HDI Youth Marketeers expands operations, rebrands corporate identity

Johannesburg youth consultancy HDI Youth Marketeers has entered a phase of transition, after rebranding its corporate identity to better match the firm’s goals and objectives going forward. The firm has a new logo and a new vision, which is dominated by an expansion in the scope of its business.

Founded in 1996, HDI Youth Marketeers is a branding firm with a highly differentiated operating principle – to benefit the youth in any way possible. ‘Youth’ is described by the firm as children, adolescents and young adults – an age group that contains more than 500 million people in Africa, given its position as the youngest region on the planet.

A number of reports have emerged in recent times about how essential it is to capitalise on this large repository of young talent, by ensuring that they are offered state-of-the-art education. HDI’s operations heavily focus on education & content, generating interactive programmes that engage with over 6,000 educational institutions across South Africa.

Other domains in which HDI connects clients to youth include community & healthcare, events, communications, in-store & promotions, and research. As part of its rebranding efforts, HDI Youth Marketeers will now be known as HDI Youth Consultancy, indicating a broader suite of services than its previous marketing profile.

The firm executed the shift in its corporate identity with help from global branding agency Grid Worldwide. The two firms not only have similar operations but also share other links, in that they both come under the umbrella operations of the TBWA Africa Collective – the African division of global marketing agency TBWA.

Commenting on the transition, CEO at HDI Bongani Chinkanda said, “The rebrand of our logo represents our repositioning as a business. We are no longer just engaging with marketing and brand teams on youth culture. We are now going to be engaging with the full value chain of businesses, in an effort to serve the youth market better in a more meaningful and purpose-led manner.”

 “We are interested in conversations and impactful change beyond activations. It is time to take the youth conversation to another level; to go beyond just cool brands. It’s about making those cool brands impactful – that’s where the real cool factor lies. Our mandate to be the most connecting and connected youth consultancy continues and our digital footprint will be making its presence more tangible for businesses and the youth alike,” he added.

Speaking on HDI’s partnership with Grid Worldwide, Chinkanda added, “They came up with a visual identity that represents what we are about to achieve over the next five years. The visuals are in line with us being a one stop shop for our insights strategy and execution when it comes to the youth market.”