I've actually started to enjoy it when people ask me if I was associated with the "train wreck" University of Waterloo branding exercise. I was indeed associated with it as lead brand strategist, in partnership with Ove Design, working with the brilliant and courageous VP External Relations, Meg Beckel and a powerhouse team from across the University, and I am very proud to say so. Hardly a train wreck, the initiative has been transformational for Waterloo and has created a new level of self awareness and engagement that will have strategic impact long-term.

This was academic brand strategy done right: deep internal and external consultation, senior leadership engagement and patient process of discovery and negotiation. The core ideas were strong and supported.    

Unfortunately While Meg and her team prepared for a three month internal consultation on a new visual identity, a well-meaning student working on the program loved the logo so much they "borrowed" the file and posted it on their Facebook page. Ooops. Not the launch that Meg had foreseen. Within two weeks there were thousands of members on a FB page slagging the logo - a lot of cheap shots, heard 'round the world. Meg and the team went back into listening mode and have now launched a VI that has 90% of the original elements and strong internal support.

I asked Meg to reflect on the experience. Was it a train wreck? "Far from it." Meg claims. "I like to call it logo-gate because in the same way that Watergate increased public awareness for the need for political transparency and accountability, logo-gate accelerated our collective understanding of our mission, our brand and our character as an institution. The urgency of the dialogue allowed us to achieve in six months what other universities might need a decade to process."

Meg is adamant that the experience was a net positive for Waterloo. Vital internal priorities around student life are being addressed, the University has a new external voice with which to attract students, faculty, staff and donors, and there is a heightened sensitivity to the value of engagement - especially by Waterloo students who have never been known for being the most activated lot. This year's big message - Ideas Start Here - arose from a strong internal sentiment that we're about what's new, but "innovative" just doesn't capture it.

All-in-all a great, if at times stressful experience.

What would we have done differently? Perhaps we would not have taken no for an answer when we invited the entire student community to engage and only 11 obliged. As she reflects on it Meg observes that she might have stood her ground a bit harder on the logo. It was was a great design with real integrity.

What would we do the same next time? Always let the brand come from inside the organization, listen, negotiate and be bold with ideas. Stretch the conservative instincts of faculty and staff, and know which battles are most important to take on. These are the things that make branding work in the unique environment of a university. This is no place for glib packaging, consumer brand-speak, marketing fluff or for imposed ideas. This is where brand takes on its most rigorous and authentic form.

And we will never forget the symbolic power of a logo and the passionate force with which people will respond to change in visual identity. At Waterloo it became an unprecedented catalyst for engagement.

Again, I could not be more proud to have been part of a process that has honed Canada's most powerful academic brand; to have worked with Meg and her amazing team, and to have been inspired by the vision of President David Johnston, who now turns to putting his remarkable energy to his role as the next Governor General of Canada.  

Not exactly a train-wreck.