Design plays an essential role in creating and building brands - fuelling recognition, amplifying differentiation, and making big ideas and meaning accessible and recognisable. On an average day consumers are exposed to six thousand advertisements and, each year, to more than twenty-five thousand new products. Brands can help consumers to cut through the noise, and design can help differentiate them but as social media has matured, brands are still playing catch up. In 2019, Social Media Visual Identity is important. This presentation covers the branding basics all companies need to have for success on social media, as well as the social media specifics to think about creating & updated brand guidelines for.

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SOCIAL MEDIA
B R YN F OW EATH ER , H EAD OF SOC I AL
VISUAL IDENTITY

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WH Y I NVEST TI ME I N SOC I AL VI

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Compelling brand / social
identity presents any company,
any size, anywhere with an
immediately recognisable
image that positions it for
success. An identity helps
manage the perception of a
company and differentiates it
from its competitors on social
media – with the explosion of
social content, this is key.
Make it easy for the
customer to buy
No matter which industry,
which sector, which size
everyone is selling. Social
visual identity works across
audiences, builds an
awareness of a brand, and
helps people to understand its
strength. Effective identity
seeks to communicate a
company’s unique value
proposition and positioning.
A strong social visual identity
will help build brand equity
through increased
recognition, awareness and
customer loyalty, which in turn
helps to make a company
more successful. Brand
managers who seize every
opportunity to communicate
their company’s brand value
and what the brand stands for
sleep better at night.
REASONS TO INVEST
“Steady investment in design is rewarded by lasting competitiveness” (Design Council)
Make it easy for the
sales force to sell
Make it easy to
build brand equity

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Design plays an essential role in creating and building
brands - fuelling recognition, amplifying differentiation,
and making big ideas and meaning accessible
and recognisable
WHY IS A SOCIAL MEDIA VISUAL IDENTITY IMPORTANT?

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WHY IS A SOCIAL MEDIA VISUAL IDENTITY IMPORTANT?
On an average day consumers are exposed to six thousand advertisements
and, each year, to more than twenty-five thousand new products
Brands can help consumers to cut through the noise, and design can help
differentiate them but as social media has matured, brands are still playing
catch up
In 2019, Social Media Visual Identity is important…

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Mark Ritson (Marketing Week)
Codes are what make brands recognisable to their consumers – they are not just logos and they
are not just visual, but they are motifs that the brand unmistakably owns, however they appear.
Brands need to recognise that they can and must play with their codes to balance heritage
with modernity – the constantly changing Google ‘doodle’ on the search engine’s homepage
being an example.
This also means brands shouldn’t submit to “logo tyranny”, where marketers think the same
typefaces, colours and proportions have to be rigidly repeated, says Ritson.
“This is total bollocks. This is not branding.
This is what people do when they don’t understand branding.”
“
“
INSIGHT

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Branding Basics
Some elements of design will never change, such as having correct templates and brand lock-ups to ensure
consistency or the correct use of primary, secondary and tertiary palettes. Some elements of design have been
created and developed from movies and television, such as open and close stings, lower third graphic overlays,
DOGs (digital on-screen assets) and video transitions, which are widely known and used daily by some, but not all
brands in the social media industry.
Social Specific
With the explosion of social media, and a number of different channels to think about, there has been an influx of
products, formats and creative hacks that present brands with a number of new choices to make with social media
content. Not to mention the constant need for a beautiful looking feed, the explosion in the use of Stories means
brands now have a whole lot more to think about with their social media visual identity – and how they best go about
showcasing their brand identity on social media.

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BRANDING BASICS
Illustration
Illustration encompasses an almost endless variety of styles and approaches and can supplement a brands marketing efforts when partnered with savvy
creative direction. Particularly useful for deploying concepts and messages that traditional film and photography is ill suited to or unfeasibly produced.
Typography
Typography is a core building block of an effective identity program. Companies like Apple, Mercedes-Benz are immediately recognisable in part due to
great and consistent typographical style. Clever use of typographical elements in assets and branding can convey mood tone and style in a myriad of
different ways – leveraging a tone of voice that can be matched to the audience it is put in front of.
Colour Palettes
Colour is used to evoke and express personality. It stimulates brand association and accelerates differentiation. As consumers we depend on the
familiarity of Coca-Cola red. We don’t need to read type on a Tiffany gift box to know where the gift was purchased. While some colours are used to
unify and identity, other colours may be used functionality to clarify brand architecture, through differentiating products or business lines.

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BRANDING BASICS
Video
Moving image, such as video and motion graphics will often make up a significant portion of successful brands social assets. They offer unique
and engaging opportunities to strengthen the brand, through the use of digital onscreen graphics, intro/outro stings and other elements such
as wipes and transitions.
Logo Use
Logo use throughout social media can be tailored to the type of message and communication that a brand wants to convey, a minimalist and elegant
logo can be used repeatedly across multiple assets to demonstrate brand value and reinforce its values, whereas intricate logos best feature in ‘hero’
positions such as opening stings and headers.
Iconography
Iconography helps enhance an audiences understanding of concepts and offers a direct route for visual communication with the shortest
number of steps possible. When used alongside a cohesive branding package, iconography can form a major part of a brand aesthetic and
means of communication.

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Immediate - Thumb Stoppers
These are the things that make you stop in the feed, and look, and maybe even smile. There are loads of different formats to choose from, but which one
is right for your brand, and how do you stamp your brand footprint on them? 2.5d animation / hyper lapse / time-lapse / boomerang / cinemagraph /
flipagram / trick posts / dynamic text / press and hold / notifications on / follow and subscribe / canvas are just a few.
Interactive - Scrollers
Scrollers encompass 360 assets, and Carousel assets. The carousel format has been used in innovative ways since its creation. More recently, we have
seen the invention of continuous scroll carousels, a tactic aimed at gaming algorithms. In the recent past, brands have used carousels for before and
after pictures, instruction demonstrations, captions for context, quote overlays, showcasing different looks, products & various angles, as a launch series,
to teach something, trivia in Q&A format and more traditional infographics. 360 assets, such as video, images and infographics have also been used in
new and innovative ways. What is the best use for your brand, and how is that executed creatively?
SOCIAL SPECIFICS
Feed Aesthetics
Instagram has become the holy grail for beautiful looking social media content, but how the feed looks should be developed across all social media
channels for a truly recognisable brand. Which filters can be used to keep layout consistent? What is the best use of the brands core colours, how does
the grid / feed layout work? which fonts and typography are to be used, and are borders / white space / themes to be taken and developed across
channels? Additionally, this facet of social branding includes the best use of profile picture, cover and header images.

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SOCIAL SPECIFICS
Sound
The next frontier for brand identity. Audio architecture is the integration of music, voice, and sound to create experiences between companies and
customers. Although royalty-free music libraries exist, with thousands of songs to choose from, do they truly represent the sound of the brand?
We decide what sound fits with your brand.
Stories
The Stories phenomenon on social has opened up a plethora of options for brands. The fun stuff includes AR Effects, colour-stacking filters, GIFs, sticker
packs, continuous / interlinked Stories, Stories features (sliders, polls, super-zoom, focus + more!) and use of emojis and emoji keyboards. We also take a
look at custom layouts and the aesthetics of Stories content. How do brands best use these features, without feeling contrived? We work through the
options available, looking at what’s best for you.
Photography
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but why do so many brands suck at stock photography?
A strong visual presence is crucial to building an effective social media presence.
We investigate free vs. premium, bespoke design vs. stock, best use and practice for social.

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Thank You