You have ambitious marketing goals for next year. Can your current creative get you there?
Curious Jane has been helping franchise brands assess and improve their creative for 20 years. Following are a few helpful guidelines for reviewing yours and determining whether it will accomplish what you need it to in 2024.
But wait — isn’t creative subjective?
Yes and no.
Each of us has our own favorite color, fashion sense and taste in interior decor. But your brand creative is not about your personal style — it’s only about your brand.
To be effective, your brand’s creative must:
- Capture the attention of, and appeal to, your target audience.
- Reflect your brand’s positioning and personality clearly, consistently and memorably.
- Stand out from all the noise and demonstrate what makes your brand different from and better than your competition.
Does your creative feel current?
Sometimes, you can look at certain designs and know that they were developed during an earlier era. While there can be charm to a longstanding logotype like Coca-Cola’s, you don’t want your overall creative to feel outdated in a neglectful way.
In other words, your creative doesn’t need to feel trendy, but it shouldn’t feel dusty.
Depending on how well your current creative is working, you may want to retain much of what you’re using now. But thoughtful improvements can make it feel more contemporary and appealing.
Most importantly, is your current creative working well?
To predict whether your branding and marketing will work in 2024, look at how well it worked in 2023. Did it get you the leads you wanted? Are you happy with your ROI? Are you gaining traction for your brand?
Curious Jane makes a practice of continually collecting, arranging and reviewing performance data. We provide each of our clients with a real-time data dashboard so they can keep an eye on their campaigns’ effectiveness over time. Additionally, we conduct regular reviews to determine how creative is working throughout the year.
Smart creative is just one part of a successful brand strategy.
Creative doesn’t work in a vacuum. It takes strategic media planning and public relations to ensure the right people receive, understand and remember your messaging. As a full-service creative agency, Curious Jane handles many aspects of our clients’ marketing plans to make the most of every creative endeavor.
Whether you’re trying to raise awareness or move leads down your sales funnel, you need to identify and connect with your ideal prospects. Only then can your creative capture their attention and win trust by appealing to their interests and emotions.
For a cohesive brand, consistency is key.
Whether you decide to update your creative for next year or move forward with what you’re using now, make sure you maintain brand consistency. Establish and adhere to a style guide and use a digital asset management system to ensure everyone works with approved brand assets.
Control your brand everywhere it appears, internally and externally, in both your franchise development and consumer marketing materials. All your brand elements, including your imagery style, colors and fonts should reinforce your brand.
A few more questions to answer about your franchise brand creative.
- Does it accurately represent your brand? Does your design “feel” like your brand and speak in its tone of voice? Is it easy to quickly identify your creative in the competitive landscape?
- Does it speak to your ideal prospects? For both your consumer and franchise development marketing, you need to capture the attention of — and appeal to — the right people.
- Is it clean and compelling? Or has some of your branding and advertising become cluttered with extra messaging and imagery? In the crowded, competitive marketplace, you have to keep your messaging undiluted and singularly focused.
Resolve to make 2024 a year of effective brand creative.
Right now is the perfect time to make sure you’re ready to strengthen your brand, win and retain consumers and franchisees and make next year your best one yet.
