Digital is the status quo
We’re all doing our best to meet the ever-growing demand for organisations to ‘go digital’.
Whether we’re trying to reach more customers, more effectively market our products and services, minimise our carbon footprint or deliver more cost-effective business solutions, finding a digital – and in many ways more accessible – solution is pretty much today’s standard course of action.
The opportunities when we meet a new audience in a new space are obvious. But what about the pitfalls?
The potential for being misunderstood, taken out of context, or having your brand diluted across multiple platforms becomes more likely – especially when considering the speed at which online content is delivered.
And it’s for this reason that our brand identity becomes even more important.
What are brand guidelines?
Your brand guidelines are the rules which determine how your brand is presented to the world. It usually contains information about your brand name and how it’s used, your corporate logo, brand colours, fonts, tone of voice etc.
Your brand guidelines should clearly illustrate how your brand identity is portrayed and communicated to consumers, providing a reference point for employees and clients alike.
And we need them, because when your brand remains consistent, it remains recognisable.
Research has shown 86% of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support. And when we think about it, it makes complete sense.
Imagine you nip into your local corner shop to buy a bottle of Coca Cola. Only, the label on the bottle looks strange. In fact, it’s not the typical Coca Cola red at all – it’s bright orange.
And, come to think of it, the font looks different too: It’s narrower than you remember. And not as cursive. Plus, the bottle’s neck is slightly longer. But the drink is still claiming to be authentic, traditional Coca Cola – what’s the likelihood this is a fake?
Maybe you risk it. Or maybe you pick the more familiar-looking bottle of Pepsi, instead.
According to PwC’s consumer insights survey, customers selected trust as their number one reason for choosing a retailer. And how can you expect customers to trust your brand if you don’t remain consistent?
The need for maintaining brand consistency across platforms is critical, because it promotes authenticity and trust. In fact, ensuring a consistent representation of your brand can increase revenue by as much as 33%.
With 80% of consumers agreeing that a signature colour increases brand association and recognition, the importance of sticking to your guidelines – is hard to overstate.
What about having a refresh?
There’s nothing wrong with intentionally refreshing your brand. In fact, updating your branding every few years ensures you stay modern, and reflects your company’s ability to evolve with the times.
But with any brand refresh, your guidelines need to be refreshed too.
Many organisations keep their brand guidelines in a PDF or printed format, meaning you’ll need to factor in time-consuming tasks: updating your documents, checking and proofing them, making amends, artworking them and having them signed off – all this on top of your rebranding process.
But there is a better way.
Digitising your brand guidelines allows for quick and resource-light updates to guidelines, that are quick to roll out and distribute to all relevant stakeholders.
Creating digital brand guidelines
A digital brand guideline ‘book’ can be accessed from anywhere, at any time, and on any device – without the trouble of having to locate a physical copy, or share a long-lost PDF that’s buried on your desktop. Simply share the link, and go.
At Proctors, we use Webflow to create and update our clients’ digital brand guidelines. Whether they’re used by your colleagues, your customers, media or external business partners, making your guidelines accessible on Webflow gives everyone clear direction on presenting your brand consistently.
Even better, with Webflow, elements such as your logos, fonts and colours can be downloaded by anyone you share the link with. So in today’s digital first world, your media partners or social media managers can remain responsive when it comes to pushing out branded content.
Plus, with digital-first increasingly the norm, companies who use motion graphics in their brand elements can demonstrate real, live examples in their digital brand guidelines book too – something which isn’t possible in other formats.
Even large organisations with lots of different sub-brands can benefit from Webflow’s flexibility. It’s a quick and efficient process to create and update your guidelines, whether you need to edit just one page or to build and deploy several branding ‘chapters’. Plus, any changes or updates can be highlighted on the landing page, so all employees are made aware of them.
With Webflow’s no-code format, any brand refresh updates can be easily executed by your marketing team, meaning you’ll save masses of time on updates. Not to mention avoiding the need to print – and that’s one big environmental benefit.
Scaling up with Webflow
If you want your brand to remain trusted in the digital era, you need to practice consistency.
With easily accessible guidelines, you’ll be able to ensure you’re presenting an authentic brand. So you can reach more customers, and more effectively market your businesses.
