How can you get more out of your rebrand?

Farra Trompeter: Welcome to the Smart Communications Podcast. This is Farra Trompeter, co-director and worker-owner at Big Duck. On today’s episode, we’re going to ask the question: How can you get more out of your rebrand? And I’m delighted to be joined by our design director, Sandy Zimmerman. Sandy uses she/her pronouns and has been at Big Duck for 12 years. Outside of Big Duck, you might find Sandy biking around Brooklyn, mending old clothes, or cooking meals at home with her husband. She is also the chair of Big Duck’s board of directors, and you may recognize her from previous podcasts, though it’s been a minute. She was on the podcast back on episode 44 talking about how you should work with freelancers. And on episode 59, exploring should your logo stand out or fit in? So be sure to listen to those gems. But Sandy, welcome back to the podcast.

Sandy Zimmerman: Thanks, Farra. I’m excited to be back on.

Farra Trompeter: Well, the inspiration for today’s conversation actually connects to a blog that Sandy wrote earlier this year. The post is called Get more out of your rebrand: Tips for working with agencies. You can read that post on our website in the same place we actually store transcripts for this podcast at bigduck.com/insights. But Sandy, let’s get into it. Nonprofits hire agencies like Big Duck often because they seek fresh perspectives and may not have the expertise or time to do this work in-house. I love how your post offers guidance for organizations who may be working with an agency or just are really thinking about going through a branding process. But were there any particular experiences that led you to write this post?

Sandy Zimmerman: Yeah, so I don’t want to name any favorite clients here, but it’s really exciting and really gratifying to check back with our organizations after we’ve finished our branding work together, which we like to do, we like to follow them on social media and other places. And, you know, when we see that they’re executing their brand really well, it’s just so awesome to see that they’re looking sharp and they’re communicating consistently. At the same time, over the years of doing this work, we’ve also seen some organizations that were a little less prepared for managing a new brand. And cases where the branding seems to have gotten a little lost over time. So this is what prompted us to, you know, kind of think about things that organizations might keep in mind, keep on their radar to better prepare for that moment of working with an agency and then kind of taking that brand off on their own.

Farra Trompeter: Great. And you focus on the branding process and offer ways nonprofit staff can leverage working with an agency, particularly on logos and visual systems, right? Because we’re talking about branding, and in the post, you offer six actions that folks can take, and I’d love to talk about a few of them. Let’s start with the first one: The treasured brand guide. What should folks do when their agency shares the brand guide with them while they’re still working together, maybe that first draft?

Sandy Zimmerman: Yeah, so it’s super important that when you’re at that moment that you gain familiarity with the brand guide while you’re still working in collaboration with your agency. Make sure to take time to understand it, give it a really thorough read-through. You can try to imagine the materials that you’ll be creating both for your launch and later on, and how you might apply the brand elements to all of those materials. We know there is a lot of pieces to hold together throughout a rebrand process that nonprofit staff are navigating. So, you know, it can be fatiguing by the time you get to this moment. But it’s really essential to be thorough and to do it to set up your team for the future and make your work easier in the future for your future selves and your future team.

Farra Trompeter: Yeah, and one of the things I love about a brand guide is not only does it give you the guidelines, the dos, the don’ts, the sort of rules of the brand, but it also gives you the tools you need to build the brand, like you said, and think about those materials where you’re applying the brand. And one of the things that I know we incorporate in our brand guides and try to also supply organizations with are templates. So, I want to talk about the value of templates. We’re going to go from big-picture brand guide to real tactical templates. What are the typical set of templates folks might need when it comes to being able to build upon and activate the brand after you’ve been given the tools from an agency, you know, the actual, the logo files, the colors, the fonts, the, you know, the approach to imagery, the brand guide. What about these templates? What should folks focus on?

Sandy Zimmerman: Yeah, the templates are kind of the place where we get to put all of those elements together that you just mentioned. And most organizations will likely need digital templates, like slide decks, docs, templates for social media, or email. And then, you know, there’s the traditional print materials like one-sheets or brochures, a stationery suite, things like that. And when we think about templates, it’s important to think about who will be working in the templates because there are different tools that we can utilize to create templates. So if you have designers on your staff or freelancers that you work with, they’ll probably use professional design software like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator. And that can be a really, you know, easy and seamless way to pass off from your branding partner because those are the professional tools that we’re using. However, we know in the nonprofit world, staff are often wearing many hats and are not always trained designers, but are still tasked with creating materials. So a suite of Canva templates can be really useful for your team, and that’s a really powerful tool that it makes design accessible.

