Thursday, April 11, Stroom hosted a lunch session. The theme was digital branding and the image culture that is becoming increasingly important. Rutger Mackenbach (director of Stroom) and Aljen de Boer (Head of Inspiration at trend agency Trendsactive) made sure that everyone went home with a lot of new knowledge and the necessary inspiration.
Why digital branding?
Branding has become of great importance to brands since the 1960s. When the consumer stands in front of a shelf in the store, you obviously want your brand to be bought. You achieve that by claiming a brain position in the consumer's mind. TV ads were the way to get this done. But is branding still important in the digital world now that we can reach the desired product with a single mouse click?
The answer to this is simple: yes! Never before has the supply been so great and it is so easy to buy a competitive product. More than ever, it's crucial to get a good brain position with consumers, so that they don't do a general search on "buy batteries" where numerous options are given, but that they search on "buy Duracell batteries" so that they come straight to your product. Especially with the rise of voice search, you need to make sure your brand is so strong that people don't search for the general product, but directly mention your brand for the shopping cart.
The 5 most important tips for branding in the digital world
- Video is the most effective format when it comes to branding. Up to 3x more effective than non-video expressions (Binet & Field).
- We can't say it often enough, but keep communications short. Forwarding a 30" TVC online is usually not a good plan. 8 to 15 seconds is recommended, and make sure the message is immediately clear before you get skipped on YouTube, for example.
- Capitalize on emotion. An emotional approach produces up to 42% more results than a rational approach (Binet & Field).
- Reserve 60% of your marketing budget for branding and 40% for performance. That's the ideal combination (Binet & Field).
- Be consistent, without losing freshness (Byron Sharp).
Visual culture is changing society
A picture says more than a thousand words. It's cliché, but it's still true. Communication is becoming more and more visual. At a glance, images can make much more clear than a piece of text. A good example of today's visual culture are the emoticons (smileys) that are widely used in online communication.
So as a company, it is important to take this visual culture into account when communicating with your target audience. This starts with your logo. Screens are getting smaller and smaller and certain logos do not show up well in them. Several companies have adjusted their logo to be clearly visible on mobile devices.
Look closely at how your company communicates and whether it fits well with today's visual culture. Delve into the target audience and create images that fit well with their perceptions. A brand with a strong visual identity will be better able to stand out from the competition. This will then only make online branding easier.
Also attending a lunch session? Contact us or keep an eye on the company page!