I've been spending a lot of time dissecting the book, Brand Digital by Allen Adamson. It really brings into focus the importance of branding and the branding mindset in today's digital age. Or has Allen puts it, "digital amplifies the things that have always been true of branding."
One of the things Allen touches on is the importance of a Brand Driver. That "one idea" that serves as a launch pad or platform for every idea communicated across every channel. For instance, in the book Adamson refers to brand driver's such as Johnson & Johnson's "having a baby changes everything," GE's "imagination at work" and HP's "Personal computers are personal again."
Adamson calls it a "brand driver," but I've come to know it as a "brand theme." A brand theme is the backbone of all marketing communications and internal activity, yet it's stretchy and elastic enough to wrap around the entire brand. Which is why I believe that ad agencies need to get better at developing meaningful and original "brand themes" for their clients, and get beyond cute and clever "one-off" ads and taglines that sound more like prom themes. Ideas that work okay in the moment but are cast aside in a matter of months because they quickly lose relevance.
Is your brand wrapped around a clear, compelling and memorable brand theme? Is your brand theme built around a powerful and actionable consumer insight capable of generating hundreds of great ads, commercials or websites?
"Serious Care Starts Here" for a prestigious University Hospital, "Life is Looking Up" for Verizon Yellow Pages, and "Spontaneous Cool" for a brand of apparel for the NFL all were brand themes that gave the client and agency plenty of room to run. They were brand themes that spoke directly to the audience and gave the brand something to talk about. A conversation to own and involve people in.
Therefore, we're no longer makers of ads or designers of websites. We are theme machines. Methodically crafting emotional blockbusters that become the calling card for the brand, and serve as a underpinning for all digital and traditional work.
A fellow cartoonist friend of mine, Tom Fishburne, is a brand manager for Method in the U.K. and is a famous "management cartoonist"(tomfishburne.com). Here's a recent cartoon of Tom's that captures the sentiment of a lot of people.
Thought I'd end the week before Memorial Day with someone else's cartoon for a change.
Who are we? What do we? Why are we different? Who have we done this with before? The bigger question in the room would be, "is the prospective client willing and able to pay for what we do?Do they even value what we do?"
A former ad agency colleague of mine had a favorite catchphrase when negotiating with prospective clients in the pitch mode, especially when the agency was asked by the prospective partner to "put together some ideas to see if we like what we do." To them, GD would always intone to the team: "No romance without the finance."Funny.
I have to agree. Spec work is pure evil. Nonetheless. We had a couple good client meetings/presentations this week. Good rapport. Excitement in the air. All signs point to "yes" around the chance to do compelling work for them.
What closed the deal? Must have been the agency's elevator pitch.
I saw this in the hallway of the hotel I was staying in while in Stockholm. At first glance, I read it as "brand alarm," and thought "I'm not sure what it means and why it's there, but what a great way to capture the feeling many marketers are experiencing these days." Upon further inspection I realized there wasn't an "A" after the "D" so it was actually brand-larm. Nonetheless, how cool would it be for clients to have one of these at their disposal? Branding companies could be like a firehouse.
Think of it. Whenever a client had an emergency with their brand, they could sound an alarm that would ring, alerting branding professionals to the problem(how many times have we heard about clients needing to "put out fires?)
This would certainly come in handy these days, when most marketers are smelling a little smoke and could use help figuring out where it's coming from.
Gary Kopervas is a brand activator in the Digital Age. He's a creative instigator, dot connector, and serial integrator who loves the chase for big
ideas.