If you’d like to find out more about our digital brand guideline services, or any of the other services we offer, talk to us today at [email protected].
Andy Nairn, who has been named the UK’s number one brand strategist for the past three years, joined us for a fascinating and entertaining event to share insights from his new book, Go Luck Yourself: 40 ways to stack the odds in your brand’s favour.
In the book, Andy explains how the history of marketing and advertising is full of brands that stumbled across great ideas by accident or turned misfortunes into huge successes. During the event, the co-founder of advertising agency Lucky Generals highlighted some examples and outlined the lessons for creative companies. Dan Martin summarises his insights.
Opening his talk, Andy Nairn explained that we have a strange relationship with luck in the UK. “Other parts of the world find it completely natural to talk about luck and it’s a perfectly acceptable part of business conversation,” he said, “In the West, we’re a bit snooty about the whole thing. We think of it as a bit primitive and not to be trifled with.”
The negativity around luck was cemented in Victorian times, Andy said. The Industrial Revolution and the Protestant work ethic created the belief that if you were rich, you were successful because you had worked really hard for your money and God had smiled upon you, but if you were poor, it meant you hadn’t tried hard enough, you were work-shy and you should try harder.
That attitude around only hard work can generate good results still prevails, shown by the blurring of work and personal lives during the pandemic, Andy said.
“We can all think of situations where working an extra hour hasn’t given us a creative breakthrough and it can actually sometimes make it worse. Working hard means we’re stuck in the middle of it and what we really need is to get some fresh air and space around us.
“The book says yes, hard work is a good thing but you also need a bit of luck. The more you think about luck and the more you’re conscious of it, the more you can do to increase the chance of it coming your way. If you just deny that luck exists, it’s very hard for you to do that.”
There are 40 tips in Andy’s book that fit under the following four themes:
You might not realise it but you are highly likely to have assets in your business that you are not taking full advantage of. Andy used three non-business examples to illustrate his point:
Many businesses are guilty of not appreciating what they’ve got, Andy said. Brand history, heritage and provenance are often neglected by brands but talking about the history of your business, where it’s from and why it’s called what it is could be a valuable benefit to your marketing and other business activities.
Other examples include the data your business holds and the window display in your business’ offices.
And what about your logo? Could that be used in a different way?
Andy’s business, Lucky Generals, was asked to come up with an advertising campaign for Amazon that worked in multiple countries. The answer turned out to be a simple but very powerful one that was inspired by the company’s existing smile-shaped logo. As the Lucky Generals website says: “We hit upon the simple idea of heroing Amazon’s iconic packages and the epic journeys they make, to put a smile on the faces of people around the world.”
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To illustrate this point, Andy highlighted a 10-year study into the nature of luck by Professor Richard Wiseman. As part of it, he gave a group of people a newspaper and asked them to count the number of photographs. The unlucky people took around two minutes whereas the lucky people took just three seconds. The reason was that on the second page of the newspaper was the message: “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.”
The study concluded that lucky people are good at constantly looking for opportunities beyond what they’re working on or the thing they’ve been told to do.
This can also be illustrated by the world of science, Andy said. Several important discoveries have been made accidentally and of the most famous is Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin after spotting some mould that had accidentally developed on a plate.
Diversity of teams is important here too. It’s easy to recruit people who are the same as you but that can mean you’ll just come up with the same ideas. However, if you take on people from different cultures, backgrounds and experiences, “it gives you a much better chance of striking it lucky” and spotting opportunities you might never have discovered.
There are many examples of businesses converting a bad experience into a good one. One brilliant one is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an early character created by Walt Disney in 1927. It was popular but a contract dispute with his producer led to Disney quitting work on the cartoons. On the train home from a meeting, he came up with a new idea. It developed into Mickey Mouse, the most successful cartoon character of all time.
“We’ve all experienced our ideas being pulled, budgets being cut, timings being changed and clients changing their minds, but what we have to do is go again and come up with something that is even better, like Walt Disney did,” Andy said.
“The best companies don’t just deal with a bit of bad luck, it’s almost like they go running towards the bad luck. There’s a good energy that comes out of that.”
