Global competition and the digital age have put severe importance on the user’s experience. It has become one of the ways a brand can stand out. Though, to a layman User Experience (UX) would equate to UX design for digital interferences and applications. In reality, UX principles can be used in various situations beyond the digital realm. “Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.” User Experience is the overall experience of a person using your product or service, especially regarding its ease of use and engagement. It takes into account every possible interaction and touch point of a user. They are kept in mind when going through the 5 steps of a UX design process: Strategy: Identify the problem to solve, considering both users' needs and the business goal. Scope: Defines the function of the product Structure: Defines the organization of the interactive experience Skeleton: Presentation and arrangement Surface: Look and Feel of the product. User Experience begins with asking critical questions that address long-term timelines. It is a strategic approach to solving issues and making a seamless enjoyable experience for a customer. UX design requires you to think strategically about consumer behavior, desires, and touchpoints. Businesses have to remember the User in UX. It is often seen that decision-makers tend to leave behind the users/customers while trying to highlight the product or service. Of course, the product is the end but the means to the end is your experience; and this should not be taken for granted as the interaction is what your customer/user remembers. The key is to remember the three essential checkpoints of a good UX design. Simple Depending on the subject, Simplicity could mean how clean the design is, how intuitive it is, or how many features are included in it. Keeping designs simple is difficult and getting tougher especially when there is so much to add, highlight, consider, and integrate. The 3-click rule might be challenging and may be outdated, but it still leaves a lasting impression when the process is efficient and simple. Usability ‘Usability’ and ‘User Experience’ are concepts mistaken for each other, but there is a crucial difference between them. Usability does not only measure ease of use but also if the user achieves their goal with the product. User Experience on the other hand is how the person feels before, during, and after using the product. Aesthetics First impressions always matter. It takes only 50 milliseconds for a user to decide if they like your website, which may sound like a tough task but it is achievable. Here visual aesthetics play a huge role. Research conducted by Kurosu and Kashimua indicates that users who encounter aesthetically pleasing designs experience a positive emotional response which in turn affects the usability of the designs. People tend to believe that designs that look better will work better. The best example would be the Google Search Engine. It is so satisfying from a UX perspective and here's why White Background for no distractions The Logo for brand emphasis The search bar Easy to Navigate, Intuitive suggestions, clean aesthetics, and mobile friendly too. “No business has ever succeeded without connecting, in a deep and meaningful way, with its customers.” UX outside digital space IKEA retail space Ever entered IKEA and have been focused on their multiple products, curated displays, and little trinkets? No, because this is their winning recipe. The Gruen Effect is when you overwhelm the senses and thoughts of the customer as soon as they enter the store. This leads them to forget their purpose of visit and leads to more impulsive shopping. IKEA’s fixed path design ensures that a visitor's stay is as long as possible, enriching the sensory experience with curated displays and providing small merchandise which subtly adds to the Gruen experience. Airbnb service design Airbnb is the obvious choice when it comes to service design. It provides temporary stays and various experiences stretching from wellness, food, and nature to art, design, and social impact. They storyboarded 45 different realistic emotional moments for Airbnb hosts and curated various experiences for different target groups. Customizing experiences based on customer types and taking real-life feedback proved that good service design makes a brand more approachable and desirable. Nintendo Switch Product design Launched in 2017, Nintendo Switch is still considered a good purchase for gamers. Nintendo games are a personal favorite especially because of their cheerful colors, iconic and relatable characters, and engaging gameplay. The Switch with its unique design offers three different ways to play on the console: Handled, Tabletop, and TV. This versatile design gives contributes to the immersive gaming experience in addition to the multitudes of games available for it. Other than that, the simple and easy interface in the games caters to gamers with minimum experience, making it universal and approachable. Nintendo did keep the user’s experience in mind, as it is still a loved product even with all its flaws. These are just a few names that have implemented User Experience beyond the digital realm in different ways. The one thing that ties all of them together is that these designs are created with their customer in the center. Creating a user-centered design is a key ingredient when it comes to creating chemistry between brands and their customers, and a meaningful relationship between them.

Wherever you are, close your eyes for 30 seconds when we reach the end of this paragraph, ask yourself and try to answer the following questions: What did you last see? And what did you last hear? Can you remember where that sound came from? Can you visualise the nature and story of the sound? That's a classic example of a sonic experience happening to you. Considering you did it right, you will realise an interesting fact. The last thing you probably saw was this, the article right in front of you. The periphery of your vision may have captured some other elements in front of you. The things you heard and continue hearing however, followed no such directional limitation. The existence of a phenomenon is made aware to you through what you hear in the totality of your environment, at all times. While you are reading this, you are also hearing things going around you. You may or may not be consciously aware, (now you probably are, forgive me). You will be surprised at all the things we can hear, if only we choose to listen. This may seem philosophical, and perhaps it is, but it is rooted in science and how the brain works to interpret what we hear. We humans (and probably all life that is capable of hearing, although research is still enroute), have selective hearing. What we think of as hearing, is the effect. The analysis of our brain as how we perceive vibrations in the air. The takeaway from this is food for thought. When we close eyes, even when we blink, the world disappears for a moment. However, in the presence or absence of a visual cue, you still can hear everything around you. We are submerged in air, constantly immersed in sound. Consider this, what we see is only a fraction of our cognitive experience. Before the invention and discovery of languages, the practice of communication was very aural-sonic oriented. Knowledge was