IS ALTERING YOUR BRAND LOGO THE BEST ACTION TO TAKE RIGHT NOW?
Everybody I talk with is overwhelmed, confused, frightened and waking up to a fresh wave of uncertainty every day.
It’s a weird mix of being terrified and bored.
No one knows how long major disruption will last. Perhaps things have changed forever.
Specifically, people who are in the business of brand and marketing communications are moving as fast as they can to help guide their clients through these uncharted waters.
There is a question on everyone’s mind - what is the best action for our brand communications to take right now?
Let’s take a look at what various brands are doing and see if we can figure this out.
Altered Mastercard logo by creative Jure Tovrljan, not Mastercard, fyi. Link below for AdAge article about his project.
MAYBE WE SHOULD “SOCIAL DISTANCE” OUR LOGO?
Audi separates the rings of their logo to promote social distancing
One ubiquitous immediate trend was/is to “separate” the components of famous brand logos to promote social distancing.
A lot of these emerged before ”sheltering in place” orders were issued in New York, California and Illinois.
Subsequently, Audi, VW, Coca-Cola, Chiquita, McDonald’s, et al have received significant press and social media coverage and attention by social distancing their logos.
Coca-Cola alters their logo in a headline in Times Square Ad
Let me be clear - this post is not about armchair criticism. I understand the tremendous pressures these brands and their agencies are under to respond quickly - I’ve been there.
This is about figuring out the best action to take right now. Using these examples just helps illustrate a better path forward.
Nonetheless - let me also be clear - I think this is a terrible idea.
McDonald’s separate their famous Arches in Brazil
OBSERVATIONS ON LOGO PLAY DURING A PANDEMIC
First, Coca-Cola technically didn’t actually separate their logo as it still appears intact at the top of the ad. Which, to me, as a creative director seems like a creative mistake on top a bigger strategic mis-step. If the drama of the separation execution is undermined by the proximity and safety of the intact logo, it feels like a significant waste of money.
While I have seen people applaud these moves in social media, honestly I struggle with the idea that this action will bring any real behavior change and/or provide any benefit for the respective brands.
I see these stunts sailing past the radar of most people who are just trying to figure out how to not get sick, keep or get a job and pay the bills in a couple days.
These acts, while clever, raise more questions for me than anything. Which are listed below . . .
Chiquita says it sent Miss Chiquita home, that’s why she’s not on their logo. Honestly, I didn’t know she was missing.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
What’s the brief here? Is it to “Promote social distancing”? If so, is that really the best brief for our brand?
Furthermore, is the priority for our brand to promote social distancing? Is that the best action for us to take right now? Is this how we should be spending our money?
Are there smarter, more empathetic, more relevant, more helpful and pragmatic actions we could take instead? Actions that are more aligned with our brand essence and reason for being? Actions that are in sync with the vitality of our brand and the people who benefit from it?
Additionally, I didn’t think you could mess with the logo? Every time I tried in my career to do something clever with a known logo, the copyright lawyers came down hard on us and we never even made it out of the agency with those ideas?
Is performing a clever brand stunt for a global pandemic the right thing to do right now? Is it tone deaf? Are we setting ourselves up for social media backlash?
See next section . . .
BACKFIRE & BACKLASH
New York Times does a story about the difficulty of getting sick pay for its workers
McDonald’s is now getting negative attention in the press and social media around its policies for sick leave for employees.
This illustrates what happens when the agency and the business are not working closely together. Granted, for a global brand it is difficult to coordinate actions and communications around the world in sync. I understand there are significant complications at play here - corporate versus owner operators, local dynamics, etc. But that’s the job.
The real job here is to ask, if McDonald’s is your client -”what is the most helpful action we can take right now”? Tricking out the logo only makes things worse.
I have never worked on the McDonalds brand. I can only make an experienced educated guess on the brief. But I would think it would or should be about being an icon and leader of the community.
I mean, the slogan, “billions served” - isn’t that a great brief?
As in, “right now, how can we best “serve” billions in a crisis that will affect millions”?
McDonalds has key, centralized locations. And drive-thrus - a real mechanism for social distancing. Maybe we start there - how can we best serve as many people as possible in our respective communities - including our workers - making the most of our relevant assets? How can we leverage our locations and our socially-distanced drive-thrus to help out as much and as many as we can?
And how do we take care of McDonalds workers? The first people that touch the food? The people that our customers interact with every day? How do we “serve” them, so they too can serve?
I’m not trying to single out McDonald’s. I have empathy for the brand. It’s one of my lifelong favorites. And to be fair, here’s a tweet from Bernie, pointing out how all the fast food chains are not providing sick leave for their workers.