Steve Jobs was known for killing off his own products (the iMac killed the Macintosh and the iPhone killed the iPod) because, as Andy said, “his attitude was, if I don’t kill them off, someone else will.”
There are also some brands that take on taboos and talk about them directly. Bodyform and periods is an example.
Others take what could be seen as an annoying product flaw and turn it into a positive. Think of Guinness and “good things come to those who wait”.
When working with a big brand, Andy said he goes to the “darkest corners of social media” to find the negative conversation about that brand. “The jokes and nasty comments often have a truth and by acknowledging them, you can own the joke, turn it on its head and turn against those people.”
Andy’s last point is about deliberately building luck into your processes. He illustrated it with examples from music.
What similar techniques can you build into your business processes so you constantly generate ideas?
Be lucky!
The next Bristol Creative Industries online keynote is with Anne Thistleton, marketing veteran and former strategy lead for The Coca-Cola Company in South Africa. She will share easy and practical lessons from mind science to make sure your audience really hears you. BCI members get £15 off tickets. Book your place here for the event on 21 October.
Mr B & Friends has created a vibrant brand transformation for two South West hospital charities as they merge into one.
The agency developed a brand positioning to strengthen the appeal of two charities as they combine under the new name of Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity. Formerly separated as Above & Beyond and Weston Area Charitable Trust, the charity will now support all 10 sites within University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) beyond what the NHS is able to provide.
The distinctive new identity will provide a platform to launch the unified charity, engaging both new and existing supporters. Built from an organising thought of ‘Do great things’, the new brand shows the huge potential of the merger. The logo’s sunburst acts as a visual metaphor for the work the charity does. It’s the joy they deliver, the mark they make and the spark they ignite. It radiates the positivity synonymous with the team’s approach to fundraising, creating a truly single-minded beacon for their brand. A playful, punchy tone of voice instils a dynamic sense of personality, resulting in an identity that’s hard to ignore.
In addition to the strategy and identity work, full brand guidelines have been provided for ongoing consistency, while Mr B & Friends has worked with the charity team to develop a range of assets, from on-site shop posters to website visuals.
The charity funds the little things that make a big difference and work with the Trust to provide healing environments and spaces which provide dignity, privacy and empathy. They also fund world-class technology, treatments, knowledge and medical research and champion equitable access for all patients.
Simon Barbato, CEO of Mr B & Friends said: “From the first conversation we had with the team at Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity we could see the passion and dedication they brought to the organisation. We’re delighted that we’ve been able to use our brand expertise to translate their vision into a striking new identity that will raise awareness of the charity and enable them to further its fundraising abilities.”
Paul Kearney, chief executive of Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity and we wanted a new identity that radiates positivity and has a clear name to represent and reflect this partnership as we move forward.
“Mr B & Friends has really embraced our cause and this new look and we’re looking forward to being a bold, positive and energetic force across Bristol and Weston.”
For more information about Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, visit bwhospitalscharity.org.uk
The internet should be accessible for everyone. Sadly, this is not the case.
Globally, around 500,000 new websites are built every day. However, a huge 70% of all these websites do not meet the basic WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
Today, there are one billion disabled people around the world – 15% of the global population.
This means that a huge proportion of the world wide web is inaccessible to millions of users who have visual, hearing, motor and/or cognitive impairments.
When in the production stage, website designers and agencies might also have to start considering another growing demographic – the aging population.
Loss of sight, fine motor skills and cognitive function can all greatly impact how well the older generation can interact with a website.
It can be incredibly tempting to create websites with unique layouts, personalised fonts and flashy graphics, but doing so means excluding thousands of potential customers.
Taking ethics out of the equation, there are two major benefits to creating an accessible website.
First, creating an accessible website will shine a positive light on your brand’s identity and firmly position yourself as a trustworthy company.
From an economic standpoint, brands that take the time to create accessible websites are the ones that are profiting.
Take the U.S, for example. Around 54 million people are living with some form of disability according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This community alone represents approximately $1 trillion in aggregate income, which translates into more than $220 billion in discretionary consumer spending power!
There’s a great deal of misconception around the difficulty of designing an accessible website.
