Vous collaborez avec des agences externes sur un projet créatif. Comment assurez-vous la cohérence de la marque ?

Building a strong relationship with external creative agencies is key to brand consistency. Tell Your Brand Story: Don't just present a style guide. Talk about the core values and mission of your brand. What story are you trying to tell? What emotions do you want to evoke in your target audience? Collaboration is Key: Frame your communication as a collaboration. Encourage questions and open discussions. Provide Context: Give the agency context for your brand. Share market research, competitor analysis, and any other relevant information that will help them understand your brand's position in the marketplace. By providing a comprehensive picture of your brand, you empower external agencies to become true partners.

🚀 D’après moi, il faut bâtir une relation de confiance avec l’agence avec laquelle nous travaillons. Au-delà de la créativité, le choix d’une agence se fait aussi en fonction de valeurs et de projets déjà réalisés. Il est donc primordial de se comprendre, et que l’agence appréhende correctement les besoins de la marque !

Conduct immersive brand workshops. Instead of just sharing documents, organize interactive sessions where agency teams can experience your brand firsthand. This could involve visiting your offices, meeting key staff, or participating in your company's culture. Such immersion can give agencies a deeper, more intuitive understanding of your brand essence. This immersive workshop could be conducted at the start of a relationship with a new agency partner.

Define Your Brand Look and Feel: Develop comprehensive brand guidelines that outline your brand's visual identity (logos, colors, fonts) and verbal communication style (voice, tone). Minimize Misinterpretations: Clear guidelines minimize the risk of misinterpretations. Having a central reference point ensures all creative materials align with your brand's established look and feel. Streamline the Approval Process: Well-defined guidelines can expedite the approval process. Agencies can self-check their work against the guidelines, reducing the need for revisions and ensuring a smoother workflow. By establishing clear brand guidelines, you provide external agencies with a roadmap for success.

Branding is all about sending a consistent message that resonates with the target audience. And 'consistent' is the operative word here. Your message should send the same signal with a stable focus on all channels. A brand without a clearly defined brand identity and design language is like a film production without a script. Unfocused creative chaos. Skip the style guide, and you're missing out on a stronger connection with your audience, serving up confusing visuals and forgettable messages instead. When I join a long-term project where the brand's visual language is as defined as a fog, we stop and focus solely on creating that definition. Without it, every design is a guess. And in branding, guesswork leads to irrelevance.

Utilize AI-powered brand consistency tools. Implement software that uses artificial intelligence to analyze creative outputs and flag potential inconsistencies with your brand guidelines. The AI tool could be employed as part of the regular review process for social media content created by multiple agencies. It provides an additional layer of objective review, complementing human evaluation and potentially catching subtle deviations that might otherwise be missed.

To ensure brand consistency while collaborating with external agencies on a creative project, establish clear brand guidelines. Provide a comprehensive brand book detailing visual elements (logos, colors, fonts) and tone of voice. Regularly communicate and hold alignment meetings to reinforce these standards. Implement a review and approval process for all creative outputs to ensure adherence to the brand. Utilize collaborative tools for transparency and feedback, and designate a brand steward to oversee consistency. By maintaining open communication and rigorous oversight, you can safeguard the integrity of your brand throughout the collaboration.

In my experience with top brands and internal marketing teams, fostering true collaboration is key. Rather than the client side trying to cast the agency in a negative light, both parties should work as equal partners. This involves setting shared goals, encouraging open communication, recognizing each other's strengths, and focusing on solutions, not blame. By creating an environment where both sides work in tandem, the quality of work improves significantly. This approach not only enhances brand consistency but also leads to more innovative and effective outcomes. Ultimately, a collaborative atmosphere benefits all parties involved and produces superior results for the brand.

Building a strong relationship with external creative agencies is key to brand consistency. Resource Hub: Create a central repository for all brand assets, including logos, style guides, brand fonts, and approved imagery. Tech Access: Consider providing access to any specific software or platforms your brand uses internally. This minimizes the need for agencies to recreate materials in different formats, reducing the risk of errors. Open Communication: Maintain open communication channels throughout the project. Encourage questions and feedback loops to ensure everyone is aligned on the brand vision and messaging. By providing the right tools and fostering open communication, you empower agencies to become true partners.

📍Implement a brand consistency scoring system. Develop a quantitative method to evaluate how well external agency outputs align with your brand guidelines. This could involve rating various elements like visual design, messaging tone, and overall brand feel on a numerical scale. Regularly scoring creative work can provide objective feedback to agencies and help track consistency over time. And this scoring system could be used when reviewing a new ad campaign from an external agency.