passed down through generations in forms of stories that were first told and then written. Bards and minstrels would sing songs and heralds would be heralding… Our field of vision in focus is limited to only 50 - 60 degrees in front of us and yet we are constantly processing information through our 5 primary senses, regardless, correlating it to memory and analysing priority lists, emotional cues, intellectual thought and pondering spiritual quests. And in all of this, what we see is only 1/6th of the capacity of our preceptive capabilities, not considering our other senses of smell, touch and taste. In all of this, if there was any sensory perception that was omnidirectional and constantly seeking stimuli, it is our sense of hearing. Visual communication is a powerful tool for storytelling and yet, when you read a novel, or hear a story that has no such visual cue, our imagination fills up the void. You are probably reading this article in a voice inside your head. The process of branding and experiential marketing aims to integrate your brand with the human senses of your customers. Branding is the process of turning your organisation into an organism with the outward and inward properties of Identity and expression. Music and sound hold the power to bring visual stories to life. The best way to turn a horror film into a comedy is to hit the mute button. In a great film, there are two storylines. One that is seen and the other, heard. One that is obvious, and the other that is subliminal. Can you imagine an Alfred Hitchcock's, ‘Psycho’ without the flurry of violin ‘stabs’, or Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws without the apprehensive steps of the orchestra? George Lucas’s Star Wars without the sounds of the Lightsaber and the iconic musical liet-motif that made Darth Vader and the Death Star of the Galactic Empire, terrifying! Perhaps even Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, without the dead silence of space. Music and sound design create the emotional atmosphere of visual communication. It creates a bridge for the audience to emotionally connect with the story that is being told. It’s something like the debate between the heart and the brain. However in reality, they are two sides of the same coin, creating an integrated experience for the audience. Only when both are connected, can something truly magical be created. Then again, on account of being musically inclined myself, stories are first told and heard. Storytelling through sonic experiences Despite the encompassing role of our auditory systems, branding communications that aim to integrate the auditory senses are vastly understated and underused. All that we know of sonic branding and creating sonic logos is merely a scratch on the surface of an ocean of potential. The rise of the audio user experience is now. With technology systems being voice operated, electric cars making a segue into mass markets, and overcrowded visual stimulation for consumers, a sonic strategy incorporating music and sound design for your brand is an essential investment to stay relevant even with eyes around you, closed. To learn more about how we approach sonic branding, contact us now

Its 2021, and COVID19 has been a part of our lives for the past two years. Stay at home notices keep coming along, and to escape the pandemic we seek comfort in our screens. Now the minute I say screens, the one brand that is synonymous with that, is Netflix, the source of all our comfort. But this goes beyond Netflix, we all communicate with each other in today's ages of big screens and small screens with motion, whether it be through memes, animated GIFs, message videos, message effects, Instagram Stories or video calls. Oh, the endless zoom calls which have become such a staple in our daily lives. Give a magazine to a child, born beyond 2010 or even earlier, they would probably scroll down to get to the next page, ask them to make the hand sign for a call, they would use a flat palm against their ears (no thumb and little finger outstretched in opposite directions against their ear!). Our billboards on the roads are digital, changing shapes, images and colours as we drive past on our finally 'free' highways. Taxis like Olas, Lyfts and Ubers have ads playing in more screens, and our malls are inundated with digital signage. Static is old, motion is today. Some forward thinking companies are looking at pushing the boundaries of our experiences. In 2019, South Africa Tourism Board pushed the boundaries of virtual tourism by having a website that had virtual reality and allowed you to view the destinations in all it's glory. The Hotel Industry is experimenting with multi-sensory marketing, including smells and tastes, that follow the traveller throughout their stay in their premises. Of course, this was before COVID19, but that's not to say these unique marketing experiences have not been executed, and successfully so. So talking about motion in branding and marketing should be so yesterday, and it begs the question, why aren't more brands making this a staple of their branding or marketing offering? We've ascertained that brands behave, they have their own brand personality, so how much better is it for a brand to have a signifier motion that is associated with them, that makes them stand out in a crowded marketplace of semi-static brands? A Brand behaves in space A brand behaves in their own space, whether it is their category, the medium of viewing the content, online space, or in the space they are trying to hold their consumer's attention. Motion used to be thought as something that only the cool brands could implement, but it shouldn't be so. Motion by far is one of the most interesting tools that enable a brand to stand out from a crowded digital marketplace. It makes them significant, it makes them unique. And motion doesn't need to be relegated to motion graphics, it should be a part of the user interface, especially with your consumer using a plethora of applications to do their day to day tasks. Imagine an application which has motion firmly entrenched in its core look and feel, wouldn't that capture your attention? Branding in Motion It's really simple, anything that evokes a stronger emotion is the key to making brands more significant in their customer's lives. When things are static, they lack empathy, they lack meaning. Motion is the one tool that can make an application empathetic to their customers, or a bank meaningful to their consumers. The end result of incorporating motion into your brand's identity makes every communication rich and emotive. From a User Experience perspective, motion can bring flat elements of any application to life, whether it is playful, or built with a sense of communicating purpose. Motion is the one aspect unfortunately ignored by most brands, probably because they have never considered it. With every technological jump, brands and marketers look at incorporating those elements to make emotions more powerful and more stickier. It's simple, the brands that stick in your memory, and that you connect to, are the ones not firmly rooted in tradition, but are willing to explore new and innovative ways to make themselves more purposeful to their customers. And hopefully motion identity is now on their agenda. To learn more about how we approach branding identity, contact us now.