With a few alterations, creating a disability-friendly website can be simple. Here are 6 tips for designing a website that’s accessible to all.
This is often overlooked by designers, but it’s so important to ask people with disabilities to try out your website. If you understand your users’ needs, you can design a functional website with minimal issues.
You should also include people with disabilities on your marketing team, as they will be able to tell you first-hand what hurdles they run into when navigating websites. With this information, you can eliminate these obstacles before it goes live.
Siteimprove is a great online tool that allows you to check the accessibility of your website.
At Adapt, we have used it to locate and rework website features that are deemed inaccessible. Websites are scored with an A, AA, or AAA ratings, with AAA being the highest score. Most digital marketers aspire to have an AA rating.
Using Serif fonts or your own branded fonts can cause a lot of problems for people with dyslexia or visual impairments.
You should try to use Sans Serif fonts where you can as these fonts are much clearer and stand out on most images and coloured backgrounds.
The size of the font is also incredibly important. You should opt for a minimum size of 16 pixels for a Serif font and 14 for a Sans Serif font for easy readability.
To check if your choice of font is meeting the mark, try downloading the WhatFont browser extension.
Most websites that include pictures will use alt tags.
Alt tags are the words you see when you hover your mouse over a picture. They are extremely helpful to those using screen readers.
These tags would be a great addition to your website as you can add detailed descriptions to all your pictures. However, when writing these descriptions, you need to keep them concise.
Adding subtitles to your videos is essential, as they are extremely helpful for people with hearing disabilities or those with ADHD.
Some online platforms like YouTube are programmed with software that adds subtitles automatically. However, if you are producing your own videos, it’s important to take the time to create subtitles.
You should also consider writing transcripts and captioning for your videos, which covers all bases.
On most websites, you’ll notice a great proportion of them use the “click here” button to help you navigate to other pages. While this seems like an effective navigation system, this short description makes life incredibly difficult for those using screen readers.
For those who may not have used screen readers before, these programs scan your website for links to help users with visual impairments navigate around your website.
Short, generalised navigation links are difficult for screen readers to process. So, your users may get stuck on one page of your website, which is not good!
Instead of opting for the standardised “click here” link button, it’s worth writing a descriptive link. This will allow the screen reader to process what you’ve written and will allow the user to understand the content of your pages with ease.
For example, it’s better to write “to learn more about our job opportunities, check out Adapt’s careers page”, instead of “to learn about our job opportunities, click here”.
To help your web links stand out for those with visual impairments, underline them and add colour contrast.
The size and range of your links are incredibly important. Ensure the font of the link is a larger size and has a wide range, as this will be helpful for those with mobility difficulties.
Many people are unable to use a keyboard or mouse to trawl through the web, and instead use speech recognition software, screen readers, head wands, adaptive keyboards and trackball mouses.
These inventions are a great resource to those with visual, hearing or mobility impairments, but they will not work if your website fails to support them.
To ensure your website is easy to navigate for all, program your website to be keyboard-friendly. Adding visual indicators on tabs allows users to know their location on each landing page.
If you have a page that has a lot of content, it’s best to divide it into smaller sections, and the easiest way to do this is to create jump lists.
Another design aspect you need to think about is video. For those of you who already have or are considering adding videos to your website, you need to ensure they don’t play automatically as this can make life difficult for your people using screen readers.
Everyone deserves an easy user experience, and right now we are not doing enough to ensure our websites are accessible.
Taking the steps towards reworking the design of your website can seem challenging at first. But by following these 6 easy steps, you’ll have an accessible website up and running in no time.
The workplace is rapidly changing, but workplace practices, norms, infrastructure and management is struggling to catch up. Digital transformation is estimated to be worth over $400 bn in 2021 and is projected to continue to grow by 25% year-on-year.
This rapid change has left businesses in disarray. Is their digital infrastructure prepared? Which employees are struggling to work digitally? Whose remit does this transformation fall under – the CHRO’s, the CIO’s, or the CEO’s?
Enter Actual Experience.
Luckily for all of us, the Actual Experience (AE) team saw this digital mega trend approaching a decade ago. Having built their business on 10 years’ worth of academic research, they’ve engineered a comprehensive patented algorithm which, minute-by-minute, captures and analyses the real-world, human perception of digital applications and services.