Ultimately, what I’m saying is that perhaps a separating the Arches stunt may not be the best action for McDonalds to take. That’s all.
OK, IF NOT A LOGO STUNT, THEN WHAT CAN WE DO?
Sometimes I get fatigued of using Nike advertising as examples of how to do it well.
But they do it so often, and with such excellence, it would be dumb not to hold this up.
They found a way to provide guidance, leadership and messaging that is inspirational, aspirational, relatable, iconic and strategic - see poster below.
As I’ve seen this passed around on social media, this is a brand message that seems like it could inspire actual behavioral change.
This is the essence of the Nike brand. Communicated without social distancing their logo.
This is NIke brand strategy. Even their strategy statements come with a brand attitude and tone.
GETTING EVEN MORE PRACTICAL & TACTICAL BY TAKING RELEVANT, MEANINGFUL ACTION
Instead of running a message or an “ad” - inspirational or not - it seems like taking action communicates more effectively and persuasively.
I know all of us are deluged with emails from every brand that has our email right now, so there’s a lot of noise. And I understand the urgent need to communicate.
But I think the brands that take actions that are ALIGNED, RELEVANT AND ESSENTIALLY AN EXTENSION AND EXPRESSION of the brand ESSENCE and “purpose” - as long as that purpose wasn’t bullshit in the first place - are the brands that are navigating this crisis best in class.
Patagonia was a “purpose” driven brand before it was a thing.
And they are leaning into that essence now more than ever.
They have always prioritized authentic action over random acts of marketing.
Ford wisely recognizes people are going to have a hard time paying bills.
This is so much more meaningful and equity-building than a marketing stunt.
With two kids living out of state for college, I LOVE THIS.
As branding nerd, I LOVE THIS.
What is the purpose of U-Haul? Moving and storing your stuff.
What are they doing? Expressing their “purpose” in a relevant, meaningful way.
With sports cancelled, AB shifts their huge investment in real-time events into aid
This is the second noteworthy action AB has taken.
The first is using their alcohol to make more hand sanitizers.
Both actually help people.
MEDIA BUYING AS BRAND ACTION
Guess what?
Everybody is at home with their phones on, laptops open and TVs running.
I’ve noticed a number of brands getting their products and services on air in a way that benefits people stuck in their houses.
Calm is running 15 and 30 seconds buys. It’s basically a product demo of the app.
It literally provides 15 and 30 second “breaks” for people stuck in their homes.
Brilliant.
In addition to Zoom calls and Netfilx binges, what else can you do for the next month?
Masterclass is running spots promoting their on-line learning.
Including one by Goodby and Silverstein on advertising.
On a local level, Chicago radio station 97.1 is running short, very straightforward spots featuring their personalities.
They are promising to keep playing music as well as being a responsible source of news and information about the situation.
The tone of the spots are calm, empathetic and helpful. They are reassuring in a way without being overtly self-serving.
They are offering what they do best in way that is most helpful to Chicagoans under order to shelter in place.
My only creative suggestion for Bob Stroud is perhaps a monochromatic sweater next time.
HOW ABOUT THIS?
As a brand if you do not have anything helpful, action-oriented, relevant, empathetic, informative, or interesting to communicate, maybe don’t say anything.
We need more signal, less noise right now.
So maybe don’t add to the channel noise. Perhaps it will provide space for meaningful news and information.
Sometimes not saying anything says the most.
SUMMARY
Altering your logo is not the best thing your brand can do right now. In fact, it may do more damage than anything.
Running an inspirational message - if it is to be done - needs to be on a level like Nike. Otherwise, proceed to #3.
Actions speak loudest right now. Take care of your own people first, then move out from there. If you do anything that can be perceived as self-serving before you take care of your own employees, prepare to be exposed.
Actions that are aligned with the essence of your brand, of why your brand exists in the first place are the best actions to take. Ask what is in our capacity that can be the most helpful to the most people right now. See examples above.
A crisis brings clarity. If your brand “purpose” is not directly and authentically tied to what you actually do, it doesn’t matter what you say - and that becomes incredibly clear in a crisis like this.
A media buy can be an excellent brand action. See Calm and Masterclass above.
My personal view is that, lastly, if you don’t have anything helpful to say, do and add - maybe don’t add to the noise.
HELPFUL LINKS
Sprout Social is providing an EXCELLENT PDF to help guide through this.
It’s free, but you will have to give your email address up.
Click on the picture above.
Below, a informative, thoughtful article from Marketingweek about “purpose” and what brands are actually doing right now.
Creative Jure Torvrljan’s brilliant move about altering brand logos during COVID19.
Click on picture above for link to the AdAge article.