3 Strategies for Digital Brand Asset Management

In today’s digital-first world, well-planned and creatively executed brand assets are scarce. The digital revolution and rise of DTC (direct-to-consumer) has meant that new online businesses are popping up all over the place – and in order to get to market quickly, brands deploy bold, colorful, yet templated brand playbooks to create a checklist of assets that lack a distinct personality.

They do a “good enough” job under the circumstances, but in a world of bright, bold, and somewhat simple brand saturation, we need to work harder to make every second and pixel count. It’s paramount that we push to breathe more life into the digital brands we build.

This article discusses three strategies to ensure your digital brand assets are versatile, unique and technologically compatible:

Leveraging Brand Behavior.

Brand positioning is at the core of any brand expression. This is where a brand’s behavior and/or personality traits are defined. These traits become the judgment criteria for how brands should behave and are a filter that designers need to use well when crafting every touchpoint of their brand assets.

Now, of course, we need to first ensure your brand personality traits are distinct from others in the category, but then let’s be rigorous about how we leverage them to inform every touchpoint.

A brand needs to think about how its assets are going to act in the real world and online. Be intentional and thoughtful with every asset you create to ensure consistent expression, but do not copy and paste. This will enable consumers to more easily associate an emotional connection to the asset created.

The new identity from MullenLowe does this very well. As they say themselves “It breaks free from any type of symmetry and rigidity. With no corners or end points, it changes and moves and behaves in different ways. The MullenLowe octopus is alive. It has a will, a personality, and, above all, it wants to move. With its endless twists and turns, it has the freedom to reinvent itself infinitely” and yet in every expression, it is still distinctly itself. Much like any human behavior.

Make an Impression With Animation

There is an opportunity to elevate assets in the way we animate. Designers need to be thoughtful about what story they’re trying to tell through motion and understand what emotion(s) they’re trying to evoke.

Static graphics aren’t cutting it nowadays. We need to ensure that every twitch, flicker, bounce or bob of a moving asset is calculated. Adding more expressions, gestures, reactions, and nuanced personality distinguishes a brand in a consumer’s mind. Understanding the relationship between movement and emotion is an opportunity to tell more about your brand in that split second. To amplify this further, combine it with sound too, and you have a more multifaceted, richer, and engaging impression being made.

There’s so much to be learned from traditional animation here, whilst not a new example, just take a look at the Pixar identity…think of the logo static, add the animation and then turn the sound on. The endearing joy, the witty nature of it builds and builds. One of my all-time favorites.

Craft is as Important as the Standout

Attention to detail is always the differentiator in any relationship, and that also applies to a brand and its relationship to the consumer. It is crucial for digital brand assets to be unique and distinct, not just stand out. As technology gets more and more sophisticated, so should the sophistication of the assets.

The world of CGI or digital artists is a great source of inspiration. One of my favorites is Peter Tarka.

While his work is all clearly make-believe, it has an attention to detail that makes you fall in love with the imaginary world that has been created. it’s completely irrational…but isn’t that what brand love is too?

How Pearlfisher Can Reinvent Your Brand Assets

Brands need to create a connection with consumers and to do so, they need to have digital assets that embody a brand’s personality in the evolving digital world.

Contact us to speak with Justine and the team to learn more and get a live demo of all things Visualization.