Josetxo Cerdán is a Professor of Communication at UC3M and was previously the director of Filmoteca Española, when we collaborated on the brand restyling of the institution. A symbol of the city of Madrid and national cinematic history, Filmoteca Española needed an update to remain relevant.
Tag: Branding
How to get visibility at the European Championship without a big budget?
Connecting our brand assets with those of the event.
The European Championship has come to an end and, in our opinion, Spain is not the only winner of the competition. There are several brands that have won the medal in terms of reach and virality.
And we are not talking about the sponsoring brands but about those that, with more limited budgets, have managed to attract the attention of their audience either by emulating the forecasts of Paul the Octopus, or by using insights against our rivals or even by gamifying the refereeing of the matches in real time.
Taking advantage of the levers that connect them with their audience, avoiding opportunism and betting on what makes them different. Each one from its idiosyncrasy but always from coherence and self-knowledge.
Because in the end, it’s all about connecting the event with the assets of each brand: the fun tone of Worten, the support for what is ours in the case of RTVE or the playful attitude -and constant hack- of KFC.
Sharing the passions of our audience is, without a doubt, an opportunity to connect with them in a close and authentic way.
Why should brands respond to the zeitgeist?
The cultural relevance of a brand is key to connecting with the consumer.
If we want a brand to be relevant, we have to make it permeate the intellectual and cultural climate of the moment. Not from opportunism or tacticism, but from a vocation to respond to contemporary concerns.
And responding to the current zeitgeist involves, among many other things, committing to our values and getting involved in social change, addressing a diverse public with complex motivations that no longer responds to demographic categories, or respecting an increasingly conscious and critical consumer in the way he or she consumes.
Whether we talk about mental health or decide to sell the selfie stick. A brand has to know when it is appropriate to launch a message or a product to the market, when its audience is ready to listen to what it wants to say or buy what it is offering.
It is about joining the debates and concerns of the moment while remaining true to ourselves, bringing our particular point of view as a brand. Capturing the user’s attention with a discourse that interests him and, above all, making him want our brand to be present in his life.
And understanding this is key to differentiate ourselves in a hypercompetitive global market. Because in terms of brand experience, consumers care about how they are made to feel now.
At the end of the day, success for survival lies in knowing how to adapt to the ecosystem, in our case the context in which the brand lives.
How will AI affect the creative industry?
Artificial Intelligence, an opportunity also for branding.
The other day an email arrived in our inbox with a relentless headline: “90% of online content could be generated by Artificial Intelligence by 2026”.
A statement that makes it clear that we are facing a new era and that, from a branding perspective, we can only wonder how this technology will redefine the narrative development of brands and what its role in creativity will be. Because it is clear that it will.
In any case, although from now on we will dedicate our time differently, at KNOM we believe that human value is and will be indispensable in the creative industry. Because we need imagination, empathy and also human judgment.
AI is just another tool that, as the camera did in its time, will improve efficiency, accelerating processes and saving costs, and will help us to capture graphically and verbally what we have in our heads.
In this sense, the implementation of AI will most likely imply a revaluation of fields, such as brand strategy or art direction, where decision-making is a crucial element.
Decisions that, at the end of the day, are the basis for achieving distinctive and relevant brands for the user, the ultimate goal of branding.
What’s in store for brands in 2023?
Hello, 2023!
As we do every January at KNOM, we look to the future by sharing the trends and topics that will be most talked about this year in the branding sector.
Because we have no doubt: an exciting year is beginning. We are living in times of change, new technologies and evolving models. Accelerated and uncertain times, but also encouraging times where brands, in addition to signifying, have the power to inspire. With a society that increasingly trusts in the power of companies to transform the world, our time has come.
We have the opportunity to be truly relevant. Beyond offering good products and services, our purpose is to make our company a tool for change. And, as long as we do it well, it matters little whether we do it in an online or offline environment.
In fact, if you think about it, this editorial could have been written by ChatGPT. But would it make any difference to the meaning of these words?
We open 2023: a challenging year.
Should brands sponsor a World Cup that goes against their values?
Qatar World Cup puts global brands on the ropes.
Sponsoring a World Cup is an opportunity for any brand. It means having a global audience of hundreds of millions of people and linking your brand to the world’s most popular sport.
However, things change when the host is a country where human rights are not respected and whose values clash head-on with those of any global brand.
Faced with this, there are only two positions to take: either to be totally against it, or to cover one’s eyes and focus on celebrating soccer. And there are examples of both positions with greater and lesser commitment.
