A new name, a new brand, more focus

It is done: “By the Ocean we Unite” is now “The Ocean Movement”. We are very proud of and gratefull for all the hard work of a strong team of brand and web specialists that made this possible.

Why rebrand?

Rebranding is never an end in itself. Usually a rebranding takes place after a takeover, is used to consolidate multiple parties or brands, originates out of a need for more focus or to control costs.

For us, the choice was not entirely voluntary. At the end of 2019 we were pressured by Richard Branson’s internationally registered brand “Ocean Unite”. They accused us of trademark infringement and threatened to undertake legal actions. We decided not to fight this and instead seized the opportunity to develop a new name and a (more) professional branding.

The timing was actually not that bad. Due to the Covid crisis, our core team was stranded anyways and we had our hands and heads free to take a very exhaustive look at our strategy and positioning. Like we said: a rebranding is not an end in itself. To be successful, our rebranding needs to contribute to achieving the strategic goals of our foundation.

A dream team

We are very proud of and thankful for the solid team of experienced brand builders and designers that decided to support us in this rebranding. The new name was created by naming strategy agency Globrands, the new logo was designed by Jacques Koeweiden and the tagline was crafted by Pim Gerrits. Our new website was created by graphic communication agency Wilde and constructed by web builders of Webbakery.

With the dynamic waves in the logo, the foundation expresses both the power of the water, the complexity of the problem that threatens it and the difficulty of the solution. With the tagline “Sail with science. Discover your footprint.” we underline our mission to move people to deal with plastic in a different way.

More focus

In addition to the rebraning, we spent a lot of our time on a thorough analysis of the foundation and our goals. We have made a very interesting and useful impact analysis and as a result we have put more focus in our mission, vision, strategy and objectives.

The organizational structure has also been professionalized. We now have a small but active core team for day-to-day activities, a board with professionals from the legal, financial and corporate world and of course the wide network of volunteers remains the cork on which the foundation floats.

With a more focused mission and strategy, we are now better positioned to get on the radar of relevant funds and other parties that can support us financially. This way, we hope to increase our budget and organize even more activities.

Same mission

Under the new name, we continue to work towards a world in which no more plastic ends up in our environment and ecosystems no longer suffer negative effects from our handling of the material. We continue to do this by motivating people to deal with plastic in a different way.

We will continue to focus on increasing knowledge about the extent, causes and consequences of plastic pollution through (citizen) scientific research.

If it’s all allowed again, our expeditions will remain at the heart of our foundation. On board of the beautiful ships we sail, we continue to inform and inspire people in a positive way by proactively sharing with them our research and the beauty of our waters. And we will keep reaching out to our partners in the field and proactively enter into collaborations.

We are sailing again!

We are back on the water: if all goes well we will sail again in June: on 26 June we organize a Dutch expedition and on 27 June an English-language expedition on UNESCO World Heritage The Wadden Sea. Reasons enough to keep a close eye on us in the near future!

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