1. BUILDING BRAND LOYALTY AND BRAND VALUE IS OUR ULTIMATE GOAL THE SWIM ACROSS AMERICA BRAND ENHANCEMENT REPRESENTS OUR COMMITMENT TO NATIONAL GROWTH.

2. HOW DID THE RE-BRAND GO? Overall Brand Compliance We had fantastic brand compliance for the 2013 swims following the launch of the re-brand. Thank you for your role in helping us make the new brand successful. Goals Achievement Our goals are to: 1.Gain Brand Recognition 2.Add Brand Value 3.Make it easier to raise money We made great strides in achieving those goals and we will continue to make progress in 2014.

3. Logo Unique & innovative Message Gripping & memorable Creative Guidelines Document How we will put it all together LAST YEAR WE LAUNCHED A NEW BRAND

4. Updated Creative Guidelines More detail on how we put it all together Updated Templates Making your job easier National Brand Director Additional resources to ensure a strong brand THIS YEAR YOU WILL GET…

5. CONTINUED GOALS OF THE RE-BRAND Brand recognition Brand value Easier to raise money “Customers must recognize that you stand for something.” Howard Schultz, Starbucks

6. OUR UNIQUE MESSAGE

7. OUR GUIDELINES ENSURE CONSISTENCY The Branding Guidelines Document The Branding Guidelines document is our brand Constitution. It re-affirms who we are, what we say and what we do. It includes guidelines on: Color Font Logo Usage Naming Conventions Tone of Voice Brand Promise All Messaging Apparel Print Photography Illustrations

8. THE SAA BRAND

9. THE BRAND 2014 Your Committee Will Continue to Work with your Branding Director This Branding Director (BD) will oversee everything produced on behalf of SAA to ensure that it is “on brand.” Please submit any outward facing documents, apparel etc. to your BD before it goes to print. We will continue to Follow a Branding Guidelines Document This document has been updated for this year and includes guidelines on almost everything from messaging on a brochure, to logo usage on a T-shirt, to URL usage on a flyer. SAA Now Has a National Brand Director This National Brand Director (NBD) will ensure that everything produced by each race is reflective of the SAA brand. Your branding director will work directly with the NBD.

10. COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID Logo The Swim Across America Logo is hero and should have more prominence than other logos. Minimum size of the logo is 2” in width, but actual size of the logo should be dependent on the collateral. Logo should not be put over graphics or images. Typography Ensure the correct fonts are used in all documents and all copy is left justified. Akzidenz- Grotesk Ext Std. Bold should be used for Hero Copy. Headlines and sub-headlines are in Helvetica Neue Regular. Body copy is Helvetica Neue Light. Fonts are available on FTP site http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/easy Colors On all marketing materials, navy or white should be the main color of a piece. Secondary color is teal, only use red sparingly and for impact. Exact RGB colors are available in the SAA Brand Guidelines.

11. WHAT WE ALL NEED To create anything on behalf of SAA, you will need the following: The Logo All versions can be downloaded from the ftp site Our Fonts All can be downloaded from the ftp site Our Colors No need to download. You already have them in your Microsoft Office The Guidelines The Branding Guidelines document is available on our ftp site Our ftp site http://docs.swimacrossamerica.org/files/ http://docs.swimacrossamerica.org/files/

12. IN ORDER TO BRAND SOMETHING PROPERLY, USE THE BRANDING GUIDELINES DOCUMENT HERE ARE SOME TOOLS TO HELP YOU WITH FONTS AND COLORS.

13. HOW TO ACCESS OUR COLORS RGB colors: RGB stands for Red, Green & Blue… Since all colors are comprised of these three colors, entering the values for Red, Green and Blue tells Microsoft Office how to make SAA’s colors. Select “More Colors,” then click the “Custom” tab, then enter your RGB values.

14. YOUR RGB COLOR CHEAT SHEET NavyTealRedLight Blue R 00239140 G 6215765210 B 12622053244 SAA’s RGB Colors

15. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT FONTS Swim Across America now has two unique fonts, and they are the only fonts we will use on anything going forward. These two fonts are: AKZIDENZ - GROTESK STD – USED FOR HERO COPY HELVETICA NEUE REGULAR – USED FOR HEADLINES Helvetica Neue Lt – Used for sub-headers and body copy Something to remember: Most people won’t have these so, if you create an editable document (in Microsoft Word, for example) and email it, the document will be gibberish to the recipient. All final documents being sent into the world must be changed into a PDFs before they are sent.

16. THANK YOU FOR HELPING US CONTINUE TO GROW A STONG BRAND Please contact your Local Branding Director with any questions or, as always, the national office of Swim Across America. INFO@SWIMACROSSAMERICA.ORG 888–SWIM-USA