Creative branding is so valuable. I believe that as an audience, we are all developing a sharper eye for design elements and becoming more appreciative of how brands find new ways to keep their content fresh. Markets are increasingly saturated and competition is high so it’s important for brands to find different ways to develop their competitive edge.
Aesthetics and prioritizing the visual experience of content can be almost as important as the content itself. Take graphic design elements like typography, colour, emphasis, balance, and Hierarchy, into account. These elements and principles can be game changers in enhancing your content, to make a good first impression with an audience with an increasingly short attention span. They help you organize your message, create consistency, and set your brand apart–but they need to be implemented thoughtfully.
The importance of design and layout is nothing new, although it is often undervalued and dismissed in content creation. What needs to be done in conjunction is target market research.
A crucial step that many seem to miss is to conduct research into the target audience and what visually appeals to them. What colours, typefaces, visuals would they respond positively to? Ask yourself:
Who is your target demographic?
Consider what generational information you can gather.
Develop an audience persona to help you get a clearer picture and understanding of your viewer, reader, user, customer.
What is your target market drawn to?
Analysis your persona's likes and dislikes. What brands do they buy from or follow on socials?
Are there any aesthetic consistencies?
Conduct research into trends and styles that stand out from your outlined target demographic. See if you can
Consider how you can connect these aspects to your content.
Following guidelines on compatible design elements will only get you so far. It is about understanding how to optimize design in a way that your audience will best respond to.
If you can find consistencies, consider how you can apply those to your content. If you are working with a team, consider creating a sort of moodboard. Beyond a standard brand style guide, try to communicate a vision or feeling beyond colour palette and brand voice. Leave room for interpretation, for creativity to come through.
Some further considerations based on format:
COPY
Consider the typeface and visuals you're using.
PODCAST/AUDIO
Consider your cover art, your social posts, your theme/intro song.
VIDEO
Consider the camera you’re using and your editing choices.
If you have people in your video, consider the costume design and styling.
Like podcasts, consider your cover art and poster styling.
Vacation exemplifies careful research and design in their nostalgia-based branding approach
One of the most exciting brands with regard to branding and content marketing right now is Vacation, a sunscreen brand “that takes leisure as seriously as it takes protection”. Founded by Poolsuite, its ethos is inspired by 1980s-90s American beach culture. With Instagram as their primary content marketing platform, much of Vacation's content is photo and video based. This gives them the opportunity to drive home their ‘80s-90s Miami’ aesthetic with high cut swimsuits, visors, scrunchies, daiquiri toting tanning fanatics. Their visuals appear to be shot on film and camcorder, transporting the viewer back in time. Down to their Garamond-esque typeface, Vacation has hit their target spot on.
On their company website, Vacation keep their perfect visuals and formatting consistent with each product and page. Here, visitors are presented with a Vibe Generator which offers the option of background shopping music, with the options of “Ocean Breeze'', “Steel Drums”, “Tropical Birds'', and “Beach Bar''. The co-founder of Vacation is also the creator of Poolside.FM, now renamed to Poolsuite, an “ultra-summer internet radio station, playing an infinity pool of summer sounds 24/7” created in 2014. Poolsuite’s website contains its radio stream, as well as Poolsuite TV, where one can watch an expansive list of old commercials from the 1980s-1990s. As an extension of Vacation, Poolsuite FM serves as another source of content marketing for Vacation brand, creating an immersive online experience for the user.
I have digressed only to provide this company as one which exemplifies the power of immersive branding. I am fascinated by how closely they were able to so accurately reproduce a distinct point in time. Starting in Miami with an 80s-90s summer radio station, Vacation has fully taken on the essence of their initial inspiration and it is proving to be extremely beneficial. After launching in 2021, Vacation now has a total of 3126 reviews with an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5. They have garnered several rave reviews from the world’s top lifestyle and business magazines, including Vogue, Fast Company, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Business of Fashion, Vanity Fair, and Forbes—all of which praise the brand’s nostalgic feel.
Ultimately, creating a unique, immersive brand experience is possible if you have a clear vision or feeling in mind. You do not need a degree in design to improve your branding. Your target market does not have to have a deep connection to your concept for them to appreciate it, but there are elements that you can carefully include and you can trust will appeal to them. Just like Vacation's customer base likely does not primarily consist of the former beach bums of 1980s-90s Miami, your content does not need to directly reflect your audience, but to connect with what they want to see. People love nostalgia, there are many ways to take advantage of that.
Explore Your Ideas
Whether you're creating a podcast or a short film, or writing ad copy, your content will be one of thousands of pieces of content out there. You may have a podcast that is produced with the best equipment and planned to perfection but attaching appealing visuals to your creation can help to strengthen your final product furthermore. Enhancing the visuals of your brand to stand out is an important, cost-effective way to help improve your reach. Stay open to design inspiration and workshop different styles where you can. Although there are many other essential factors that play into the success of content, people do judge books by their covers.