South African Airways rebrand - Assets development

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A lack of focus over the years has left the South African Airways (SAA) brand fragmented and inconsistent.

Our brief was to refresh the brand to enable SAA to become the first and only choice for flying from and within Africa, offering a world-class

premium experience.

Our challenge was to create a more relevant, premium brand experience for all SAA customers and stakeholders without being clichéd or alienating anyone. We needed to increase their presence and recapture people’s hearts & minds by shifting it to become globally relevant and, more importantly,
a proudly African brand. Being one of the only truly African brands with a global footprint, SAA could effectively challenge how people perceive the continent and own a new class of travel: African Premium. But first, we needed to reimagine what constitutes a premium African experience.
Shifting away from the preconceived expectations of luxury safari and the Big Five to more closely representing emerging African confidence and design aesthetic.

To bring this to life, we refreshed their visual identity and re-contextualised their existing brand assets. We rolled out the new identity across multiple touch-points for both staff and customers. These included internal campaigns, events and airport signage. We even looked at their onboard experience (including the interior design of the new A320 fleet).

Working closely with the SAA team on a new airport way-finding system and experience-mapping project, we managed to increase their ratings as well as improve certain Skytrax criteria in 2013. This was greatly celebrated at SAA as it meant that they retained their status as the best airline in Africa in an increasingly competitive market.

Through the deliberate design of every touch-point, we have been able to get customers to reassess their view of Africa as a lost continent to one of premium experiences and warm hospitality.