How to Start a Career in Social Media - Idea Digital

26th April 2023

How to Start a Career in Social Media

Starting a career in social media can seem very daunting. Over the course of the last five years, there has been a huge increase in people applying for social media and content creation related roles. This may make newcomers feel like it is harder than ever to get their foot in the door. We are here to give you some tips and best practices to help you during the beginning of our journey into social media management. 

Throughout this blog post, I will share my best practices when looking to start a career in social media and content creation. The one thing I’d like to state before starting, is, to ….

Online Courses

There are many college/university courses on the market that would set you up well for entering a career in social media management. If you are not in the position to start university or if you wish not to go to university, there are many options online that you can undertake, such as the Digital Marketing Institute

However, I have listed below some other recommendations if an accredited course isn’t a good fit for you.

Never Stop Learning

One thing to remember when looking to start any career in marketing, is that you should never stop learning! You may have the qualification from college, university or an online educator but that doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed a job straight out of graduating. Once you have completed your main qualification, it is a great time to continue learning. There are so many online courses which I will list down below that are free and can add to your CV to show that you continued to educate yourself and continued to learn, continuing to upskill more even after you had received your initial degree.

  1. Google Analytics Academy 
  2. Hubspot Academy
  3. Semrush Academy

These added certificates and licenses will add to your resume and will show the ambition that you have, the self guidance that you have and the determination and willingness you have to learn more.

Get Creative

One of the biggest tips I can give is to get creative, to not do what everyone else is doing. The great thing about marketing is that it’s very creative and although you don’t have to be the most creative person to succeed with a career in marketing. It is the perfect industry to be able to express yourself in different ways and below I will explain one of the best ways that you can get creative to create your own experience and stand out from everyone else when trying to land your first job and start your social media management career!

Self Made Experience

This is the best piece of advice that I could give you, is self-made experience. Let me explain this in a bit more detail! Self-made experience is taking your own initiative to create experience that can add to your CV to show a potential future employer the hard work that you put in and the passion, initiative and willingness you have to learn.

One of the best ways to do this is to start producing content on a Social Media Platform of your choice. In my opinion, the current best platforms to do this on are LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok.

Speaking simply from my own experience, during my last semester of college, I decided it would be a great time to begin working on a piece of self-made experience that would help me when going for my first post-graduate job. I set up an Instagram account that shared fashion advice and college experience, which tapped into an audience that related to where I was at in life, building a community of loyal followers. To a potential employer, this helped show my experience in growing an audience online, growing a presence and maintaining a level or trust with the audience. All skills that are very valuable in your marketing career.

It also shows a future employer that you have taken the time to manage a community outside of working/studying and have shown that ambition that a lot of employers will appreciate and will help you stand out amongst others. I think that is one of the beautiful things about starting a career in social media management compared to other Industries, you get the ability to create your own experience and have it on your CV to show that you are trying and showing your experience through the services that you offer your clients and whether that be sharing social media tips on LinkedIn or whether it’s fashion content on Instagram, building a following, building a community, will definitely stand with you when you go apply for a job in social media/marketing.

These are all the best practices and tips that I would give to anyone who is looking to start their career in social media or in marketing in general. Always make sure to not put too much pressure on yourself, to have fun, enjoy the journey and I’m sure you will find the perfect role for you!

Follow us on social media to stay up to date with the latest social media trends.
Also read our blogs for latest news, opinion and tips for branding and digital marketing strategies that help you grow your business.

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Building a Strong Brand Identity

27th March 2023

Building a Strong Brand Identity

What is Brand Identity?  

Your company’s brand identity is built up with a number of things, it’s what your brand says, it’s values, it’s how you communicate to your audience, it’s the feeling people get when they view your product or service. All in all it’s the personality of your company, and it’s the promise you make to your customers. 

The original term “Brand” comes from the mark that cattle ranchers would make to brand their ownership on their cattle. Nowadays the idea of the word “Brand” has evolved into much more than just a symbol or a name. 

A brand is a set of features that separates your company from other companies and/or its competitors. It helps communicate to your audience what it is that you do, and how you do it differently or better. Often a brand is comprised of a name, tagline, logo or symbol, visual design language and a brand voice.  

