Canadian Museum of Immigration Seeks Branding Agency

The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is a national treasure housed within a Canadian landmark has issued an RFP for a branding agency. One in five Canadians may have a direct link to this iconic building, but all Canadians are impacted by immigration and how it shapes this country.

Entrusted with the important duty to collect, preserve and share Canada’s immigration stories; defining and supporting a strong brand will allow the Museum to fulfill this important mandate.  Articulating to Canadians, why as a cultural institution we matter and defining how we demonstrate this across all touch points, will allow us to better fulfill our mandate and enrich the visitor experience. As one of only two national museums located outside of the National Capital Region, we need to ensure we are leveraging every opportunity to create awareness and connections with Canadians from coast to coast to coast in‐person and on‐line.

This can be achieved by adopting a brand‐driven organizational culture. This requires the Museum to craft a coherent and relevant story stemming from a shared sense of direction. At the end of this transformative branding process, all employees must clearly understand what our brand promise is and what role they play in bringing that promise to life. This understanding will guide employees from visitor experience to human resources in their day‐to‐day actions.

The Museum is seeking an agency or group of experts specializing in brand strategy with experience working with museums, historic sites or similar cultural institutions. We are looking for guidance to develop a brand strategy in consultation with our staff, as well as assistance operationalizing this brand across all departments. We require your expertise to help us tell our brand narrative cohesively and translate this to a template for future creative work. Because of the inherent richness and authenticity of our stories, we know a well‐crafted brand will have the power to move people on the deepest emotional levels.

Background:

The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is located at the Halifax Seaport in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Reopened as an interpretive centre in 1999, Pier 21 told the story of the almost one million immigrants who arrived at this former gateway to Canada between 1928 and 1971. During the Second World War, the majority of Canadian military personnel left from Pier 21 for service overseas.

Pier 21 became a national museum in 2011 and underwent a $30 million expansion in 2015. In addition to a refreshed Pier 21 based exhibit, a new second permanent exhibit now explores over 400 years of Canadian immigration stories from first contact to present day. The mandate of the museum is to collect, preserve and share Canada’s immigration stories for future generations.

Scope of Work: 

Deliverables of this project will include:

• Brand audit/review;
• Through consultation develop a brand strategy that specifies the organization’s primary audiences, brand values, personality, value proposition, brand positioning and brand promise linked to our corporate plan;
• Translate the above into touch point experiences or actions (i.e. operationalize the brand);
• Craft messages for key audiences including a new positioning tagline and elevator pitch;
• Develop a framework/ template treatments for incorporating new brand positioning in creative executions such as tag line, posters, ad layout etc.; and
• Plan for internal launch.

Due Date:

September 5, 2017

Address:

Ashley MacPherson, Procurement and Administration Manager
Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
1099 Marginal Road, 2nd Floor
Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

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