Back in our days of doing the GEICO ads, our team would get a lot of industry flack for not having a cohesive brand. What they didn’t know is the annual media buy for GEICO was about $1billion. That’s right. $1 BILLION. And if you’re fulfilling that media with a Gecko for all of your initiatives, it would quickly become tired with that many impressions. Everything always came back to “15 min could save you 15%…” which kept us on brand – just coming from different areas of exploration.
Too often I’ve found that brand guidelines become handcuffs. They can put limitations on creativity vs enhancing the product/service or initiative. Obviously, you need some sort of guardrails so your ads or content make sense, but don’t make them so inflexible that you limit your creativity. Don’t be afraid to experiment and give yourself enough latitude to make the impossible – possible.
-Jonathan Sackett