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The Holy Grail of Branding. When designing a brand identity for any brand, but especially a consumer brand, we look to develop visual brand assets than can become instantly recognizable to their loyal fans. These assets allow a brand to be creative in what it…

The power of brandless branding. Loving these new ads for McDonald’s by Leo Burnett in London. The holy grail for branding is when you’re able to remove your logo and the visual language of the brand, the product or the product description alone communicates who…

The 2020 Barbie range steps-out with inclusiveness. Loving the way the Barbie brand has kept pace with society and arguably takes a leadership role in diversity and inclusiveness. The range of Barbie dolls includes35 skin tones, 9 body types, a Barbie in a wheel chair,…

Brand Finance ranking of the most valuable brands for 2020 has just been released. Amongst the Australian brands, Woolworths has reclaimed the top spot, overtaking Telstra, after recording a 5% uplift in brand value to AU$11.8 billion. The study also showed that Woolworths has eclipsed…

A Right Royal Bit of Branding Fun. I’m loving this brand campaign from Burger King leveraging the global interest in the current Royal family split. Creating timely brand ads that connect with something as newsworthy as the royal split is not a new idea, but…

It’s not an entirely new trick, but Apples latest piece of brandertainment has been shot entirely on the latest iPhone. And there’s plenty to like beyond showing-off the capabilities of the iPhone 11 Pro. The film, about three generations of Chinese women coming together at…

The changing face of consumer behavior raises a red flag for retail brands. When I think back even just a decade ago, the demands of retail customers were not so different from the decades before. Essentially most retailers could add a functional web site and…

At Truly Deeply we love sharing and celebrating not only our creative branding work but that of our extended brand family. In this case it’s doubly easy when the work includes Oscar the Grouch. Produced for the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street, Square Space New…

Instagram brand; Overheard launches physical newspaper stands. In the latest demonstration of the blurring between new digital and traditional business and brand models, Overheard launched a physical parody paper (think The Onion) along with a pop-up newsstand at Union Square in San Francisco. Overheard was…

It’s beginning to look alot like Christmas (well a little at least…) This Christmas season John Lewis has teamed-up with Waitrose (a member of their brand family) to create their festive commercial to play on its social media chanels. The charming piece of brand communication…

Celebrating typography as a valuable branding asset. Type foundry Monotype have this year launched the Type Champions Award, to recognize brands for their creative, innovative, and memorable use of typography in developing and maintaining their brand identities. A panel of branding experts selected 12 companies…

Are you missing this important dimension of your brand strategy? Price has always been a key dimension of brand building. Ever since E. Jerome McCarthy identified the Four P’s of marketing (Price, Product, Place and Promotion) brands have understood the relationship between price and brand…

The recently revealed brand image for the Paris 2025 Olympic and Paralympic games has created something of a stir on the web. As with every other category, the market gets used to a consistent approach to how the brands in that market will present themselves,…

Now that seems like a valuable brand proposition. All to often we find brands working in a market driven paradigm. That-is, their mindset of how they go to market is based upon the collective history of how the category has always operated. What was will…

The power of a beautiful design idea. Wander round Apple’s iconic 5th Avenue store in NY and you’ll come across this brilliant piece of retail brand design. Whilst the easy solution would have been a wall full of product (after all the beautifully simple Apple…

Custom font design a branding hero. Over the years we’ve published several collections of our favorite customer designed fonts. Our collections skirt the weird and wonderful, celebrating those who push the envelope of typography. And whilst I love the creativity of this brand design work,…

Lingerie giant celebrates major brand shift with plus sized and transgender models. Victoria’s Secret has learnt the importance of ‘never say never’ as they attempt to reverse decades of criticisms of their stand on beauty means. The brand appears to finally understand that the world,…

The ultimate Designer’s Mark of Respect. You know you’ve made it as a global person of import when your hand writing is turned into a font. Over the years there have been fonts created by the hand writing of Barak Obama and George Washington to…

The Power of Brands Behaving Admirably. It’s not every day that the second biggest global brand in a category stops selling their number one product for a day and runs an ad campaign asking their customers to buy from their competitor instead – but that’s…

Perfect Packaging design. We’ve always believed the role of packaging has three purposes; 01. to stand-out on the shelf, 02. tell the brand story and 03. provide a functional serving and storage experience. But Canadian creative branding agency Rethink have added a 4th dimension –…

Local bank and insurance brands lead the way in customer excellence. KPMG’s Customer Experience Excellence Report shows that six of the top 10 local CX brands are in the banking and insurance sector, but none are the big 4. On the back of a series…

We love a good brand parody. OK, so I have to admit I’m a fan of brand piss-takes of any variety, but when they come to political branding parodies, my appreciation goes up-ten fold. When I first spotted the ‘Make America Great Again’ brand positioning…

Beautiful and Provocative Information Design. The Economist has recently released an issue focusing on global climate change; an issue that is timely, pertinent and cuts across almost every topic of relevance to their readers. Working with climate scientist Ed Hawkins who is known for his…

The Holy Grail of Brand Effectiveness. One of the toughest parts of rebranding is the risk associated with selecting which brand mark concept to choose. There are few business decisions where so much comes down to a single choice quite as graphically as this. With…

The case for increasing the focus on branding in your business. Watching a video by US brand educator Chris Do recently I came across this simple illustration that captures the concept of the brand circle of behavior. Many brands, especially for start-up, early stage and…

‘Trecking’ is the colour theme for brands to pay attention to. Each year PANTONE Colour Institute announces the colour or colours set to influence the way brands go to market in the year ahead. Driven by consumer psychology, these colours are often reflected through fashion,…

