When it comes to paid or organic media reports, very few solutions offer white-labeling functionalities, resulting in a disconnect between the data presented and the brand’s identity which can appear unprofessional, careless, or even under-resourced. 

To address this issue, Adzooma introduces Performance Report Branding – a powerful new feature designed to personalize your reports at both the account and Project levels! This dual approach ensures that your reports not only resonate with your clients’ distinct brands, but also positions you as the single source of truth for PPC, SEO, and web metrics insights.

How Performance Report Branding Works

• Account-Level Branding: When enabled, this feature will automatically apply your chosen brand colors and logos to all Adzooma reports. Every report you generate will be customized and branded, making them ready for immediate sharing with colleagues or clients without any extra effort.
• Project-Level Branding: If you are managing multiple clients in Adzooma, you can override the account-level settings to customize the brand colors and logos for individual Projects. Agencies and freelancers will gain the most from this overriding as it allows each report to be uniquely tailored to each client’s brand.

*Note: These features are exclusively available on Adzooma’s Silver & Gold plans! Upgrade today to gain access.

Why This Feature Matters

Adzooma reports go beyond basic metrics – they offer a comprehensive analysis of your PPC, SEO, and web metrics performance and provide actionable recommendations to holistically improve your digital marketing presence. By using this new branding feature, you can present these insights under your own brand, positioning yourself as a marketing expert and trusted strategic partner to your clients!

Personalizing Your Reports

To enable account-level branding:

• Log in to your Adzooma account
• Navigate to ‘Settings’ > ‘Report Branding’
• Choose your brand colors and upload your logo
• Toggle the ‘Enable Report Branding’ switch
• ‘Save Changes’

To enable Project-level branding:

• Log in to your Adzooma account
• Navigate to ‘Projects’ > select desired Project
• ‘Settings’ > ‘Report Branding’
• Choose your brand colors and upload your logo
• Toggle the ‘Enable Project-Level Report Branding’ switch
• ‘Save Changes’

To explore the Performance Report Branding feature and see how it can elevate your client presentations, try upgrading to our Silver or Gold packages today! 

For more insightful tips and updates, please head over to our blog, or get in touch to speak to our team if you have any questions!

Unless you have an in-house video team, you’ll find yourself choosing between templated video makers, ‘off the shelf’ videos on freelancer websites or working alongside a branded content agency (like Content Creatures).

Choosing to work with an agency will make sure you have tailored and high-quality branded content, proven to deliver better ROI. We’ve outlined below why this is the case, keeping the new remote working environment at the forefront of our discussion.

It gives your brand a voice

Animated branded content that is tailored to your business guarantees your brand’s voice, personality, style and tone will shine through in the video. We call this design-led storytelling.

Design-led storytelling has become increasingly popular with modern brands, as it allows them to connect to the emotions of consumers from anywhere in the world. This “emotional marketing” makes people more likely to follow their heart and act quicker on a purchase decision.

Using animated video, you can easily turn a lot of text into a short digestible video with an easy to understand the message. Using a bespoke video can also help you speak more effectively to your audience and helps to tap into your brand image, your tone of voice and even allows you to have some fun with your brand personality.

A design-led storytelling approach also allows you to deliver your message in your own way while avoiding a direct sales approach, which doesn’t work as well these days.

To use an example, every brand could communicate that 1+1=2 to their audience. However, making that message unique (so the audience remembers who said what and why) is what will make that message stick in the viewer’s mind.

Design-led storytelling using animated video allows you to offer something that is:

• Unique rather than generic, which suggests the product or service it promotes is designed around the consumer or customer
• Highly tailored to the brand and distinctive to its personality
• It is crafted, well-made and memorable

To add to our last point, having branded content that is well-made is one of the main determinants of a campaign’s success. Off-the-shelf video content has the potential to make a brand appear cheap and this is, of course, not the values a consumer or customer looks for.

Plus, when people are faced with several ads each day that have an “off-the-shelf” look and feel, it is a refreshing change to have something that is unique and entertaining.

Not to mention, there are many people that understand video marketing is an investment. Therefore, spending time to deliver a high-quality product will speak loudly about your professionalism as a brand.

Read: How To Influence People To Choose Your Brand Through Human Psychology

It allows for tailored messaging

As we discovered above, video content is a great way to deliver a specific message. In fact, it is essential that your video content finds a way to speak to the interests of your audience. Otherwise, you will not achieve the desired results of your campaign.

A survey showed that around 48% of people want videos to reflect the specific products and services they own or are interested in rather than videos that have nothing to do with their needs or wants.

By investing in tailored video content, you’ll be able to determine what this messaging is and showcase it in an engaging and professional way.

What is more, you may even gain some insights about your ideal audience through the deep dive into the planning of your campaign and branded content creation.

By working with an animation studio on bespoke branded content, you will benefit from expert advice and guidance. This includes how to fully understand the needs and wants of your audience, what speaks to them, and how to carry out a successful campaign using video.

It gives you a strong online presence

Over the past year, we have seen many businesses transform to survive in a new digital environment. However, this has made standing out from your competitors much more difficult.

Many people have taken the path of simply responding to trends through this period rather than focusing on long-term content. Doing this can be effective, as it gives you small, but effective bursts of brand awareness. But in the long term, if you are doing this each time you want increased visibility, it could make your brand seem generic.

Knowing this, it’s better to focus your efforts more on premium branded content, which is there for the long-term and can help you build your product or services.

It is also good to remember that many brands are also investing in video marketing. In fact, around 81% of businesses use video as one of their marketing tools.  But often, it comes secondary in their budget and is not usually prioritized.

You will find that choosing to put your animated video first will deliver a better ROI than you anticipate. A well-made branded content video is evergreen that can serve your business for several months after it’s created, if not years.

Read: 7 Best Video Marketing Agencies

You get to work with an experienced team

One of the reasons why 54% of B2B marketers struggle to create engaging content is because they haven’t taken the necessary time to study their audience and what messages resonate the best with them.

If you choose to invest in a bespoke animated video, you will be working with a team who is experienced in delivering videos that drive high-quality views.

Their experience will help you with your digital presence, brand voice, and how you will be perceived online. This is supported through access to scriptwriters and other in-house specialists that can help you tailor your message based on your audience and translate this into beautiful video content.

How to get started

We are proud to be an award-winning branded content agency and animation studio which creates bespoke video content for businesses around the world.

Whether you’re looking for branded content, an animated explainer video, animated film for an event, or general video production services, we’d love to hear from you.

Visit our Marketplace listing today.

But, as millions of businesses compete to dominate the advertising space, traditional techniques aren’t as appealing as they used to be to today’s shoppers.

Appealing to a savvy audience doesn’t mean looking for new magical techniques – a good understanding of human psychology is all you need.

Here’s how you can influence people to want your brand, say yes to your services and become loyal customers – all by modernising Cialdini’s work.

1. Reciprocity

The term reciprocity is based on the idea that people feel inclined to give back whether they realise or not. For example, customers are more likely to tip waiters that leave mints with the bill compared to those who don’t.

Advertisers use this principle all the time, from offering free access to their blog all the way to creating insightful Ebooks for their customers on pages called squeeze pages. See Search Engine Journal’s brand new SEO for Beginners, for example:

Their content team didn’t have to create this. But because they’re offering it for free and without expecting anything in return, their readers will be much more likely to interact with the site in future. It’ll also enhance the existing content on their site, drawing people in whenever they want new techniques and news.

It’s one of the quickest, simple and cost-effective ways to influence your customers, all by utilising the knowledge and resources you already have.

For some more depth on this, have a read of our article on squeeze pages.

2. Commitment/Consistency

The principle of commitment suggests that people are much more likely to commit to something that matches their previous behaviour. In other words: if you can get people to connect with your brand once, even on a small scale, it won’t be as difficult to convince them to buy.

A smart way to do this is by offering your website visitors something relatively small and free such as a how-to guide. The small commitment will make it easier for you to follow up with a paid product or service, as they’ve basically already told you they’re interested. That’s all it takes.

In terms of consistency, Ruben Ugarte, Data Strategist at Practico Analysis said that instead of focusing on customer behaviors, companies should focus on changing user habits.

He continued: “For example, a company like Spotify will design playlists to change your mood. Whenever you feel tired or lethargic, you might find yourself reaching for that Spotify playlist. This is a powerful way to ingrain a product/service into the regular lives of people.”

