Doing more with less
By The Team 30 Apr 2010.
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Turn your eyes to the end of many pieces of Government communications and what will you see? Logo upon logo upon logo. “Logo soup” as I like to call it can be highly confusing for audiences as well as being a waste of space and money.
Rationalise
The Home Office, DCSF and BIS have been through processes of logo rationalisation over recent years, and I predict that many more will follow. Multiple brands and identities are expensive to manage, promote and maintain. With fewer brands to handle you can channel the money you do have into promoting the best, and most important ones.
What also surprises me is how many Government initiatives carry a badge and nothing more. A brand is much more than just a logo. Colours, shapes and images all have a role to play and together can make communications more memorable and distinctive. So, if you do manage a brand make sure it is firing on all cylinders for maximum impact.
Collaborate
Sticking with logo soup it is amazing just how many exist for the same, or a similar, purpose. Just one example of where collaboration has saved money is the North West Regional Alcohol programme for the Department of Health. We worked with regional stakeholders including local authorities, police services, and primary care trusts in the region to help them grasp the risks of prolific fragmentation on alcohol awareness campaigns. We then created one unified regional brand – Drink Wise North West – that they could all use. Collaboration in the same vein is demonstrated by DH coming together with charities Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and the Stroke Association to run a joint campaign on the risks of over-drinking.
Target
Audiences’ relationships with brands and campaigns have changed. They are no longer passive recipients without control and can filter out exactly what they want to see and hear, and when. What’s more they can respond, comment, engage, complain or disagree within an instant thanks to social media like Twitter. Communicators must use audience research to be more focused than ever before with their channel selection, whether that’s branded content, a game, digital programming or music. Single-minded solutions will no longer cut it.
