The document discusses how digital has changed brand experiences and expression. It notes that digital interactions are now the primary context for brands, occurring across websites, email, social media, mobile and more. This fragments brand experiences into many shorter moments. The traditional approach of developing brand guidelines focused on print artifacts does not translate well to digital. Instead, the document suggests a "digital-first" approach where brands are designed from the start with digital contexts and capabilities in mind, considering logos, colors, fonts, imagery, interactions and more. This helps ensure a consistent brand experience across all channels.
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Creating Natively Digital Brand Experiences - LMA15
1. Creating Natively Digital
Brand Experiences
Kalev Peekna
Managing Director, Strategy
One North Interactive
@OneNorth, @kpeekna
Nathan Denton
Managing Director, Creative
One North Interactive
@OneNorth
2. #LMA15
Is Brand a four-letter word?
It has to be the most misused
—and least understood—word
in the business of . . . well,
branding.
—McGhie, Austin
Legal
3. #LMA15
Legal Responses: “How is your Brand?”
“There’s no way I could
get them to shorten it.”
“It’s fine. Everyone
hates it. It’s not
changing.”
“The last time we did
anything with it we
spent $300K and
ended up with the
same colors.”
“Looks good on a golf
umbrella.”
“I’m glad you asked.
Can you make it
bigger?”
“Needs to be more
modern, clean,
traditional,
sophisticated, relaxed.
I wish it popped more.”
“Is there a way to
refresh it without
anyone noticing?
“You can’t change the
logo, colors, imagery or
type. Or the
messaging. But
everything else is fair
game.”
“What do you mean by
brand?”
“I hate taglines.”
4. #LMA15
What your Brand isn’t
Logo:Identity/Name:
Name, Name,
Name, Can’tRead
& Name LLC
Tagline:
Tomorrow’s law,
today. Together.
Colors: Fonts:
Times New
Roman
Arial
All of these artifacts are part
of the expression of your
brand.
These are visual and verbal
signifiers of your real brand—
triggers created for users to
attach feelings to.
5. #LMA15
So what is brand?
Pick your definition. Here are some we like:
• “A brand is present when the value of what a product, service or
personality means to its audience is greater than the value of what it
does for that audience.”
• “Living business assets, brought to life across all touchpoints, which
if properly managed, create identification, differentiation, and value.”
• “Brand is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room.”
6. #LMA15
Brand Framework
Essence
and Purpose
Voice, Brand
DNA and Actions
Activating the persona
to achieve specific outcomes
What we will say and when
Logistics of executing the strategy
The foundation of everything,
the only thing that really matters
Brand Idea
Brand Persona
Brand Strategy
Communications Strategy
Tactics
Overall
Customer Experience
7. #LMA15
Digital is the Zero-Day of Brand
“The need to position your product or service so as to differentiate it in ways
that create competitive advantage has not and will not change over time. How
you accomplish this, however, is where all the change resides.”
—Austin McGhie, Brand is a Four-letter Word
Digital has already changed the way we think
about marketing budgets, skills, and tactics.
Now it is changing how we develop and
express our brands.
DIGITAL
8. #LMA15
Essence
and Purpose
Voice, Brand
DNA and Actions
Activating the persona
to achieve specific outcomes
What we will say and when
Logistics of executing the strategy
The foundation of everything,
the only thing that really matters
Brand Idea
Brand Persona
Brand Strategy
Communications Strategy
Tactics
Overall
Customer Experience
Staying the same
Changing
Now
Already
Changed
9. #LMA15
Rise of Digital: By the Numbers
Despite “restricted budgets” across all marketing, the increase
spending in digital has not relented:
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
33% 35% 28% 28% 27% 27%
Yearly average
increase in
digital spend.
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
$1330 $1796 $2298 $2942 $3736 $4745
$1K spent in
2009 on Digital
would now be:
Digital spend is now almost 5x the levels in 2009
Source: Oracle, Marketing Budgets 2015
https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/new-2015-marketing-budget-benchmarks
10. #LMA15
How is Digital Changing Brand?
• Changing & Multiplying Contexts: Website, email, social, video,
mobile, search results, etc. – they are all brand experiences.
• Staying Close: Digital is in your pocket, on your arm, in your bag,
on your desk, in front of your couch...
• Fragmenting Experience: Each interaction is shorter, but
happening at multiple discrete moments.
• Participating: You can do more than consume in digital. You can
change, contribute to, and use the information you find.
• Transforming Expression: Everything you learned about what your
brand looks like is now obsolete or irrelevant.
12. #LMA15
Why doesn’t this work?
• Nothing translates cleanly. Color, typography, and logo all look
slightly off.
• New brand expressions–movement, video, social copy—are absent.
• Brand expression is fragmented as each digital designer adjusts for
media that wasn’t considered.
• Everything comes out looking like the static “tests”: ads, business
cards, brochures, coffee mugs, etc.
13. #LMA15
A Tricky Transition to Digital: Hermès
Product: Luxury fashion, “sporting” goods
Focus on materials + design
Concepts: “Give time to time”
“Craftsmanship is its own reward”
Persona: Chic, Exclusive, Timeless,
Understated
45. The Fox The Fox
Garamond – 72px Georgia – 72px
46. “Anything from 45 to 75 characters is widely regarded as a
satisfactory length of line for a single-column. The 66-character
line (counting both letters and spaces) is widely regarded as ideal.”
- webtypography.net
50. “The details are details. They
make the product. The
connections, the connections,
the connections. It will in the
end be these details that give
the product its life.”
- Charles Eames
51. Dan Saffer’s new book,
Microinteractions, makes the
case that design is in the
details – the very small details
that make systems friendlier.
- Fast Company
55. #LMA15
In a Nutshell
• Your first and most frequent brand interactions are now digital. Your
brand should be designed for those digital moments.
• Test new brand ideas in a digital context. Try things out in web
pages, email, and LinkedIn.
• Expand your understanding of brand visuals. Take advantage of
digital’s dynamic approach to color, shape, imagery, typography and
movement.
• Print still matters – but do that after you nail digital.
• Users experience a single brand, no matter how many different
kinds of interactions. Consistency creates seamlessness.