Bill Woods is joined by Mike Drysdale, advertising and communications expert / General Manager, Dear Storyteller, following reports that the Bureau of Meteorology payed an external communications consultancy almost $70,000 to rebrand it “the Bureau”.

“Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, or BoM, is one of the country’s most trusted institutions”, says Mr Drysdale.

“So when it sent out a media release asking the media to stop calling it BoM and to refer to it as “the Bureau” instead, it put a few noses out of joint.”

“Rolling out a brand refresh in the middle of record-breaking floods, seems like strange timing, but at least the $70,000 price tag was modest.”

“Not securing the new Bureau Twitter handles before making the announcement was a big mistake, as it just encouraged mischief-makers to jump in and claim the usernames.”

“No professional brand manager in their right mind would look at an established entity like The Bureau of Meteorology and suggest a radical name change.”

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