You can see this in action with gym memberships. The reason people never cancel is because they’re committed to the idea of going; they want the vision they have of their gym-going selves in their head to come to fruition.

3. Social Proof

Social proof argues that people are more likely to use or buy something when it’s recommended by other people. Cialdini defined it as people doing what they observe other people doing.

A good example is the Help To Buy ISA which closed to new accounts at midnight on 30 November 2019. Millions of young adults opened an account with as little as £1, all because they’d been influenced by others who had done the same.

Getting people to trust you is all it takes. The aftermath isn’t important – as you can see here:

If you want people to buy into your brand, you just have to show them other people are doing it. Reference case studies and ask people to share their feedback through different channels, just like Adzooma did here. 93% of people say online reviews impact their buying decisions, so it’s extremely important to highlight them where you can.

Even better, tell them how many happy customers you’ve got, share user-generated content on social media and push your positive reviews wherever you can. It all contributes to getting more customers.

You can also use a platform like Trustpilot to get star ratings into your ads, and get 15% off all Trustpilot plans as an Adzooma user.

4. Authority

People are swayed by credibility. If someone is debating between your service and someone else’s, they’re much more likely to go for the one with more experience, qualifications and partnerships.

But, being part of the modern world also means people give more weight to brands that are endorsed by officials, celebrities and influencers. According to data, businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. So it won’t only bring you a good return, but if someone with a large social following uses your product, it’ll assure potential customers it’s worth the money. It’s social proof x10.

Ellen Degeneres x Samsung is the perfect example:

Samsung said Ellen used their mobile phone organically, which, whether true or not, still makes it appear as though she approved of the brand. Of course, it received an incredible response.

You don’t have to use social proof to this scale, but having suitable social media influencers promote your product can work extremely well. Even if it’s getting them to repost one of your Instagram stories, having their approval goes a long way in making other people believe in you.

5. Liking

It goes without saying that people are much more likely to say yes to people they like compared to people they don’t. But according to Cialdini, a key element of liking is more about having things in common.

Social media marketing is an excellent way for you to show common interests with your customers. Use your brand personality to get on the same level as them, share content you know they’ll enjoy and make your brand seem much more human-centered. Look at Wendy’s for example. They’ve gained over 3.7million followers on Twitter alone for their sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek tone.

But, keep in mind that having common interests is about much more than enjoying the same humour. It’s about showing you’re empathetic and considerate, and especially now, that you’re dealing with the crisis in the right way.

Chris Norris, Managing Editor at SleepStandards echoed this idea, stating that customer service can also make or break your brand.

He said: “Even if you have a product that’s not doing well, having great customer service can turn it around. Customer service data can capture the pulse of your customers’ reactions to your product or service, and the areas of improvement. It can also serve to boost your brand and possibly upsell your other products and services while creating rapport with your customers.”

6. Scarcity

Ever not been able to find a product in your size and wanted it so much more? This is because scarcity increases desire.

Opportunities seem much more valuable when there’s limited availability. If there’s only the front row seats left in a cinema screening, the film must be good. Can’t book in with a certain hairdresser? Damn. They must be the best.

Or, maybe the movie trailer was framed in a way to look more enticing than it actually is and the hairdresser you’ve found only works 3 days a week. Just because something is limited it doesn’t mean it’s better, it just makes you think it is. It’s the way things are marketed that really makes a difference. Look at 3 live PPC ads using scarcity here.

Use this to your advantage in marketing by making people feel like they’re going to miss out. If you’re running social competitions and giveaways, put a short time frame on them and remind people of the prizes until there’s 10 minutes to go. If you’re giving away a free Ebook, say there’s only 100 available. No one will know whether they’re the 20th or 230th download, but a whole lot more people will rush to your page.

Become an influential weapon

These 6 techniques will help you appeal to a wider audience, persuade previous customers to repurchase and get ahead of your competitors. If you want to influence people at the exact time they’re searching for your business, applying behavioural economics to PPC should be next on your list.

You can also look into digital tools to help monitor customer behaviour, using the data to influence people at the right part of the funnel. For Mark Carlson, Chief Strategy Officer at Laughlin Constable, this is a method that works particularly well.

He said: “Using digital tools at our disposal, it’s easier to monitor and influence customer behavior than ever before. We know who the target audiences are, where they consume information, and how they move from one digital property to another.

“Through user testing, we know how to make it easier for them to get what they want. And tracking of online behavior patterns tells us what advice or prodding it will take to get them to say yes – to act on the impulse we’ve put in front of them.”

By using these techniques and finding what works best for you, marketing to your customers through this difficult time will be made much more simple than you think.

But, with 9.6 million people furloughed, businesses competing to thrive during the recession and a 10.1% rise in social media usage, you aren’t going to be the only one pushing great social media content. If you really want to stand out and build your online presence, you need to think outside the box.

Here are 7 ways to boost your following – with relevant examples you can apply to your brand.

1. Seek relationships, not just followers

Nobody wants a large social media following ‘just because.’ The benefit of having a lot of followers is that more people see your content, engage with your brand and potentially become paying customers. Having a lot of followers that aren’t your ideal customers is pointless.

You want to make sure the majority of people who follow you engage with your platforms. It doesn’t have to be every single follower, but you should avoid having people with inactive accounts to make you look better. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have closed down millions of fake accounts anyway.

For example, if you launch a handmade jewellery business, you might ask close friends and family to follow your social media pages. But that doesn’t mean you should ask your uncle’s 6”4 rugby friends to follow you for vanity purposes. They’re never going to buy from you – so it’s just false growth.

Focus on trying to attract and influence your target audience, instead of quick fixes such as buying social media followers.

2. Use hashtags

Hashtags are an excellent way to attract specific followers, get your content in front of a bigger audience and use hot trends and topics to your advantage. You can even use them to build your brand by creating slogans that are easily recognisable.

What’s more, on platforms such as Twitter, you can include them in your posts to join in a conversation. If you give a unique opinion or your tweet gets a lot of engagement, it’ll often be enough to convince people that your account is worth following.

To increase our social media following at Adzooma, we did some A/B split testing with 10 different posts. Five of them included hashtags, five didn’t. On average, posts including 2 hashtags gained 218 impressions, compared to just 169 for those without.

That’s an extra 47 impressions for just five more seconds of your time.

Keep in mind that not every platform uses hashtags in the same way, so it’s worth doing your research on the type and number of hashtags that will work for each post.

3. Run competitions and giveaways

Social competitions are a great tool for driving more people to your platforms. If you tell people to tag their friends and share your giveaway to their story, you’ll gain even more engagement and brand awareness.

But to avoid losing followers as soon as the giveaway is over, you have to figure out exactly what you want to achieve and how to make people engage with your brand.

As CEO and Founder of Untapped Digital, Corrie Jones told us previously:

“Whatever you offer, make sure it’s something your target audience would actually love to have. No one will enter if it’s not a prize they’re enamoured with.”

And if you aren’t sure what that is, all you have to do is ask.

Give people the chance to tell you what prizes they’d love to win so that you can generate a buzz around your platforms. Once the competition is over, you can use the data to create more targeted content, which in turn, will encourage people with common interests to become followers.

If you want to read more about how social competitions and giveaways can help grow your brand, you can do so in our previous article here.

4. Show your brand personality

Branding is important because it tells customers what they can expect from you and helps to set you apart from your competitors. If your branding is memorable and your voice connects with people on an emotional level, you’ll be much more likely to make a strong impression.

To help you get this right the first time around, explore the best branding agencies on the Adzooma Marketplace. They’ve got the experience and expertise to make your business stand out and drive more people to your platforms, just like we see with the most established brands.

Take Aldi for example. They recently started a conversation on Twitter regarding their #Aldi30thBirthdayParty, which received much more engagement than usual:

They even had banter with Lidl, their biggest competitor:

Why? Because it makes them unique and shows that they’re confident with who they are. It proves there are real people behind the brand and that they can relate with their followers – making them more than just a supermarket.

You should give people a reason to want to follow you. For instance, according to our recent survey, 57.5% of customers are also more likely to buy from brands with a strong personality.

If it makes them more likely to buy, they’re definitely going to want to follow you on social media. Post content that your customers won’t find elsewhere and use your brand personality to consistently reinforce it, making people return to your platforms time and time again.

5. Create quality content

It’s a no brainer that quality content has much more potential than something that’s quickly thrown together. But if you want to gain more followers, you need to make it shareable.

For example, if you carry out a survey and get some interesting results, present the data in an engaging infographic that people can share on their own socials.

