Every brand wants to say something clever. Just do it. Have it your way. What’s in your wallet? But clever is only half the battle for audience growth/retention. To stay top of mind before goods or services are needed, it’s just as important to be memorable. This is a lofty objective in a mediascape full of ads, viral content, memes, sensationalism, and dance trends. How can brands establish consistency and credibility in an Internet-centric culture where what’s trending changes by the day and public interest waxes and wanes by the hour? The answer is to combine visuals and language into a recognizable aesthetic that can be adapted across media.
Words and images are different sides of the same record, working together to communicate something impactful. Ideally, they should do more than match. They should compliment each other. While the cliché “a picture’s worth a thousand words” might be an exaggeration, the right image can convey part of a brand’s messaging, allowing for brevity in writing.
Take, for instance, Nike. “Just do it” is accompanied by the iconic “Swoosh.” This logo was designed to give the impression of movement and speed, but its similarity to a checkmark has affirmative connotations and conveys a sense of completion. With only three words and a swoosh, the sportswear giant shows that great things can be achieved in a pair of Nikes.
This cohesive approach can be applied to high level branding or objective-specific campaigns. Nike is perhaps the best example of minimalist, synergistic branding, but other organizations have used these principles to bring to life engaging, narrative-driven campaigns.
Samuel Adams’ ongoing “Your Cousin from Boston” cable, digital, and social media campaign is especially adept at this. The headline establishes America’s most successful microbrewery as familiar yet authentically New England, while the character depicted in the videos, ads, and social media graphics says the rest. His chummy attitude, casual attire, and rowdy antics show what it’s like to kick back with a Sam and catchup with friends.
The concept is focused enough to hit at the emotional core of the Samuel Adams brand but broad enough to be adapted to a variety of standard and seasonal brews across a range of platforms. Whether encountered as an ad, in a feed, or during a commercial break, “Your Cousin from Boston” is immediately recognizable as Samuel Adams, and his promise of good times to be had is clear.
Both these creative concepts are successful and highly versatile, but the principles behind them are fundamental to the marketing/advertising industry – and can be found in the work produced by Niki Jones Agency. Whether for a government agency or a tech startup, each brand or campaign developed by NJA is the result of collaboration among writers, designers, and strategists.
Our creative process begins with a conversation between a writer and designer who merge their skill sets into a singular message while strategists assess how the concept will play out across the touchpoints of an integrated marketing campaign. This involves coordination with other teams, like Digital Advertising and Web Development, regarding platform-specific specs and even coding requirements for a designed feature of a website. Learn more about NJA’s approach to integrated marketing, here.
The finished product shouldn’t seem like the result of a process, however. The unified voice and uniformed appearance should feel organic to the platforms utilized by the marketing strategy. Assets will textually and visually convey a singular message, rather than presenting the audience with a simple pairing of words and related images. Each will have a professional, recognizable appearance that establishes credibility and will stay on people’s minds as they scroll, surf, and click!
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