#MarketingExcellenceAwards highlight: NTUC LearningHub ingrains brand into PMETs' minds via refresh

NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB) has delivered training to over 2.5 million places in Singapore for the past 16 years. Historically, NTUC LHUB has been associated with courses such as core employability skills, workplace safety and health, and operational courses such as security officer training. However, there is still low brand recognition among professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs). As such, the team came up with a brand relaunch campaign to capture the attention of PMETs and encourage them to join its courses. This led to NTUC LHUB being ranked one of the finalists for Excellence in Communications/Public Relations at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's recent Marketing Excellence Awards 2020.

Challenge

As Singapore enters Industry 4.0 with higher digital adoption, training providers need to broaden their appeal to PMETs and corporate clients. The historical brand image of NTUC LHUB, however, has been its focus on operational courses. Hence, the organisation has made limited headway in attracting PMETs to its course offerings as well as other services it offers. These include corporate learning and development consultancy and training needs analysis.

That said, NTUC LHUB has adapted to the changing needs of the workforce by collaborating with partners including Microsoft, Oracle, Wiley, Amazon Web Services, and Shopee, among others, to develop sophisticated courses in key areas of training. They include IT digital awareness and employability, leadership and business excellence, HR, healthcare and more.

To draw Singapore's modern audience, NTUC LHUB understood that there was a growing need to refresh its corporate identity systems for a more modern look. According to the company, the old corporate identity has created an entrenched branding that was strongly associated with traditional courses, and the main brand identity was unable to convey the future-ready, world class adaptive, technical, and technology courses to build Worker 4.0 for Industry 4.0. Hence, NTUC LHUB had to transform its corporate identity systems to show that transformation starts from within, in order to enhance its relatability and reliability among PMETs and corporate clients.

Strategy

The company came up with a renewed branding that would be ingrained in its audience's minds, especially the the PMETs who are unfamiliar with the full suite of future-ready courses available at NTUC LHUB, as well as companies that are unfamiliar with the end-to-end training services available. It carried out a brand refresh survey to analyse the preferences of over 1,500 survey respondents in Singapore through three sets of brand concept and logo, before developing its identity system and brand manifesto.

1. Brand logo

The logo is a visual expression of its brand essence "Transforming people". According to NTUC LHUB, the butterfly is a visual metaphor for transformation and accurately depicts its metamorphosis of keeping abreast with the demands of a dynamic economy. Through the geometric abstract design used to piece up the butterfly, it embodies all collars, ages and nationalities coming together to bridge their skills towards the future economy.

The gradient effect symbolises NTUC LHUB's fluidity and dynamism. The U hallmark represents "a better more meaningful life for all", keeping the team grounded to the vision of the labour movement while the royal blue used is synonymous with the digital industry to portray a modern look and feel.

2. Brand element

The chrysalis polygon is a key graphic component used to form a unique, contemporary and vibrant brand. NTUC LHUB added that the signature butterfly motif with a trail is also a key graphic to the brand, where the advancement towards a digital age is boosted by the representation of movement found within the trail of the butterfly.

3. Brand imagery

Images used in all its marketing materials need to adhere to the brand personality – approachable yet authoritative. This is to ensure that its target audience including PMETs and corporate clients to be able to portray themselves as NTUC LHUB’s consumers.

4. Brand essence

The brand revamp aims to better portray NTUC LHUB's brand essence - transforming people’s lives by helping them build work and life skills to improve their employability. As part of the brand revamp, a brand ladder was developed to guide all stakeholders from concept to implementation and beyond. The internal transformation then trickles down to its external communication and initiatives to its consumers.

Execution

NTUC LHUB targeted various media channels to establish its brand identity, including OOH at MRT platforms and bus interchanges, print ads on The Straits Times and The Business Times, as well as social media promotions. With the buy-in from its stakeholders, NTUC LHUB then transposed the new designs into its campaigns and more.

A 360-degree creative campaign was created where external facing communication materials, including wall facades, were replaced. A video ad titled "Lifelong learning inspired by you" was developed with a profile portrayed as a PMET female juggling work and family. According to NTUC LHUB, the storyline helps to create a stronger resemblance to the life of a PMET, and the key tagline - “We Don’t Just Learn for Ourselves, We Learn for the Ones that Matter" - seeks to drive deeper emotional resonance for the reasons why people upskill.

At the same time, NTUC LHUB also doubled down on its PR efforts by having higher engagement with media partners to promote new initiatives and the social impact generated. It received coverage across national print, radio, and TV, covering key areas of interest for PMETs and C-suites. For example, its employer skills report was covered by The Business Times, Berita Harian, Lianhe Zaobao, and Singapore Business Review.

To showcase NTUC LHUB’s expertise beyond core operational skills, a series of whitepapers were published to establish stronger thought leadership by providing guidance to PMETs and corporate clients to navigate an Industry 4.0 world. In 2020, it rolled out two whitepapers comprising an employer skills survey report involving over 200 employers that uncovered the in-demand skills coveted by employers, as well as data skills report. The latter report involved over 700 working professionals, uncovering the data skills gap.

Additionally, it also had company-wide initiatives. For workers, it participated in national initiatives such as the SGUnited Skills programme and the self-employed persons training support scheme to help workers and self-employed persons adapt to a new job environment. It also offered courses such as data analytics, leadership, and agile, and rolled out an online learning platform known as LHUB GO, to fit flexible learning into the busy schedule of PMETs. To date, LHUB GO has garnered over 100,000 users.

For companies, NTUC LHUB supported more than 3,000 companies through the enhanced training support programme, and also pushed out new initiatives such as the SME digital reboot that aims to help companies in their digital transformation.

Results

The three-month brand relaunch campaign helped NTUC LHUB establish a stronger brand presence and recognition. According to a brand survey with 681 respondents in Singapore between the ages of 16 to 60, NTUC LHUB (91%) was the top continuing education and training institute that respondents have heard of. This was compared to competitors such as NUS SCALE (18%), Lithan Academy (17%), and Training Vision Institute (14%). The survey also found that respondents had the most positive impression of NTUC LHUB (64%), compared to competitors such as NUS SCALE (12%), SP PACE Academy (6%), and Training Vision Institute (6%). Meanwhile, majority of respondents (97%) were also likely to recommend NTUC LHUB to their friends or family.

NTUC LHUB also had the highest share of voice online this year (86.3%), comapred to competitors such as NUS SCALE (8.1%) Training Vision Institute (4%), and other institutes of higher learning (1.6%). From January to date, NTUC LHUB has amassed more than 200 pieces of media coverage with notable mentions from The Straits Times, The Business Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Channel NewsAsia, MoneyFM, Channel 8 Morning Express, and Esquire Singapore, among others. The coverage included key findings from its whitepapers such as data skills report and employer skills survey report.