With new leadership and a newly developed operational model, 2020 was a crucial time for WorkSafe to pull its people together and communicate their vision in a way that builds a clear sense of unity and purpose. In the pursuit to keep New Zealanders safe at work under challenging circumstances, alignment across the organisation and its leadership was paramount.
To guide this shift, Ocean was tasked with creating a compelling narrative, name and an engaging visual identity that would drive the vision and create behavioral change internally for all 600 staff members across the 18 regional offices around New Zealand.
A story of a waka arrived at WorkSafe’s shores. Many a time, agencies have referred to the waka as a metaphor for ‘working together’, while this is appropriate and fitting, we knew to create meaningful change that this story had to be authentic and unique to WorkSafe.
Working closely with WorkSafe, in particular, their Maruiti (Māori Engagement team), communications team, and leadership team, we developed a narrative, name and visual identity. This gave reference to the creative concept of Taura Here Waka. A concept indicative of strength, unity and evocative of steering towards a new dawn and WorkSafe's one unified, focused way of working to make a measurable difference.
Designing the experience for the launch of Taura Here Waka found us engaging across multiple programs. Although Covid restricted WorkSafe from launching together physically, they were able to launch through the use of eDM’s, their intranet, video, screensavers, desk drops of a branded notebook and a purpose built website.
We worked closely with the wonderful Wunderman Thompson team (now AKQA) to develop the platform, animation and design, ensuring the content across the campaign aligned and ultimately get the organisation on board the waka.