If you’re starting up your own business with visually-appealing products, work on taking professional photos to make your brand seem more established. People are much more likely to share your brand new brownie business if the photos are polished and not just on your kitchen counter.

In terms of written content, give your personal opinion or talk about new trends, topics and news. Adzooma gained 619 social followers in May when we started to tell people about our brand new Marketplace. It was a huge increase of 79.9% from the previous month.

If you’re new to content marketing or just want pointing in the right direction, check out these content marketing tools:

• Grammarly
• FatJoe
• StoryChief

6. Post frequently

The amount you post has a direct impact on your followers. If you only post once a month, people will forget about you and feel like there’s no point following your account.

If you post every day, regularly respond to comments and show that you’re active, people will believe you’re going to provide the quality content we spoke about above. You have to be consistent and give people a reason to be involved.

It isn’t set in stone how often you should post, but it makes sense to post less frequently on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn where algorithms control the newsfeed. Platforms such as Twitter work on a real-time basis, so posting regular content can remind people of your brand and draw more followers to your feed.

However, it depends entirely on your business.

As a PPC management platform, Twitter is one of Adzooma’s most-used social media channels as it allows us to provide valuable content and keep up to date with the fast-moving industry. But for a business that’s centred around design, you’d probably want to drive your Instagram followers to push more visual content. It’s about being consistent whatever your brand.

7. Look into paid options

Paid social media can work wonders for your brand. It’s a great way of giving your content a little push in the right direction and getting more interested eyes on your posts. For instance, 40% of users bought something after seeing it on Twitter.

On Twitter, in particular, you can promote your tweets to make them appear in the timelines and search results of specific users. You just have to select profiles that fit your targeting and make sure your campaign objective is set to maximise reach.

Generally, promoted tweets increase followers 10 times more than organic tweets and are much less likely to be lost in between other pieces of content.

And it isn’t just Twitter that offers excellent paid advertising. With Facebook seeing 1.62 billion daily visitors and having a potential reach of up to 1.9 billion for their paid ads, using it to promote your brand is a no brainer. You can make Facebook advertising easy using our free software – learn more about it here.

In addition, if your brand is aimed towards a younger demographic or maybe a much more professional one, Snapchat Ads and LinkedIn Ads are designed to help grow your audience.

7 routes to success

These techniques will help to grow your followers, but the time and effort you put into your platforms is what really makes a difference. They aren’t clever hacks that will bring you results overnight.

If you want some advanced tips later down the line, follow us on Twitter or keep an eye on the Adzooma blog.

Our teams have been working hard to create, migrate and promote this new aspect of the business. We thought we’d show you not just how it can help, but how we went from the initial concept to the shiny new platform we have in front of us today.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Concept

Taking things from an idea to a finished product often is easier than you think – it’s just about having the right strategy in place to get you there.

The Marketplace was created because our customers were asking us for services we simply couldn’t accommodate in-house. But, that wasn’t to say we couldn’t help them. This insight led us to work harder to fulfil all that was being asked of us.

And so the Marketplace is designed to house everything you need to succeed in digital marketing: from SEO, branding, app design and more. By collating all the industry-leading services in one place, our customers know exactly where to turn.

From there, we did some research as to what was already on the market and thought about how we could get the great agencies we already work alongside involved. It seemed there was a mutual need for leads on their side too, particularly with the recent impact of COVID-19. This bolstered our resolve to move things from concept to reality as soon as we could.

Expansion

After our initial launch, we realised there was a big demand for additional ways to browse the Marketplace. We wanted to give people more ways to explore the great things on offer, including discovering things they might not even know existed.

Along the way, we improved the UX based on tests we ran and added some new features. For instance, our new personal portal allows each advertiser to amend their business information, logo, gallery images and contact details at any time. This gives users more control and allows them to keep things up to date. It also means our team doesn’t have to get involved and has more time to scope out new feature requests so that the Marketplace continues to get better.

Better still, listings can now go live the same day they’re put forward to our team making Marketplace one of the quickest and easiest ways to get your business out there.

Other new features include the addition of ratings and reviews to help businesses compare service providers and make the best decision for them based on real, authentic testimonials.

Speaking to Rebecca Morley, the Project Manager for the Marketplace project, she told us what she’s most excited about:

“My favourite feature of the portal is the lead data. An advertiser can see exactly how many times their business has appeared in search results, how many clicks it’s had as well as clicks out to their website – all in real-time. Plus, there is an inbox feature where potential customers can send enquiries as they browse.”

We’ve also expanded our advertising offerings: freelancers and software providers now have their own category to display their services. This gives users a wide array of options out there and helps to show why online directories are still very much needed in 2020.

Reach

Advertising a new product is always difficult, particularly when you have no data to lead you in the right direction. Luckily, because we have the Adzooma platform and an established customer base, we had a strong sense of just how valuable the Marketplace would be.

Once we were happy with the Marketplace, we moved our thoughts to marketing it. Speaking to Paid Social Manager, Matt Hogan, he discussed how we started the ball rolling:

“Firstly, we identified two main audience types that we thought would be best suited and set about coming up ways to promote it to them. This was split into those who would want to advertise on the Marketplace and those who would want to use the Marketplace.

Paid social tends to always bring in a good amount of traffic if you build your audiences from good data. So, as well as this, we looked at other ways to promote the product and decided to branch out into display campaigns on various targeted sites in our industry. These sites are some of the biggest in the marketing space so we can safely presume that our target audiences would visit them.”

Here is just one of the display campaigns we’re currently running on sites such as Search Engine Journal. We included a strong discounted offer to entice people to check it out and went for striking creatives to stand out against the landscape of the different sites.

Here is just one of the display campaigns we’re currently running on sites such as Search Engine Journal. We included a strong discounted offer to entice people to check it out and went for striking creatives to stand out against the landscape of the different sites.

Matt concluded:

“The results we’ve had so far have been promising, but as always, we’ll continue to tweak things and make changes as the data points us in the right direction.”

Supporting content

To support our paid campaigns, our Content Team have been busy producing tons of creative content. Full of key insights and handy hint, the Adzooma Blog now houses lots of supporting articles to help businesses and agencies on their advertising journey.

If you’d like to read more about why now is the best time to hire freelancers, what else is free about Adzooma or more about the Marketplace, be sure to explore the blog.

Using the best resources out there

On a final note, Marketplace is the number one platform that connects services, agencies and freelancers with high-quality leads looking for their expertise.

It’s important to outsource where it makes sense for your business. For example, migrating the Marketplace to eDirectory required the skill set of their Brazilian team – and we think they’ve done a fantastic job. The Marketplace makes it easy to find those who are ready to help.

Make sure you take a look for yourself, share your feedback and find your ideal service or new customers on there today.

But how successful is this tactic?

To find out, we surveyed 378 people* to find out what they think about brands with strong personalities and how it influences their purchasing decisions.

Here’s what we found.

57.5% of customers buy from brands with strong personalities

51.2% of people have purchased from a brand because of the way they spoke online.

What’s more, 57.5% of customers said they are more likely to buy from brands with strong personalities.

29.9% of people have said that they wouldn’t be influenced either way, and just 12.7% of people have said they would be less likely to buy from brands with a strong personality.

“I absolutely love brands that have a very strong personality. It’s the same way that people would like to follow a person with a strong personality as well. There’s just something about charismatic and attractive about them.”

Kenny Trinh, Managing Editor of Netbooknews

Friendly personalities are what customers want

When it comes down to the personalities customers resonate with most, 35.1% of people say that they prefer brands to talk in a friendly and conversational way.

In addition:

• 13.1% of people prefer a professional tone
• 13.1% of people preferred a fun or ‘quirky’ tone
• 2.4% of people preferred a sarcastic tone
• 21.4% of people prefer a mixture of all

There’s a real divide in what people want a brand’s personality to be. Although friendly personalities are in the lead here, it won’t work for every company.

Getting it wrong can also cause you to lose customers, as 55.7% of people have unfollowed a brand for the way they speak online.

“I think it’s great to see all these different brands speaking online in different tones and voices. It makes it more exciting and makes each brand unique. I’d much rather buy from a brand that has clearly found their voice and represents that personality in everything they do than one which just doesn’t seem to be trying at all.”

Carla Diaz, Cofounder of Broadband Search

Polarising personalities

“Every person differs on how he/she takes the ad he/she is seeing – some may like a taste of humour, some may be looking for a more professional tone.”