As Wayfair Senior Brand Manager Jared Rosen puts it, “Brand identity is more than just finding the right logo to place on coffee cup sleeves or mount above your front door. It’s about crafting a personality that amplifies the core elements to your brand’s DNA. Today, the most magnetic brand identities scale across digital platforms, IRL experiences, and even naturally converse with real customers.” 

In conclusion, your product or service will leave your customers with an impression. Your brand identity is the process of shaping that impression.  

Brand Identity Examples 

 Coca-Cola 

Audience 

With Coca Cola having so many different products and types of their drink I feel that their audience is everyone. They have a product that suits anyone and not like any other brand they communicate with the viewers with emotion and create a stronger bond. 

Brand Identity 

Coca Colas brand is based on its name, logo, colour and shape. All of these aspects make up its identity. It is an important factor influencing Coca Cola sales. The brand has is known all around the world as they have built their image on a universal value, happiness. The brand is perceived by customers as a part of daily life and of their life style. Coke is this globalized product that has the same taste customers are looking for and which give the same pleasure of refreshment during break together. 

Nike 

Audience 

According to the company’s business overview, Nike brands each have distinct target audiences. The main Nike brand is most targeted towards athletes, selling related products such as shoes, sporting equipment and clothes. The Converse, Inc. Brand markets more casual goods and is described as targeting premium customers. The Jordan Brand is also a premium brand, but it is targeted more broadly at athletes. 

Brand Identity 

Nikes target audience is mainly aimed at athletes and exercise. Nikes’ identity is made up with a few different aspects such as its name, logo, slogan, colour and shape. The brand is well known around the world to be associated with anything regarding athletes, sports or fitness related. Nike is perceived by its customers to be a way of life, to train hard and never give up. Its slogan “Just do it” has no need for its iconic swoosh logo anymore and is aimed at the not so fit audience urging them to get up and get exercising.  

IBM 

Brand Identity 

IBM has one of the world’s most recognizable logos. Maintaining its integrity is an essential part of protecting the brand. The 8-bar blue logo is more than a signature to our ads or a name on our products and services. To customers, it is a promise that represents trust, value, quality and advanced technology. In a world of confusing, competitive ads and product claims, the IBM logo is uniquely reassuring, conveying authenticity, reliability and quality. The IBM logo is present on every form of IBM communication. 

How to create a Brand Identity 

Find your target audience 

Behind every successful brand is a well thought out brand strategy. Part of that strategy begins with finding your target audience, these are the type of people who will be more attracted to the product or service you are supplying. Once you have determined who that audience is you can then tailor your mission and messaging to meet their exact needs.  

The key focus here is to get specific, figure out the behaviors and lifestyle of a precise audience. For example if were to target “All Moms” this would be too broad. But if you niche your choice down to “Single Moms who work full-time” this gives you a much clearer scope to create your content.  

Research competitors in your Industry  

When researching your competitors be careful not to imitate what it is exactly they are doing. You should only be aware of their brand strategies, and use this knowledge to differentiate from them. The end goal is to stand out from your competitors and convince your audience to purchase from you over them.   

Looking at your competitors or leading brands, study how well they have thought out their brand strategies. Have they missed anything? Are they sending the right message? See how you might do things differently or even better. A successful needs to be clear, recognizable and easy to remember.  

Establish your brand mission and vision  

Crafting a clear expression of what your company is passionate about is extremely important. This is your companies reason why, its everything we have talked about previously until now. But by having those steps completed previously, makes this step easier to achieve.  

Your brand vision can be an aspirational statement that your company hopes to achieve one day. What you hope your company will bring to the table, and how it can benefit/change your target audience.  

Your brands mission is what’s happening now, the building blocks you are placing to achieve your brands vision. Everything from your logo, tagline, voice, messaging should reflect what mission and vision are all about.

If you are looking for the best marketing agency in Dublin, Ireland, visit us today. To know more about our works, click here

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What’s New in Social Media so far in 2023

31st January 2023

What’s New in Social Media so far in 2023?

Social media is always evolving and it can be hard to keep on top of all the changes! We are here to bring you the most up-to-date social media updates throughout the year, starting with all the updates that have occurred throughout the first month of 2023, how many did you know?

