded licensing campaign will help to boost fundraising

Leading animal welfare charity and popular consumer brand RSPCA has announced the completion of a comprehensive new style guide. The guide will underpin the Society’s enhanced and expanded licensing campaign. Although the RSPCA has licensed its brand for many years the Society feels that the full potential of a brand that is recognised by 98 per cent of the public has yet to be realised. This potential is driving a major re-launch of the Society’s licensing campaign. This re-launch is the first stage of what will be the biggest licensing programme in RSPCA history, involving a huge investment from the Society in licensing literature, support and promotion.

The comprehensive framework offered by the new style guide and inspirational artwork aims to make the development of products that reflect the Society’s values quicker and easier for licensees and retailers. The expanded campaign, backed by the guide, will see the charity make strong inroads as a trusted and high quality brand into a wide range of categories. The RSPCA, alongside Licensing Consultancy company JELC Ltd, which is working with the RSPCA campaign on a consultancy basis, is already looking at deals in such areas as apparel, giftware, housewares, stationery, publishing and pet care products.

Expanding the reach of the RSPCA brand will play an important part in supporting the Society’s work. A successful licensing campaign will help to boost funds for preventing cruelty, promoting kindness to and alleviating the suffering of animals. This is always an urgent need — and is even more so at a time of great economic uncertainty.

The aims of the new guide are to aid the design process and establish attractive and unique styles that support and emphasise the RSPCA’s brand values. To this end, the RSPCA licensing team has established a key palette, fonts, photographic and illustrative styles, and a guide for the use of the society’s famous logo. These will be supplied both to new licensees and established partners.

In fact the RSPCA brand has been licensed to a number of trusted partners for many years. They include CP Designs Asia, Rayware (through its Mason Cash range), Vivid Imaginations, UK Greetings — Special Editions, and the Noel Tatt Group. The coming months will see new product launches from these partners as well as the awarding of new licenses.

RSPCA trading manager Cathy Snow said, “The RSPCA brand has enormous market potential and the Society wants to ensure that its image and ethics are accurately reflected in products that bear its name. This comprehensive style guide, developed by Lavish Productions, will help enormously in our aim of bringing the brand to a greater number of product categories and boosting funds that allow us to continue helping animals in England and Wales.”