£532K well spent?

Did the Government really pay £532K to move a dot?
Of course not.

What they paid for was trust, consistency, clarity, optimism, and detailed guidance for every department on how to adopt a new, all-encompassing design system.

The click-baiting, political hyperbole suggesting anyone would pay over half a million to "nudge a dot" is not only insulting to our industry, but it reveals how little some people understand about branding and communication.

Consistent identity and tone of voice = trust.
All brands seek it, but who needs it most? Banks. Healthcare. Governments.

If the windbags blowing nonsense had looked at the 150-page brand guidelines, or any of the incredible work behind the scenes, they'd have seen the scale and detail involved. They would have found multiple online resources not limited to the standard guidance on colour and typography, but also:

- reusable components for building Government websites,
- an accessibility strategy,
- a style guide including spelling and grammar conventions,
- use examples,
- articles about patterns of consumers,
- advice for NHS rollout,
- the dot concept and what it stands for,
- example animation storyboards,
- html coding,
- guidance on how to visualise important data,
- how the Government appears on social media...

It's truly impressive.

Maybe they don't think any of this is important?

They'd be wrong of course, and the first to complain if none of this work had happened before they try to renew a passport, pay their taxes, or find Government services in their local area (which they can now do via the newly developed app).

Application of brand consistency at such scale is never easy. But M+C Saatchi UK and the Government teams clearly went to incredible lengths – open, transparent, bringing everyone along through strong internal comms and shared understanding. And when you're delivering clarity and cohesion to every single UK citizen, you could argue this is one of the biggest examples of brilliant internal comms in action.

Which dovetails nicely into our upcoming webinar on Internal Comms (see what I did there?)

If you want to discover how your own internal voice can drive positive change, join us and our expert panel. Don't miss out! Register today.