LinkedIn Carousel

An update majority of LinkedIn users have been waiting a long time for! LinkedIn is slowly rolling out its new ‘ Create a carousel’ feature. Gone are the days of creating pdf files to load to LinkedIn to appear as ‘slides’! LinkedIn is sticking to their promise of making the platform easier for users to both use and thrive on.

LinkedIn Carousel - social media trends 2023

Instagram Scheduling

Instagram is currently trialing its new in-app scheduling feature. Users who have a Creator or Business account can now schedule their Reels, Carousels and Posts up to 75 days in advance, although this update is still in its initial stages, it is being welcomed by a lot of avid Instagram users.

Instagram Photos making a comeback?

According to the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, Instagram will be putting the focus back on photos after admitting they focused too much on video content over the last few years. This is a very welcomed change for many content creators around the world!

Instagram Modes

Instagram have announced new ‘modes’ including Quiet Mode, Hidden Words for Recommendations and Not Interested Multi Select.
Quiet Mode will allow you to select days and times where you don’t want to receive any notifications from Instagram. Allowing you to choose the days and times you will be more active on the platform.
Hidden Words for Recommendations – Hidden words currently exist in DM’s and comments but the feature is now being expanded to Recommendations.
Not Interested Multi Select – In the past, ‘Not Interested’ was a feature on the explore page by pressing down on an image that you were not interested in and selecting ‘ Not Interested’ to allow instagram to know not to show content like this to you in the future. The new feature is an update to this, where it now allows you to multi select many images on your explore page that you feel don’t align with you.

Instagram Modes - social media trends 2023

TikTok Audience Insights

TikTok has now launched a new Audience Insights feature in their Ads Manager, to allow you to deep dive into specific demographic details about your audience.

Twitter Swipeable Feed

Twitter is now rolling out a swipeable feed, giving you the option to look at a “For You” feed, or a “Following” feed. Very similar to TikToks famous For You feed!

Twitter Swipeable Feed - social media trends 2023

Twitter Updates Search

Twitter is looking into updating its search feature to now allow spelling mistakes. In the past, the Twitter search field would come up empty if you made a spelling mistake in your search. To search for something or someone on Twitter, you needed to make sure your text was 100% correct. Thankfully, they are updating their system to allow for any slight spelling mistakes, allowing you to still receive the results on your search!

That’s all the social updates for January 2023, but we are sure that there will be many more to come as 2023 unfolds! If you are struggling with your social media or would like to find out more about our social media services, click here to find out more.

Follow us on social media to stay up to date with the latest social media trends.
Also read our blogs for latest news, opinion and tips for branding and digital marketing strategies that help you grow your business.

Digital Marketing v’s Traditional Marketing

16th November 2022

Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing

Let’s start off with an explanation of what digital and traditional marketing are:

Digital Marketing – digital marketing is any marketing that is conducted digitally/online. For example, social media ads, ppc advertising and email marketing, digital marketing is arguably the most valuable type of marketing and is widely used by the majority of companies today.

Traditional Marketing – traditional marketing is any type of marketing that isn’t online such as billboard ads, television ads, newspaper and radio ads. This type of marketing is known for being the best to reach a local audience.

Deciding which marketing technique to use is largely down to the business themselves and the audience they are trying to reach. When trying to decide on which best suits your business, it is common to choose elements of both to help reach your target audience. For instance, a business may find that their audience is very active on Facebook and YouTube and can best be targeted through those platforms but are also avid radio listeners and will find it beneficial to also reach their audience through radio, taking elements from both forms of marketing can ensure you reach your audience holistically.

When people think of traditional marketing, they tend to think of it only being used for the older generations, for people that are yet to utilise social media and other online platforms, but traditional marketing is still a very important tool for businesses to take advantage of, especially if your goal is to reach a very local audience. Ads can have a longer lifespan when conducted traditionally rather than digitally and the audience can be much easier to reach, for instance from billboards than an ad seen from scrolling social media.

Digital marketing is seen as the most popular form of marketing in recent years, due to the increase in online users and usage. As the world is becoming more digital it is inevitable that digital marketing will become a choice for many businesses as it can be a much more cost effective method of marketing than traditional, not to mention the benefits of being able to report and see exact returns on your investment along with the exact audience that is seeing and engaging with your ad, all very valuable information for a business to have.