In other words, they help businesses ensure that the digital tools, systems and platforms they’ve invested millions in are actually making work easier for employees, and providing a better experience for their customers.
Currently, many businesses use tools such as employee and customer surveys to find out the answers to those questions. But there’s a problem: employee and customer surveys are subjective and are often inaccurate or inconclusive. But when used in conjunction with Actual Experience’s algorithm, it is possible to glean objective, actionable insights from survey data.
ActualExperience’s Human Experience score provides businesses with an objective analysis showing which specific employees are struggling, and with which specific aspects of their digital infrastructure, so they can focus their time and resources on these issues – and keep up with the ever-shifting digital curve.
So, following on from a successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaign and digital brochure, AE were keen to put their money where their mouth is, and upgrade their own digital offering to reflect their progressive business.
The AE team approached us to upgrade their website from Hubspot to Webflow: a no-code flexible website solution that doesn’t require complicated set-ups.
Our first step was for Actual Experience to take us through a thorough wish list. Here, we put together a full feature list, created high-fidelity wireframes and new digital design styles using their updated brand guidelines.
This process meant that when we transitioned the website over to Webflow, both parties had a very clear picture of what it would look like and how it would function. So we could push for tight deadlines in line with AE’s objectives without having to go back and forth to check small details at every stage.
One of the highlights of the website is the design-led navigation that adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes including phone, tablet and various desktop sizes. This was quick and easy to build with Webflow’s online visual editor. This platform is the perfect application for creating visually stunning, easy to use designs that don’t require massive amounts of coding, which AE in this instance, didn’t.
The navigation is not only designed to draw the user in, but allows different audiences to access different content that suits them. For instance, a HR professional will seek different information to IT professionals.
In the end, we created a future-proofed, design-led website under a demanding timescale, migrating 200+ content types seamlessly from Hubspot to Webflow. Check out the full AE case study here, along with the all-important, client feedback.
To find out more about Webflow, and our other digital design services, get in touch with us today at [email protected].
Life has changed immeasurably in the past fifteen months. Social distancing, self-isolation, and WFH are now part of our everyday vocabulary. Physical barriers were put up between us and our friends and family members. The same is true between brands and consumers.
However, as restrictions are loosened, these physical barriers will eventually come down. In a Post-Pandemic world, what legacy will COVID-19 leave for brands, and what newly adopted trends and ways of communicating should stay with us?
Physical Connection – a balancing act
Research suggests that over the course of the pandemic we have leapt 10 years into the future in terms of e-commerce penetration. This has accelerated a decrease in personal interaction with retailers and experiences. Physical connections have been slowly diminishing for decades, as tech-led startups compete with high street brands. From banking to beds, consumers have benefited from the increased choice and embraced the added online convenience. The suggestion being that the death of the high street is inevitable.
However, the jury is still out on the right balance between virtual and physical connections. Just as the pandemic enters its second year in the UK, Amazon launched its first physical UK store (cashless and packed with technology). Tesla – arguably the most future-forward car brand in the world – also places value in physical shopping centre outlets in the heart of towns and cities. Brands venturing offline have one thing in common – they see the move offline as establishing a new touchpoint for the brand as part of an overall ecosystem and to create memorable brand experiences.
‘Phygital’ is a term gaining traction meaning that consumers may be able to have it both ways — online and offline can live together to create more holistic brand experiences. UK-based furniture company Made.com continues to open physical shops that have the look, feel, and product assortment of their online persona.
Some sensory experiences just can’t be duplicated online, such as smelling the coffee, being able to browse to feel a fabric and see quality, or even engaging with a salesperson. Retailers should be thinking of ways to highlight the sensory and personal aspects of offline shopping even after lockdowns are eased.
Brands should remember that once consumers are offered convenience, there’s no going back. If last week they were able to shop online and pick up their order, then they might be unsatisfied if they have to resort to the old method of simply browsing the aisles.
Togetherness – tapping into consumers’ needs
Togetherness and inclusivity have become themes for consumer engagement during the Pandemic. Brands that successfully communicated, “We’re With You,” were able to tap into consumers’ need for comfort in a time of stress. Brands that reinforced this message with positive actions were the most successful.