Farra Trompeter: Well, let’s say you’ve got these templates, how do you make the most out of them? Do you have any tips or ideas for that?

Sandy Zimmerman: Yeah, so one tip I would recommend is that, especially in the first year of the new brand you might think about coordinating a monthly or quarterly or just periodic check-in with your team, with whoever on staff are creating materials and just see how those templates are working in real life. And you might need to make adjustments, and that’s, you know, totally expected and healthy thing to do to just kind of update your templates as needed to suit the real-world needs of your staff.

Farra Trompeter: Yeah, I love that idea of a periodic check-in, because you might also surface new templates that you need, too, right? “We’ve noticed people keep, you know, making our agendas and putting them on different things. They’re not clear which letterhead to use or how our logo should fit in. Maybe we should make an agenda template.” That can be really helpful in those check-ins, too. Well, are there ways nonprofits should work with agencies beyond the handoff of the brand guide and initial templates? Other ideas that you have that nonprofits should be thinking about?

Sandy Zimmerman: Yeah, developing some key rollout materials in your new brand can be a great way to test out how it’s all coming to life and start you off with some great starting points for future materials. You can think about anything from large-scale projects like launching a big anniversary campaign, if that’s relevant. A new website, of course, goes with a new brand to everyday communications like social media posts, office signage, presentation templates, and all that good stuff.

Farra Trompeter: We sometimes at Big Duck conduct a brand check-up anywhere from six months to six years after developing a brand for a nonprofit. In that process, we take a look at how consistently the brand is applied as well as if there may be new elements they need to build and amend their visual vocabulary. What are some ways you evaluate how well a brand is being maintained post-launch downstream?

Sandy Zimmerman: Well, we love check-ins because of kind of what we were just talking about. It’s an opportunity to fine-tune the details. So you might be doing that in-house, but it’s also helpful to have an outside perspective. So, you know, it’s a great opportunity to do that. And we typically look at whether materials are looking consistent across the board. Are there elements of the brand that are being overused or underused? Are there colors that are being combined in ways that aren’t working or maybe aren’t accessible that you can tweak? Maybe there’s some graphic elements that are kind of looking a little awkward, or that your team is having a challenging time getting right. We would also ask your team, “How smooth is the process of creating materials using the new brand?” Those template questions that we talked about. And maybe there are rules that could be made more clear or additional guidance to be added, that you know, questions that have come up. And then also, how are you using imagery in your brand, like photography or illustration, and thinking about do you need to bolster your image libraries in order to keep things fresh and dynamic.

Farra Trompeter: Great. Well, I’d love to wrap up with a phrase you note at the end of the blog post, which is “Branding is a practice rather than a one-time activity.” What does that mean to you, and what advice would you offer nonprofits?

Sandy Zimmerman: It means that a brand needs to be attended to and cared for to maintain consistency, but also to keep it fresh because, you know, you need it to be consistent so that people recognize you, but you also want to inject energy into your brand, too. So your brand should give you a strong set of tools, but there will always be decisions to make about how to apply it. So my advice to nonprofits is to have a plan for how you will execute your new brand, whether it’s relying on in-house staff or freelance designers, or whatever it is. And also to identify who will be responsible for making the calls as those questions and challenges come up around using the brand.

Farra Trompeter: Great. I love that. And there’s been a lot we’ve been talking about here with visuals, obviously since you are one of our lead designers here, but also in these conversations and questions, also looking at the words, sometimes things are changing around us where phrases need to be updated and need to be added, or maybe our brand is looking great visually, but we might need a new tagline or a new way to really express an association with us. So these are all good things to pause and look at in the ongoing practice of branding. Well, Sandy, thanks again for being here. If you’re listening and you’re curious about Big Duck’s approach to branding and how we might help your team build brands that can evolve and last, be sure to reach out to us at [email protected]. Sandy, before we go, anything else you’d like to share?

Sandy Zimmerman: Yeah, just I’d like to say, you know, we know an engaging and identifiably unique brand will help you attract and retain your supporters. So my final tip is that even if you don’t have designers on your staff to try to find that person on your team who has a good eye, and that’s both for aesthetics but also for consistency and detail orientation. So, find that person who can help you keep your materials aligned. And even with all the great tools we have these days, like Canva that we talked about that make designing more accessible, all the, you know, really beautiful brands that we see out in the world and admire, those are not maintained without.

Farra Trompeter: Great. So bring thought and care to your brands and your communications. My friends. Sandy, thanks again for joining us today, and everyone, be well.