Which leads to one of the biggest disadvantages of traditional marketing is the lack of reporting and visible correlation between the return on your investments and the increase in revenue/new clients, whatever your key metrics and goals are. Another big drawback for traditional marketing is the lack of interaction with your consumers. There are very few ways a business can hear the thoughts of its consumers on its marketing efforts and their impact on the intended audience. This is where digital marketing excels! Digital marketing allows businesses to see their target audience’s thoughts and perceptions of their marketing efforts along with being able to interact and create a relationship with potential customers and their larger target audience.

Another advantage of digital marketing is your ability to edit and change ads after they have gone live, contrary to traditional marketing where, once you click print or sign off on your ads, they are out there for your audience to see, no edits can be made without going through the whole process of printing/recording the ads again. With digital marketing, you can easily go in and edit your ads, whenever you like.

It can also be argued that one of digital marketings drawbacks is the fact that it relies on technology and if technology acts up or shuts down for a period of time, your ad isn’t reaching your audience at all, that is why a lot of businesses will take advantage of elements of both traditional and digital marketing at once.

A lot of businesses may switch to digital marketing, not only for its cost-effectiveness and reporting benefits but is also a great way to market if you are looking to market to a more global audience compared to traditional marketing’s benefits of a local audience.

Overall, it will completely depend on your business, your target audience, your budget and your goals. They can work hand in hand or separately depending on the audience you’re trying to reach and the objectives your business sets out with.

Check out our Branding and Digital marketing Services:

 

Choosing the Right Social Media Channels for Your Business

15th September 2022

Choosing the Right Social Media Channels for Your Business

Choosing the right social media platforms for your business can be difficult, it can be hard to know where to start or what you should be looking for to make sure you choose the right ones. 

To help, we’ve compiled some tips to make the decision a little clearer for you. Here’s some things you need to take into account:

1. Your Audience

Knowing who your audience is, is probably the most important thing to take into account when you are choosing which social media platforms to set your business up on. One of the main reasons businesses create social media accounts is to put themselves in front of their ideal audience, so knowing what social media platforms your audience uses is key to succeeding on social media.  For example, if you are a B2B company, the majority of your target audience may use LinkedIn as their primary social media channel, so that may be the best fit for your business.

2. Your Goals

What are your social media goals? This is something you must focus on setting out before you establish which social media platform you will use. Depending on your social media goals, it may make it clearer which social media channels will benefit your business, for instance, some social media platforms are built for brand awareness while others are built to drive conversions. Understanding your social media goals and what it is you want to use social media for, will help you decide on which social media channel will help you yield the right results.

3. Research Competition

Research all of your top competitors. What social channels have they chosen, what type of content are they posting, which of their content performs best with their audience, and which social platform are they seeing the best progress on? These are all questions you must answer when looking into your competitors,  to help identify the right platform for your business.

 

4. The content you want to create

Examine the type of content you want to create. Different content works better on different social channels, for instance, if video is something you want to focus on, you may find YouTube and TikTok the best platforms to use.  Each social media platform has a particular type of content that it is known for or that performs best. Take a look at what content you have and what content you have planned to use/create in the future, using this information you will be able to determine the best social media channel for your business. 

Once you have completed the points above, it is now time to compile the information together to help you make an informed decision as to what platform aligns to your goals, has the highest presence of your target audience and fits with the content you want to create.

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glenn carstens peters npxXWgQ33ZQ unsplash scaled 1

21st October 2021

We’re Hiring: Digital Marketing Project Manager

Dynamic Dublin Design and Marketing Agency seeking a full-time Digital Project Manager to join our vibrant team to deliver high quality projects to clients. 

Digital Project Manager 

We are looking for a Digital Project Manager to join our team. You will be responsible for the day-to-day management and smooth operation of various digital projects, including websites, social and advertising campaigns, and creating and executing digital marketing strategies. 

For this position, we expect you to be a tech-savvy professional with a good understanding of all areas of digital marketing and how it can be strategically harnessed to help our clients achieve their business goals.  

