Each year Metropolitan Health Group (MHG) celebrates their many achievements, company values, staff and initiatives in the form of a year book.
“It's a visual kaleidoscope reflecting 12 months of success and activities that our national workforce has experienced, both at work and in their personal lives,” comments Marié Landman of MHG, “and although it's a celebration of our staff across multiple business units, the year book is also circulated to our shareholders, investors, scheme members and clients. It's important for us that our key stakeholders get to know us and have a better understanding of who they're doing business with. The year book is an extension of our brand and the theme for 2007 is ‘Face it, Own it'. It's designed to reflect the culture of our organisation while at the same time allowing us to further entrench and grow a stronger internal brand identity by recognising each and every person in the organisation."
“It was time for a new look and when we went out to pitch, we were encouraged by what FusionDesign presented in the form of their credentials; and the brief to them was very simply, come up with a concept that is fresh and unique,” adds Landman.
FusionDesign CEO, Carmen Lerm continues, “At the outset it was very important for us to get feedback and buy in from all the MHG staff. We had to overcome the feeling that remote branches felt excluded from the process. We looked at a new format for the book that moved away from the traditional hardcover they were using and the new format was larger, a paperback type format with an enlarged cover that had handles to make it easier to carry around. Instead of taking the view that this is just a book, we turned the project into a campaign; designed to be more interactive and to make use of additional internal marketing channels. We handed out disposable cameras to the different regions to submit photos of their colleagues, the winning photographs were sent out in the internal newsletter and the person that wrote the winning caption won an iPod. The best photographs were then also shown in the year book."
“But the most fun we had was on the country-wide roadshow,” adds Lerm, “instead of the typical portrait or landscape pictures that are so dull, we challenged teams to either dress up or dress down and we gave them all sorts of fun things to interact with like balls, hoola hoops, hats, vuvuzelas, balloons and fun chairs. The staff had fun and we just took pictures. What came through was a spiritedness that surprised us all and resulted in a unique showcase of MHG. We were really happy with the product of our creativity and the feedback we've had from all staff has been overwhelmingly positive.”
“We're thrilled with the work that FusionDesign and their suppliers did. Having launched the book in April we're still talking about it and already thinking about the next years. The book received an external accolade too in reaching the finalist stage of the annual South African Publications Forum competition,” concludes Landman.
About FusionDesign
FusionDesign is a dynamic creative agency specialising in brand and corporate identity development. We're a black-empowered, South African-based company that provides services ranging from the design and development of corporate stationery and promotional material, logo and iconography design, advertising, conference and event design, website creation, corporate art and packaging right through to point of sale design. Through a passion for ‘designing brand excellence', we empower our clients' brands. For more information, please visit www.fusiondesign.co.za or contact 0861.321.777 and speak to Elaine Anderson or Carmen Lerm.