Sonya Schwartz, Founder of Her Norm

People are different. There’s not one single person that’s loved by everyone. Even Tom Hanks can’t win them all. By incorporating a personality into a brand, you’re immediately going to turn some people away.

But there is a bright side to this.

Jake Rheude, VP of marketing at Red Stag Fulfillment, stresses the importance of brand personalities as a crucial factor in how brands connect with their audience.

Personalities are a way to break the ice. It humanises a brand, making them easier for people to talk to. The more people talk to and engage with a brand, the more they’ll remember it. So, when the time comes to buy, there’s only one name on their mind.

“The more a brand portrays a person-like characteristic, the more it can create a connection to its customers or clients. However, the same with a real individual, brands also have different personalities that greatly impact how audiences would react and support them.

Samantha Moss, Editor & Content Ambassador at Romantific

Stronger personalities, stronger brand recall

“It’s inspiring to see someone who doesn’t try to be a conformist and is willing to take a stand for themselves. Even if you dislike it, you will remember this kind of strong personality and brand – there’s no denying that.”

Dmytro Okunyev, Founder of Chanty

Strong personalities can be polarising for the audience, but they are also more likely to be remembered. Good or bad, strong personalities are great tools for brand recall.

To Brian Robben, CEO of Robben Media, having a strong personality can also be seen as an endorsement for the brand, as “No one gets loud, reasonably, unless they are confident in their product or service”.

With so much competition online, it could be a case of who shouts the loudest wins.

“[Brand personalities don’t] always influence my purchasing decisions, but it certainly influences my daily conversations with friends.”

Cathay Pedrayes, Lifestyle Expert

Mr Robot-No

“I prefer a genuine voice, that is a mix of friendly, funny and informative. Brands that are too professional come off as a bit robotic to me, and I tune out immediately.”

David Foley, Founder of Unified Cosmos

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have brands that avoid personality to the extent of becoming emotionless robots. This isn’t great either, as a robotic tone of voice isn’t likely to captivate or engage your audience.

As John Linden of Mirror Coop says, “No one is on social media for the professional side of life; that’s already what people have to face at work, so they log on to social media to unwind”.

Customers aren’t on social media to be sold to. They’re there to unwind, talk to family and friends and be entertained. If your businesses can fit into that circle, they’re much more likely to remember and engage with your brand.

This may also be the reason 35.1% of people prefer brands to speak in friendly and conversational ways online.

Be true to your brand

“Whatever your personality or voice, use it, be consistent and make sure that it is honest, authentic and true to you and your brand. If you do, you’ll naturally attract the customer who is looking for you and what you’re selling or talking about. The worst thing to be is ambiguous, boring or stuck in the middle.”

Chris Fernandez, CEO of Women’s Health Interactive

Brain V. Folmer of FirstLook, states that brand personalities depend on the industry and category the brand is in. As an example, Brain listed Ugly Drinks, who use a cheeky tone-of-voice and often use colloquial text speak, like “git” “gon” and “u”.

This tone of voice works for Ugly Drinks because they are an alternative soft drinks company aimed at younger generations. It fits into their brand value of honesty and ‘no-sugar coating’. It wouldn’t be appropriate for, say up-market brand Gucci to use this language. It goes against the image they’ve built from themselves of class and sophisticated fashion.

Basically, it’s all about your audience and how you can communicate and connect with them. If sarcastic or witty tones are what they love and enjoy, then it’s what’s going to resonate and work well for your brand.

“Effective branding is less about having a strong personality online and more about having a distinct personality that makes sense, given what the product or service is selling. The most relevant the brand is to the consumer and followers set of values, the more likely they are to follow. I don’t care how a brand speaks – I only care if they are doing it memorably, consistently, and aligning with their brand values.”

Kimberly Solarz Gordon, Brand Strategist at KSG Group LLC

Has the pandemic solidified the need for personas?

The global pandemic saw a huge boom in local buying, particularly within the food industry. Approximately a third of households increased their digital spend, while 38% of consumers said they will continue to buy from the same stores they visited at the beginning of the crisis.

Micheal D. Brown, Director of Fresh Results Institute, states that because of the pandemic, “Customers are buying more emotionally these days. This means they would naturally go with a brand they have a sentimental attachment to.”

The pandemic has caused an economic crisis, meaning customers are much more careful about where they spend their money. Customers want to buy from brands they trust, including local and friendly brands where customers believe their spending power makes a difference.

Don’t be down with the kids

Of the personalities that we questioned, there was one that received a more negative response than others. This is brands that are ‘over the top’ and post memes in an effort to connect with Gen Z audiences.

Sandra Hurley, Operations Manager of Hayden Girls says: “I’m afraid I can’t take the second-hand embarrassment. I am forced to unfollow and avoid shopping there”.

Embarrassment is not a good feeling to envoke from your audience.

If you want to see anymore, there’s an entire Reddit thread titled ‘How do you do, fellow kids’ devoted to the most awkward and cringe-worthy examples. Yikes.

“If it’s a major company trying to cash in on meme culture, without grasping its subtleties, I’m probably going to unfollow it or keep an eye on it as an example of what not to do.”

Domantas Gudeliauskas, Marketing Manager at Zyro

Knowing when to turn it on

31.4% of people said that they wanted brands to speak in a mixture of different personalities. This doesn’t mean that one day you should be sarcastic and the next friendly – as this will confuse your customer base and muddle your branding.

It’s about knowing when to use personalities and when you need to tone it down, such as in your customer service department.

One person has proved that by pretending to be the customer service department for a number of brands and commenting on people’s posts on Facebook. In fact, there’s an entire page dedicated to it.

Let me just say, people are not happy when they don’t get a professional answer back. It brings out the worst in them and results in many threats about getting him fired.

As amusing as these examples are, it shows an inherent difficulty of brand personalities. They have to speak out but not offend. Gain attention by being different, but also provide the friendly, supportive and professional tone that people expect when they have a problem.

Brand personalities are not permanent. They’re a tool used to gain attention and build relationships with customers, but cannot be used across all aspects of the business.

And we shouldn’t expect them to either. Brands are not single entities, they’re made up of several different people. We should expect brands to be as multifaceted as they serve different functions for their customers.

Should personalities get political?

If you decide to use a strong personality for your brand, does that mean you should be posting about politics?

In another investigation, we found out what customers actually think about brands getting political. The majority of people found them to be insincere, with 43.5% of people thinking that it is just a way for customers to jump on the bandwagon.

In addition, politics can worsen customers’ opinions of a brand and potentially damage your online engagement, as 42.3% of people will unfollow a brand for speaking out about politics.

However, it can increase sales. 63% of people are more likely to buy from a brand that speaks out about politics, but only if customers agree with you. If they didn’t, 67.5% would be unlikely to ever buy from your brand.

Read the full data.

If you really want to engage with your customers on social, you might want to consider having a strong personality but avoiding politics.

Methodology

Data was gathered from 378 anonymous respondents via surveyswap.io. No participant was paid for their response, and the survey was made available to people of all backgrounds, ages, genders and ethnicities to avoid any bias in responses.

So what the Dickens is this really about? This, dear readers, is about the power of storytelling in business. I am going to take a little of your time to explain why every product or service has a great story to tell. This gubbins matters, we as human beings are programmed to respond to stories, it’s in our DNA, so unfold those arms, put the kettle on and crack open the *Hobnobs.

This is a story of three parts carving up what can become chewy semantics, a feast of marketing jargon into easily digestible bite-sized take-outs you can apply to your world, whatever business you’re in.

*a UK household favourite aka the biscuit of dreams. Just never look at the calorie content. Ever.

Part One – The beginning is a great place to start

Your Why

Love him or hate him, Simon Sinek makes a great point: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” So spend time figuring out your purpose. Ask the big existential questions like, why are you here? What are you trying to do to make the world a wee bit better.

Try not to get caught up in the knotty jargon of vision, mission, ambition. Why are you bothering to do what you do is what you need to capture. Sometimes starting with the legacy your business will leave behind and working backwards unlocks fresh ideas.

A “what will be written on your tombstone” idea but much less gothic. Make sure it’s achievable. We are all naked on the internet and any over claims will be called out. Reputations take years to build and minutes to destroy.

Your audience

Having more than a rough idea of who you are targeting is pretty vital. Yes there’s a myriad of micro-target audiences you can reach on a 1-2-1 basis across digital marketing but take a few paces back. Inject some human into what you are doing by getting inside the minds of your consumers and carefully tailor your tone and aesthetic to fit.