Scroll... Tap... Swipe... ... and then you scroll some more. Our eyes and our attention is tethered to these small and large screens equally. Which is why we can spend hours on Tiktok, Instagram Reels, or just binge watch television series, season after season. No wonder, from frustrated parents to tired professionals, we all just want to give our eyes a long needed break. What happens when you close your eyes and just listen? You engage... You connect deeply. As you ease into the intro or the voice of your favourite podcast host, or just listen to a sweet jazz riff playing, audio cuts straight to the emotion and makes you, the listener, open your heart and mind to this medium that is as old as time itself. This 'new normal' There's no medium that has adapted to this new normal better than audio. It is no accident that audio has quickly gained traction and that audio identity and ad spend are ever increasing when it comes to audio. The powerful trio, OTA (Over the Air) Audio, podcasts, digital audio are now delivering what both consumers and marketers have long been craving: a more meaningful connection. Research shows that audio identity spurs more emotions than any other medium, and in the age of measurement, real-time insights and analytics, audio has become an integral part of any advertiser's arsenal. Audio ad spend rose 10.4% in 2020 compared to 2019. Podcast spending will hit a fantastic $1 billion in 2021. And why is this sudden shift happening? It's simple, audio has kept all the emotion and impact it’s always had while adding measurability and versatility that match the moment. Let's turn up the volume! Listen to your Audio Identity... 2020, we all had our entire lives and routines shifted around, and this led to some very definitive and permanent disruptions in our day to day lives. People stuck at home started spending more time listening to podcasts and personalized music. Your favorite playlists and podcasts became as essential to you as masks and sanitizers. One thing is certain, audio will be a permanent solace for the lot of us, just as it has been for the past century, but now audio finally has taken center stage. We know the genres we like more evocatively, the styles and the variations. We know why we like that particular artist because they either pump up our moods during those downer phases, or they just enable us to get in a relaxed state of mind after a long day at work. Screenless finally is catching up If you dread your next Zoom meeting, you're not alone. Screen fatigue is real, but we are yet craving content that we can enjoy without being locked in and tiring our eyes. That's the great thing about audio; it moves with you wherever you go. Think about it- you could be driving the car, walking the dog, or doing grocery shopping, but with a trusted pair of earbuds, your choice of audio moves along with you. But even though you're on the move, it means that your full attention is on the audio. Emotions are evoked - you're yet intently listening. That's the beauty of audio. It's a beautiful medium that you can multitask effectively with. Audio just gets you in the right mood, regardless of where you are at mentally. The heart and the brain are biologically connected. Neuroscience helps us determine how people respond to content and stimuli by measuring variations in heart rate. This measure of engagement is called immersion. And studies show that the more someone is immersed in content, the more they will recall and take action. Meeting Consumers at the moments that matter Immersion is a blend of attention and emotional connection. That’s why the power trio of integrated audio is driving immersive experiences, beating out even TV and social media. Audio can evoke the right emotions, pique our interest, and stop us in our tracks (or in our driveways) with deeply connected and quite often emotional experiences. Brand awareness ads in podcasts jumped from 25% in 2016 to 45% in 2020. Talking is the new clickety click While audio consumption is on the rise, so is voice. We now can control our doors, amplifiers, lights, computers and even our phones with voice instructions. And more so, now brands can even talk back to us. Voice assistants that used to just play music or deliver the weather now offer interactive brand-to-consumer experiences. Brands are embracing the speaker-as-touchpoint phenomenon, adding voice-triggered ads to their audio campaigns. That paves the way for some amazing new opportunities with shoppable sonic interactions. Your bottom line Sonic branding tends to stir up emotions, and if crafted correctly, can lead to brand associations that are meaningful and impactful to the end consumer. In a world of visual chaos, audio is a 'breath of fresh air'. It is the place brands need to be, to enable them to stand out from the noise. Audio is trusted above all other media - more than TV, more than social media, and even more than Google...

Several industry leaders are already racing and trying to consolidate their place in the metaverse. Tech giants like Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard for $75B and Take-Two's plan on acquiring Zynga for $13B shows that gaming is the first step into the new era of the web. What is the new Black? The internet is a breathing living thing that evolves with its users. Currently a group of well funded and tech driven minds are working on the next project: rebuilding the web on the foundation of cryptocurrency and blockchain aka Web3. Let us take a walk back as to what the previous two versions did. Web1.0 (1990s) brought in online publishing and introduced e-commerce, while Web2.0 (2000s) enhanced the options of sharing content and platforms. Web3 aims to reform transactions and the economy around digital assets. Evolution in progress Blockchain and crypto has been existing for over a decade but recently showed how they are the new ways to monetized new kinds of organization and assets. The rise of NFTs and Facebook's Meta have accelerated the attention and cash flow to the creation of this all encompassing virtual world. The evolution of the Web is usually seen from the software perspective but it is the hardware that will also finally shape the experience of it (personal computer for Web1 and smartphones for Web2) Progress to the next stage will depend on the ever-improving GPUs, photorealistic 3D engines, AI driven content, cloud space and 5G as well as a better understood and sophisticated blockchain infrastructure. Many companies are competing for the next hardware wave with AR/VR glasses as the main key; Extended reality (XR) will be the new black. Larger than just a gaming experience Did you know that there are approximately 2.5 billion gamers in the world who spend a good chunk of their time in a virtual world? The gaming culture has changed drastically over time, where innovations and updates are more consumer centric, creating subcultures of their own. In-game purchases, events and similar attractions make this industry a solid $150 billion market. Gamers have been introduced to digital currency and digital ownership way before it was a norm, and free-to-play garners more attention, this has spread the culture in all types of platforms. In one month, an average Roblox daily user is spending more than $5 a month on the platform. By creating verifiable digital scarcity for virtual goods using NFTs or integrating cryptocurrency as a payment method expands the scope of brands to build a track record in the digital economies in the metaverse. Many gaming companies have shown interest in adopting blockchain technology and NFTs in their system and even though it is not exactly welcomed by the gaming community, it will be seen that iconic IPs that have been existing for generations like Nintendo, will be adopted for the new Web. This gives brands a huge opening to adapt their powerful stories and characters for the new Web era to engage their fanbase. Just like how Adidas has joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, starting the trend of collaborating and adding new content in Web3, NFTs can be the potential IP equivalent in the coming future. It is pretty early to call out and pinpoint exactly how this new era is to unfold. While ideally metaverse is to have free interoperability and decentralized powers, allow people to collaborate and pool resources, it is hard not to say that industry leaders will try to dominate it. But it is proved that gaming could initiate the Meta and influence how Web3 will turn out to be.

