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The Top 5 Brand Stories of 2015

December 31, 2015 Advertisting & Marketing / Branding / Cool / Design
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Google Logo

Google’s New Logo

With the arrival of a new year, it’s a perfect moment to reflect on the major trends and developments that made a mark in our world in 2015. Several compelling brand stories made headlines, some for their creativity and others for the controversy they inspired. Here are the top 5 brand stories that caught our attention:

What brand stories captivated you in 2015? Feel free to share your thoughts and reflections in the comments section below. As we welcome 2016, best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Looking to start your New Year right with custom branded promotional products that can make a difference for your brand? We’d be happy to share some recommendations and creative ideas with you. Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook or call us at 877-881-6845 and we’ll be glad to advise you on branding ideas that can represent your company with style and grace.

J is for June, S is for Safety

June 7, 2011 Cool / Events & Holidays / Promotional Inspirations
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"No Accident Month" form from ...Safe: Safe and sound. Safety in numbers. Failsafe. Safe sex. We may have different images of how safe looks, but we can probably all agree that at the most fundamental level, being safe is being free from harm or risk or the threat of danger.

In honor of National Safety month, in addition to offering you a wide-range of safety related ideas and items to increase your brand visibility, we’d like to share some safety resources and campaigns we think are worth paying attention to.

National Cyber Security Alliance’s (NCSA) mission is to educate and therefore empower a digital society to use the Internet safely and securely at home, work, and school, protecting the technology individuals’ use, the networks they connect to, and our shared digital assets.

U.S. Government website for Distracted Driving and great series online at the New York Times  Driven to distraction

You'd look hotter in a helmet Tshirt

Although not being updated at present, safety is sexy is a good place to visit if you subscribe to the idea wearing a helmet is dorky or uncool. The site is entertaining and sobering and good reminder that wearing a helmet is attractive, cool and smart.

And speaking of brand visibility:

NY Dept of Sanitation workers on the street in orange vests with DSNY logos

We totally dig the New York City Department of Sanitation’s logo-emblazoned vests. They rank right up there with the orange coveralls worn by Mexico City’s sanitation workers, and the cooler, quieter, blue smock-style approach of the French street sweepers.

And while we are at it, we highly recommend the new documentary about Bill Cunningham, another fan of French street-sweepers’ garb.

Making the Grade: 2012 Summer Olympics

May 13, 2010 Branding
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Continuing Branding Ideas’ look at some new, recent, and vintage logos, branding and packaging, let’s check out the logo for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which was designed by Wolff Olins and was unveiled to much chatter back in 2007. The design has received mixed reviews at best. We think this logo is confusing and poorly executed. The shapes were intended to spell out 2012, but instead evoke all other kinds of images and ideas, the font for “London” seems amateurish, though the Olympic rings are unmistakable. The universal rings themselves get an A. Olins’ logo: D.

Three Things to Remember When Re-Branding

July 28, 2009 Branding
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Your brand is constantly evolving, and every once in a while you make a big leap. All major businesses do it. Web sites do it. Even supermarkets do it. If you haven’t changed your logo, web site, product line, slogan or other vital component of your brand at some point or another, you’ve undoubtedly thought about it. Now might be the time. When re-branding, though, it’s important to remember three essential things:

1. Don’t just give your business a superficial makeover. Take note of current trends and new innovations in your industry and in the world at large, and also consider what your new or continuing goals are. These elements should all be taken into consideration when re-branding. Of course, don’t forget that YOU are your brand.

2. Plan ahead. Consider all aspects of your business before jumping into a brand redesign. Everything–logo, colors, mission statement, new products–should jibe with your new direction.

3. Remember your existing brand. You’re still in business, so you must be doing something right…right? Maintain key elements of your current brand in your re-branding campaign. Bringing in new customers is key, but try to do it without alienating your existing clients. Carefully consider what’s working and what’s not. Keep the things that are, and let the things that aren’t go.

Need some ideas on how to effectively re-brand your business, new product or project? Branding Ideas is here to help!

