Finding the Heart of the Brand

Four days of intensive brand discovery with Senior Management, stakeholders, Doctors, staff and members of the community help develop a powerful brand strategy for this truly unique Hospital.

Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital’s history runs deep in the communities it serves. Established in 1908 in a large 10 room house, it was officially named Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital when the 70 room Soldiers’ Wing was completed in 1922 to honour the Orillia Soldiers lost in the Great World War. To this day, the Hospital itself is the actual living War Memorial and that means a lot in the Community of Orillia.

As the Hospital began looking at its Future Hospital Plan – a 10-15 year plan to redevelop the Hospital, it re-evaluated its current brand identity. In doing so, it became apparent that the current identity had been cobbled together over the years, was difficult to read (not passing AODA compliance) and would not support the future strategy of the hospital.

During the discovery process, a few things became clear. Internally, most referred to the Hospital as OSMH, an acronym developed out of convenience. However, as the discovery process moved away from internal stakeholders, it became evident that most in the community simply referred to it as Soldiers’ and did so with a great amount of passion and pride. The history of the Hospital is where the heart is and is what connects it emotionally to the community, a community that refers to it as ‘Our Hospital’.

The brand strategy was developed to focus on the heart of the brand and follow the natural vernacular of the community – Soldiers’ became the focus.

Next, an iconic brand mark was developed to become the identifier of the Hospital and its Foundation. The Soldiers’ star was inspired by The 1914-1915 Star, a first World War medal that was handed out to over 70,000 Canadian soldiers.

Both the Hospital and Foundation now share a unified brand that honours the past, inspires the community and will become the foundation for the future brand of both organizations.