Is your brand performing in the digital age?

Most modern businesspeople know branding is more than just a logo. But with the opportunities of the digital age, could your brand be missing some tricks in performing at its best?

Early on in my career, I was lucky enough to have something of a baptism of fire into the world of holistic branding. Moving to Australia in 2011, after leaving a small creative agency in Manchester, I landed a job with the country’s leading branding agency and found myself working directly alongside Hans Hulsbosch on the rebrand for Virgin Airlines Australia.

Hulsbosch is renowned for having pioneered the concept of combining brand strategy and product development, and the rebrand project encompassed everything from the brand logo to the crew uniforms, to sonic idents, and even to the food served onboard.

Everything down to the structural-design of the coffee cups had to be on-brand. It was a real fast track on top-level branding and felt a long way from banging out brand guidelines in Manchester.

After working on similar campaigns for major brands from Nike to Tesco, the top-to-toe branding process is something that I still firmly believe in for firms of all shapes and sizes who want their brands to perform at the highest level.

The emphasis on digital in the modern brand experience has opened-up new and exciting opportunities for brands compared even to the still relatively analogue era of 2011.

Digital means brands are not just about words, shapes and colours. They can move too. They have sound. And they have to still have an impact whether on a roadside billboard or scrolling at speed on a six-inch screen. Does your brand do all that?