It’s All in the Packaging

March 6, 2009 Branding
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On the heels of Pepsi’s new makeover, Tropicana (which is owned by PepsiCo) unveiled their new packaging—a sleeker, simpler design that some have claimed looks generic or even “European.” The design certainly falls in line with the recent trends we noted in our last post, but there are other aspects of Tropicana’s new designs that have also caught Branding Ideas’ attention. The company’s website includes a new “Juice Finder” feature so that consumers can choose their preferred product and see what the new packaging looks like, ostensibly so that shoppers don’t have to spend too much time scratching their heads in the juice aisle. “No Pulp Original” has been changed to the more affirmative “Pulp Free” (which also brings to mind the common “Fat Free” label used on many food products), “Lots of Pulp Grovestand” is now “High Pulp,” and “No Pulp with Calcium and Vitamin D” is now the slightly more succinct “Pulp Free Calcium + Vitamin D,” etc. Consistency is vital to branding your product or business, and while Tropicana’s strategy and potentially confusing online translator feature might be raising eyebrows in supermarkets and boardrooms across the country (according to a New York Times piece, Tropicana has received so much negative feedback that they’re ditching the new style and returning to the old design), the company’s growing pains might have ultimately helped customers more easily distinguish individual products in their extensive juice line in the long term. Hopefully, the new-new designs will implement the much clearer color coding system introduced with the new, controversial packaging.

What’s in a Logo?

March 4, 2009 Branding
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The Obama administration recently unveiled a new logo for its massive economic recovery bill. Yes, a logo for a government bill. It seems that the folks who so shrewdly branded the new president during his run for office last year is using the same approach to help communicate his agenda. The logo is simple, comprised of three segments that represent energy, manufacturing and country, and will be used to help Americans identify economic projects that have been “stimulated” by the legislation. What the administration understands is that people respond to things that are easily identified and understood. After a rocky first few weeks of the Obama presidency, the new logo accomplishes both.

One defining trait of both Obama’s campaign logo and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act logo is that they both utilize simple, primary colors (sans any gradient effects) and soft, rounded edges. It’s a recent trend in graphic design that can also be found in the refurbished logos for Pepsi and Walmart. Pepsi’s logo has been the topic of much conversation and debate; it takes the cola company’s classic, well-known logo and gives it a new twist, similar in style and presentation to Obama’s logos. Last month, Gawker leaked a 27-page document detailing the concept behind the Pepsi logo: magnetic dynamics, the theory of relativity, the renaissance, ancient Chinese art, the human body. Clearly over-thought and over-sold. Is any of that actually communicated to consumers by the new ad?

Walmart’s logo is slightly more effective. Transitioning from big, blocky capital letters hyphenated with a star to a more elegant font and a yellow starburst that evokes an organic, eco-friendly message, the popular chain store has successfully softened its image. Yes, it risks looking like an energy company, but Walmart has become a household name and its new slogan, “Save Money. Live Better.,” communicates both the company’s reputation for saving its customers money while at the same time improving their lives—and, having made efforts to reduce fuel consumption and offer eco-friendly products, maybe the planet too!

Obama’08

October 29, 2008 Branding
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Every presidential campaign creates an identity for itself through the use of colors, fonts and various other branding elements (Hillary Clinton had a waving flag with three stars, Mitt Romney used an eagle, John Edwards used a blue shooting star with a green tail, and both Clinton and Rudy Giuliani attempted to create a brand identity for themselves with their first names only), but Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s campaign took the idea one step further. Dennis Kucinich used images of the globe and a peace sign to spell 2008, but it’s Barack Obama who won the branding contest with his evocative logo design—an image of a rising sun against a blue sky and landscape made of three red stripes. It evokes the “O” of Obama, the hope his campaign espouses and the ultimate symbol of patriotism, the American flag. The campaign’s efforts to brand the candidate hasn’t always worked: They were criticized for being overzealous and presumptuous when they unveiled an Obama-fied presidential seal at rallies earlier in the year, but for the most part, the campaign scores big for effort. And for the first time in years, a presidential candidate purchased time on almost every major network and cable news channel. He aired a 30-minute infomercial last night promoting his candidacy, which begs the question: Why pick one market when you can afford to target them all?