Accelerating Investment in African Agriculture

World Economic Forum

In 2013 we were contracted to work on ‘Grow Africa’, a World Economic Forum initiative seeking to accelerate investment in African agriculture. With over 20 different stakeholder types—from rural farmers in Rwanda to the White House,— the initiative had become overly-complex and politicised, and the team were struggling to capitalise on opportunities and work together effectively.

The first phase of the project comprised of numerous exploratory workshops with everyone from junior employees to C-suite. In these sessions, participants were encouraged to confront the issues facing the organisation, and brainstorm ways in which progress could be better achieved.

The value of these meetings was undeniable, with clear alignment and buy-in reached on everything from brand purpose, positioning and story, to a more simple, prioritised view of audience segments and suitable communication methodologies.

Through this co-creative approach, the organisation also managed to unlock several opportunities for digital transformation and innovation; resulting in us creating world’s first NGO produced online agricultural matchmaking community, focused on bringing farm-based investment opportunities from Africa to the attention of the world’s most powerful investors.

Over the following months we pushed the thinking even further, formalising the brand strategy and developing an innovative new visual and verbal expression system that became the talk of the NGO and QUANGO world. The new identity included completely revised logos, colour palettes, typography, iconography and photographic style - all inspired by the organisation’s earthier new brand purpose: To Change the Landscape.

However, perhaps the most striking and interesting feature of the new language was its use of ancient Adinkra symbols —a West African tradition typically employed to represent powerful concepts and aphorisms, and commonly applied to walls, fabrics and pottery—to visually depict the brand’s new strategic pillars.

BRAND | DIGITAL | INNOVATION | TRANSFORMATION

Agency: Matter Of Form | Work: Live Project