The first hurdle for any ad

If you’re familiar with the How Brands Grow-trilogy by Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk, you know the importance of using distinctive brand assets. Especially for long term brand growth. Mark Ritson speaks about this too, only he calls it brand codes. Simply put, they are assets that evoke your brand, without directly mentioning it; Colours, shapes, sounds, characters and more that are unique to your brand. Brand identification is the first hurdle for any ad. Or rather, the starting line. Does the viewer know it’s you? If you stumble here, you lose before the race has even begun. It doesn’t matter how good your creative is, unless it’s attributed to the right brand it won’t be effective. You’re advertising your competitors. That’s why you need your codes.

Golden goose turds

Having fallen arse-first into advertising from Motion Design, it feels like I stepped in a golden goose turd on my way to work and dragged gold all over the office carpet. (Although we’re actually a shoes-off & hardwood kind of office.) Because with animation you do control those pixels in your advertising. Every last one, if you like. Picture shooting an ad, but filming in a world fully codified with the brand’s distinctive assets. Is it an ad for a dairy company with purple as a primary colour? Your purple cows can graze purple fields of grass under purple skies to their little purple hearts’ content. Brand identification will never be a concern again.

Filling the leaks

With the right partner this is one of the easiest leaks in the marketing budget to fill. Frustratingly all that potential for effectiveness seems lost on much of the motion design-industry. Ads produced by creative studios these days often look less like ads for the paying brand, and more like ads for the studio or, at worst, motion design as a whole. But that’s another post for another time. The fact is, few other mediums give you the same power over your visual impression. As long as you and your partner knows how to wield it, Motion and Marketing can enjoy a very effective long-term marriage. — Daniel Danielsson, co-founder & Creative Director, Savage & Civil