Perhaps the most belligerent brand in this regard has been BrewDog. The Scottish brewer has declared itself a “proud anti-sponsor” of the World Cup in Qatar in a series of controversial billboards. But even BrewDog has been branded as hypocritical because with this action, at the same time, it is encouraging its audience to watch the World Cup. The brand has defended itself by saying that all the profits linked to this action will go to fight for human rights.
This World Cup has been a real test to check the real commitment of brands to their values. Because, although we have already experienced other controversial World Cups in this sense, today the world is different: our society and its values have evolved. And so have brands and what consumers expect from them.
Because, more than ever, commitment is relevance and coherence is credibility.
Why shouldn’t your brand be so perfect?
The real connects more deeply with the consumer.
Perfect no longer sells. Or at least not so much anymore. Now there are no longer only handsome, young, tall and slim advertising models, but there is finally room for other types of beauty that are less normative and much more representative. And this is great.
Because you have to be aspirational but also credible. Making our audience feel represented and see themselves reflected in our brand is the first step to connect with them.
Gone is the incessant search for perfection that resulted in absurd situations such as girls who shave their legs without hair or floor cleaners who clean impeccable surfaces.
Today’s consumers demand realism, right. Even if that means seeing legs with stretch marks, faces with wrinkles and rotting hamburgers. A hyper-realism movement that Dove pioneered with its ‘Real Beauty’ campaign and that has now exploded among brands that aspire to be perceived as authentic.
Because, let’s face it, there are few things more human and that generate more empathy than imperfection.
An attribute that, if we work well from the communication and from the product itself, far from making the brand vulnerable, will make it much more solid, closer and credible.
Is it possible to renew the image of a football club without getting burned?
Football brands are sacred but not eternal
A couple of weeks ago we knew about the rebranding of Real Valladolid C.F. and, as usual when a team touches its emblem, the change set the networks on fire again. A phenomenon that we have already experienced with brands such as GAP, Airbnb or Pepsi but never at this level.
Does this mean that identity in soccer is an untouchable grail? Soccer team brands also age and must evolve to remain relevant and express the reality, the moment and the values of their clubs.
Hasn’t the players’ kit evolved? Let’s remember the mini shorts of Di Stefano’s era?
Is it therefore heresy to redesign a club’s crest? The visual identity of the teams should be able to adapt to the new times and needs without so much fuss.
Because it’s not just heraldry. We have seen controversy in subtle restylings (the case of Barça) and in more radical rebrandings (the case of Juventus). Whether because of the emotional component, the feeling of belonging or the historical legacy, the members of a soccer club are diehard fans; brand lovers who feel co-owners of the brand and for whom their club is an important part of their identity. And here we enter a minefield?
Is this a participatory process? Although it is always good to have the opinion of fans, former players and specialized historians, it is impossible not to offend sensibilities. A club brings together very different people for whom its team evokes different and profound memories and meanings.
In short, the rebranding of a soccer club will always be a controversial project to tackle and as much desired as feared. A process that gives us the opportunity to become part of the lives of thousands of people but also puts us in the spotlight of all eyes… Good luck to the next ones 😉
Why is it vital to activate and consolidate a brand?
Brands are what you live with them.
The creation of a brand is key to position a company in a differential and relevant way in the market. But the brand does not end there. If we want to make it credible, we have to activate it, manage it, maintain it and supervise it.
This is the only way to avoid just paying lip service and losing people’s trust. And only then will we achieve success and consolidation of that product or company.
Because in order to build a strong and efficient brand, we have to keep asking ourselves questions: What should our presence in commercial spaces be like? Where should our innovation go? What should our brand content be like? What can we do for users beyond selling them products? In short, we must ask ourselves what we want our audiences to experience with us in the future.
It is a matter of creating a consistent ecosystem in which the different pieces that make it up project the right perceptions and build in the same direction.
Planning an experience that is consistent with our DNA and our purpose, and that is also consistent over time and across the different points of contact, is fundamental to achieving a strong brand.
Why is it important to create communities around the brand?
Today’s strong brands are also strong communities.
As we saw at the beginning of the year in the trends for 2022, in these times, more than ever there is a desire for community, interpersonal communication and bonds.
And in this sense, brands, as is the case with social groups, provide trust, certainty, security… Attributes that are all highly desirable in a context as fickle as the one we live in.
But, in order to form this link from the brand, the user must be really listened to. Today’s brands have to go beyond the promise to the customer and focus on the consumer experience, letting them contribute and making them co-owners of the brand.
It is not about creating a brand that is self-managed by users, but a brand that is highly participative, where interaction is an important pillar and where the consumer feels a relevant part of the brand.
Brands must abandon the old merely transactional approach and generate value beyond the product.
They must create meaning but also a sense of belonging.
After all, brands are already communities. Groups that, in one way or another, bring people together around a common interest, a way of life, a desire for status…