Four museums in Newcastle upon Tyne joined forces to launch a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a revitalised and much improved combined museum. SUMO's role was to communicate the plans to stakeholders and fundraisers locally and nationally. Through workshops and the application of the SUMO Museum Branding process, we established the core values and developed these into a campaign brand and a strong, comprehensible message. This was applied to stationery, brochures, a website, leaflets and fundraising materials to be used by the team as they pushed the bid forwards. The Great North Museum project secured HLF funding in 2005, the £25 million development will open in 2009.