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In the fourth quarter, Articulation once again partnered with a singer-songwriter to create the artwork for the release of his upcoming album. The team at Articulation contributed original photography, branding and design efforts to the project, developing unique textures and treatments that capture the mood and emotion of the music. The artwork was the first step in an effort to update and extend his brand, coinciding with his sophomore album release in early 2011.
On the heels of a wildly popular multi-spot advertising campaign, Proctor and Gamble’s Old Spice and its Brand Manager have been named Marketer of the Year by AdWeek. For decades the company attempted to reconcile an outdated brand identity and a fresh, young audience, while competing with edgier new brands like Axe, which emphasizes sexual appeal in their branding messages. However, with their 2010 campaign, Old Spice managed to appeal to the sense of humor of male cologne-wearers, and the lust of female cologne buyers. In the process, they reinvented iconic brand elements, transforming old to experienced, clipper ships to yachts, and sailors to spokesman Isaiah Mustafa, clad in white pants, for an effective brand update that remained true to their nautical roots.
Articulation recently underwent efforts to refresh elements of their own brand. Focusing on the website homepage and the Portfolio of work, the visual update maintains the same color palette and style long associated with the firm’s core identity, while implementing a bold new design to emphasize recent work and successes. It is important to periodically revisit your branding strategy to ensure that your visual identity evolves as your company does. Adjustments to your look, when consistent with the overall brand, can take advantage of new services, features, and technologies, as well as repositioning your firm to reflect current focus, goals and offerings. A brand refresh can also serve as a new and interesting touch point to reach out to past and current clients and prospects.
As social-media evolves to become a must for nearly any marketing plan, it is important to assess your firm’s strategies. In a recent project for an emerging singer-songwriter, Articulation created and leveraged a strong presence on several social networking sites to drive traffic to his website and to other profiles, to gain exposure and listeners, and interact with fans. With most sites now linking to each other through easy-to-use applications, you gain a complex web of avenues to reach your target market, allowing you to engage in ongoing conversations with frequent touches. While Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the most common networks, industry-specific communities offer unique audiences, while media-sharing sites like Youtube and Flickr, blogs and forums can be equally effective tools in a multi-tier marketing scheme.
Spurred by their recent giveaway of a free bag of chips for the signing up of new fans, SunChips Facebook page gained nearly 200,000 fans in a matter of days. Following up the efforts with a free song download for all fans and a promise of more giveaways in the near future, the company is set to gain a significant following on the ubiquitous social networking site which could translate to real-life profits. PandaExpress, Baja Fresh, T.G.I. Friday’s, 1-800-Flowers.com, The Children’s Place, and many other companies have also begun using giveaways as a means to expand their fan base, promote their offerings, and build brand awareness. As with any strategy, it is important to assess whether the strengths of your company’s offerings can be effectively conveyed through this type of method before including it in your marketing plan. When executed appropriately, a fan giveaway can be an excellent marketing resource as well as true testament to your product.
Articulation partnered with a leading provider of branding, interactive, and content services for athletes to develop the design framework for the firm’s corporate identity brochure and print materials. The company, which provides branded content that reflects the individual interests and personas of each unique athlete, contacted Articulation to develop a Brand Blueprint, or creative brief with a multi-tier strategy demonstrating the marketing potential of an individual athlete. The team at Articulation contributed significant identity and design efforts to the brochure, which has since been successfully employed as part of their marketing and branding process.
Another recent launch involved the development of a personal brand for one of the nation’s leading commercial real estate brokers. The goal was to develop a scalable and credible brand story and messaging strategy to support the broker as an expert advisor, speaker, and mentor. This involved editorial and strategic assistance in the writing of a book detailing core real estate investment tenets and strategies to create wealth. Articulation also built and launched the broker’s personal website to extend his brand, showcase service offerings, and provide an outlet for investors, students, and clients.
During the quarter, the communications team at Articulation completed an announcement campaign for a sale of a financial services firm in the Midwest. The campaign included a client announcement, press releases, an introductory background piece for the new owner, and new corporate identity materials. The entire package was created and designed to extend their brand, create awareness of the additional capabilities available, announce the transaction to the community, and drive client activity.