Sometimes we are forced to wonder, are agency advertising awards a vanity metric, or is it actually something that showcases quality, creativity and ingenuity? Why are agencies all over so hyped up about them? Are they a legit standard for an agency to showcase that they are a cut above the rest? Or are they just nonsense? So it's the time of the Cannes. The Lions being one of the world's most prestigious awards known to the advertising industry. Back in the day those awards meant something, it meant being recognised by your 'peers' for work that was a cut above the rest. And every creative, loves the little bit of recognition that comes with good work. For talent it is a way to get recognised and quickly get a raise, a much coveted promotion, or a new offer. For an incumbent agency, it is free PR, easy recognition, and the ability to get new and quite possibly lucrative clients. But here is the million dollar question, has that work actually 'benefited' the clients? Has it lead to an increase in sales, revenue, or is it just creative work for the sake of being creative? Many award-winning creative solutions have absolutely no effect on sales, as the haters love to remind us every year during award season. The very worst examples of this are the fake ads made by unscrupulous creatives, usually from the large advertising agencies who just want to win an award to soothe their fragile egos. Most award shows have tried to squash this by making new rules, but the award-addicts will always find ways to get around the rules. This is infuriating, and so unfair on so many levels. Let me explain. Getting your 'award' winning work listed for an award requires fees, both in listing it for the respective awards, as well as doing the sample creatives for the award that convinces the jury that the work is worth a mention. For smaller agencies like ourselves, this is prohibitive, we cannot list all our work for an award, plus we don't have the time nor bandwidth to recruit the right talent who could make the work more jazzy than it actually is. A bigger agency has a team just for these awards, they do everything from drafting the creative, the pitch brief, results, etc, and they definitely hedge their bets by enlisting numerous pieces of work for these awards shows. Some of them even do free work for clients, just so they could win an award, and these clients generally do agree to do so. After all, its good work for free, kind of difficult to say no to that... Awards were meant for recognizing excellence in the field, and to the layman, an award is something you give someone when they’ve done a good job. But the reality is different, an award show is a business, and a business needs revenue to succeed. You have some legendary ones like the Cannes Lion, Rebrand, D&AD, or the Kyoorius awards. Creative awards events are great for building your professional network; everyone who has the potential to win an award is present and they are usually the best-of-the-best in your industry. Wine and alcohol flows freely, adding to the jovial, post-reward mood while creating a great space to press the flesh with genuine talent. It's a wonderful recruiting space too. But it serves a mention that awards are not the goal, their an inspirational tool. Great work should always be the goal. But by hacking our fragile human egos, we trick ourselves into elevating substandard work to a higher place than it deserves. But for the few independent agencies that continue to churn out good work, and win awards, the result is quite surprising. Novel work for them, spurs them into action and enables them to move people to act. This inspiring action is very motivational, which is why for me personally the Cannes Lions holds no value, but the D&AD Pencil has always represented the best in advertising and design. Let's hope these new regional awards that are popping up from the woodworks maintain that same level of creativity, and perhaps Cannes Lion will just have to change their ways... eventually ... Although it’s entertaining to poke fun at the concept of awards, there is a reason they exist in the first place. Their purpose is to recognize the top work in the industry. Unlike the movie industry, this may be the only public way to acknowledge the terrific talent and people behind some of the brilliant work we see in our everyday lives. For smaller, independent agencies with less share of voice in the marketplace, it’s a way to proudly promote their innovative work and get noticed by prospecting brand advertisers. More practically speaking, it’s a way for the industry to spot new talent and for agencies to build a portfolio, get recognized by industry peers, reward teams and individual contributors, and build or accelerate careers—and come together to celebrate noteworthy achievements. But let's remember that, awards are not about vanity or bragging rights. It's about celebrating your people and their achievements. So let's not need an award to continue to celebrate our people ...

While it may seem that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is complicated and best left to the pros, little do many know that a little understanding and constant effort is what reaps the benefit. In my first job I landed with a SEO related work with no prior experience or knowledge of this field. Starting with creating backlinks, I expanded my role to social media handling and off-page optimization. It is still a constant learning curve for me, with new updates from google and the ever-increasing demands on the net. SEO is a vast topic with many aspects to look into if you want that top search engine rank. I have neatly divided it into 4 parts, which again link into one another. Those are: Technical SEO On-page SEO Content Off-page SEO A few of these points might ring a bell in your head, and many of you might understand what those mean. This is going to be a mini series where I take you through each point and try to put it down in simple terms. SEO shouldn’t be this hard, not when the internet is accessible to everybody! Today we are going to crack Technical SEO. In basic terms, it means an easy allowance for search engine bots to crawl easily through your website. They crawl to check if everything is in place, secured, fast and have good connectivity so that people of the internet can easily maneuver through your website. Things like the structure of your website, working (or dead) links in your content or even the load time of the page means a lot to Google when it comes to search engine rankings. It is also like killing two birds with one stone since technical SEO also enhances readability for the users as well as search engine. Therefore, I present thee with a few basic pointers to get started with technical SEO Check the locks first The lock icon right beside the site address, that is what we’re looking at. It means that we are keeping the website secure which is an important factor for Google ranking. Just make sure you use SSL or Secure Socket Layer which encrypt the link between your site and the browser. It makes sure that all credentials entered into any site will be kept to the site and browser alone. So give more preference to “https://’ rather than “http://” and install an SSL certificate on your site. Although most good website builders already include SSL certificates by default. Ready for any Screen Google has mentioned that a website is responsive if it adjusts to any device. While websites have been made with a large computer screen in mind, it is important to have a mobile friendly version where information is as easy and quick to navigate. With most searches now being made on the go and the internet being super accessible on the mobile, it is very important that websites cater to this growing group. Need for Speed? Imagine you are browsing google and every time you click open a website, it takes forever to load? Pictures, videos, gif or even links are blank and that refresh button just doesn’t seem to stop? It does get frustrating. Slow traffic, slow replies and slow internet are a few of my pet peeves. In the era of 5G, pages should load in 3 secs otherwise be ready to lose all that traffic that you have worked hard for. To reduce the load time you can use adaptive images which reduce the weight of the image without sacrificing on the quality; caching your website loads your static resources faster, reducing the load time; checking the plugins used on your website which might drag the speed if poor/ heavy or outdated. Give it a Structure Structured Data makes it easier for search engines to understand your products or contents or business of your website, and index them relevantly for effective outcomes. It is a code that you add to your website, usually in a fixed format, that the search engine can understand and piece it together for the bigger picture. It also makes the website more appealing with “rich snippets” like 5 star rates and customer reviews etc that can boost the click-through rate (CTR) and in general get more traffic. These sites are given more preferences and are considered of higher quality, so it is advised to take that extra mile. To map or not to map? Sitemaps works like an index where all the information of your pages, links, videos and files are stored. Google search bots uses this to effectively crawl through your website so that no content, link or effort is unnoticed. It lets them know which pages have valuable content and should not be missed. There are different categories of sitemaps for different contents like videos, images or news. It updates google about when was the page last modified, or the priority content and even how frequently uploaded. Sitemaps are necessary for larger websites with multiple pages and links since there are more chances of things being left out. Smaller or newer sites with less external links which are rich with media links are also advised to install XML sitemaps on their sites. Avoid content confusion I did say technical SEO and that does kind of come under on-page SEO so of course we will be talking about content. Now, if you have duplicate content (the same content on different pages) then search engines will get confused as to which page to rank the highest and eventually give both a lower score. Duplicate content can also be a technical issue as different URLs can show the same content. With the use of canonical link element you can point out which URL is the main site and have search engines rank that page instead of the other. Another point is to remove dead links in your site. No one likes seeing a 404 error page when they click a link. It is like hitting a wall and God knows that is painful. This shows that your site is not updated regularly and your resources are outdated, which of course makes your page and site less credible. While there might be a few deadlinks embedded in your site, keeping the numbers as low as possible will do good. There are tools that can help you find dead links on your site so that you can delete or redirect them to more credible sources. These are just some of the tricks that boost your page ranking, and we have not even scratched the surface of SEO. A little dabbling and learning on the Internet will help you understand technical SEO, making it as simple ABC. Do keep in mind that SEO needs constant supervision and updating, not a one night's job as the saying goes, Rome was not built in a Day. Keep an eye out for the next of the series which will be on On-Page SEO.

