LIVESTRONG Foundation is a $50 million cancer foundation with 2.5 million members worldwide. It is rated one of the most effective nonprofits in the cancer community by charity watchdogs, and it’s among the most prestigious. LIVESTRONG’s mission is unique: unlike its peers, the Foundation focuses on helping cancer survivors rather than on conducting cancer research. To date, LIVESTRONG has raised $500 million to help people navigate the practical, emotional and financial realities of cancer.

Since 2011, Rigsby Hull has had primary responsibility for LIVESTRONG’s brand image and communications. Our work became exponentially harder in 2012, when LIVESTRONG’s founder—seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong—admitted to doping, was stripped of his medals and resigned from the Foundation. A New York Times story made insinuations about Armstrong’s connection to LIVESTRONG and gave rise to misguided criticisms that, among other things, the Foundation “contributes hardly anything to cancer research.” After an initial surge of support, longtime sponsors Nike and Oakley dropped Armstrong, and donations to the foundation began showing a slight but ominous decline.

LIVESTRONG’s brand was suddenly in crisis. From its winner’s jersey–yellow signature to its name and defiantly virile voice, the brand seemed tied to Armstrong. While NBC News, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that LIVESTRONG would need substantial rebranding to survive, Communicate Good and others suggested that too big a change would cost LIVESTRONG its powerful brand equity and diminish the respect the Foundation commanded.

The branding challenge was urgent: publicly distance LIVESTRONG Foundation from its founder and clarify its central story.

Read the full case study with juror comments here: [http://www.aiga.org/case-study-livestrong-branding/]

Game changer. Moved the needle. Inspirational. Given the close association LIVESTRONG had with Lance Armstrong, it required courage, discipline and smarts to separate the mission of the brand and the “cult of Lance” without losing the core essence of the foundation’s identity. A well-written brief coupled with strong executions. —Clement Mok