Wildcats rebrand for next generation: Arena

Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena has provided insight into the National Basketball League club’s decision to undertake a significant rebrand.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Wildcats released their new logo and brand identity, which received a mixed response on social media.

Within the club’s online announcement, Mr Arena highlighted the fact the club’s previous identity was more than 20 years old, and it was important for the brand to remain in sync with recent developments both on and off court.

During an interview with Business News on Wednesday, Mr Arena spoke in-depth about the rebrand process and why he is focused on future generations enjoying their Wildcats experience.

(On what instigated the rebranding)

“The first thing I’d say is the rebrand is way more than just a logo change. It’s really setting our culture and values as a club," Mr Arena said. 

“And so, when I came into the Wildcats … it’s always been known as a high-performing, good culture, but there wasn’t really anywhere where we could see it was kind of written down.

“What is the culture? What are the values of the club? But we needed to do that as a staff.

“Secondarily, some of those values … I talked to some of the former players who were really successful and they talked about some of the values that they had.

“And I don’t think it aligned with the younger generation, so we needed to bring a kind of cross-age culture and values that could be documented beyond and appeals to someone who is sixteen all the way up to Jesse (Wagstaff).

“So that was a key part of it and that drove into (the fact we’ve had) our logo we’ve had for twenty years.

“And ten years I think is probably a good number honestly if you think about it, looking at other teams in generating a new one.  

“I identified very early in my ownership, early last season, that we were going look to do a rebrand and we’d poll our members for feedback.

“So we did that.

“I know we had 800 to 900 people submitted feedback, of our members, which is a great percentage that returned it.”

(On the significance of the rebrand)

“The objective of the rebrand, specifically around the logo and branding, is to appeal to the next generation of fans," Mr Arena continued.

“It’s not targeted at my generation.

“I always say, my favourite is the black and gold logo when I was a kid, as that was really special for me, and the same for people of a similar age.

“But it was pretty consistent overwhelming feedback to keep the red. 

You know, I’ve had a few people approach me since I’ve taken over – they knew about the rebrand – and they said to bring the state’s colours back.

“And I’m like ‘hey, personally, I love that’ but the vast majority of our members didn’t. Especially with the ‘Red Army’ as its quite well known.”

(On whether “Wilbur the Wildcat” will remain as the club’s mascot)

“He’ll still be around, 100 per cent the same, other than obviously the shirt that he’ll be wearing will be different.” 

(On some negative social media feedback in relation to both the rebrand and recent departure of Bryce Cotton)

"I would say some of the negative feedback has come (from) some folks still upset that Bryce is not still playing in a red jersey(as) he's gone over to Adelaide.

"So there's a bit of that. And I expect that will start to go away as we have some wins when the season starts.

"Secondarily, I think some folks...like I said, they put their own views on what inspires them about the Wildcats, in terms of their journey since they've been supporters as kids like myself included.

"They have their preferences and they are afraid of change. 

"I mean 20 years ago, the previous logo was released - and thankfully for the club then who did the rebrand, there was no social media.

"But I think our new logo is a significant improvement on the previous logo - but I want to talk about the logo and the rebrand is about that next generation of fans... they can own it.

"Just like me growing up was owning that black and gold logo."