NATA’s Creative Services Manager
Joan Manalang
narrates the meaningful story and journey of how
the campaign was conceived and produced.
It’s been a long journey to get here, but today I find myself not just contributing to this article, but reflecting on the meaningful change we’ve made within our organisation. Change can disrupt our comfort zone, but true transformation goes beyond just having creative ideas. It requires passion, perseverance, and a relentless drive to bring those ideas to life.
Having been with NATA for three years now, I can confidently say I’m incredibly proud of the profound value in the work we do. In our industry, the NATA logo is more than just a symbol—it’s a powerful statement. I vividly remember the day I went for a blood test, wearing my mask with the NATA logo. The nurse, noticing the logo, treated me with a level of respect and regard that took me by surprise. She mistakenly thought I was an assessor, but that moment truly reinforced something I’ve learned during my time at NATA: our logo isn’t just a mark; it speaks volumes. It’s a symbol of trust, a seal of authority, and a guarantee that what we do really matters.
And to all the Accreditation Specialists, Sector Managers and Technical Assessor Volunteers, I want to say this: the work we do is cerebral and fundamental, but it’s a story that needs to be told. Telling that story isn’t easy, especially when speaking to an audience who might not fully understand the significance of accreditation.
With my years of experience as a creative leader in advertising, I have become a custodian of various major global brands, meticulously crafting and upholding their brand identities, profiling their personalities, and strengthening their DNA in every campaign I produce. At NATA, I identified a significant gap in communicating its personality, appearance, behaviour, and core values—we hadn’t conveyed to our audience or industry how we wanted to be perceived. This is where the creative initiative found its opportunity to tap into this untapped area of business. Drawing on my background as a Creative Director, I’ve always approached work with the discipline of an ad agency, transforming big ideas into impactful brand strategies. This led me to take the lead in pitching our brand transformation to Brendon Moo, our Head of Strategic Engagement & Communication, whose unwavering support from the very beginning was invaluable. I’m proud to say that the concept was embraced and ultimately approved by both Brendon and our CEO, Jennifer Evans.
Our new visual identity—NATA | Accreditation Matters—is designed to articulate a simple yet powerful truth: what we do really matters. It’s not just a logo; it’s our identity, and it tells the world exactly what we stand for. We had to make this clear, and so we decided to literally include “Accreditation Matters” in our logo lock-up, making it a key visual identity tool in all our communications.
One of the most significant pieces of the campaign is our Manifesto video. This narrative is written like a poem that comes straight from the heart, heroically celebrating who NATA is, what we stand for, and the crucial role we play in society. The creative idea behind this long-form storytelling was to connect emotionally with our audience—touching hearts and minds through carefully curated visuals and a human-written script that proves authenticity in its story, featuring relatable slices of life where accreditation plays a key role.
Our consumer videos, on the other hand, underwent a creative challenge to effectively communicate a complex subject matter about the types of testing we accredit. It was visualised through playful line illustrations with the text of the testing we accredit juxtaposed on them. The concept is “BLUE PRINT,” where the anatomy of an everyday object or scenario all traces back to the important role of accreditation. Our Sector Managers and Deputy Sector Managers came together in unison during the process to support my research, providing invaluable assistance and validation for my creative communication materials.
We filmed our Manifesto and Advocacy videos during the Accreditation Matters 2024 event at the ICC last June. Our NATA staff, including our CEO Jennifer Evans, Nirvana Cilingiryan, Tony Vandenberg, Neil Shepherd, and Amir Murad, participated, along with local and international industry leaders such as Devin McDaniels from the WTO, Bruce Warrington (National Measurement Institute), Kareen Riley-Takos (Standards Australia), Wodek Jakubik (Coregas), Peter McCafferty (Chem Centre), Mark Brugees (NATA Board), Dr Lawrie Bott (Sonic Healthcare Australia), Robert Chong (CSIRO), George Sfinas (Standards Australia), Maddie Massy (Science Communicator), Jason Graefling (SA Pathology), Ian Opperman (Service Gen/UTS), and many more. I’m incredibly grateful for their participation in the filming of our campaign and for delivering such powerful speeches that truly mattered. There are even more people who contributed, and their names will be rolled out as part of our year-long campaign.
We launched this campaign two weeks ago, and it’s still fresh in my heart to see all the hard work come to life. Conceiving and producing this significant campaign for such a meaningful organisation truly defines my 20+ years as an advertising creative expert. This wouldn’t have been possible without the production crew from Story Machine, who handled the filming and editing of our Manifesto video. Our consumer videos came to life thanks to the motion expertise of We Are Compania.
I eat, sleep, and breathe creativity, and with this profound talent—shaped by the course of my life’s journey—I’m eager to use it to advocate for the invaluable impact of what NATA does.
To learn more about our new brand identity and the full Accreditation Matters campaign, view here.
