The Tube Takeover

Thursday 19th November 2020 was a key date for any gamer – the release of the new Sony PlayStation 5. Since its first iteration in December 1994, PlayStation has been a behemoth of the gaming industry, and indeed the marketing world. You try finding a teenager who doesn’t know what a PlayStation is. That said, it doesn’t mean that the marketing hype is any less extensive. Christmas is coming and just releasing something doesn’t guarantee that everyone will buy it…

And this leads me to where I think Sony’s PlayStation marketing team absolutely nailed it – Oxford Circus:

It’s the perfect blend of a classic British icon in the form of the underground logo, melded with the equally recognisable PlayStation symbols. They got it spot-on with the perfect campaign to go viral. It doesn’t hurt that one of their symbols ended up on the doorstep of one of Microsoft’s flagship stores, either – something the die-hard PlayStation fans took great delight in on Twitter. I only feel sorry for their marketing department that their campaign coincided with a national lockdown and so didn’t quite reach the levels that it arguably should have.

The reason I’m calling this example out, in particular, is that it shows the power a clear and consistent branding can have. Since its release in 1994, the PlayStation brand has used the same four symbols and colours across all its consoles. That consistency allows Sony to run campaigns that don’t actually include the PlayStation logo or tagline, yet still have people recognise what they’re advertising.

Now I grant you this might well be an extreme example of the power of brand consistency given that Sony is an already-global organisation. Still, it does point to the benefits that a consistently represented brand image can provide. However, brands are notoriously tricky to manage at the best of times.

Think about the various touchpoints your brand has around the world – both physical and digital. Then think about the number of people interacting with your brand elements, whether direct employees or partner organisations. Take those two factors into consideration, and you can see the potential spaghetti monster that is brand control and consistency – and the reason why companies sometimes bury their heads in the sand rather than try to address things.

So, what can you do to improve your consistency? The first thing to get right is to make sure that your employees know where to find your brand elements, and how to use them. A simple DAM system can cover the first part, but what about communicating the brand? Brand communication takes something a bit more evolved, but it needn’t require vast amounts of time and effort (or expense) to get in place. With a properly implemented Brand Management System, you can guarantee that all relevant people within and outside your organisation have controlled access to the brand elements they need – delivering you that all-important brand control. Not only this, but it also frees up your brand team from managing all those day-to-day requests they would typically receive. Your team have more resources to plan out their own’ brand takeover’ event or publicity stunt to catapult your organisation into the limelight. Who knows, you might even see your logo casting a shadow over your main competitor’s offices next year…

To find out more about how Brandworkz can help you gain and retain control of your brand, feel free to take a closer look at our website or contact steve.mcgowan@brandworkz.com for a chat and to book in a demo of our award-winning software.