BRAND RENEWAL OF A 100-YEAR-OLD BRAND IMPLEMENTED WITH
GREDI’S SOLUTION
Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL) has been taking care of children since 1920. MLL was founded by Sophie Mannerheim, who studied in Florence Nightingale nursing school, Finnish Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim, Kouluneuvos (Finnish honorary title) Erik Mandelin and Arvo Ylppö, Docent in pediatrics. Today, the organization has more than 85,000 members and it celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020. In the anniversary year MLL is undergoing a brand facelift. MLL chose Gredi Content HUB as the solution to support this. All the material related to the new brand of MLL is now available in Gredi Content HUB.
What was the main reason Gredi’s solution was chosen? “We renewed the look of the entire MLL and it was essential to enable the smooth introduction of the new look in this social media era. We wondered how to get the new look implemented the fastest. We have a central organization and 10 area organizations with a total of hundreds of employees as well as 548 local associations mainly run by volunteers. There are a total of 29,000 volunteers”, says Maria Gnosspelius, MLL’s Communications Manager.
The brand and Digital Asset Management service by Gredi is structured in such a way that everyone who needs the materials has access to the materials they need. “We also created a public view on the service which can be accessed by everyone on our website without login. It is this public view that our local associations utilize.” Maria has a good advice for activating a large audience. “Give enthusiastic people the opportunities and tools to market, and they will deliver a lot of good communication together.”
With the Digital Asset Management solution, MLL activates and motivates members to do marketing
The public side of MLL’s service can be accessed without usernames and passwords. The public service contains the images, logos and other materials needed for the organization’s marketing, as well as MLL’s graphic guidelines for everyone to use the materials correctly. The service includes for example posters, brochures, flyers, presentations, layouts and ready-made social media materials for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The service provides topical news from MLL as well as information about fundraising campaigns and association activities.
“Many of our communication people are volunteers interested in the well-being of children, young people and families, and they give their own time without compensation and just for the joy of doing it. Few people can access image processing software or have a lot of time to use for communication work. The need for quickly usable social media templates is huge”, says Maria.
“The best way to motivate volunteers and get them to use materials and adopt our guidelines is to make it easy for them. Volunteers are passionate and enthusiastic. This is their organization, they create it at grassroots level, and the amount of communication they do gives us a huge visibility nationwide.”
“With Gredi’s solution we professionals help our volunteers communicate consistently, easily and quickly in their own channels, like in social media”, Maria sums up.
How does brand management work in this massive network of more than 29,000 active communication volunteers? “76 % of Finns know MLL by name. We have the basics okay. The people of the local associations follow our common guidelines and MLL looks visually unified. Volunteers implement our graphic elements now that it is made easy for them.”
Two examples of campaigns that benefited from Gredi’s solution
“Our Children First fundraising campaign was conducted during the corona pandemic, as digital fund-raising. In the campaign, our associations raised funds for local projects important to children, such as the renovation of playgrounds and the local activities. In this type of campaign, we had customizable templates for social media and posters available through Gredi’s solution. For the first time, it was possible to make social media posts using common image templates, to which each association could easily edit its own topics and other content. In image templates we can change images and texts so that the image of our brand is maintained. Customizable templates make campaign work faster and easier. They also bring new opportunities to execute campaigns”, says Maria.
“In October 2020 we have a big 100th birthday celebration open to everyone. We start preparations months before the party by making various social media pictures and posters, among other things. Nowadays most of our posters are created in digital format and not many are printed. The change is huge, because earlier the main marketing tool was a printed poster, now it’s social media postings!”
The benefits are continuous and the more you get the more you want
What has been the biggest benefit for MLL since the introduction of Gredi’s solution? “Facilitating the communication skills of our volunteers is our main goal”, Maria outlines.
“In the service, we already have a certain basic setting ready for our volunteers to use. And the more the volunteers get, the more they want! They want more material all the time, and we make it available to them as quickly as we can”, Maria rejoices.
What kind of different users now use MLL’s service? “Of course, our marketing and communications teams as well as the organizational team. Our templates are also used by external partners. Our service supports different users really well. Next, we want to develop the utilization by the media. It is especially relevant at events.” As a professional who has managed communications and marketing for organizations throughout her career Maria knows that it is essential for busy journalists, image editors and graphic designers to access newsletters, logos, and images quickly without fussing with logos and time-consuming email enquiries.
The goal of Gredi’s team is to always have the customers in focus and to serve with high quality and responsibility. It makes Gredi’s professionals happy with their achievements when the customers’ daily operations run smoothly and with high spirits. Maria is already accustomed to extensively use Gredi’s solution and she has a clear vision for future use cases. Maria has noticed that when using the system it inspires new possibilities for its utilization.
When asked what it’s like to work with Gredi’s people, Maria answers outright: “It’s so smooth and simple to work with you. We always get help when we need it. For us brand management means that the people in our community are doing well and willing to take our message forward. We do it together”, Maria recaps.
