Muhammad Ali Center
PROJECT SCOPE
Brand Strategy and Messaging, Visual Identity, Website, Social Media, Content Marketing, Branded Spaces, Internal Communications, Collateral, Donor Engagement
SUMMARY
The Muhammad Ali Center, a non-profit, wanted to build on Muhammad Ali’s humanitarian legacy and six core principles. Envision developed a brand strategy that would bridge the gap between Muhammad Ali the boxer of the past and the humanitarian celebrity of today, and engage a newer audience of women.
We developed a strategy that clearly recognized the Core Brand Culture of the Muhammad Ali name as “greatness.” From there we developed a tagline: Be Great. Do Great Things and a new logo that embraced Muhammad Ali’s famous butterfly saying while engaging women and moms. (The research identified these audiences as primary decision makers for households when traveling and choosing cultural centers like the Ali Center.
A new website was designed along with a digital identity for the Generation Ali social responsibility brand. We also launched multiple social media platforms to target different demographics to drive traffic to the Ali Center itself and made recommendations to bring their new brand to life in their space.
All of our work was based on the internal culture at the Center (and Muhammad Ali as a humanitarian) and we worked closely with the team to execute against their core goals and objectives.
RESULTS
Here are some examples of the results our impact had during the rebrand.
The Ali Center's Muhammad Ali Facebook page started with 973,424 likes. In the first year, 2012, we added 453,281 likes at the acquisition cost of $0.15 per like. In 2013, our strategy added 1,862,133 additional likes and reduced the cost of acquisition to $0.03 per like. We accomplished this by maximizing trending opportunities such as the 2012 London Olympics and content marketing that included crowdsourcing. The center's non-profit Muhammad Ali Facebook page was awarded verified status as it outperformed the Muhammad Ali page run by the company that owned commercial rights to the name. Today, the Ali Center continues to execute the strategy and the Facebook page has over 10 million likes.
Envision was also recognized for its work on the Ali Center's website with the International Academy of Visual Arts Communicator Award.
The Ali Center’s Chief Mission Advancement Officer at the time said:
“Envision walked our entire organization through a clear and thorough process that has revitalized the identity of the Muhammad Ali Center. They identified our strengths and marketing challenges and developed a well-constructed plan to re-brand the Ali Center. From simple presentation formats to an award winning website design, Envision has helped the Ali Center achieve our goal of increasing awareness and accessibility to the legacy of Muhammad Ali. Envision also developed an effective social media strategy that has enabled us to engage with new and younger audiences in more meaningful ways. Envision has truly helped set the course for the Muhammad Ali Center to inspire the world to Be Great and Do Great Things!” — Mike Guyer-Wood, Chief Mission Advancement Officer
