Olentangy Schools
Olentangy School District is one of the largest, fastest-growing, and academically excellent districts in the country. Cult had the opportunity to create an environment where everyone can flourish. The new brand consists of a new logo and visual identity which has implemented across every brand touchpoint.
Insights
To understand the magic of a school district with over 23,000 students across 25 school buildings, we conducted over 45 insight sessions with the board, leadership, students, parents, and staff gathering collages, images, and stories. Several key themes were consistent throughout the process, which included: opportunity, personal achievement, community, pride, educational excellence and exceptional value.
Results
The tagline, Flourish Here, reflects the concept of healthy and vigorous growth as a result of a favorable, nurturing and positive environment. Cult developed a new logo and visual identity, and redesigned every brand touchpoint. The new brand has been implemented across all 25 buildings, the district vehicles, throughout all digital assets, the new student center, and all brand collateral materials.
“As the 6th largest school district in Ohio and one of the fastest growing districts in the country, Olentangy Schools has prioritized establishing our brand identity as one of the key goals of our strategic plan. Partnering with Cult Marketing to first develop a brand identity for our the district and then for each of our 26 buildings has proven to be a great success. Cult Marketing’s immersive discovery process included input from many of our stakeholders. Our brand identity project has allowed us to clearly state who we are and what we value as well as create a brand image that allows all of our school communities to be a part of our One Olentangy family.”
— Krista Davis, Chief Communications Officer
Brand Video
Mascot rebranding
After the district rebrand was completed, Cult was involved in creating unique brand identities by developing mascots for each of the 27 schools in the district. One of the goals of the rebranding process was to address the Native American imagery and trademark infringements that exist throughout the district.
Insights
Cult Marketing and the Olentangy Schools leadership team created Brand Teams for each school to better understand the culture, vision, traditions, and personality of each school. These teams included the principals, teachers, coaches, parents, PTO, and both current and former students.
Each brand team was interviewed in depth by the Cult Marketing strategy team. In addition, each person on the brand team was asked to create a collage using words and pictures to demonstrate their thoughts and feelings for their school. Cult analyzed the collages and compiled a strategic insights summary for each school that was then used to craft the new mascot designs.
Results
Cult addressed the use of Native American imagery and developed new mascots for each school in the district. They were introduced in 2021 and as you can tell, the new mascots and logo marks created excitement among the school communities and were a smash hit. Each school created teaser campaigns, mascot costumes, tattoos, t-shirts, Covid masks, and other memorabilia to hand out to students for the big reveal.
