Media Access Australia
The real-world expert

Many people with disabilities — including blindness, deafness, mobility and learning disabilities — are excluded from mainstream audiovisual media. This exclusion is proven to have profound effects on educational outcomes, workforce participation and social inclusion.

Industry Setting

A relatively young company, Media Access Australia (MAA) began life in 1982 as the Australian Captioning Centre. After a period of rapid growth, MAA evolved into Australia’s only independent not-for-profit organisation devoted to increasing access to media for people with disabilities. MAA had ambitious plans in the area of access; however, their brand didn’t provide a strong platform to realise these goals.

Challenge

MAA is a unique organisation that plays an important 
advisory, problem solving and facilitation role to a number of key audiences, each with differing priorities and needs. However, while MAA was well regarded and trusted to those in the know, developing a clearly articulated and consistent message was crucial in order to attract further funding. Additionally, while MAA needed to retain its authority and credibility, an opportunity existed to shift the organisation towards a more consumer facing position.

Strategy

In order to create a positioning which was relevant, unique and compelling, MAA needed to maintain a balance between the pragmatic and functional activities of the organisation while maintaining an awareness of the emotional needs of the end user. The brand territory of ‘Real-world expert’ was established to amplify the connection between the technological services of the organisation and the inclusion it provides.

Result

The rebranding and repositioning exercise continues to provide a clear, consistent and cohesive brand blueprint for the organisation going forward. “MAA has evolved and taken on new areas of interest, the rebranding was an important part of showing that we are not staid and static and are always refreshing our approach to making media accessible.” – Alex Varley, CEO, Media Access Australia

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