Buy the cat a new goldfish and commission some research so you are really clear on who your current and target audiences are. Sometimes who you’re attracting right now aren’t as desirable and committed as they could be, so use research to discover new, profitable segments.

There are so many other research techniques out there beyond a focus group that dig into actual over claimed behaviours. Genuinely insightful!

Your values and personality

In simple terms what do you stand for and what do you stand against? Having powerful and distinctive values can be core to your proposition. Bring these to life, stick them on a wall, a t-shirt, the [home] office dog. Live by them without cynicism.

These become your brand compass which guides you through the big, exciting strategic decisions from who to hire and where you advertise to who you partner with and who you wouldn’t.

If they’re not written down they can become twisted marketing myths, echo chambers which could easily take you off course.

Part Two – The juicy middle

Think like a challenger

More David and Goliath shizzle? Partly yes, partly no.

It’s become so much more refined, there are more nuanced challenger brands we’ve worked with who aren’t simply fighting the no.1 market leader but they are challenging the definition of a category, societal biases or simply fixing problems we didn’t even know existed.

Challenger brands are ace because they do more with less, leveraging their creativity. They win hearts and minds through delegating talkability throughout their teams, rethinking every touch point as media and using ideas over cash as their currency.

If that doesn’t get pulses racing and hairs standing on the back of your neck, we’re not sure what will.

Think like a publisher

Content is of course king. We have heard that many times and for marketing, it’s all about creating and distributing really relevant content (videos, infographics, PowerPoint slides, tweets, posts, articles, white papers, books and even games) at the right time, that helps the right people – prospects and customers achieve their goals.

Compelling content and a tidy ad spend are a match made in heaven. An affordable way to test, learn and iterate with campaigns that are easy to measure and evolve.

Tangent alert! Like all good shaggy dog stories, sometimes we have to go off piste. This detour is about curiosity itself and how it mud wrestles with stories:

“Curiosity is the intellectual need to answer questions and close patterns. Story plays to this universal desire by doing the opposite, posing questions and opening situations”

Robert McKee – screenwriter & lecturer

Anything from clickbait to polls, newsflashes and quizzes fuel our need to find out more. But here’s the thing, you need to share enough information to get our curiosity piqued but not too much so we are disappointed by the reveal. Curiosity is inspired by puzzles and mysteries. Puzzles are short-lived curiosity killed by discovery while mysteries keep us questioning and exploring.

Keep these concepts in front of your mind when planning your content. Curiosity is a driver of that all-important and rare bird we call “attention”. We’re all competing for consumer’s attention so experiment with a range of smart ways which drive curiosity and genuinely engage.

Part Three – The denouement

To help tie up these loose ends and bring us back to the why. The “why am I reading this post?” kind of why.

Here is your reward. A handy 11 point content marketing checklist which you can apply to plan today:

• Do you have your house in order? What will you stop, start, continue?
• Get your brand guidelines written down and visualised so anyone working on your brand gets it
• Know your audience – figure out their interests and passions and ways you can connect your brand with these
• Content rules – identify your competition’s efforts and then do better. Steal with pride.
• Curiouser and curiouser – How are you going to inspire curiosity?
• Don’t sit on the fence – Be bold with the stories you tell, have an opinion without being offensive. Unless being offensive and provocative is how your brand rolls.
• Experiment – there’s no silver bullet. Experiments take time, be realistic about how long you’ll give something to prove it’s worth before axing it.
• Apply fewer, bigger, better to longer-form content, simply put quality over quantity
• Don’t forget about semiotics – meaning is communicated in many ways, the details count.
• Plan to react in an always-on world. Create evergreen content with space for topical content to live when that trending moment lands.
• Don’t overthink it.

To leave you with the words of the annoyingly brilliant David Ogilvy “There are no dull products, only dull writers.” And if we can help at all with your why, your brand proposition, marketing strategy and execution do drop us a line. We have teeth but rarely bite. For all your digital ad campaigns, those nice folks at Adzooma may be able to help.

When it comes to brands and politics, it gets even harder. There’s an unseen war between people who think that the two should never be mixed, and those that believe they should take a stand to bring change.

So, should brands post about politics or stay far away? This investigation will give you all the insights you need to make this decision.

“Politics is such a divisive, polarising issue to touch on, and it instantly strikes a nerve on certain people.”

Jack Wang, CEO of Amazing Beauty Hair

We set out to find out what customers think about brands making political statements. Surveying 378 people, we asked if they trusted political statements, if it changed their opinion of brands and if it affected their purchasing decisions.

This is what we found.

Customers won’t follow but will buy from political brands

The data revealed a rather interesting comparison of customer behaviour when a brand speaks out about politics.

In terms of social media, if a brand makes a political statement:

• 27.5% of people are likely to follow that brand on social media
• 30.2% of people say it doesn’t affect their opinion
• 42.2% of people are unlikely to follow the brand on social media

However, an astounding 63% of people said they are more likely to buy from a brand that speaks out about politics. Only 17.4% of people have said that it will harm their purchasing decisions, showing a net positive for political stands.

That is however, if it aligns with the customer’s viewpoints.

If a brand makes a statement that a customer doesn’t agree with, 67.5% of people said they wouldn’t buy from them.

Overall, when asked how making political statements affects people’s opinions of brands:

• 22.6% of people said it improves their opinions
• 40.3% of people said it doesn’t affect their opinion
• 37.1% of people said it negatively affects their judgment

So, posting about politics can simultaneously lose followers, customers and negatively impact your reputation. But on the other hand, it can also gain you new customers and more sales.

Ultimately, it depends on what you’re posting and how genuine your customers believe you are.

43.5% of people think brands are just jumping on the bandwagon

“Some companies are just riding the bandwagon. They are just trying to let their target audiences think that they are concerned politically or their brand stands by a social issue but the truth of the matter is they are more concerned about getting their brand out there and get brand awareness from their target audiences.”

Scot J Chrisman, CEO of The Media House

One of the biggest problems with political statements is that people often view them as ingenuine. In fact, our data revealed that 43.5% of people believe political statements are just a way to jump on the bandwagon – a temporary comment to gain attention and fit in with what headline is making the news.

In addition, 23% of people said that political statements are purely promotional. Only 11.4% of people saw political comments from brands as a genuine response.

“I believe there are brands that are genuine when they post. While some can come off as overly self-promotional, many brands still communicate with pure intentions.”

David Foley, Founder of Unify Cosmos

“I for one do not believe that brands are 100% genuine when they post about “supporting” a cause. They only post those things to get more coverage for their brand. There’s only one thing a company wants and that’s getting more money!”

Kenny Trinh, Managing Editor of Netbooknews

A distrust of ‘popular’ movements

“Think a special mention has to go to the brand will change their logos for a few days in response to something and switch back as soon the month is over or the tabloids have changed focus. For me it comes across as jumping in bandwagons to appear like they’re interested in a political/societal cause, so they don’t get ‘cancelled’ or have any bad PR.”

Chris Nunn, Digital PR Consultant

To dive a little deeper into whether people saw political statements as genuine or not, we tested the waters with a few well-known movements and or causes that had been hitting the headlines recently.

It turns out all of them generated a lack of trust.

For Black Lives Matter (BLM):

• Only 19.1% of people believed brand statements to be genuine
• 34.3% of people were on the fence
• 44.6% of people saw them as ingenuine. 22.3% of these people firmly stood by this opinion

For women’s rights movements:

• 30.5% of people believed the statements to be genuine
• 34.1% of people were on the fence
• 26.4% of people thought they were ingenuine

For Pride:

• 27.1% of people believed the statements to be genuine
• 32.5% of people were on the fence
• 40.5% of people thought they were ingenuine

Pride also received the most comments for being an ingenuine and self-promotional statement. Sorry temporary rainbow flags –customers just aren’t buying it.

Part of the reason is that brands who post rainbows misunderstand the core of what Pride is about. It’s not a simple celebration; it’s a movement for equality, a memorial for the silent generation and a loud reminder that LGBTQ+ people exist and deserve to be seen.

The first pride wasn’t a party. It was a riot.

All talk, no action

A reason people view a brand’s political messaging as ingenuine is because statements alone are empty.

A statement is passive. It’s a reflection on an event as if it’s already passed, like something separate. Statements can be deleted, retracted or changed. There’s no accountability to them and no guarantee that anything will change.

Those that take action are much more likely to be viewed positively.

