Lucky Number Seven

When Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, stated “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room” it struck a chord with us, because it mirrors our own philosophy when approaching design briefs for events. In today’s world, brand is everything. It’s the “personality” of your business. Good branding can enhance your reputation, just as bad branding can damage public perception of you. In our opening design blog we’re sharing some insights into the key elements that make branding effective, and discussing how design (both digital and print) plays an important role in the events industry.

The process of branding extends far beyond the initial creation of your brand elements (company name, logo, slogan, colours etc) and into the continued representation of your company throughout its lifetime. In order to generate positive associations in the minds of consumers, you must actively engage with them. Events - large or small, formal or relaxed - are an effective way of increasing recognition of what you do, and our job as designers is to thread those brand elements throughout your event, from marketing to on the day production.

We often start with your brand mantra - best explained as two or three words, formed into a clear, unique statement conveying your company message. This helps us to understand your strategic objective, define who your target market is, and identify what type of language will best speak to them. From there we create the visual hooks that will grab and keep their attention at your next event.

In order to achieve effective branding, it is fundamentally important to acknowledge how vital repetition is. The experts say a person needs to see a logo an average of seven times before their brain will retain it. Today’s bold entrepreneurs are also discovering that a little humour goes a long way where brand recognition is concerned.

As part of our design service, we help clients maximise the potential of their branding, by extracting the key elements and creatively weaving them through an event. We do this by utilising multiple print and digital platforms, with enough repetition of brand elements to ensure that you are not only seen and heard, but most importantly remembered.

With the human brain processing images 60,000 times faster than text, branding is largely a visual language between you and your target audience. It’s also said to be true that, on average, you have less than 15 seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your website, so you need to make an instant impact. For an event to be successful, the same principle must be applied. An invitation must ignite curiosity; a call for sponsorship must be direct and emotive; an exhibition stand must be eye catching and inviting; the literature relating to a conference must be concise and there must be brand consistency throughout; pre-event social media posts must build hype and reinforce that rule of lucky number seven.

When large quantities of facts or data do need to be communicated, branded infographics are a particularly useful marketing tool, helping to spread awareness of your event and the subject matter. Whether you are hosting a large sporting event, a conference on sustainability within commerce or a charity fundraising dinner, infographics can help your audience digest complex information ahead of, during and after your event.

In an age when digital applications play a key role in the events industry, the process of delivering solutions to a brief often leads us down the path of app design. Working closely with our clients to maintain brand consistency, we apply UX and UI design expertise to deliver app solutions which will encourage mobile interaction during an event and increase the sharing of information between brand and consumer.

In the weddings sector, too, branding has become an important part of the planning process. For example, many modern couples are no longer content with generic designs, preferring to enlist the help of an illustrator or graphic designer to create a unique logo or image which can be threaded throughout their wedding stationery, from the Save the Dates to the seating plan.

Any type of event - from the corporate world to the private sector - can benefit from free giveaways and goody bags. Not only are they a nifty way of spreading your branding just that bit further, and maximising the potential for your name to be remembered long-term, but they are excellent way to show gratitude for attendance. It’s called going the extra mile and it tends to get noticed.