We were supposed to connect with customers through Social Media. This was supposed to be our golden age of branding, but somehow things didn't turn out that way... As Marketers we thought Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok would enable us to bypass traditional media and connect more effectively with customers. Wishing that we could attract huge audiences, brands have spent billions creating their own original creative content, but somehow consumers didn't pay attention. So what happened? Social media seems to have weakened traditional branding techniques. It has united isolated sub-cultures into very influential crowd-cultures. But let's start with understanding what are crowd-cultures. Crowd culture is defined as diverse, widespread groups of people who join together in support of, or even opposition to, a brand. It is a creation of the digital age that produces digital communities and sub-cultures. And these crowd cultures create their own content - often so well that companies can't hope to compete. Individual persons today make videos that top the Youtube charts, kids film toy reviews that garner millions of views, and these are things that large cumbersome companies just cannot do. While this means that the impact of branded content is now called into question, counter cultures or crowd cultures have opened up a new alternative approach, cultural branding. Let's look at examples, Axe revived its brand by becoming an over-the-top cheerleader for the “lad” crowd that arose as a response to politically correct gender politics. Dove championed the other side of the divide, with campaigns that spoke to crowd culture concerns about unhealthy beauty standards for women. Even though billions are spent on creating content, only three brands are in the YouTube Top 500. McDonald’s has 204,000 YouTube subscribers whereas PewDiePie has 41 million subscribers. Even Red Bull, which is considered the biggest in branded content success stories with a $2 billion annual branded content budget, has only 4.9 million subscribers, way behind dozens of crowd culture start-ups with production budgets under $100,000. Dude Perfect, started by five Texas university athletes who make videos of trick shots and goofy athletic feats, has eight million subscribers, three million more than Red Bull. This just proves that consumers have no interest in content that brands spit out. Very few people want it in their feed, rarely consuming it. In fact, many brands are struggling to unlock the apparent value of social media. Virality, buzz, memes, stickiness, and form factor became the default language of branding, but very few of those 'award winning' campaigns have had much long term success. Brands start succeeding when they break through culture, and branding is absolutely a set of techniques that is designed to generate this cultural relevance. Crowd culture changes the rules of branding—which techniques work and which do not. Social media, however, allows the crowd to convert a niche conversation into mainstream beliefs. One example would be in the case of travel, where for generations people associated certain destinations (Florida, London, the Bahamas) as the places to vacation. Then with people sharing pictures and stories of the Maldives, Dubai, Patagonia, Seychelles, et al, the travel industry changed dramatically. Now suddenly, people were not only open but looking for alternatives to traditional destinations. Third, make an idea meaningful to as many people as possible. Historically, cultural innovation flowed from the fringes of society—from isolated groups, social movements, and artistic circles that challenged mainstream norms and conventions. Companies and the mass media acted as intermediaries, diffusing these new ideas into the mass market and hoping to gain traction. But social media has changed everything. Understanding the cultural opportunity enables you to target crowd culture, and perhaps built one of your own. By targeting novel ideologies flowing out of crowd cultures, brands can assert a point of view that stands out in the overstuffed media environment. The key is rather than trying to force a story on a captive audience, you need to build a story and product that is consistent with the desires of the social media crowd. Iconic brands are meant to be cultural innovators: They leapfrog the ideas of their categories to champion new ideologies that are meaningful and impactful to their customers. The first model, mindshare branding, is one that companies have long relied on. It treats a brand as a set of psychological associations (benefits, emotions, personality). The second model, purpose branding, has become popular in the past decade. In it, a brand espouses values or ideals its customers share. A brand can sustain its cultural relevance by playing off particularly intriguing or contentious issues that dominate the media discourse related to an ideology, and this is what makes brands incredibly meaningful to creating culture in today's crowded media landscape.

