The challenge

Create a ‘regional brand’ encompassing all the Northern Rivers has to offer

The Northern Rivers region is situated in the far north-easterly corner of NSW Australia, encompassing the Tweed Valley and coastal towns of Byron Bay and Ballina in the North, Yamba, Maclean and Grafton in the south and inland to the business and rural townships of Lismore, Casino and Kyogle. It has three major river systems that flow through the region – the Tweed River, the Richmond River and the Clarence River.

Given that our brand serves many masters and speaks to many attributes and life views, our mission was to bring it all together and encapsulate the brand in a way that is both simple and adaptive to the needs of many.

Our process

Defining the essence of Northern Rivers NSW

‘Place Branding’ like all branding needs to get to the heart of the ‘Unique Value Proposition’. The Northern Rivers may have similar offering to others, but by finding it’s truth we discover what makes the location unique.

The journey began with community and stakeholders engagement to ensure the essence of the brand was inclusive, engaging, purposeful and authentic.

Next was the delivery of a comprehensive brand strategy outlining needs, attributes, challenges, opportunities and a creative mission covering the following areas:

1) The Essence of the Northern Rivers
2) Values of our Region
3) Identifying the enthusiasm for and opportunities of a Regional Brand
4) Leveraging the Byron phenomena
5) Locating our Brand nationally and globally

Thirdly, we entered the creative development phase, bringing the community and stakeholders with us to test drive our ideas and ensure we were heading in the right direction, which ultimately led us to our brand creative execution.