Aldi developed an ad campaign designed to curb “panic buying.” Their reassuring tone of voice emphasising high quality, low prices and a focus on supporting their own workers as well as local charities has earned them a 10% increase in sales.
Deliveroo made positive gains when they provided 500,000 free meals to NHS workers and those most vulnerable who were unable to leave their homes. They also partnered with VISA to offer financial packages and advice to new restaurants looking to convert to delivery-only.
According to YouGov Plc, 79% of people say that they are more likely to buy from companies that have responded well to the crisis. Brands’ handling of the pandemic will affect how consumers see them and ultimately where they spend their money.
Realness – being refreshingly honest
During the pandemic we all had to adapt to new ways of communicating with each other via digital screens. Seeing our friends and colleagues’ kitchens or spare rooms; being interrupted by kids and cats all helped establish a new level of intimacy to our daily interactions. This also manifested itself in brand communications.
If you didn’t have your Ad ‘in the can’ you had to look for new ways to communicate your message in an ad-hoc way. The result was often lo-fi, socially-distanced campaigns that embraced the realness of the situation – both a practical response but also a human one to which we could all relate. Good examples are: “Nan’s Long Distance Roast Lamb,” from Tesco’s’ Food Love Stories campaign (via BBH) or, “We’ll get through this,” from Maltesers’ Isolation Life (from BBDO).
This blurred the lines even further between brand-generated content and influencer content, opening up opportunities for communication concepts that used hashtags and visual mnemonics to strengthen brand recognition and attribution. Zoom-style ads may get tired. But the fact remains, that the pandemic taught us that brands can embrace a more intimate and real style to tell refreshingly honest and compelling stories.
Convenience – a point of entry for survival
Through lockdown many of our freedoms and conveniences have been curbed. It’s not as easy to simply pop to the shop and grab ingredients for dinner. With this in mind many retailers were forced to reappraise how to provide more convenience and alternative ways to shop.
An Adobe and YouGov study found that 74% of retailers have changed their products and services in 2020 as a result of the pandemic – and that many of the changes would be permanent. 26% of retailers had introduced new digital and e-commerce services in response to demand.
Retailers have extended delivery slots, added click and collect services, or made temporary shifts to full online retailing. Brands that have adapted to support changing consumer needs and habits during this time of uncertainty have strengthened both their relationships and their reputations.
As we begin to relax strict lockdowns (hopefully for good), brands will need to consider how to re-establish physical connections with consumers. How do we embrace the convenience we have grown accustomed to and carry forward a more authentic and inclusive tone to messaging that helped carry us through this last year? Each of these things present strong future opportunities for those nimble and visionary enough to embrace new models.
By Shannon Osment, Director of Accounts and Pete Hawkins, Creative Director Chase Design Group UK
Chase Design Group ( www.chasedesigngroup.com) is a creative agency with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and the UK handling brand strategy, identity development, package design and retail environments for clients including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Campbell Soup Company and Pfizer.
In the first blog of this two-part series, we break down the findings of LinkedIn and the B2B Institute’s joint report, ‘5 principles of Growth in B2B Marketing’, and explore why it takes a balance of brand building and sales activation marketing to effectively grow their businesses.
People are emotional creatures. That’s why brand building works so well on consumers. People become invested in – and attached to – their favourite brands, from cereal, to phone networks, to operating systems.
But business buyers are rational. Right?
Wrong.
OK – maybe not completely wrong. Purchasing decisions are made rationally in any successful business. But you’re missing a trick if you think building a B2B brand doesn’t matter.
But sales activation or performance marketing is the most effective way to measurably grow a B2B business. Right?
Wrong again.
In fact, a jointly commissioned report by LinkedIn and the B2B Institute – ‘5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing’ – has the data to prove it. (And, by the way, so does our client’s data.)
So where do these entrenched views come from?
B2B companies tend to be driven by either product leaders, service leaders or sales leaders.
Product/service-led companies tend to view marketing as ‘the price you pay for an inferior product or service’. Sales-led companies are driven by short-term sales targets, and they want leads. Now.
