AAESS is now ESSA
From January 1, 2010 the Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science (AAESS) will change its trading name to Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA). This move follows an extensive review of the association’s branding image, which was recently undertaken for the first time since its inception in 1991.
What are the reasons behind the title change?
The AAESS board began extensive marketing research in early 2009 including consultation with media authorities regarding our association’s current name. The outcomes identified the following issues:
The current trading name - comprising eight (8) words – was too long. As a policy media outlets (television and radio) will not allocate the airtime to broadcast the full name. Print media often abbreviated the association title to an extent that the modified titles bore little resemblance. This posed a major issue for raising the profile of the association and the professionals it represents.The acronym AAESS posed pronunciation issues and was commonly mis-spelt or interpreted phonetically as “ACE”. This posed problems for those searching for the association’s details and/or finding the AAESS website. The new acronym ESSA eliminates confusion with regards to spelling and its uniqueness will enable stronger branding. This title change is overdue and will bring the association in line with other associations:
‘The Australian Sports Medicine Association (ASMF)’ changed its title to Sports Medicine Australia (SMA).
‘The Australian Diabetes Association (ADA)’ changed its title to Diabetes Australia (DA).
‘The Australian Fitness Accreditation Council (AFAC)’ changed its title to Fitness Australia (FA).
The logo change brings new corporate stationery, new EP and student brochures, new banners/posters, and, eventually new merchandise. A slick, modern HTML version of ENEWS will land in your email from January and the current website will be updated to reflect our fresh new corporate look. The website address will change to www.essa.org.au. However, the current address will remain active and automatically link until December 2010.