Quite often than most, conducting effective brand storytelling, is like unravelling a web, or navigating through a confusing maze, to first understand how to make your brand stand out. Questions are quite abundant, should we focus on the brand's tone of voice, the core messaging, the customer experience, or should we perfect our brand's storytelling? Sometimes more often then not, brands choose to engage the safe way, focusing on pushing to their customers how they solve some of their many problems... The fundamentals are simple, every business, brand and/or personality should be keenly aware of the power of great brand storytelling and ideally should have already begun utilizing it. But in the pressure to drive sales, most marketers tend to ignore one of the most powerful tools left in their arsenal. A compellingly, crafted brand story. So let's get started with a few of the key challenges that are present with brand storytelling... Customer Attention & Competition One rather pertinent window of opportunity has been continuously been narrowing down. Today's customer spends around 2.5 seconds on desktop and 1.7 seconds on mobile devices, consuming any piece of content or information. Is it because people are now desensitized with the plethora of information they receive on a day to day basis, or that we have just learnt to filter out 'marketing speak'? This constant need in today's media ecosystem to grow, overflow, and over compete for a customers attention is rampant, and shows no signs of slowing... You have just one shot at making a good first impression. Lack of storytelling leads to customer alienation Ignore your customer at your own peril, but understand the consequences of doing so. When storytelling or branding/positioning is not a priority, your business will eventually fail. And fail hard. Remember being desensitized? When you are focus on push marketing, and trying to shove your product/brand or service down the customer's throat, by being overly salesy, what do you expect would happen? Customer disinterest and alienation is bound to happen, even if you continue bombarding the customer with marketing messages trying to win them back. The spammy approach, just doesn't work. So what goes into poignant brand storytelling? Defining your target audience and core messaging strategy Distilling a perfect fitting brand voice and tone for your customers, is like distilling good whiskey. It takes a lot of time and effort. Identifying your target audience is a step closer to refining your strategy, on how best to connect with your consumers. But getting into the head of your customers and truly understanding what they want to hear, and how best to speak with them, is not an easy task. Luckily for us, we have a tool for just that. Personas. Having this clearly defined will then inform, shape and guide our overall strategy in crafting that one message that hits all the right notes. And this in turn allows us to engage our customers rather than alienating them, and the desired results, be it sales, engagement, conversions just starting working in tandem with your core message. Informing, educating and entertaining your consumers You have to be capable of interrupting, and capturing your consumers' attention effectively. If you really want to stand a chance in this competitive landscape, you need to drive value for your consumers, by either informing, educating or entertaining. Yet this is just an addition to the arsenal, there's a lot more that's required... Authenticity and shared values Narratives are a powerful tool to connect your brand with your customers lives. Yes you solve a problem for the customers, your product empowers and enables some good in your customers lives, but values; that makes you stick out from the rest of the noise. Brand storytelling when connected to core values and communicated through authenticity makes us more than a business. We are a collective, with a vision, empowering our customers and partners who choose to be associated with us. We are change makers, starting a movement on a cause and driving values that better us in the process. Your story shared with authenticity, can do more to sell you than any sales pitch, marketing campaign or advert. Relatability and understanding about what constitutes a genuine connection Once your consumers relate to you as a brand and become a part of that inspiring movement/conversation, a solid relationship built on loyalty and trust is established. And this is a relationship that goes beyond a transaction, beyond your products and services. Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution - more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; our story told us what to hang on to These long lasting emotions are triggered then associated with the brand, and that is an immeasurably powerful connection. It's a fundamental, yet hardest objective to achieve in brand storytelling. Building an emotional bond with our audience that circumvents the test of time and in our world, competition. The universe is made up of stories, not atoms... Today's audience is driven more so by purpose, and meaningful connections that they can establish with brands. This being said, the ecosystem is changing for the better. From statements such as "buy these products now", to "I stand for this, and if you choose to share our values, here might be something you might be interested in." Brands are having to continuously navigate the landscape from drawing customers in, achieving their expectations and understanding that a collection of customers now have the collective power to make or break a brand. It's not an easy ask, while the magic ingredients are outlined here, crafting an effective brand story is a lot difficult than it looks, which is why we urge you to give it a short, to try and unleash the power of storytelling. You can't sell anything, if you can't tell anything

Let us address the trending movement: Great Resignation. Plenty have spoken about why it has taken place. Reasons being better pay opportunities, job satisfaction, job meaning, work culture, so on and so forth. Unfortunately, we are missing the greater picture, i.e., the company that provides these jobs. I mean if you are not aware of the shoe size, you will keep changing your shoes till you find the perfect fit. Likewise if you just apply and apply (thanks to Easy Apply in LinkedIn) without knowing and understanding what your employer stands for, it will be an arduous journey. Let's be honest, hiring new employees and training them takes a huge toll on the entire company, not just the HR. Human capital management is unique to every company and hence the workforce would be unique too. If not done right, it is a huge loss borne by the company. The importance of Employer Branding As Millennials and GenZ step forward into the workforce, a change has taken place in the mindset of employers. Brands and companies are now forced to recognize the new mindsets of the youth for they bring with them creative innovations and thought processes that fits with the mind of the changing consumer scenario. For them financial perks are not enough, the present workforce looks for meaning, satisfaction and flexibility in their careers. Along with that, the global pandemic has shed light to the toxicity of the hustle culture while giving a better understanding of what work/life balance is supposed to be like. It is no longer the age of sticking to one company that just rolls out the pay on time, it is the era of switching to jobs that provide a better experience and learning opportunities. You can’t clap with one hand Employer and employee relationship is a two way street where both parties play a huge role. As an employee, one should be aware of their skills and attributes, have a life goal in mind (yes those 5 years down the line questions do matter) and be open to new avenues of growth. For employers, it is crucial to be clear about your brand personality and values, about what you bring to the table in addition to the job opportunity. In short, to be clear about your employer brand, which stems from your brand vision. A good employer brand can filter out potential candidates, reduce the training expenses and bring in higher traffic (in quantity and quality.) So how do we create an employer brand? Know Yourself, Know your Brand Each brand or company has a unique personality, visions, goals and voice. It is just a matter of introspecting and comprehending the voices that build the organization. When done, what you have is a clear picture of what your brand looks like, how it feels like, what it sounds like. We have mostly seen a brand with a customer focused lens, but it is now time to look at it with an employee focused lens. This is to get the company and the workforce acquainted with each other, to tell their stories and connect. When one knows and understands the other, communication flows easier. Be on the same page An organization means nothing without its employees. So when the brand pictures its growth, and leaves out the growth of its employees, it is a clear red flag. The whole idea of employer branding is to align the growth of the company with the growth of its employees; here lies the win-win, the sweet spot. It does not mean growth only in salaries but growth in terms of skills, valuation and culture. It is a growth as a whole which needs alignment in policies, values and environment. Constructive Criticism is a good sign! After you have built the brand and aligned it, it is time to test it. So far it has only been from the employers