So, whilst many B2B marketers recognise the commercial potential of longer-term brand building, they face an uphill internal struggle to make their case.
But the ‘5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing’ report empirically proves the business case for longer-term B2B brand building and its impact on growth, by demonstrating:
· B2B brand building increases ‘mental availability’ and ensures your brand is easily remembered in a buying situation
· Effective brand campaigns reach every buyer in your category
· Creative brand campaigns that capture attention at an emotional level are delivered consistently over time, growing significant sales in the future, not just in the short-term
· Increasing loyalty does not significantly add to growth, but customer acquisition does
B2B brands follow the same ‘share of voice’ rule as their B2C cousins. The report defines the rule as follows:
“There is a well-known relationship between a brand’s “share of voice” (typically defined as its share of all category advertising expenditure) and its rate of growth.
Brands that set their share of voice (SOV) above their share of market (SOM) tend to grow (all other factors being equal), and those that set SOV below SOM tend to shrink. The rate at which a brand grows or shrinks tends to be proportional to its “extra” share of voice (ESOV), defined as the difference between SOV and SOM.”
The research data shows a significant correlation between market share growth and ESOV for B2B brands, specifically, demonstrating that in B2B, 10% extra advertising share of voice causes 0.7% market share growth per annum.
The report shows that the best performing B2B brands have an optimal balance between long-term brand building and short-term sales activation/performance marketing.
In B2B, the optimal budget allocation is 46% for brand and 54% for sales activation.
Sales activation focuses on an immediate response, and is generally a rational sell, featuring a piece of informational content, an offeror a product/service feature capable of generating a cost-efficient response.
It’s tightly targeted at hot prospects who are in-market with an intent to purchase, and designed for simple, quick response. Sales activation is great for short-term lead generation and delivering directly measurable ROI, but, it’s unlikely to be memorable, so the effects are short-term and won’t contribute to long-term growth.
In contrast, brand building drives long-term growth, with its effects lasting longer and accumulating over time.
It uses creative impact at an emotional level to create a lasting memory that influences buying decisions long after the adverts run, with a reach that’s much broader than sales activation campaigns, targeting the whole of market, and its effectiveness relying on repeated exposure.
The time frame for any brand building to take significant effect and pass the sales activation peaks shown in this graph is typically 5-6 months.
Not convinced? We recently we decided to test this theory out for ourselves, using the website data of one of our clients. And the results were pretty impressive.
Not only did we find that brand traffic – both direct and brand search – built consistently over time in line with their brand building activity, but we also found that the conversion rates from website visit to meeting requests and paying clients was 50% higher than any other traffic source.
If that wasn’t enough, we also discovered that in territories where there is low brand awareness the conversion rates from lead generation campaigns increased over time as the effects of our brand building efforts kicked in.
Stay tuned for part two, where we’ll explore the case for making your brand famous.
In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss your brand strategy armed with the latest industry data, or to discuss your creative marketing requirements, get in touch with us today at [email protected].
Mr B & Friends has welcomed two new members of the team this summer. Olivia Cox and Faye Stephens have joined the Client Services team as Senior Account Manager and Project Manager respectively.
Olivia has lived in Bristol since her time at UWE, and has solid experience both client and agency side. She had Mr B & Friends on her radar having seen the agency’s work on the Bristol Bears rebrand, and when the role came up, the timing was right for her to make the move. In her spare time she likes to take on new challenges – from learning to row to calligraphy to building a bin store!
Faye has recently relocated to the area from London, where she worked on the ASDA account. With a solid background in communications and content, she’s excited to delve further into the world of brand transformation. Faye has been embracing her move to the South West, getting to know the area and soaking up the culture. She also enjoys turning her hand to art and craft projects.
Simon Barbato, CEO at Mr B & Friends says, ‘We’re delighted to have secured these appointments to the team. With excellent project management experience and fantastic relationship building skills we think both Olivia and Faye will be a massive hit with our clients.”
