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Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse

A Brand Refresh for a National Not-for-Profit

Based on our considerable experience in healthcare branding and (we think) a darn nice proposal, McGill Buckley was hired by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) to lead the research, planning and creative development of a comprehensive brand refresh. 

Given our work and involvement with the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, it was a project that we very much looked forward to. 

“The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse is a national, not-for-profit organization.”

Brand Discovery

Our work with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse included significant stakeholder engagement activities including focus groups and discovery sessions with senior management, staff, volunteers, partners and board members. During those sessions we helped gather and consolidate opinions about what CCSA did, who they worked with and the difference they were making in the lives of substance abuse professionals, researchers and many others. It was a fascinating process with a group of awfully smart people.
 

Brand Development

Working closely with the Director of Communications, her hard-working team and members the senior management team, McGill Buckley took the information gathered from the discovery sessions to create an overall brand strategy and a series of recommendations.  Included was a comprehensive brand messaging platform, an all-new brand identity system and supporting brand colour architecture. McGill Buckley also developed the brand visual standards and created a host of brand collateral materials including standardized publication templates, kit folders, corporate displays, stationery package as well as updated designs for the various CCSA websites and social media properties.

Digital Strategy

At the same time that McGill Buckley was knee-deep in the branding process we also (with the invaluable help of Web Strategist Erik Hagborg) developed and delivered a comprehensive web and digital strategy. Our task was to consolidate and improve the overall web presence of CCSA which included a number of different standalone websites and CMS platforms. Our work in this area again included a number of staff discovery sessions as well as a review of all of CCSA’s current web properties and activities.

Website Design

McGill Buckley also worked with the communications and web team at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse to help guide and lead the definition, design and development of an all-new website. The new site consolidated a number of existing websites and uses a single Content Management System. Our work is this area has included responsibilities for Information Architecture, Interaction Design (Wireframes) Visual Design and Usability Testing.

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