perspective, and remember we said it is a two way street. So now, it is crucial to understand from the employees perspective too. Maybe you think you have checked all the boxes but getting honest feedback from the main audience is crucial. It lets you know how your employees actually feel, and it is not just about taking feedback. Acting on it and improving where you lack will give confidence to your employees, gaining their trust. This in turn will create a positive image of the brand, for treating employees poorly has always had a negative backlash among the consumers. Put it on paper When it comes to branding, unique proposition value is always discussed and seen as a stand out point amongst the competitors. The same can be applied here, where brands/companies can document and put forth what they can actually offer to the current employees as well as the potential ones. We call it Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This gives a clearer understanding of what employees are expected to do and what they can expect in return. It's not always like a needle in a haystack Earlier I have mentioned that employees should be aware of their skills and attributes, but most of the time this is not the case, especially when it comes to freshers and younger employees. They are the ones who are still navigating their career choices, and still learning about their skillset (mainly soft skills). Their true capabilities are brought out by the right employers which makes employee management and training crucial to sift the chaff from the wheat. Understand what method and strategy suits the best, and figure out who fits in where and how. You will not hit bullseye in the first go, but it's a work in progress. Showing off is not bad Just like you market your brand and your products & services, it is important to show off your employees too. After all it is the employees that keep the show running, so don’t be shy about them. It adds a personality to your social media too. At the same time, encourage your employees to talk about their work experience. Be it LinkedIn or Facebook, works as a good marketing tool too. The Power of People Employer Branding has taken the world by a storm, with many now realizing the importance of it. Several times corporations have made decisions to either invest in their employees or in other avenues of business, and that has made a significant impact. It is crucial to view employees and human resources as an investment rather than an expenditure. At the end of the day, they are people , they are Resources. Worst case scenario is them being burnt and skeptical. Employers are like leaders, who are empowered by their people. With strong and good leaders employees will support them through tough and good times. For example WeWork, which recently turned profitable in the first quarter of 2022, after their major fallout in 2019.

Marketing is a term not unheard of. It is also synonymously exchanged with Branding, a concept that is slowly gaining momentum. Even though both concepts may seem similar, they are quite different and should not confuse one for the other. Both are crucial for a business and its growth, and both play on the same field, yet each have their own positions and roles to play in the game. Here's a deep dive into the fundamental differences of Branding vs Marketing... In today's market, one of the major blunders you can do is treat branding the same as marketing and make decisions based on that. You cannot paint your house if you do not lay a proper foundation for it. Treat your business like your house where branding is the basic foundation and blueprint, and marketing is the paint and furniture you add to make it more appealing. Let’s break it down further. What is Branding? Branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand. -Kotler and Keller (2015) When I say brand, you immediately think of the big names. Apple or Tesla or in my case, McDonalds, and it is just not the name, you remember the face, their colors, the style and the emotions they convey. Almost as if the brand is a living being, which makes it a successful brand in our books. Living beings are easier to connect, to love and to resonate with; probably why brand ambassadors took off really well in the early internet phases. What I mean is that branding your business gives a character and a personality, goals. It can be classy and elegant like Mercedes or ambitious and daring like Mitsubishi. Either of the brands do not stray away from their message in their products, services and conversations. People who want to be seen as ambitious opt for Mitsubishi while those who want to be seen as classy take Mercedes. It all boils down to what message you want to convey. Branding is so much more than just colors and logos. It is not just a sticker that you slap everywhere, it is a message that you want to convey to the right people. Branding is a blueprint of your plan; it is a huge umbrella covering the goals and aspirations, the face and voice, the people you want to engage with. Once again, it is the basic foundation upon which you build your business on. When you build and shape your brand, you inadvertently select the type of market you want to target and the mode of communication. What is Marketing? Marketing is the process of getting your product/services out into the market. It is a game plan you make so that the right people get to know you and convince them to make purchases. How you reach out to your target market, via online mails and promotions, or physical hoardings and event promotions is marketing. A key factor in marketing is knowing your consumers and their habits, also known as market research. It is a hands-on process with visible results. Your marketing strategy is outlined by your brand strategy where you have laid out how, why and what you wish to communicate. After you have answered these crucial broad questions, then can you chart out the small details and road map for your business. Marketing has one goal, to promote your business in the most efficient way possible and increase sales. There are various ways to market your business, print, radio and television or digital content like social media and SEO. Endless avenues and possibilities to create awareness. Branding vs Marketing: Differences Marketing brings in the audience, Branding keeps them. Marketing and Branding go hand in hand with each other. You cannot do one exceptionally well and leave the other out. Without proper marketing, even if you have created a solid brand, no one will come to appreciate it. On the other hand, if you market your business but there are no loyal or recurring customers, then you will keep spending big bucks on marketing. Strong brands need an equally strong marketing strategy to do it justice. Through marketing you can grab the attention of the audience, after which the brand can make them stay for longer. The fun and stylish marketing's purpose is to bring the audience to the door, but it is branding that must keep them entertained and satisfied for them to never leave. If branding is about knowing who your company is, marketing is knowing who your customers are. Marketing requires a detailed plan of action. You first start with identifying your target audience and studying them. Learning about the purchasing process, the mind set, where they are located and their habits will provide you with insights as to which way you should market your product. Once that is done, then you decide on the modes of communication, the distribution channels and promotion of the business. This is where you make contact with your customers and bridge the gap. Good marketing requires a strong message, a message that is powerful and aligned to the brand. You might think that when the purchase is done, the transaction is complete. Truth is that the transaction starts once the purchase is done. Feedback is an equally important aspect in marketing which eventually feeds into the market research. It is also necessary in order to make the customers regular purchases and become a part of the brand. Trust and Loyalty above all The world is changing fast with exposure from every corner of the world. Taste and preferences, habits and demography are all influenced by the evolving trends and concerns of the world. One of the main challenges businesses face today is how to adapt to all these changes and continue serving customers in the most optimal way. Irony of the situation is that brands with consistent messaging and services usually end up keeping their customer base intact and even attract new customers. Why? Because consumers trust them and can depend on them even if new competitors arrive in the market. Not that brand messaging and personality does not adapt; it is crucial to tweak a little but the core personality which is the soul of the brand remains the same. Branding does not only cater to the consumer but is also handy when it comes to hiring the best. People want to be associated with not only the best but what they connect to as well. That same theory applies when applying for jobs too, where employer branding plays a huge role. Branding before Marketing I want to re-emphasize how crucial it is to build a brand for your business, so that it sticks and moves your audience. Branding always comes before your marketing, for it sets the tone (quite literally). You always draw the skeleton first and then add the skin. In today's commercial world, one cannot live without the other and to invest in both is the wise choice. Build the story and then let the world know.

