RSPCA Australia’s farm animal welfare certification program has been renamed RSPCA Certified. The change aims to help consumers and stakeholders navigate marketing and labelling claims and more easily identify products that meet animal welfare standards developed and implemented by the RSPCA.
The updated brand includes a revised strategy and visual identity, reflecting the program’s assessment framework and its focus on ongoing improvements to industry practices across Australia.
The standards extend beyond legal requirements in Australia, with hundreds of criteria within each animal specific standard. These address housing conditions, stocking densities, enrichment and low stress handling.
“We received the brief from RSPCA Australia and engaged the thrills to spearhead creative development, while Nature led the rebrand as a strategic step to make the RSPCA’s comprehensive and credible farming certification standards the core brand platform.” said Nature head of strategy Aliya Hasan.
“We treated naming as a critical strategic lever. ‘Certified’ communicates verification and ongoing assessment of standards in a much clearer and more compelling way than ‘approved’, which can imply the job is done.
“That seemingly small but powerful word change, along with a streamlined brand architecture, strengthens the program’s role at shelf and supports a more consistent system across packaging and partner touchpoints to ultimately help consumers make conscientious choices.”
The refreshed program replaces the previous RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme on pack identity, which was less explicit in communicating ongoing improvements to welfare standards. The new RSPCA Certified Welfare Standards logo signals assessment against RSPCA standards that exceed legal requirements, while a unified brand architecture is intended to improve recognition across protein categories.
During the transition, both the previous and new logos will appear on packaging and menus as businesses update materials. Both indicate products sourced from RSPCA Certified farms, with the former mark to be phased out over time.