Opportunity: The rise of a global leadership powerhouse 

Born from the visionary Misk Foundation, the Saudi Leadership Society (SLS) emerged as the next bold step in realising its purpose: to nurture and empower the next generation of Saudi leaders. SLS provides a vibrant home for these leaders to grow, forge connections, and create collective impact. Although still in its early stages compared to other leadership societies, SLS harbours the ambitious goal of standing out on the global stage.  

The time had come for SLS to begin its transformative journey into a member-led, independent global leadership society, with an image reflecting the exceptional calibre of its members. Despite the clarity of this ambition, the transition posed organisational challenges. While imminent, it was crucial not to lose the credibility associated with being part of the esteemed MISK Foundation. We needed to work swiftly and strategically to catalyse the society’s evolution, ensuring it was ready for the new cohort at the SLS Annual Assembly. 

Concept: Circles of Influence 

The visual expression of the proposition’s pillars of Grow.Connect.Impact, strikes a balance between a modern, digital-first design system and a subtle, contemporary interpretation of the Saudi aesthetic. This identity possesses the flexibility to evolve into its full expression when the society’s governance is handed over to its members, empowering them to take control of their destiny and create lasting impact that propels Saudi Arabia towards Vision 2030 and beyond. 

Solution: Igniting impact through influence 

In partnership with SLS, we engaged key stakeholders to craft an effective strategy for signalling to the world that SLS is an established society with a clear purpose: accelerating the realization of Vision 2030 and beyond through Collective Impact. Operating within Misk’s brand architecture, we created an identity that deftly pushed governance principles to forge a unique, dynamic visual identity. This identity reflected a crystallised, purpose-led proposition co-created with key stakeholders in the SLS ecosystem.

Governance and Activation: Bringing the brand to life 

With the proposition defined and brand identity created, we worked closely with the SLS team and external providers to ensure that the new brand was fully expressed at the inaugural 2024 Annual Assembly across all communications. We equipped SLS communications teams with a comprehensive Brand Toolkit detailing all visual and verbal elements, containing the core components needed to create compelling communications and collateral.  

Beyond the identity guidelines, we developed clear plans for brand activation on three levels: current touchpoints, campaign communications, and future experiences. Armed with these tools and plans, SLS is poised to bring their brand to the world with coherence, consistency, and lasting impact.

BEN ROBINSON

When there are so many more channels of communication it can be easy to be overawed by the variety of platforms and their incumbent cacophonies. Sometimes it makes you want to say nothing at all.

Which appears to be the latest trend for high profile musicians releasing new music.

In the last few weeks we have seen big releases from Beyonce and Radiohead, appearing with minimal fanfare but creating huge hype.

Beyonce launched her new ‘visual’ album as a TV special, taking fans by surprise

Radiohead actually set the ball rolling by saying less than nothing – they did their best to wipe their official presence off the internet, deleting social media feeds and removing websites. The remaining void immediately got people excited. People were talking because the band suddenly weren’t.

Radio silence preceded Radiohead‘s first album in 5 years

For a band such as Radiohead, any new release is sure to garner instant publicity and reach across the twittersphere thanks to their consistent high quality and popular appeal, but also their approach to experimenting with music and how they make it available (such as their innovative ‘pay what you want’ approach to releasing 2007’s In Rainbows).

In this case, they decided the best way to hype a new release wasn’t a sustained teaser campaign – adding to the noise – but instead clearing a space so that people would not just hear what they had to say, but stop what they were doing and listen to it.

The first tweet back – Radiohead returned to the internet with clips of their new video, shortly before the full album was launched

This is the great challenge all bands and brands face in a noisy marketplace. It’s all very well making yourself heard above other raising voices, the real question is: how do you make people listen?