A year of promiseAs we embark on a new phase of the rollout, 2017 is set to be an important year for our rebrand. While 2016 was all about implementation, in 2017 our focus will move towards infusing the brand into our DNA. We’ll be looking at how we design and develop our products, transform our spaces, communicate with our customers and partners, as well as how we use our brand to make decisions and guide our behavior.

We’re also aiming to build Pearson’s familiarity among our key stakeholders. Our pilot brand campaign highlights and celebrates the work of great teachers, and is already producing impressive results in the regions where it’s launched. We’re planning to extend the reach of this campaign over the course of this year.

Other exciting projects for 2017 include building our design community, developing our brand training platform and events, and running more discovery days. Keep a look out for these and more on the brand space. It promises to be a busy 12 months for brand and design at Pearson, and at Design Matters we’ll keep you up-to-date with all the latest news.

At Pearson we’re all ambassadors for our brand, and the success of our brand relies upon your continuing support and inspiration. We’ve created the Brand Hero awards to recognize and celebrate the work of those people whose brilliant ideas, boundless enthusiasm and hard work are going above and beyond the call of duty in bringing our brand to life around the world.

We’ve worked with our design partners to create the beautiful handmade figures that are presented to our Brand Heroes to thank them for their efforts. The figures would make an impressive addition to your office. You can discover more about the awards here, and be sure to keep an eye on the brand space where we’ll be revealing who our first set of Heroes are.

Do you know any Brand Heroes?We’re inviting nominations for our Brand Hero awards from right across our business. To nominate a colleague, please email the Pearson brand team at brandhelp@pearson.com

See how our teams are rolling out the rebrand Inspiring storiesWe’re delighted by the success of “Take Your Teacher To Work”, the first brand campaign to feature our new brand identity. The campaign highlights the work of great teachers, through the achievements of the pupils they inspired along the way. It launched in the UK and US in November 2016, and initial results are impressive, revealing that the campaign is “changing the conversation” by building more purposeful relationships with prospective and existing customers, as well as enhancing our trusted reputation, and increasing advocacy and lead generation. Keep your eyes open for the campaign as it spreads worldwide during 2017. It’s been a great start for our Global Campaigns team, and our first success in what’s set to be a busy year, as we continue to build brand recognition around the world.

To explore our campaign and watch the videos, please click here.

Transforming officesStaff at our 190 Holborn office in London are enjoying their newly rebranded home. The project brings our new brand visual identity to the building, with bold colors, vibrant patterns, and large-scale illustrations taking center stage. It all adds up to a brighter, fresher, and more inspiring environment in which to work. Congratulations to the UK team for coordinating this amazing transformation.

Due to its listed status, Pearson’s historic Collins St office in Melbourne needed some careful creative thinking to incorporate our rebrand. The team focused on the meeting rooms, renaming each one after a global city and printing the walls with illustrations featuring landmark-filled skylines. Reflecting Pearson’s global reach while adding vibrant color and interest, it’s a beautiful and thoughtful solution. Well done, team!

Show us what you can do We’d love to see how you’ve been bringing the brand to life in your office, so we’ve set up Show and Share, a quarterly design showcase. It’s the ideal opportunity to share your inspiring efforts with everyone at Pearson – plus there’s a prize for any projects we feature in Design Matters.

To find out more and get involved, please email us at brandhelp@pearson.com

Focus on… our Brand Heroes

Bringing the brand to life

If you’re planning to create materials for the Pearson master brand, you’ll find comprehensive guidelines, visual assets and much more on our brand hub at

brand.pearson.com. If there’s anything else you need to know, or would like to see featured in future issues of Design Matters, please email brandhelp@pearson.com

How is the rebrand progressing in your region?

Having focused on building our brand internally during 2016, we now have a wonderful new brand presence in Australia, and we’re on target to launch an external facing brand campaign later in Q1. Our assets are being built out using many of the global campaign creative thematics, and the “Helping Teachers Inspire” approach is a powerful way to build emotional connections with our audience.

How have you managed to engage everyone with the rebrand?

Last year we rebranded our working environments, and sent out brand kits to connect with remote staff. We also held internal roadshows and created many opportunities for our colleagues to engage with the brand, including brand training forums, informal “lunch and learn” sessions, and our Discovery Day. Our ongoing launch activities, regular internal communication, and support activities will ensure we keep everyone connected and learning about the brand.

What’s the most important thing to understand about the brand?

The way people learn is changing, and as the world’s learning company we have to embrace the ambiguity of change whilst shaping a future that’s still being written. Our brand helps us do that by connecting to audiences through the things that resonate with them – our “why”, our mission and our purpose. And by connecting our social impact work with our broader story, we’re building trust, starting important conversations and showing everyone why we matter.

What are the biggest challenges on the horizon?

Education can be an emotionally charged topic and sometimes we find our reputation under attack. This is a major challenge, but our compelling brand narrative is one way to engage supporters and counter negativity. By telling our product and service story in a cohesive, robust, positive, and authentic way, we’ll see off the challenge.

What are you most looking forward to in 2017?

I’m looking forward to seeing our assets come to life, both within our external campaign and at a portfolio level. It’s hugely exciting to be connecting our products and services to our brand in a way that’s creative, fresh and meaningful to our customers. This is the first time we’ve implemented a purely brand campaign (both globally and locally) and it has huge potential to build trust and reinforce our brand promise to “Let learning flourish”.

Want to know more about our brand? Download the brand guidelines from the brand hub by clicking here.

Mac Williams, VP Strategy & Marketing, Pearson Asia PacificHaving just successfully launched the new brand in Australia, with his new Asia Pacific responsibility, Mac will be playing an important role in the regional roll-out.

H E L P I N G T E A C H E R S I N S P I R Epearsoned.com/inspiring

“ Professor Reinsma took learning beyond the classroom.”

Melody Joy Fields Adjunct Professor Luke Reinsma

Professor

Top & Bottom: Employees exploring our new products at the London Discovery Day. 

Pearson Brand Hero figures in the making, in collaboration with Studio I Am. 

Top: “Take Your Teacher To Work” campaign. Centre: Holborn office in London.Bottom: Melbourne office.

Top: Mac Williams, VP Strategy & Marketing, Pearson Asia Pacific. Center: City skyline illustrations commissioned by the Australia team for use in their office rebrand.Bottom: Australia Summer Sales Meeting.

Karen StarnsSVP, Global Marketing

We’ve captured a few of last year’s highlights in our annual round-up film, which you can view by clicking here. Together we made great things happen in 2016 – here’s to many more successful collaborations in 2017.

Issue 5 | March 2017

News, tips and best practice in Pearson brand design

Design Matters

In 2017 our goal is to deeply infuse the brand into everything we do – across our products and services – and also informing what we say and what we don’t say, how we behave, and what we look like. A lot of really exciting projects are taking off this year, so watch this space.

Five questions for…