JKR overhauls RSPCA’s identity to align with its newly defined purpose

As the RSPCA celebrates 200 years of working to help animals live fairer and better lives, it has launched a new purpose, positioning, and brand identity designed by Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR). The change aligns with the charity's new strategy, devised to respond to the growing challenges faced worldwide in animal welfare.

Every studio will be familiar with the immersion process, but for this project, JKR's team went above and beyond, attending everything from internal leadership conferences to business organisational meetings and participating in on-the-ground immersion days at RSPCA Assured Farms and Animal Centres.

The design team also went on the road with animal rescue officers, visited local RSPCA shops, and participated in immersive workshops. All of this was in aid of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the organisation and its breadth of work in animal welfare.

From this, JKR was able to define a new purpose that can inspire people to support the RSPCA and the animal welfare cause, led by the phrase: "Inspire everyone to create a better world for every animal". Using the Loops technology platform, JKR tested this new purpose – gathering feedback from thousands of individuals from within and outside the RSPCA – to ensure that it reflected the organisation's values and resonated with supporters, internal teams and the wider public.

Although the 200-year-old brand has a notable 96% awareness, JKR identified how it needed to evolve to tackle the new challenges, looking at every aspect of brand interaction, including physical, digital, and tonal elements.

"Evolving the RSPCA purpose and brand was a strategic business imperative given the organisation's essential work amidst current global challenges," explains JKR executive creative director Sean Thomas.

"We worked collaboratively with stakeholders and representatives to unlock how the brand needed to adapt to meet its ambition of inspiring everyone, whoever they are, to get involved so that together, we can help make a difference in animals' lives."

The rebrand sees the RSPCA logotype updated and free of its octagon emblem. In the previous logotype, the letters were connected, whereas this new version is much clearer and denser.

Animal iconography also features across the new brands, with an animal reflective of the regional wildlife matched up to each location. Cornwall appears in blue alongside a seal icon, while Norwich is splashed in yellow with a bird species (presumably the yellow canary that also appears on the town's football club identity). These icons and regional titles in the new typeface will appear on RSPCA shop fronts in large lettering, made in association with Studio Drama.

The charity's recognisable dark blue has also been revamped, as the RSCPA now sport a brighter, electric blue as its hero hue.

On the new visual identity, RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood says: "Our brand hasn't been updated since the 1970s, and it has been holding us back from becoming the modern, forward-facing RSPCA we want to be. We need people to reappraise us and rethink our place in the world if we are going to face up to the huge challenges facing animals.

"Our bolder, brighter, welcoming brand aims to inspire everyone, whoever they are, to get involved so that together we can help animals now and for many years to come."

The RSPCA also tasked creative agency AMV BBDO to implement this new strategy in a powerful and empathetic brand platform and campaign titled "For Every Kind". It was created as a rallying cry to invite every kind of person to be kind in every possible way to every kind of animal, reaching beyond traditional animal advocates.

At the centre of the campaign is a 2-minute film, which portrays a wide and wild range of animals, from battery chickens to abandoned kittens, from lobsters about to be served at a restaurant to dogs left in hot cars, all singing along the iconic Aretha Franklin's "Respect" track. It features the voices of RSPCA's celebrity ambassadors, including actor Brian Blessed, Wildlife TV Presenter and Conservationist Chris Packham, Strictly's Shirley Ballas, JLS singer and TV presenter JB Gill and Staying Relevant podcast co-host Pete Wicks.

Raine Allen-Miller directed the ad, which spotlights two different sides of the animal welfare story: the dark situations of neglect and cruelty and animals living rich emotional lives. It encourages acts of kindness, like giving chickens and cows more space to have "the zoomies", picking up a snail from a busy road, comforting a kitten, and donating to RSPCA.

RSPCA AD of marketing and communications Olivia Reid says, "We want people to rethink their relationship with all animals. As a nation, we love our cats and dogs, but we are also connected to billions of other animals in our lives through the things we buy and the choices we make".

"We often don't realise that we are unintentionally funding, fuelling or furthering suffering. From intensive farming taking place behind closed doors, use of some animals in sport and entertainment, extreme breeding, and the 'cute' images we share on social media, society regularly turns a blind eye to how we treat our fellow creatures."

The ad was created to put an end to this and show what it looks like when animals have a chance to live full lives.

AMV BBDO creative directors Jack Smedley and George Hackforth-Jones explain how people can often feel overwhelmed by the breadth of the animal welfare crisis. "Given the complex and varied relationships we all have with animals, it was important to create something that didn't just shock or scare people but offered a sense of hope and left you feeling inspired", they add.

RSPCA also brought in independent media agency JAA to deliver the media strategy and buying, including TV, Cinema, OOH and Digital. The new brand and campaign will kick off via a partnership with Channel 4 and Gogglebox, with 60 and 30-second versions of the film running on TV and cinema and a series of 15, 10 and 6-seconds on digital and social media.

JAA director of performance Cameron Cumming says: "Choosing to launch the campaign with Channel 4 and Gogglebox was an easy choice. The partnership perfectly allows the campaign to embody 'For Every Kind'."

The new brand platform is also being launched with out-of-home across England and Wales, displaying the RSPCA'S refreshed design system and redefined purpose. Descriptions of the specific acts of kindness people can perform for animals will roll out on social posts and an interactive web tool on the RSPCA website has been designed to help everyone find their own way to be kind.

Sherwood says: "In the 200 years since we were founded, we've changed attitudes, behaviours and laws towards animals and, as a society, we have revolutionised how we think, feel and act towards them. But between intensive farming, climate change and urbanisation, farmed animals and wild animals are now facing some of the biggest challenges ever".

"As an organisation, we have a critical role to play, but we can't do it alone. We need as many people as possible to join us to help create a better world for animals. Because a world that's better for animals is a better world for us all. To do that, we needed to relook at ourselves as a brand and align our purpose, positioning and identity to achieve our goals."