Reshaping the purpose driven brand Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Denmark asked us to help revitalize their brand. We helped management and the organization revise the purpose and narrative, implement the core ideas in all departments and gave new life to the brand expression visually, digitally and on nationwide campaigns.

In effect the brand is clearer, more focused, easier to understand and opens to an emotional connection through touching stories. The new storytelling across all platforms from films to social media to the new brand book is personal, emotionally engaging and gives a voice to strong personalities that live the brand every day.

Speaking up about injustice is an important part of the original purpose of Doctors Without Borders. Actually, the organization was founded in 1971 by a group not only of doctors but also journalists. Their aim was both medical aid and to communicate in order to help patients. And they did so in opposition to the policy of silence in Red Cross.

Together with members of the Danish board, management and staff we conducted anthropological analysis, developed scenarios for a redefinition of the purpose and delivered the brand promise and core narrative of the new brand.

Cambodia 1980. Doctors Without Borders is organizing a march, calling on the international community as the Vietnamese government is prohibiting MSF from delivering food and medical aid. The event is broadcast around the world. And the attention created helped the victims of the conflict.

Historic events of the organization can deliver valuable, concrete inspiration to the brand strategy today. The very foundation of Doctors Without Borders and many initiatives since the 1970's acted as reminders of a forgotten dimension of the brand.

Speaking up against injustice today

Doctors Without Borders operate in the centre of conflict and see first hand what is happening. That's why the organization has a unique opportunity to share what they see while giving medical aid. As part of the new brand identity we wanted to reintroduce and emphasize that function of the authentic core identity and use it actively in the communication and fundraising initiatives.

We orchestrated the involvement of Maria, a Danish nurse working onboard the MSF train in Ukraine, to make an up-to-date short documentary showing what Doctors Without Borders do; giving medical aid while witnessing and carrying the stories of patients.

See the full length short documentary and campaign elements below.

Three simple symbols tell the story of Doctors Without Borders. The red beating heart. The red blinking circle for "record". And humanity – symbolized by the human in the MSF logo. We chose to work with the red circle as a uniting shape that signifies the commitment to delivering stories; the second – somewhat forgotten – part of the brand promise. 

Across the globe the scribbled human symbolizing Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is recognized and it ensures the safety of thousands of people working to help others. The style is outdated but we developed ways of bringing it from the 1990's into the 2020's. Animating the handdrawn style as a signature to the right hand corner of big surfaces brings the logo to life and makes for a great secondary brand identifier.

The primary colors are inspired by the visual everyday of Doctors Without Borders. Red for urgency and blood. Black and grey shades. Sand inspired from hundreds of field images adding grounding and warmth to our simple and no-nonsense design. Secondarily, a wider color scale can be used to give nuance and diversity to the design.

"Every second counts". We created urgency and attention through the use of big typography, the red color, high contrast and animated countdowns. Bold statements from staff who are telling their story. Typography that can speak loud, but also be intelligent.

The design is dynamic and loud, yet sophisticated to give the brand impact. For external communication and fundraising campaigns the visual language is outspoken and uses large type and red and black surfaces. For internal communication, reports and presentations the expression is varied, uses different colors and shifting typographical weights.

Editorial development

In Denmark the magazine from Doctors Without Borders is called "Journalen" - The Journal. It tells the stories of places and the work that MSF does and what the staff sees in areas of conflict and suffering around the world. Many of them as seen by staff from Denmark.

We redesigned the magazine to a more contemporary look and feel with a simpler, more "no nonsense" tonality. The bold type, colour, new curation of photography and the subtle "scribble" brand signature in the lower right-hand corner instead of the brand logo creates a completely new and crisp brand story, worlds apart from earlier versions of the magazine.

The digital design, the online presence and expression is important to any brand. But for a brand that relies on raising awareness and funds it's crucial.

We completely redesigned all interfaces, typography, buttons, infographics to lift the expression of the brand. Then we developed visual guidelines for the transactional experience in order to make it an efficient driver of funding and a natural step in the experiential journey of donors.

The storytelling of staff at the forefront of conflict zones and the new visual expression work together to create a contemporary, authentic and emotional experience.

The new visual identity comes to life in small stories on social media. Images, bold statements, quotes, video segments and animations are layered into a brand expression that engages the audience emotionally and connects the viewer to the specific story and the brand purpose.

Brand and design guide

Implementing a new brand and visual identity can be the hardest part of any brand process. We created a digital platform with all the tools, templates, guidelines and explanations that you would need to communicate within the new brand and visual design. The use of different graphic elements, grid, typography, color, imagery are all explained with practical examples.  