A Critical Step in Rebranding Strategy. Over recent months (and maybe years) we’ve tracked a growing consumer activism speaking out against changes to brand identity. Whether it’s global fashion retailer Zara, U.S. grocery chain Giant Eagle,  The City of Frederick in Maryland or most recently,…

Doritos Clever Thinking Only Outsmarts Themselves. Doritos is set to launch an ‘anti-ad’ campaign to appeal to Gen Z, who is research tells us are averse to traditional advertising tactics. The snack food brand plans to ditch its logo, replacing it with a recognizable triangle…

A highbrow challenge for brands of every description. As defined by Wikipedia; A heuristic technique is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method, not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but instead sufficient for reaching an immediate goal. When…

  How do you launch a category leader to the next phase of growth? This was one of the challenges facing THE:5th when we sat down with them to develop the brand strategy for their next business phase (you can check a case study of…

When it comes to branding, standing out is tougher than it ever has been. Compared to a decade ago, there are many more brands doing more things to differentiate and stand out in the market. The challenge for brand managers, owners and marketers is to…

The History of BMW’s brand mark. As brands evolve and mature the rationale behind the design of their logo often becomes folklore, coloured as much by popular myth than historical fact. Recently global automaker BMW published an article clearing-up the story behind their iconic brandmark.…

A branding project to change the world. Every so often we come across a project that seems like our destiny to work on. It’s not every day that we get to create a brand with the potential to have a significant and enduring impact on…

Branding for Start-Ups – A critical challenge. There are few things I enjoy more than sitting across the table with a founder of a start-up. The energy, excitement, vision and optimism are often at their peak in the excitement of launching a new enterprise. Over…

The new brand strategy, architecture and identity helps Australian steel builder reflect their true industry leadership and provides a framework for future business growth. A highly successful business, the rebrand now reflects the true image of the company, one that is continually evolving with its…

Brand Backlash – Important feedback of ill-informed hot air? I read with interest this week of a city in the US State of Maryland who launched a new brand identity for the town, only to backtrack in the face of resident dissatisfaction. Having worked on…

More brand building mastery from Apple. Whenever I spot a new piece of inspiring branding from Apple I find myself vexed. As a consumer I’m enraptured, immediately engaged and continue to build-on the loyalty and enthusiasm I hold for the brand. As a writer of…

Is this the toughest retail environment on the planet? On a trip to Vietnam this month I spent a couple of days sweltering through the streets of Hanoi Old Town. The mercury hit 37 degrees and the humidity was thick enough to cut with a…

A place branding guide for the worlds greatest business cities. Brand agency Saffron have just released their City Brand Barometer for 2019 which explores which cities around the world have built the strongest brands to attract businesses and investors. The report gives an insight into…

Truly Deeply’s Branding Excellence Recognized. DesignRush.com, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies recently released their list of the top 25 branding agencies of 2019. The list which combined local as well as global agencies has been published around the world has been published across…

  84 facts every brand owner and manager should know about Social Influencers. Arguably this decade’s greatest disruptor to the way brands go-to-market has been the emerging force of social influencers. In a conversation recently with the founder of Australia’s leading cosmetic retail brands when…

Never make a brand promise you can’t keep. A three-year-old TVC has gone viral recently, as social media users have enthusiastically shared it as much for its beauty as for the disconnect between the ad and the brand it represents. The stunning film was made…

A couple of weeks after the successful funding of How Now, the ethical milk brand we created, another of our brands is chasing crowdfunding. Vamper, the largest music social network wants to become LinkedIn for creatives. Josh and Baz came to us a couple of years ago…

Brand Recognition = Commercial Value. In these times of desktop publishing and 99 Designs when the tools to create logos are at everyone’s fingertips, it is easy to overlook the commercial benefits of a professional brand identity. This clever creative experiment from Berlin Agency ‘Why…

Fund the How Now Milk Brand Our friends Cathy and Les from the Ethical Dairy Company owner of the magnificent How Now Milk Brand are chasing funding for the next stage of the ethical milk journey. It’s a great opportunity to put some money behind…

Asian supermarkets use banana leaves instead of plastic packaging for fruit & veg. For decades many consumers have been pushing Australian retailers to reduce the overpacking of fruit and vegetables, but it’s still happening. Now, it seems our neighbours to the north are streets ahead…

The power of re-imagining a brand icon. In a shift that has even me surprised, iconic global brand Playboy has moved with the times, evolving from a ‘sexist and proud of it’ brand proposition to one of understanding and tolerance. Playboy CMO and Rachel Webber…

THE:5TH – A watch brand worth watching. We’ve recently begun working with next gen watch business THE:5TH. For those not familiar with the brand (which makes you over 35 and not fashion savvy) THE:5TH is a stellar example of new businesses disrupting old categories –…

The new product innovation set to disrupt the passenger tire category. We much more often hear from clients; “We’re not reinventing the wheel here”. We hear it so often it’s almost become a default starting point for approaching branding projects; ‘How do we get growth…

StartOut is an inspiring not-for-profit organisation who match young people with role models to help build resilience, self-acceptance, help break negative self-image and to help navigate their sexuality. We worked with StartOut to create a brand that was inclusive of all diverse sex, sexuality and gender…

The Microcation is officially a trend Being driven predominantly by millennials, the microcation is a short getaway that is gaining popularity fast. Research from the U.S. (The 2019 Vacation Confidence Index* released by Allianz Global Assistance) has shown that 72% of millennials, 69% of Gen…