Consistency is Futile

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” – Oscar Wilde

One of the great things about attending SxSW (this is our last mention, promise!) is that there’s always at least ONE panel that totally turns your ideologies on their pointy little heads. There were many instances like this for our diverse group of attendees, but a specific branding session seemed particularly relevant to us and our clients.

The title was “Brand Consistency is Killing Digital Advertising,” and if you think there’s a typo in this sentence you’re wrong. Consistency, as it turns out is the culprit in ineffective online (and perhaps even offline) campaigns, and it’s turning all of us into weak marketers.

Bummer, I know. We’ve been preaching for years that making everything look the same across platforms is THE right way to execute a campaign, too. But, progressive people don’t take advice like this and brush it off easily – we forge ahead and at least consider the alternative methods. And we think this rabble-rouser may have a few points.

1. Your brand is not necessarily about look – it’s about FEEL. We usually begin our branding process by asking a series of questions about the company’s existing personality, and we sort of strong-arm the client into engaging in the creative process so they feel comfortable with the end product. For instance, we may ask something like “If your company were a movie, what would it be?” or “If you were a dog, what breed would you be?” But, usually after the brand has been created, we forget about this list of admittedly weird questions. Now, we think it’s more important than ever to revisit that EVERY time we start a new micro campaign to make sure we’re not just copying and pasting an existing look to a new medium but really developing the entire concept into something bigger and more involved.

1. You don’t have to connect everything. If you think of a great billboard campaign or a great Twitter campaign that would never work elsewhere, go for it. A campaign that isn’t good for a specific platform isn’t necessarily a bad one. It’s great if it is, but don’t stifle your creativity by forcing the issue. The panelist suggested Red Bull as a great example, citing their (terrible) TV ads, flying object stunts and YouTube campaigns. They don’t revolve around one idea per se, but they all FEEL like Red Bull. HINT: If you can line up every marketing piece and it all looks the same, you are behind the times.
2. Your brand can have more than one message.We think this is really the thesis statement of the panel. As a service or product, your company probably has more than one statement to make and more than one quality worth discussing. If you’re lucky you even have more than one distinguishing feature. So why jam-pack every campaign or marketing piece with a singular message? Split it up! As long as the net impact of the multifarious approach is cohesive, your brand will remain intact.
   Following these steps won’t be as easy as we’re making it sound. Clients who are used to the one-size-fits-all mentality will scoff at this sort of nonsense. But the clients who don’t will see resounding success, especially as you cross into the digital realm. It’s scary, and it’s mind-blowing, but it’s the future of marketing, so try it out! We dare you!
   And please, let us know if you’ve had any experiences – good or bad – with this progressive approach.