Two of the world’s top agencies have recently said goodbye to their names.
Goodbye ISA, hello Invest Sweden
The official Swedish government agency for investment promotion, Invest in Sweden Agency, was founded fifteen years ago. It has until now been presented under the brand name Invest in Sweden Agency, ISA. In early May, ISA was rebranded as Invest Sweden. I actually remember the first christening branding exercise as I was part of it together with a handful of core co-founding members colleagues that started up ISA.
According to ISA… sorry I mean Invest Sweden, the main reason was a need to reorient and strengthen the brand to better reflect how they work to match international investments with business opportunities in Sweden. They think that operating as Invest Sweden will give them even better possibilities in their work to attract more international investments into Sweden.
Now with that hypothesis in mind, should IPAs rebrand so as to increase possibilities to attract investment? Well I have a few views on this… For instance, an agency like ISA with 15 solid years behind it, backed by strong human and financial resources, imho the change will hardly be noticeable. To drop Agency is an error because that is precisely the form of the organization it is, and what most people, including investors easily recognize and relate to. To drop “in” does not make much difference here. Invest Sweden sounds more modern, the logo is more bold now and the old logo is more institutional looking. But when searching the net the AGENCY bit will be missed… and time will tell why! However, I do not think for a moment that by rebranding the agency from ISA to Invest Sweden will attract any more investment; that will be down to the abilities of the people and strategies behind the agency.
Goodbye Interes, Hello Invest in Spain
Spain is different, and indeed it is! Because I habla español, when Interes Invest in Spain started early 2006 I was honoured to be involved as technical expert to the CEO and Executive Management Group during its startup year. I got involved in every corner of the agency, including organization, strategies, branding, communication, web, investment guide, policy advocacy… you name it! …. An early step was the branding, and we agreed on most aspects of the brand design, which I think still looks vibrant, different and energetic. The Interes add-on, although a differentiation from other invest in’s… was one area that was particularly hard to agree about, albeit a differentiation. To add “Interes” would not make it easy to position amongst the main target groups…investors, foreign media, analysts, multipliers, etc. But would also be hard to hit the search engines, never mind keeping abreast with press cuttings etc. Nonetheless, the word Interes was used in many creative ways and looked really INTERESting.
In summary, you can fill a name with almost anything you decide… but when it comes to basics just call things what they are, that’s how they most times they are found and are understood. The Interes part was just too out of scope so now it has been dropped.
Looking forward to feedback and comments regarding IPA names…
