Crafting a bilingual strategic brand narrative and messaging framework for Bangor University
The challenge:
Bangor University were looking to distill their vibrant and diverse narratives into a coherent strategic messaging playbook that could effectively communicate the university's story to varied audience groups.
This project required crafting a narrative framework that resonated in both English and Welsh, not merely translating content from one language to another but treating each language with equal importance and cultural relevance. The goal was to reflect the university’s strategic vision through messages that were simple yet powerful, accommodating the differing priorities of its audiences in a bilingual context.
What we delivered:
The University has many wonderful things to say, but differing priorities of different audience groups - and the need for the narrative to work in both English and Welsh - added complexity to distinguishing simple yet powerful messages.
This wasn't an easy challenge.
Our team embarked on an extensive project involving stakeholder consultations and audience research in both languages. Key deliverables included:
Bilingual Messaging Development: We crafted and tested messaging concepts that honoured both languages, ensuring that Welsh elements were original and not merely translations of English concepts. Indeed, some of the final messages and important parts of the brand essence originated from Welsh words for which an English equivalent doesn't fully exist.
Strategic Narrative Playbook: The playbook we developed distilled the university’s brand essence into core pillars and values::
Belonging and togetherness
Heart and openness
Wisdom and excellence
Honour and rootedness
Vision and bravery
We also provided specific brand messaging for different audiences with positioning statements, example copy, along with the evidence for each key message.
Brand Narrative Statements: We created three different-length versions of a "who are we" statement, reflecting the university's identity cohesively in both languages.
Content Playbook Distribution: The final guide, produced in both languages, was made available on the Bangor University website, serving as a comprehensive reference for ongoing and future communications.
Want to create a messaging framework that speaks to your audience but don’t know where to start?
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you craft your strategic narrative into something that truly resonates, drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you.