Some companies that got glowing reviews were the ones that took action. For example:

• Square Enix pledged $250,000 to the BLM movement and promised to match any further donations.
• Brewdog used their facilities to make hand sanitiser during the coronavirus lockdown.
• Clothing brand H&M donated a total of $500,000 to NAACP, ACLU and Color of Change organisations in support of BLM.

Action, not talk, is what gets real results and support.

“Taking a stand on certain relevant political issues can show how much the brand cares, not only for their sales but also for the welfare of the entirety of the population.”

Sonya Schwartz, Founder of Her Norm

A political paradox

Samantha Moss, Editor & Content Ambassador at Romantific, told us of two main benefits of brands speaking out about politics.

The first is that you generate an impression that you don’t just care about profits, but what’s going on in the world. The second is that is can build your reputation and “gain new and retain customers that would agree on your stand”.

And that’s a paradox, isn’t it?

Posting about politics simultaneously shows audiences that you’re not in it for the profit while using it as a device that can generate you a profit. No wonder users have a hard time knowing if brands are genuine or not.

“Whether good or bad, it is still publicity. People will still talk about them and that’s what they want. They must be ready to face the consequences, though. Whether people will support or condemn them, they must be prepared.”

Karl Armstrong, Founder of EpicWin App

“Consumers today increasingly expect corporations to demonstrate their values so they can align their spending with companies they believe in. Companies that do take political or social stands do so understanding that it will be net positive — that they’ll attract and retain more customers than they’ll lose.”

Deb Gordon, Author of The Health Care Consumer’s Manifesto

Short-term gains, long-term mistakes

“Brands should never post about politics online. It just takes seconds to post something but records, and its adverse side effects on brand sales remain for a longer time.”

Nicholas Holmes, Founder & CEO of ProductReviewer.

“Although brands have the right to post about politics, I think they should refrain from doing so. Politics is such a grey area that it’s a huge responsibility to incite anything.”

Jeremy Harrison, Founder of Hustle Life

There’s a common thought among the respondents is that once you’ve made a statement, it may come back to bite businesses later down the line.

For example, David Reischer, Marketing Director at Legal Advice stated: “Any company that believes that they hold a monopoly on making the right political decisions and hold a superior moral certitude on these complex matters may be sorely mistaken with the passage of time.”

The problem is the expectation that brands are a stationary, fixed entity. Once a brand has made a message, it will stick by it to be consistent. Brands aren’t seen to grow and change as humans do, so any political statement made has to be true years down the line.

And that’s ridiculous really. If a brand is to post about politics genuinely, then it should be given the benefit of the doubt to keep updated of the situation, keep educating themselves and update their stances when necessary.

“I do believe [brands] are genuine when they post because they are doing so knowing that what they say may cost them customers in the process.

Could it serve as a promotional tool? Maybe – but that’s a risky one, given the likelihood that they’ll alienate at least some of their customer base who don’t share their views.”

Alison Huff, Editor in Chief of Women’s Health Interactive

Strategic statements to please your audience

To Ian Wright, founder of Fleet Logging, political statements should only work “if your brand closely aligns with a certain political group” or cause.

For example, if you sell food products to a predominantly vegan audience, posting political statements prostesting animal warfare will align well with your target audience. This statement is, therefore, another way to appeal to your audience and gain their support.

“No business can hope to ever ‘please all of the people all of the time’, but they do need to strive to please/support/provide value to the people who represent their target audience.If you’re a business that sells firearms, it’s appropriate for you to be visible online in terms of your support for laws and regulations that support the right to bear arms”

Linda Pophal, Strategic Communications LLC

But, that’s a tactic that only works if the majority of your audience share the same political view. If your audience is divided, sometimes staying neutral is the only way to retain both sides, as Matthew Burke, Educational Director of The Complete Guide To Archery tells us.

“We’ve made the decision to forego anything even remotely political, because [it] has been absolutely toxic for us.” Matthew states. “The world of archery is interesting because it is split between two groups who love archery, but who have extremely different politics: the target archery bunch tends to live in larger cities and support liberal ideals, while the bowhunting bunch tends to live in suburban and rural areas and support conservative ideals”.

This divide has meant that even the slightest mention of politics turned comment sections into debates and constant talk of how “the other side was evil / insane / anti-American”, turning a once great community into a war zone.

“Political views [can] ruin your company’s reputation and image which can eventually affect your financial status.”

Jon Howard, CEO of Coupon Lawn

Is there a pressure to speak out?

Dre Baldwin of Dre All Day states that companies are only speaking up about BLM because of outside pressure.

“The momentum of the Black Lives Matter slogan [has] emboldened its staunchest supporters to make demands of companies to show support — or otherwise be labelled racist or anti-equality. Businesses have no choice but to speak up or be ostracised.”

Fear of being losing customers can be a powerful motivator and may have been the reason that some companies have issued statements about BLM. A comment just to fit in has no real meaning or power behind it, contributing to the ingenuine feeling behind them.

“People want brands to speak up because they have a lot of power and influence. They must stand on the right side of history. But I will say, I don’t believe for a second that any of these political posts are made out of genuine support or genuine feeling. Brands are posting about it in an effort not to get “cancelled” or as a PR move. They are absolutely promotional, and you’ll most often notice that they usually do not do anything more to support the cause.”

Sandra Hurley, Operations Manager at Hayden Girls

A thin line between socially conscious and political

“There should always be a boundary on how politically your company is posting.”

John Howard, CEO of Coupon Lawn

There’s a difference between socially conscious and political. One first seems to be widely accepted by users, while the latter is not. But where is the boundary?

How is one post from a company accepted as being socially conscious, and another is radical? Does the boundary happen at the point where the cause dividing opinions or is the action of the statement?

Socially conscious is a very passive statement. It implies that a business is aware of issues, but aren’t actively doing anything about it. Policial, on the other hand, means that a company has taken a stand.

It’s risk-free vs risky.

The rise of the socially conscious buyer

“Once you realise the power of your purse, and how shopping habits can steadily and surely push powerful businesses to be more responsible about their political stances, it is not an inconvenience to be mindful of where you spend your mind, but a duty.”

Renata Castro, Castro Legal Group

There’s a new type of consumer emerging: the socially conscious buyer. These are buyers that will only want to spend with brands that align with their own political stance.

Daniel Carter of Zippy Electrics told us that he was an Apple user until he realised how much Samsung sends out to non-profits organisations every year and decided to make the switch. Daniel continued to tell us that this decision was made on their long-term commitment, and not because of a temporary measure. “I think brands who do not put a time limit to their campaigns are a lot more genuine than those who, say, sell rainbow-themed items because it’s Pride month”.

It’s an added feel-good factor. Customers not only get the satisfaction of buying a new product but the added bonus of feeling like they’ve also helped support the cause through their money.

“I find myself not just buying more from brands who speak loudly about these topics but feeling good after each purchase, knowing that some of my money will go into supporting them.”

James Bullard, SoundFro

“I absolutely love it when I see brands speaking out about discrimination. I love it, even more, when I see them sassing ignorant people despite doing their part to educate them. Every time I see something like this happen, my respect for these brands go up, and I just know they at least deserve a follow. However, when I find out that these brands are actually researching deeply into the issues they claim to support and support them unprompted (no matter how quiet the issue is) that’s when I find myself spending money their way. There is a huge difference in supporting a cause for just a month and supporting it for YEARS.”

Aaron Simmons, Test Prep Genie

“I think [brands] should get political, so then I know who I want to give my hard-earned money to or not. As a result, I’m actually quite grateful when brands show their true colours and speak out on what they believe in.”

Annie Harris

“I actively base my shopping decisions around a brand’s public stance on social issues. When news came out that Home Depot’s founder was donating to the Trump campaign while Lowe’s was donating to the community, I drove 20 min. out of the way to shop at Lowe’s instead. Chick-fil-a’s anti-LGBT stance is why I’ve never spent a dime there. And in June, Nordstrom was one of the first brands to publicly take a stance on BLM, which made me more loyal to an already favourite brand.”

Cathy Pedrayes, TV personality

“I am absolutely more likely to buy from a socially conscious brand and actively avoid buying from brands with which I do not agree politically.”

Val Edwards, Owner of P2G Consulting LLC

The politics-blind customer

As well as a socially conscious buyer, there’s another category of consumer. These are people who don’t want to hear about politics at all and will base their purchasing decisions solely on the product itself.

It’s not about being quiet about your political stances here; it’s avoiding making any statement at all.