Cytel, the world’s largest provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design, has appointed AgencyUK to lead the strategy and roll-out of Solara, the next generation in statistical and predictive trial design and selection software. This trial strategy platform combines massive cloud computing with Cytel algorithms to dramatically expand available design options for confident selection of the optimal design. Unifying statistical design and clinical strategy to improve clinical development productivity, Solara helps teams control uncertainty by simulating millions of design options in minutes; minimizes costs by ensuring teams find opportunities to shorten trial duration; accelerates speed to market (10-20% faster) and benefits the patients sooner.
The technology is such an advancement for the sector, that the Cytel board are investing heavily in its rollout, which includes a significant marketing effort led by Rebecca Grimm (Vice President, Marketing), Cytel and the team at AgencyUK.
“Solara is a real first for our industry, and we’re already active with live customers and their case studies which are starting to emerge. We appointed AgencyUK based on their sector experience, proven test and learn methodology as well as their passionately creative team. In partnership with AgencyUK, we’re looking forward to seeing the rollout expand globally over the coming months” says Rebecca Grimm, VP Marketing, Cytel.
“Our team has been working with pharma, biotech and clinical research organisations since 2008, and it’s always exciting to be at the forefront of new technology that can change how an industry operates forever. We’ve been developing the Solara brand and proposition alongside the go-to-market strategy. Digital media plays a vital role in its successful adoption by big pharma teams and biotech leaders alike, and we’re looking forward to its global roll-out over the coming months” says Sammy Mansourpour, Managing Director, AgencyUK.
Bristol based digital marketing agency, DNRG, previously Digital NRG, has had an exciting brand update. The graphic ‘D’ brings together 8 triangles that represent the company’s eight solutions. When reorganised together, the triangles form the split hexagon – denoting the top to lower marketing funnel. Combining DNRG’s solutions, through the consumer journey when all used together, creates a robust, smarter digital marketing strategy.
With its Head Office in Bristol, DNRG encompasses 53 team members with some of the most powerful brains in the business. DNRG’s rebrand has been driven by the desire to always be leaders in digital marketing and offer a strategy-led approach, rather than off-the-shelf solutions. The company’s business model is built on tailor made integrated digital solutions for any sized business, creating a competitive digital presence for SMBs to support lead generation and local sales to complex National brand led campaigns or Nationwide ecommerce solutions.
As Google Premier Partners, Facebook Business Partners and Microsoft Advertising Elite Partners, DNRG is always implementing the latest advancements in automation, AI and reporting with the support of their partners. DNRG has developed solutions accessible for businesses who do not have the budget for in-house experts or depth of knowledge within a marketing department. With a 96% retention rate in the last 5 years DNRG is clearly getting something right for their clients.
Along with the rebrand DNRG has responded to the digital evolution following the challenging period that the pandemic has presented by adding to their client product portfolio. To support its Website, SEO, Paid Media and Social propositions DNRG will be launching Smarter Performance, Rapid Talk, LinkedIn Accelerator, NRG Connect and a CRO proposition in July 2021.
With a strong focus on their team’s learning and development, DNRG has also set up an in-house academy which devotes 10% of hours a month for each employee to grow their knowledgebase and skills, so that they’re always ahead of the curve. Employing several apprentices, members of their team have made it from ‘The Apprentice’ to director within that five-year period. This all filters through to an enriched client experience.
Neil Rogers, DNRG’s CEO said: “Our rebrand is representative of our continuous growth in services, clients and team members. We offer our clients strategy-led solutions that are driven by their business goals and objectives. DNRG has developed award-winning campaigns that utilise technology, automation and highly skilled digital professionals to increase the return on our clients’ investments. It is our DNRG team players’ incredible support and adaptation to their clients’ goals alongside the delivery of effective digital strategies that has made DNRG the successful agency that it is today.
We truly have become the outsourced marketing department for 1000’s of UK based businesses and we know how to match the right digital solutions to their incredibly varied briefs and objectives. For the agency it is about building partnerships whilst delivering proven value results led by data driven decisions.”
DNRG is proving to be one step ahead of the game with the implementation of new techniques and operational processes in this rapidly changing industry. It is difficult for any business to stay abreast of digital updates, consumer demands and the online experience digital users expect, but DNRG offer extremely competitive solutions to ensure their clients can adapt to these requirements.
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