Visual Brand Tone: the style guide's newest member

Earlier this year, I finally heeded the advice of the social media strategist that I work with at Amadeus Brand (hi Odette!), and I upped my Instagram game.

As a grandmother in the Gen-Y generation (or the granddaughter of Gen X, depending on the literature you’re reading) I am not as comfortable with une demonstration publique on social media as my more millennial friends. The thought of putting myself out there was excruciating, even if it were in the good name of business development. Odette was fabulous and she wrote me a great strategy to support my business objectives, which was to obviously to win new business, but also attract the right sort of business.

Off I went. I certainly haven’t set the world on fire and amassed a gazillion followers, but for the most part it’s a very enjoyable exercise and a good creative outlet where I can curate my own gallery of things that I visually admire, as well as share tips, inspiration and creative work from Amadeus Brand. As well as the enjoyment factor, my experience has also provided me a first-hand understanding of Instagram - a channel that many of my clients are now choosing to use as part of their marketing mix.

I’ve found that the best performing Instagram accounts have a tight, cohesive grid comprising of consistent imagery and colour. Each post appears to be strategically considered to work on two levels: singularly as a unique post, and collectively as part of the wider brand grid.

For maximum traction, I've established that a brand needs to be posting between 1-2 times per day, every day. That’s a lot of imagery! From a brand management perspective, this almost does my head in, and I’ve discovered that a traditional brand toolkit does not allow enough flexibility to allow for the thirst that social channels are demanding.

By way of background, a traditional brand toolkit typically allows for the following elements, which are usually documented via a visual brand style guide:

1. The logo: composition and usage guidelines
2. Colour palette: identification of a suite of colour and their unique codes and breakdowns for application in a variety of environments
3. Typography: specific fonts that should be used and how they should be applied
4. Imagery style: types of imagery that should be used by the brand, be it photography, illustration, pattern or texture

Brand Tone: the new player

After playing the Insta-game for a few weeks, I quickly established that my own style guide was not cutting it. The two fonts that I'd designated - which in any other era would have been ample - didn't stretch far enough to cover the volume of content I now needed to produce. Ditto to the colour palette of six carefully-crafted colours that I'd selected. As a result, content creation for me became an organic exercise, driven by gut feel rather than adherence to any sort of documented brand guide rails. This is fine for a brand specialist, but I knew that my clients and other non-brand people would need something more robust. 

Enter 'Brand Tone': a new, natural inclusion for brand style guides which provides an overarching visual characterof a brand. This character is driven by exploring the following dimensions:

VIBRANCY

Will the tone of imagery be colourful or neutral?

SATURATION

Will imagery be high or low in saturation?

COLOUR PERSONALITY

Will the brand use imagery that is bright, earthy, pastel, monotone etc?

PHOTOGRAPHIC PROFILE

If using photography, will there be rules around the type of image? Will it be coloured? Black and White?

FILTER

Will you apply a filter (as is found on Instagram)? If so, which one is right for your brand?

The benefits of Brand Tone

The biggest benefit to establishing brand tone is that it allows brand custodians to be more creative and flexible in their identification and creation of brand content. Instead of being constrained by the constructs of the traditional brand guide, which may prescribe rigid directions for brand execution, it instead allows for an ‘anything goes’ approach as long as it fits within an overarching tone. I find this an important and practical consideration when one is producing content at the voracious speed that a successful Instagram presence dictates. 

...it allows brand custodians to be more creative and flexible in their identification and creation of brand content.

Brand tone is also an important tool for Instagram given the culture of ‘sharing’ other people’s content (with the appropriate credit, of course). ‘Re-gramming’ other content is an important tenet of Instagram’s community, and when done thoughtfully and appropriately is a really lovely part of using the platform. Denoting brand tone allows for content creators to apply rigour to the identification of shareable content from other brands, as they can quickly identify imagery that will visually enhance the brand grid.

It also allows for additional creativity in using the colour palette. Instead of sticking to a rigid set of colours (most brands identify around six brand colours), the palette may be explored in a more tonal way, by using tints or even colours outside of the palette that fit the overall tone (0 to 255 is my go-to tool here).

Make use of captions

There is a whole other post on brand tone-of-voice (I'll pop it on the list!) but it pays to give it some thought if you are spending some time developing your brand tone. Will your brand aim to inform as simply as possible? Will it exude some personality; be it cheeky, irreverent or even crass? (This can work - the Instagram account 'F**kjerry' is testament to this; the clue's in the name).

Much has been said about Instagram's new algorithms that are rewarding content that inspires connection (AKA that dreaded word 'engagement'). Kick-ass visual creatives are obviously always going to inspire appreciation through an old-fashioned double-tap (like) and if your audience is particularly moved, a comment. This is all good for one's Insta-game. 

We are increasingly seeing engagement being driven through the use of content captions, where a brand has an opportunity to inform, educate and/or delight their audience with a few (or many) lines of text. It's not unusual to see a relatively plain image garner 1000's of likes or comments due to the weight and value of its caption. 

There is no one best option here, and the best approach is to go with whatever approach allows you to add the most value to your audience.  

You can't trump a creative approach

In the end, when producing content at-pace for social media, you can't beat good old fashioned creativity. It's true - the best and most loved accounts out there demonstrate often exquisite creativity, be it through visuals or their captions. It's a frequent lament from my clients: they take great pride in their grid and want to look as polished as they can. Fortunately, with a bit of legwork up front defining a robust brand tone, nearly anyone can up their social game and get their brands working hard and looking great.

Have you seen any brands killing it with their tone? Leave your favourites in the comments and I'll check them out! 

?You can find more from Amadeus Brand here.

Image Credits:

• The Lawyers Lunchbox
• Odette & Co
• OMF Socials
• ?SmackBang Designs
• MadebyKaran
• Shillington Education
• Roar Publishing
• Abbie Melle
• New Brutalism
• Eyes of Love
• Fish Eye Dreams