Recently my wife and I have spent a bit of time renovating some parts of our house. It’s only 15 years old but some of the things that were originally installed, which looked great at the time, now look a little dated.
It got me thinking about trends in design. In 2000 what we looked at and put in our house looked and felt great; it felt current and “on trend”. But as the years went on, as functional as it was, it just started to feel stale.
The same thing happens to your digital assets. Whether it’s your video productions, print collateral or website, it’s always good to keep these things fresh. That doesn’t mean you need a complete rebranding, just that you need to give everything the occasional polish.
One brand that does this really well is Apple with the launch of its new products each year. The logo remains the same but little changes are made to colours, text, photography and the design — all building on the existing brand.
So, what are some things that you can do with your already strong and established brand to help make it feel more current? Start with the visual.
Update your video production
Take a look at your current suite of corporate videos and ask yourself this: “Am I still happy to show these to a client?” If the answer is ‘no’, then maybe it’s time to look at revamping the assets.
Renovating your video assets can be as big or small a job as your budget allows. If your budget is tight, maybe look at rolling out a suite of Kinect text videos. These are a great way to get a message out quickly and succinctly without spending a lot of money on production values. It’s also a great use of budget because those assets can be broken up into social clips very easily — so you’re getting more “bang” for your buck.
If your budget is slightly larger, take the same concept but add a presenter or talent, using green screen production techniques, and incorporate them into the video. That way you will create something a little more “personal” to your audience.
Update your photography and design
Updating all your corporate photography is expensive but it is a simple way of breathing some fresh air into your brand. If using a photographer is completely outside of the possibilities of your budget, create new and simple digital assets yourself with a decent off-the-shelf DSLR camera and following some basics in photography composition, light and use of lenses.
Adding in text, logos, and calls to action, you can start to create some advertorial content for your brand. There are some great templates and software out there to help you do this if design isn’t your thing. Remember, this is to help you make your brand and look feel current, so getting direction on this type of thing is always best done with a designer or creative professional to help keep you on task.
Update your narrative
Building a narrative around your brand is a powerful thing. People inherently love a story; it’s built into us.
If your website is purely informational, look at ways to tell a story around your brand instead. Tell your audience where you’ve come from, who you are and what you stand for. When the audience can read and feel who you are as a business through your story, they are much more likely to want to connect with you and your services.
Bringing these three things together can be done easily and on a budget that can be scaled to meet your needs. Give Lush a call or send us an email to discuss how you can bring your digital assets up to date.
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