With their Bay Bridge banner and widespread alert campaigns, Spare the Air is one of the most well-known brands in the Bay Area, with over 75% awareness. Through a variety of public awareness and employer programs, Spare the Air offers tips and action steps residents can take to improve air quality—and, subsequently, quality of life.

The brand has been around for decades and has evolved organically over time. Yet as Spare the Air continues to work with numerous agency partners, the need arose for them to establish a cohesive and consistent brand strategy, messaging and voice, and visual style for creating collateral, advertisements, and other brand expressions.

Noise 13 was brought in to create a brand book of guidelines. First, we established positioning and messaging focused around the tangible nature of their work, their data-driven legacy, and their role as a convener. Next, working from their extensive library of existing work and building on the elements that already worked, we created rules of usage around them. Part of the challenge was making certain those guidelines were flexible and empowering for third-party vendors and partners.

An additional challenge was to strike a balance with their personality (optimistic, energetic) and positioning (relevant, grounded in real life). We achieved this with both the messaging and visual style we recommended.

Introducing an Ownable Visual Style

We were successful in defining a clear, ownable style that will work across all of Spare the Air’s communication vehicles. This style is effective, recognizable, and flexible so that it can grow with their needs.

As participants in Spare the Air’s Agency Summit, we engaged with their creative partners and vendors, introduced them to the brand’s new look and feel, and got them excited about taking ownership as the brand’s stewards.

Spare the Air’s work is so critical to our quality of life in the Bay Area and beyond, and we were pleased that we could contribute to the success of their mission.