Knowing and understanding the history, the purpose and principles of a brand is important for everyone working in the organization. The better you understand it, the easier it is to make the right decisions and move in the same direction.

We gathered, reorganized and wrote a brand book that contains the history, purpose, brand promise, core narrative, principles and tone of voice in a new way. Each part accompanied with a true story from the history and the ongoing activities of Doctors Without Borders around the world.

The book is a small handbook, easy to bring along, and gives a comprehensive understanding of the organization and the brand. The black cover is textile like a notebook, the big front page type embossed and it has 100 blank pages for your own brand stories.

Telling the authentic purpose-based story from the field seems obvious for the Doctors Without Borders brand. But this has not been the approach in the fundraising and campaign efforts sofar. We developed a brand storytelling documentary concept that would allow us to tell the authentic and relevant story from the field.

The field work oftentime happens in remote and dangerous areas with restrictions on access and security. We turned the difficult production conditions into an opportunity, directing Danish and international staff to help us produce video and sound.

We interviewed the Danish staff at home, got recordings from other teams working in the same areas and guided their recordings on site. With skillful editing and compositing the different parts are combined so that different types of recordings and jumps in place and time work together for the audience.

The hospital train in Ukraine

Early in the war in Ukraine a train was redesigned to become a moving hospital with an intensive care unit. The Danish nurse Maria was working in the intensive care unit as the train picked up patients in eastern Ukraine bringing them to Kiev and western Ukraine.

We produced a short documentary telling the story of Maria, the patients in Ukraine, the moving hospital while leaving the audience with a deeper understanding of the purpose and mission of Doctors Without Borders.

The film about the MSF train in Ukraine shows us that a Danish nurse is both helping with urgent medical assistance but also being a witness of the conflict in Ukraine and telling the grand story of Doctors Without Borders in a personal and engaging way. Maria also shows her dissatisfaction with the war and talks about the personal impact is has when children and teenagers are in pain.

Surgeon in Mosul

The Danish surgeon Peter has been training doctors and staff locally in Mosul, Iraq, using a technique for lengthening bone and tissue. When he is back home in Denmark he continues to supervise the local staff, reviewing patient progress and giving advice.

We followed him at work and got the touching story about Shaher, a young boy who was destined to lose his leg after an explosion but got saved by the right treatment.

Can you communicate the brand and get tactical results at the same time? Some say that's two seperate disciplines. In this case we set both goals and delivered across media and metrics.

The images and bold statements easily translate into stories on social media. The short documentaries where delivered in a wide range of shorter formats, from 50 seconds on Danish nationwide commercials on TV2, to catchy 20 second versions on YouTube and social media leading to transactional landing pages offering the options of knowing more, seeing the full length documentary and supporting Doctors Without Borders in several ways. 

From storytelling to transactions

The campaign efforts spans from classic print ads in daily newspapers to online video and social interaction. We developed several campaigns that takes the audience on a journey from classical print or social media to online experiences and brings the user to a tailored donation transaction.

The look and feel together with clear cut statements is tightly connected across different media and platforms and uses the same visual language. The stories as well as the images and visual identity creates a strong impression and coherent brand experience.

Cross media impact

An important part of the target group that support Doctors Without Borders read news papers such as Politiken, Information, Weekendavisen and Berlingske. So a part of the campaign uses traditional print media telling the story from Ukraine or Iraq, clearly showing how medical staff is telling the story from their own perspective. The full story and possibility of supporting is easily available with a QR code.

Making a social impression

Campaigning to create awareness as well as interaction towards donations necessitates a strong presence on social media. For Doctors Without Borders we wanted to tell the stories of medical aid and the role of bearing witness while showing the brand. We also had to create a sense of urgency in order to get the audience involved and onboard them in different types of donations.

We created different types of videos, bold statements, quotes and graphics so that the brand would become more diverse in its storytelling and visual expression. The stories and updates bring the refocused purpose and new way of telling stories into play. A more direct, outspoken and modern way of communicating now enables Doctors Without Borders to be more impactful while raising donations in Denmark.

Transform your brand

Would you like to know more about focusing your brand strategy and designing a distinct visual expression? Meet us for a cup of coffee and we will give you our honest opinion on the possibilities for strengthening your brand and business. Give us a call or write an email to Nikolaj Stagis. We can help you develop your strategic direction, express strengths or attract customers.

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