A new year, a new look. Who hasn’t poked around the Christmas sales with this ethos in mind? And it’s just as true for companies – at this time of year, businesses will often be thinking about refreshing their brand to stay relevant, set themselves apart from competitors and keep audiences engaged.
But just like post-Christmas shoppers are wary of pulling an item from the sales rack that’s about to go out of fashion, you don’t want your brand makeover to be out of step with current marketing trends, either.
That’s why we’ve researched what the branding experts are saying to come up with this list of top rebranding trends for 2017:
Minimalist visuals is key for a successful rebrand
Leading brand consultants Landor predict that we’ll see increasingly simplified and minimalist brand aesthetics across everything from sleek logos to more concise user interfaces.
“Following years of neon colors, bling-y accents, metallic foils, and multicolored prints, subtlety will be the new standard of excellence,” says the firm.
Leading brands have already been adopting the trend. In July, Mastercard retooled its logo for the first time in two decades – while it retained the iconic overlapping red-and-yellow circles, it ditched the lettering and stripes to create a simple color block for a cleaner, more modern look.
What does this mean for your rebrand? Consider ways in which you can engage your customers via a calm, uncluttered brand aesthetic to ensure you’re on-trend, rather than falling behind the competition with visuals which overwhelm your audience. As Mastercard shows, you don’t have to abandon your original logo entirely: just simplify it.
Say it with video
Communicating your new brand identity to an audience is a crucial part of the process, and all signs seem to suggest video will become a critical outreach tool.
Just look at last year. Off the back of Snapchat’s global success, 2016 saw an explosion of app features which allow users to share short, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it videos on the go, using only their smartphone. Instagram’s new “stories” feature built on the Snapchat format by allowing users to craft and produce brief videos that disappear within 24 hours. The app also added a live video feature, while Facebook came out with Facebook Live.
So what does this mean for your 2017 rebrand? Now that instantaneous, spontaneous and short video is a popular communication format for users, we’ll increasingly see brands relying on these tools and features for brand storytelling and as a way to drive content for lead generation. Especially considering that short videos can now be produced on a shoestring budget using only a smartphone.
It’s certainly a tactic that the experts are betting on. At a powerful women summit hosted by Fortune, Facebook senior executive Nicola Mendelsohn predicted the huge role of video in the future of the social network:
"If I was having a bet…it'd be video, video, video,” she said, adding that Facebook’s live video feature was growing even faster than the company had expected and that she expected the platform would be “all video” in a few years.
Download our free guide "The Ultimate Rebranding Guide" here:
Harnessing these technologies as part of your rebranding strategy will be particularly critical if you’re targeting a millennial demographic: according to a study by Warc, nearly two-thirds of millenials prefer videos to text.
Empower your employees to become Brand Ambassadors
In 2017, businesses will increasingly rely on their employees as “brand ambassadors” – a driving force behind their brand. By harnessing your team to spread your brand’s message and culture externally via social media channels, you dramatically increase your outreach. Those companies looking to stay ahead of the pack in 2017 will not only refresh their look, but get their employees to promote it.
Of course, that means that your employees need to be up-to-date with your rebrand, so it’s important to communicate your new brand identity internally as well as externally, and engage employees in the rebranding process.
That extends to the visual aspect of your brand too, which is why it’s critical for all your internal content – the documents used by your employees every day – to be on-brand and in line with your new look. Click below and get our full feature overview to find out how Templafy can help by automating that time consuming process:
