OC Sport create and manage pioneering events in professional sailing, amateur cycling, running, ultra-trail running and triathlon. They are also Rights Holder for a series of prestigious events and have unrivalled experience in campaign management in professional sailing.
Most notably, their portfolio includes the infamous UTMB, the Haute Route amateur cycling series and the Extreme Sailing Series™. OC Sport pride themselves on delivering unforgettable sporting experiences, connecting sport fans, participants and commercial partners through sport in some of the most challenging and beautiful natural environments in the world. Every year they organise more than 220 days of competition, in more than 30 events, on five continents.
The Challenge
Originally named Offshore Challenges, OC Sport was created by Mark Turner and Ellen MacArthur in 1998 to manage Ellen’s stellar sailing career, focused on her route to the Vendée Globe and, subsequently, her world record breaking circumnavigation. In recent years, OC Sport’s specialism has evolved to encompass many more outdoor sports, all with nature at the heart.
In their 20th year and as part of their re-positioning, OC Sport needed a refreshed brand identity to encapsulate their position in the market and the four main pillars of the organisation: event creation and rights holding, event management, campaign management and licensing.
The new brand identity needed to better reflect their ethos and the emotion inspired by the brand and the once-in-a-lifetime experiences its diverse events offer. They wanted to convey, not only their expertise in logistically managing amazing events, but also their belief that sport is an empowering force that pushes you to realise your potential and achieve personal aspirations. This is not only relevant to professional athletes, but also amateurs.
The Result
As part of the brand overhaul, we created a new global corporate ID to be used across the whole OC Sport portfolio. It was imperative that the new logo could make an impact when placed alongside their iconic brand partners, which include Maserati, TAG Heuer and SAP.
To create the desired premium feel, we chose to lead with a bespoke word mark style logo. The split across letters O and C reflects the organisations four sporting responsibilities and also serves as a subtle nod to the brand’s breaking boundaries ethos.
In support of the new brand ID, we also facilitated a tone of voice workshop with all key OC Sport stakeholders across Europe to create language guidelines and define a style of written communications. Overarching tonal values of Pioneering, Aspirational, Inspiring, Uniting and Committed emerged that are now in place to align the global teams operating across all 4 continents to maintain a consistent tone of voice.
With a revamped brand ID, ethos and a consistent voice in place, OC Sport continue their journey to inspire both amateurs and professional athletes alike to discover their sporting potential.
”"Creating a new identity that not only aligned with their core values, but was completely scalable for its multiple uses throughout the company was quite the challenge. We developed a clean and crisp ID that is simple and refined which reflects all that OC Sport stands for."
Matt AnkersArt Director