In colour psychology, grey represents neutrality and balance. It is symbolic of a wide range of characteristics associated with humans. By now, you’ve probably read most of them, if not all that’s out there. I’m referring to the countless “How To” articles on branding- how to create a strong visual identity, how to market your brand, how to entice your customer, how to milk the cow… figuratively, of course. Not in the same bucket. Yeah I know. Despite all these little DIY blog posts, there’s so much left in the greys of branding. And we’re not counting shades. Let’s take a step back for a bit. I’m talking Big Picture here. You wake up on a fine Sunday morning and decide that, since you’re feeling great, that you’re going to treat yourself to the best coffee you can get your hands on, snuggle into a corner armchair, with the latest edition of Stuff or GQ or Cosmopolitan- whatever floats your boat. If Starbucks pops up in your mind, you immediately push it away (no judgements), telling yourself ‘think premium!’. And then it hits you: today feels like a Tim Horton’s kinda day. And you smile. Why? Because in that flash of a second, your mind decided that’s exactly what you want; all the necessary boxes were checked for the decision-making process. ‘It's a no-brainer’, you tell yourself. So what were those boxes? Was it the flavour of their brew? Their particular shade of red? The ambience of their outlets? Or was it the barista with the trademark smile? Probably all of this. Far more actually. You see, effective branding talks to the subconscious. It’s far more than just colours and words strung together. It’s the overall personality that appeals to the senses- something that is far more complex than just the superficial sum of things staring at you through any of the brand’s touch points. This isn’t a 2 plus 2 equals four-type situation. Let’s go deeper… People-first So while the quality of the product does matter, more often than not, it also depends on the people behind the experience. A surly cashier, a snooty receptionist, an impatient customer service agent, one of these experiences are enough to put a dent in the image of your brand in the mind of your customer, and if it’s a repeated thing, then you can be sure your customer is going elsewhere. As a brand owner, you have to be mindful that those representing your brand showcase the same form of enthusiasm, sincerity and personality that your brand pillars are. Which brings me to the next point. Consistent & Humble When you’re consistently offering a quality product and a quality experience, your audience gets accustomed to it. It always makes it easier for them to stay in your loyal corner, because they know time in time out, you’ll deliver to their expectations. And that’s all they’re expecting. And we do know a thing or two about expectations being met. Then there’s humility; the ability to acknowledge where you missed something or dropped the ball. How you handle complaints goes a long way and says a lot about you as a person and/or as a brand. Now add some humility to the mix and what do you get? A brand personality that’s more human-like. Technology is advancing leaps and bounds no doubt, but it can never replicate a human experience, and not by lack or standard of intelligence (pun intended), but simply because, as a consumer, you subconsciously know you’re dealing with a machine that can manage your requirements well, but anything that’s off the typical path, and suddenly you’re stuck. Only a human can (so far!) apply themselves to getting done whatever it is that needs getting done. This subconscious awareness of a man-to-machine experience is what influences us differently; it makes things less personal, and as humans, we need that personal connection. We crave it in both our personal and professional lives. Because frankly, you can’t have a ‘connection’ with a machine, unless of course it’s an M4 or AMG C63s. Or a Jensen Interceptor. That’s a different ball game altogether. Now, having a strong brand personality that’s conscious of its actions is one thing, but is it enough? What about tomorrow? Sustainable Ecologically inclined brands have a far greater engagement with their audiences, because of what they stand for and what they do for the greater good on a regular basis, even though there’s still so much more that can be done. It’s about taking responsibility to set things right, and drive change where it’s needed the most. Sustainability is gaining more traction because more brands are realising today that we have to hold ourselves accountable to the next generation, whether it's in the space of social, human, economic or environmental factors, these being the four main pillars. From ethical sourcing of materials to waste-conscious packaging, you need to have a forward-thinking approach, because consumers today have a different level of respect for brands that actually care. As they say, love and respect go hand in hand. Inspirational You should probably be able to see a defining characteristic by now: emotions. It plays a huge role in how we react to things and/or situations. Renovating your home, taking a family trip, surfing in the Bahamas- all have strong emotional value, which, when you think of it from a different perspective, can be the result of something equally profound: inspiration by something or someone else. Influencers were originally purported to do just this, to inspire people to attain a certain lifestyle or to indulge in a certain brand, though in recent years, that strategy has been questioned a fair bit. Rosa Parks graced us with quite the inspiration herself through a single act of steadfastness over a bus seat, irrespective of consequences. That singular act went on to inspire a whole movement and a whole generation, making history along the way. It doesn’t have to be complicated or overly expensive - just go with your heart, be genuine, stand for a cause, and people will follow. A System of Values All these characteristics are what is summed up as your value system, and it applies to both corporations and humans alike. It's a system that keeps you grounded; values like loyalty, humility, compassion, honesty, kindness, integrity, and selflessness all serve as guidance systems for us. Of course, a business is about making money, and lots of it, but it can be done ethically too, and your audience knows and expects this, because only then do they really want to engage with you in the long run. The Greys of Branding... So there you have it. The grey areas of branding that aren’t so obvious yet make all the difference between a man or a machine handing you your change at the service counter with a smile. As humans aiming for superiority in the different spheres of life, we will always push the boundaries; we will always look to evolve. But that human emotional factor is something that needs to change by way of conscious action; getting rid of old biases, outdated norms, and ancient standards that will only cause a weakening of brand loyalty. Change is essential to really grow, to connect and to add value to your purveyors. Change is the only constant. So what are you changing today?