What is the key to creating a successful long-lasting branding campaign?

Specifically, what aspects should marketers especially consider when crafting a campaign that will have a long shelf life?

A long shelf life for a branding campaign should be a requirement of new advertising and promotion development. Concepting, production, editing, designing and execution of a campaign is an expensive endeavor. You don’t want to spend your marketing dollars on new development every year or even every other year. It’s too expensive! I challenge you to think about your branding campaign as your ‘little black dress’ or your ‘favorite tailored suit.’ It never fails. It is a well-respected and classic piece of your wardrobe that can withstand trends and lots of wear.

Your Branding Campaign = Your Little Black Dress/Your Favorite Tailored Suit
Your branding campaign, just like your little black dress or a perfectly tailored suit, is meant to establish a go-to, classic foundation for your ever-changing “accessories.” You want to be known for your brand, just as a designer is known for a signature style. Coco Chanel can be picked out of any lineup – classic suiting, pearls, scarves and quilting handbags. Ralph Lauren is known for his classic, semi-casual polo style.

As marketers, we often find our conflicted. By the nature of being in a creative profession, we tend to like campaigns that are fresh, new, breakthrough and creative (trendy). Consumers tend to gravitate toward the familiar, comfortable, easily understandable and repetitively memorable (classic). Fortunately, we can support both in branding campaigns.

Keep Your Campaign Relevant = Keep Your Look Fresh
A solid, classic branding campaign should be able to keep a shelf-life of 3 to 4 years without any major changes. Consider a cycle such as the one below. Resist the temptation to mix it up too much or you will muddy your campaign.

Evergreen Elements
Mark/logo
Tag
Color language
URL
Voiceover/music

Changeable Accessories
Imagery elements
Patient stories
Videography style
Sub-fonts
Formats (TV, print, online, mobile)

To Change or Not To Change?
Your creative staff, as well as your vendor, will want change. Challenge them to think about platform creativity. How can we effectively translate our print version to a Flash version for use on web sites, social media platforms or mobile media?

We, marketers, often forget that our exposure to a campaign from concept to execution is much more intense than the campaign’s exposure to the public. We ‘wear out’ a campaign (in our minds) far quicker than the public. Keep it classic.

Elizabeth L. Scott
CEO & Principal Consultant
Raven New Media & Marketing