“Retail is our safe haven, our neutral point of feeling good, supporting us in good times and helping us in bad times. We are inundated with opinions, choices and decisions at every turn. If a brand is hitting a very small market that has a strict political view, that’s different. It’s nice to know that we have a mental ‘Switzerland’ when it comes to left or right. Those who only want to support brands that share their political views can certainly vet those out while the rest of us relax with the brands whose loyalty lies in the quality of their products or services.”

Kimberly Freidmutter, Hypnotherapist and Author.

Staying neutral won’t please both of these customers though. As Brand Strategist Martha Garza states “As a consumer, if a brand is not saying anything it seems fishy to me, and I probably won’t buy until I know where they stand”.

Speaking out about politics will alienate certain customers from your brand, as will staying silent. It’s a minefield out there.

Political statements done right

To see what brand messaging people are relating to, we asked what companies handled political statements positively.

These are just a few of the companies that got a golden mention.

Yorkshire Tea & PG Tips

On Twitter, someone tweeted to celebrate that Yorkshire Tea didn’t support the BLM movement. Yorkshire Tea then replied by telling her not to buy their tea, stating “we’re taking some time to educate ourselves and plan proper action before we post. We stand against racism.”

Another user replied to this saying that they would be buying tea from long-term rivals PG Tips. Instead, the brand replied that they are also in support of BLM and are standing in ‘solidaritea’ with Yorkshire Tea.

It’s a simple statement and one hell of a pun. But, interestingly, it’s gained respect from the brand, considering the political stance wasn’t made as an official statement, but rather as a casual reply.

Libro.Fm

“They’ve been bold, educational and supportive. It’s been amazing to see them, within their lane of audiobooks, get involved in the conversation!”

Jamie Lee, The Perpetual Page-Turner

Libro.fm is an audiobook service which has curated their own playlists and contents promoting books that are written by, or about black or LGBTQ+ authors or issues. By highlighting these playlists, they’ve made it easier for people to educate and support black and LGBTQ+ authors, using their platform to amplify other voices.

It’s more than a statement – it’s an active move to support those around them. In addition, they have an entire page highlighted on their own website with further actions people can take to support black-owned bookstores and authors.

English Premier League

James Jason, Assistant HR Manager and Financial Analyst at Mitrade, states that English Premier League (EPL) has been instrumental in supporting the BLM agenda.

This is through the players taking a bow at the first whistle and displaying the Black Lives Matter tagline in place of their names on their shirts, drawing attention to the movement.

“Being the biggest game on the planet involving players and fans drawn from all over the world, having such a campaign showed that the EPL was deep inside the controversial matter and supported the movement.

This is a great show of solidarity by a brand towards its stakeholders’ concerns.”

Ben & Jerry’s

The ice cream giants Ben & Jerry have built up a reputation of being vocal about politics, including LGBTQ+ rights and climate change. Their support of BLM didn’t come with George Floyd’s death but can be traced back years ago to the Ferguson Unrest, a series of BLM protests that started after Micheal Brown was murdered by police officer Darren Wilson.

In addition to their statement, Ben & Jerry’s have issued a 4 step plan to dismantle white supremacy, including points to disavow white supremacists and increase police accountability. In these points, the company state that we “can’t continue to fund a criminal justice system that perpetuates mass incarceration while at the same time threatens the lives of a whole segment of the population”.

“As a Black man, and straight ally, I am heartened by the authenticity and courage with which B&J is making their anti-racism and anti-bigotry palpable. They’re definitely not “both-siding” or tip-toeing around the systemic injustice present in America. They’re on the side of humanity and history. More brands should follow their lead!”

Eric Blackerby, Artist & Entrepreneur.

Nike

Nike was another brand that took to social with a video that urged viewers not to be silent and to take a stand against white supremacy.

By subverting their slogan into the message ‘Don’t Do It’, Nike’s message manages to place the brand front and centre, arguably ahead of the statement. Yet the video was widely well received and may be partly down to the fact that it isn’t the first time that Nike have shown their support of BLM.

In 2018, Nike made NFL star Colin Kaepernick the star of their advertising campaign. This was a bold move after Kaepernick was outcast and fired from the sport after being the first American football player to take a knee in protest during the national anthem.

“A little bit of research can show you that some brands have been supporting these causes way before it blew up in social media. Those brands, I believe, are genuine.”

Allan Borch, founder of Dotcom Dollar

A note about where Adzooma stands

Just to make it abundantly clear, Adzooma is not afraid to take a political stand. Since our BLM statement last month, we’ve been writing extensively on the top with our Diversity Month, which highlighted societal issues and provided a platform for all to speak out against discrimination.

We’ll be lying if we said that everyone reacted positively to this. I’m not allowed to include details, but trust me when I say there were some spicy emails about the content we’re putting out and a loss of customers.

In this paradoxical political minefield, we choose to take a stand against racism, sexism and discrimination. We support BLM, Pride and all causes to diversify the technology industry. Always.

Methodology

Data was gathered from 378 anonymous respondents via surveyswap.io. No participant was paid for their response, and the survey was made available to people of all backgrounds, ages, genders and ethnicities to avoid any bias in responses.

UX stands for user experience and UX design looks at the interaction between users and their experiences with products or services. The best UX design should be useful, intuitive, and engaging to an audience. To make sure that your audience is able to interact with your product in a valuable and meaningful way, you need to focus on different aspects including:

• Technology
• Marketing
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Science

UX designers do a lot and are an important and underrated part of product development.

What do UX design agencies do?

As mentioned above, UX design agencies use a lot of different disciplines to improve the experiences of users. For day-to-day UX tasks, they can include:

• Market research
• Designing wireframes
• Prototyping
• User testing
• User research
• Storyboarding

Note: UX design agencies tend not to manage the visual design of a product, but instead look at the journey behind the scenes.

So let’s have a look at 7 of the best UX design agencies and how they can help you improve your user experiences.

1. Intimation

Location: Dunbar (Scotland), Newcastle

Intimation can help you find the right way of communicating to your audience.

Thanks to a dynamic team of creative copywriters, developers, animators, and strategic thinkers, they work to a common goal: to focus on what makes each and every client unique.

We help our clients market, promote and grow their businesses through innovative marketing across a range of media, an understanding of budgets and excellent support.

Intimation is also working to become one of only six WIX Strategic Partner agencies in the UK.

Previous clients: Brightwater, Torcall, The Highland Military Tattoo, Premier Tech Aqua UK

2. PMD

Location: Bristol

PMD is a full service design/web studio that specialises in branding.

The studio breathes life into brand and marketing with a focus on the impact on a client’s target audience.

Services offered include:

• Web design & development
• eCommerce
• UI/UX design
• Advertising campaigns
• Print media
• Brochures
• Packaging
• Pitch decks

Whether you have a consumer product or B2B service, all brands can be broken down into 3P’s, Position, Proposition and Personality, successful brands define these clearly and apply them consistently. The formula for creating a credible brand is simple, the story you tell combined with the experience you deliver has to meet a customers expectations, these expectations are established from your story and the quality of your various brand and marketing touchpoints, and that’s where we come in to help.

Previous clients: Warr + Webb, Alphastream, Nonstop, Mack Legal

3. Temper

Location: London

Temper is a digital consultancy that delivers and unlocks digital growth.

We build digital-first brands – Consumed with technology and shaped by data, our brands fuel commercial growth and make change happen.

Their people-first approach has helped a range of businesses increase their brand engagement, capture valuable customer data and turn users into happy, returning customers.

Previous clients: Diageo, EDF Energy, Europcar, Five Guys

4. VDesign

Location: London

VDesign is a creative digital media company providing services that accelerate their businesses further through design, development and marketing.

With over 25 years design, marketing, and development experience in the design, the team covers a range of services including UX design, print design, web and app development, and SEO

We have built a framework with our creative geniuses to save you time and money.

Previous clients: Fabbri Boots, Arktos, Cyberox, Studiosurf

5. Transition Creative

Location: Gloucester

Transition is a web design agency that specialises in a range of services that help their clients bring in more enquiries and sales. They do this with high-quality UX design and the development of transformative business sites.

With a wealth of experience within digital design and development, we work with a variety of companies from startups to large organisations. Whether you require landing pages that convert customers, a CMS to manage content, eCommerce that sells products or Progressive Web Applications for communicating via push notifications. Our proven processes are tailored to help support your objectives.

