"Who on earth came up with the idea to re-brand the cross?"

"The National Church and the Christian faith represent values that, in truth, we can nearly all agree on and we decided to put the focus on those shared values in the Church's renewed visual identity," says Heimir Hannesson, communications director of the National Church of Iceland. The Church's newly registered motion mark has been named ISIPO's trademark of the month for August.

Staff at ISIPO took note when trademark applications arrived from the National Church, not an everyday applicant. Interest only grew when it became clear the filing was for a motion mark, in which six religious symbols arrange themselves into a cross. Applications to register motion marks are a rare sight at the Office.

"A tremendous project"

Heimir has led a large-scale effort to rework the Church's look and messaging ever since Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir was elected bishop. We visited him at the Church's offices in Borgartún to learn more about the work behind the project and how it led to a registered trademark.

Heimir clearly has a passion for the work, calling it "a tremendous project." He says the bishop made clear from the start of her election campaign that she wanted to address the Church's outward image. "I came into the project believing that the tangible side of the identity and the underlying message needed to move together and tell the same story," he says.

Plenty of life in the country's churches

Soon after Guðrún's election, the Church partnered with advertising agency PiparTBWA, which had approached them with rebranding ideas earlier. Early meetings led to a decision to undertake a full strategic overhaul, not just of appearance, but of how to best convey to the public that the Church is active, open, and accessible to everyone. "Among other things, we wanted to put to rest the myth that the country's churches stand empty with nothing going on, which is completely at odds with reality. Plenty of people attend church regularly, and an incredibly varied range of activity takes place there."

Getting the grassroots on board was essential

The work with Pipar was extensive and successful, drawing in a broad and varied group of people from inside and outside the Church. "Getting the grassroots involved, and keeping them informed throughout, was absolutely essential, both to surface what really matters in how the Church speaks to society, and to build support for the outcome. It was a time- and energy-intensive collaboration, since it brought together groups that don't necessarily work together often." In the end, every idea taken forward in the process could be traced back to that initial consultation, with parish councils playing a particularly strong role.

"What would it take to get Bibbi from Skálmöld to join the Church?"

As an example of just how broad a group was involved, Heimir recalls working with Bibbi from the heavy-rock band Skálmöld, an outspoken atheist who holds the title of creative designer at Pipar. "I remember a big meeting at Áskirkja church with designers, priests, and the bishop all in the room, and I thought to myself that something either brilliant or completely disastrous was about to happen. There was real back-and-forth, but the meeting produced a genuinely useful guiding question: what would it take to get Bibbi from Skálmöld to register with the National Church?" he says, laughing, adding that from that meeting onward the collaboration never soured.

"I believe, in my own way"

During the preparation phase, many people were interviewed about their faith, and Heimir says the results can be summed up in one word: "but." "Some said in the interviews that they believe in God, but... and others said they don't believe in God, but..." The work ultimately led to a focus on personal belief and individual values, under the slogan "I believe, in my own way."

From that slogan, the team developed eighteen symbols representing values associated with Christian faith, values most people could agree on. Pipar brought in designer Elín Edda Þorsteinsdóttir to create the symbols, and built a campaign around them that included videos of well-known individuals describing their beliefs through the eighteen values, along with an interactive feature on the Church's new website letting visitors assemble their own cross from the values they connected with most. "The symbols are, at their core, Christian symbols drawn from Christian art history and literature," Heimir explains.

Trust rose from 28% to over 50%

So how has it gone? Does a rebrand like this matter for a 1,026-year-old institution like the National Church? What's clear is that public attitudes and trust toward the Church have improved markedly in a short time. According to Gallup's annual trust survey of public institutions, the share of people who said they trust the National Church rose from 28% in 2023 to over 50% this year. Shifts of that scale in such a short period are rare and don't happen on their own.

The campaign and rebrand have also drawn well-deserved attention from marketing professionals, winning two awards at the latest ÍMARK awards, for brand identity and for interactive advertising. It was in his speech at that event that Hannesson used the words that gave this article its title: "Who on earth came up with the idea to re-brand the cross?!" A fair question, though judging by the public's reception of the Church's new image, it turned out not to be such a strange idea after all.

Reaching new audiences

Heimir says the real win in all of this is twofold: the Church is now clearly reaching audiences it hadn't reached well before, and there is broad internal agreement on the direction chosen. Rolling out the new identity, though, is only just beginning, and it remains to be seen how its use will evolve. From the outset, the emphasis has been that individual units within the Church are free, not required, to use the material, so it remains to be seen how widely it will be adopted, for instance among individual churches that have developed their own look and marketing approach.

Registration secures exclusive rights to the mark

The final question naturally concerns why the Church decided to apply for registration of the new motion mark. Heimir answers wryly: "Honestly, I was simply told to do it by people who know the law. This is one branch of trademark development that had never crossed my desk before, so it was new to me. Above all, we wanted to secure our rights to the mark and the rights of its creators, and we were told that registration was the best way to do that, or as another good ad campaign put it: you don't insure afterwards. We brought in experts in the field to help with the registration, and we don't regret it."
We congratulate Heimir Hannesson and the National Church on the registration of their new motion mark.