A brand is born — settled.govt.nz

It all began with a brand review when Wellington-based creative agency Moxie was selected as to develop a new visual identify for the Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) mid-2016.

REAA is the independent government agency that regulates the New Zealand real estate industry. As part of the brand review process, consumer research provided support for REAA developing a stronger presence in the market in order to achieve more engagement and connection with consumers.

“Instead of creating a new brand for REAA as it was then, the research we undertook into the perception of the brand indicated that there was a strong need for some fresh thinking. There was was confusion about the organisation's role and purpose — many people wrongly thinking the authority was only involved with real estate agents rather than the entire sector,” says Moxie’s Managing Director, Frances Manwaring.

This resulted in taking a two-brand approach:

• REAA underwent a name change, dropping one 'A' and was reborn as the REA — the Real Estate Authority to achieve more clarity.
• A consumer sub-brand — settled.govt.nz — was then developed, focused on educating and informing consumers, primarily through digital channels.

This is a similar model to the Commission for Financial Capability and Sorted.

The brand name speaks for itself as a property term indicating the closing of a deal and the ideal emotion felt when moving in to your new home. Home ownership is widely considered to be ‘the kiwi dream’. The rainbow can be seen to symbolise the buying and selling journey, ending in the highly prized pot of gold, home ownership. The brand colours are a visual link to it’s parent brand REA and refer to the New Zealand landscape. The words .govt.nz inform the audience of the url and give the brand a sense of authority, trust and independance.

The website (developed by REA’s web partner DNA) Settled.govt.nz is consumer-centric, educational, approachable, friendly, trusted and independent. interactive, dedicated website (a ‘one stop shop’) with content on buying and selling property, helpful tools, calculators and, in time, online support is envisaged. It has been designed to be empowers everyday New Zealanders during the journey of buying and selling. The Settled.govt.nz brand will also be used in social media to educate and inform.

Moxie worked on the development of both the REA over-arching brand as well as this important new consumer brand from the initial scoping and research, brand strategy, naming and design development. Once the logos for both were approved we developed a supporting look and feel (including brand guidelines) and applied this to a variety of collateral for print and online use. We also worked closely with the REA team and DNA to ensure brand cohesion across all channels.

The REA brand was launched a day ahead of today's launch of settled.govt.nz in Parliament today. We were very proud to be part of there and share the moment with the REA team.

ENDS

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