Outside their web design services, Transition also offers SEO audits, hosting, support and maintenance, and content (copywriting and photography).

Previous clients: Forestry Commission England, Arkwell & Wills, ATB Guitars, Catch Design Management

6. ActiveWin Media

Location: Manchester

ActiveWin Media works to offer its clients multiple digital options and build strategies that return on investment.

For their UX consultations, everything highlighted is designed to make improve conversions and ActiveWin carefully plans and designs every detail with transparent guidelines and how the potential impact will contribute to success.

The sooner you invest in UX and CRO services, the more successful your business will be online.

Previous clients: Betfred, Wigan Warriors, Moneyplus Group, First Achieve

7. Instrument

Location: Portland, New York

A UX design agency that focuses on the cross-section between brand & communication innovation and product & service innovation. They work on creating, from scratch, the digital products designed to solve business problems, as well as to transform the way your customers interact and communicate with the business.

In creating new UX products, the focus on user-centric design that is insight-driven and systematically tested, meaning a lot of research and ongoing campaign management goes into each service they provide. They also work with a focus on what is most impactful on your bottom line, tracking the performance indicators that matter most to your business growth.

Previous clients: Sonos, Altassian, Nike, and PATH

Do you need UX design?

Without question.

The work of a UX design agency can seem like it is interchangeable with a web designer or app developer and while there is some overlap, UX designers are crucial to driving conversions as the customer journey facilitates that. According to UXCam, for every $1 spent on UX design, a business can see a $100 ROI (return on investment). Alongside that, 88% of users are less likely to return to a website with bad UX.

When you’re choosing a UX design agency, it’s important to make sure you’re aware of what kind of services you need. If you have a specific app, website, or other digital product in mind, for example – page or website builder, then there are many above that can help you create them, with different specializations on different aims and mediums.

If you’re less certain of what you need, others can provide the research and conceptual services that help you find out what your approach should be. As such, make sure you know where you are in your UX creation journey and partner with the team that can help you from there.

While we’ll get to those points shortly, it’s important to note that a branding agency has nuanced differences to broader marketing agencies. This list caters a lot to offline marketing as well as online marketing, and their client lists include the likes of Airbnb, Deliveroo, Twitter, Google, and Mailchimp.

What does a branding agency do?

Branding agencies help brands establish, plan, and communicate their message, often through a variety of media. The brand of your organisation could be defined as the style and identity that makes the organisation recognisable. It incorporates everything from the name to the reputation, implied values, and the visuals and language used to communicate it. Agencies harness all of this and bring the most out of them.

What are the best branding agencies of 2020?

Of course, there are a host of branding agencies out there (and on Adzooma Marketplace) so we will update this list over time but without further ado, let’s look at our pick of the 11 best branding agencies of 2020.

1. Every1

Location: Lancaster, UK

Every1 was built from traditional print and branding foundations. They pride themselves on developing creative solutions that people want to engage with. Whether you’re reinventing your company image and need a new identity or introducing yourself to customers for the first time and require a brand launch, their branding process is proven to deliver an engaging brand story.

Every1 is a digital branding agency that’s passionate about brands – committed to every aspect of the branding design process. They will guide you through every step of your journey to create a brand that gives you the edge.

Here’s their process on how they will apply branding and design to your business:

• Brand strategy
• Brand identity
• Guidelines & design systems
• Research & understanding
• Brand execution
• Brand guardianship

2. Verb

 Location: Liverpool, UK

Verb is a marketing, web development and design agency based in Liverpool city centre. They have a dedicated team of specialists in each field so that they can offer a full range of marketing to clients whilst maintaining a high standard of work.

Verb will provide you with a dedicated brand manager and offer unlimited design revisions to take your brand in a new direction and business to the next level. They can create brand guidelines to ensure that your branding is only ever used in the correct way, and your employers and advertisers will be guided on how your branding is to be displayed.

They will also ensure your brand is complete with all the relevant social media banners, icons and imagery to support your social media mix.

3. Phable

Location: Hampshire, UK

Phable specialises in design, branding and content creation for technology companies. Phable will be on hand from the initial naming and logo design to continuous brand deployment through frequent releases of design and content to help your business reach the right clients.

Their main speciality is producing a steady flow of on-brand marketing and sales content ranging from:

• Blog posts
• Long-form ad copy
• White papers
• Infographics
• Illustrations
• Animations

4. Intimation

Location: Newcastle, UK

Intimation has over 10 years of experience and a 13-strong team, focused on what makes each and every client unique. With clients all over the UK and overseas, they strive to create a relationship where each client communicates directly with their designers and always has access to their studios.

They are dedicated to delivering your message to your audience, by using brand, strategy and creativity. From their studios, they have created compelling brand strategies that communicate your message authentically to your audience.

5. Ketchup

Location: Leicestershire, UK

Ketchup marketing offers a wide range of branding services, whether you want to create a new business brand or develop your existing brand by giving it a new personality.

Whether you are looking to rework your existing brand design and messaging or increase its appeal to a wider audience – their experts will do it for you. Their brand strategists will carefully examine the consumer perceptions surrounding your brands identity, services, products, people and website, and look for opportunities to build on them.

Their creative team wields their skill to choose the perfect words and shape the sharpest pictures in your marketing communications to ensure your new branding gains the attention and recognition it deserves.

6. Phacient

Location: North Carolina, United St

Phacient is dedicated to small to medium-sized businesses with one goal in mind — making them more efficient and competitive. Their efficiency-driven approach enables their clients to operate like a much larger organisation to scale accordingly.

Phacient provides a wide range of branding expertise to their clients, including:

• Logo design
• Taglines
• Messaging
• Overall look and feel
• Global branding consistency

7. White Camino

Location: London, UK

White Camino work with challenger brands and those who are in the business of positive change for social or environmental good. They offer a range of services, including brand strategies, insights, marketing to help you take your brand to the next stage of growth.

White Camino will bring fresh energy and new perspective to examine where your brand is and refreshing any dusty propositions or even creating new brands from scratch. They have helped a wide range of clients with their brand narratives which becomes the blueprint before they take your brand to new heights.

8. Sphere

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Sphere is a creative branding agency who will gain an understanding of your client, your industry, competitors, key points of leverage and understand any issues with your current branding. Sphere offers a range of branding services, including:

• Logo design
• Visual elements design
• Corporate brand design
• Audience research
• Values Strategy

9. Edison Media

Edison Media works with all levels of budgets to deliver clicks, sales, branding and improve any businesses current market position. With over 40 years of collective experience within their team spanning across all media formats and environments, they know everything there is to delivering successful media campaigns.

If your business needs a facelift or wanting to launch a new brand altogether, then Edison Media can help. From concept through to implementing brand guidelines and designing logs, their dedicated design team can offer advice and services throughout every step of your branding journey.

Although they are a small team, they are dedicated and will go above and beyond for their clients.

10. S’more

Location: Washington, US

S’more offer an accelerated branding process that gets you up and running in up to two weeks. During the two day ‘Brand Camp’, you will experience a counselling video chat where they will dive deep into your business. Next, they will send you a custom ‘branding survival guide’ which defines your business and acts as your ‘road map’ before heading on to day two.

Day two consists of an intensive virtual day where they will build the visual elements of your brand. By the end of the day, you will have a fantastic logo and an amazing website along with a complete print and digital identity package that includes everything you need to get your brand out there.

‘Brand Camps’ can be completely customised to fit your needs and budget.

11. SBDE Web

Location: Folkestone, UK

SBDE Web will help you make authentic branding, websites and marketing without the hassle and to help you build an unmissable presence online and off. They offer a wide range of design and branding and design services, digital and content services:

• Graphic print design
• Advertising and web
• Logo design
• Brand design
• Business cards
• Stationary

They will design beautiful branding, excellent printed materials and responsive websites for your business.

Do you need a branding agency?

If you want to start building recognition, trust, and loyalty, then a branding agency can play a key role in the growth of your business going forward.

A good brand can help your products stand out when customers are marking purchase decisions, it can mean that when they think of certain products and services, they think of you first, and it can improve the kind of loyalty and life-time value you can expect from customers.

Your brand can strengthen your business, and a branding agency can help that happen.

With the spotlight provided on the branding agencies above, you hopefully have a better idea of what kind of services and approach you need.

Take the time to understand what your aims are and to what end you want to use branding and choose the team that best aligns with those aims to ensure the best results.

We have a fantastic list of even more branding agencies on the Adzooma Marketplace, so take a look today.