Main Responsibilities 

  • Managing digital projects for a range of clients including website project management, digital marketing campaign management and planning & implementing digital marketing strategies. 
  • Ensuring that projects are delivered on brief, on time and within budget. 
  • Developing briefs, liaising with account managers, clients, third party suppliers, managing budgets, timelines and resources. 
  • Developing project plans and managing the day-to-day development and coordination with cross-functional internal teams, external teams, and suppliers. 
  • Working as part of the Digital Team, and collaborating with colleagues on the Account Management and Design Teams, developers and external partners. 
  • Assistance with proposal writing, SOW documents and project planning. 
  • Occasional management of non-digital projects as part of an overall campaign. 
  • Providing creative and strategic input to campaigns. 

  

Requirements 

  • Must be comfortable working in a fast paced environment with strong teamwork and interpersonal skills. 
  • Experience as a Digital Marketing Professional (2 year +), creating and delivering digital strategies. 
  • Familiarity with Content Management systems such as WordPress, understanding of SEO, digital advertising and Google Ads, Tag Manager, & Analytics, etc.. 
  • Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, managing multiple deadlines and schedules, ensuring all deliverables are met on time with accuracy and quality. 
  • Strong communication skills with excellent presentation, report writing and data analysis capabilities. 
  • Qualification in Digital Marketing preferred. 
  • Excellent written, verbal, & communication skills. 

 

Does this sound like the role for you? We would love to hear from you! Please email your CV to ciaranfox@idea.ie.

Do you want New Leads or do you want a New Website?

28th May 2020

Do you want New Leads or do you want a New Website?


Since the COVID-19 lockdown was implemented, we have noticed an increase in digital projects at Idea. Many of our clients are using this time to pay more attention to their digital marketing.

The vast majority of companies have a website and are using some digital marketing tactics, but many aren’t sure what to change, what to do next or where to even start. Sometimes it’s thought the best approach is a new website, but what about everything else? How do you get people to your website, or more importantly, what do you want them to do when they get there?

For many companies, the investment in a website represents a large share of their budget, not to mention the time and effort that goes into a new website (trust me, we know!). 

For most companies, digital marketing activities should be generating revenue and profit for your business. Sales start with leads.

At Idea, we can help you look at your current digital marketing activities and see how you can optimise them to deliver more leads.

These could include:

  • Targeted Google Ads campaigns delivering the right traffic to your website
  • Developing a Lead Generation campaign using landing pages and online advertising
  • Improving and increasing your activity on the right social media channels
  • SEO activity to improve your website’s performance

So where to start? Have a look at your digital presence and ask yourself: where are we at and what do we want to achieve? We can help you with this, from performing a Free Website Audit, to giving advice on what digital marketing activities you should be considering. We can even develop a Digital Marketing Plan for you.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that there are some government grants to help businesses, like yours, improve your digital marketing performance.

So, how can you generate more revenue by increasing leads from your digital marketing? Drop me an email at ciaranfox@idea.ie to see if I can help you answer that question.

website860x557

16th July 2018

Depend on Digital: Adding Value To Your Property Development

Having a strong digital presence is an essential element of property marketing. This medium can be hugely effective by strengthening visual effects and reaching and capturing a wider audience. So what steps can be taken to increase sales and encourage interest in your development?

Website

Having a visually appealing and functional website is a crucial element of your campaign. By developing a an engaging website, you can showcase both the property and its surrounding area with impressive images and videos.

Engaging, informative content through your website on the property and its location will increase brand recognition and boost sales enquiries. Well-researched copywriting throughout the website (e.g blogs which capture themes such as local amenities, interior design options) will help potential buyers visualise living at the property.

Technical content such as interactive floorplans, sitemaps and building specs can also be included on the website to further interest and engagement with prospective buyers.

Social Media

The growth of social media over the last 5-10 years has been astonishing to say to the least. Our mobile phones capture the majority of our attention – so it’s important to have a strong social media presence to capture the attention of potential property buyers. Without a social strategy you missing out on a cost effective platform to reach your target audiences.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are very useful for interacting and engaging with your target market. These platforms can showcase the property and location with striking images and video, while also providing valuable and engaging content through posts and captions.

Using paid advertisements, as well as organic content, can be effective for targeting potential customers based on demographic, location and online behaviours.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how you can organically optimise your website to appear higher up in search rankings. By having an effective SEO strategy, you can direct prospective buyers who are searching for property towards your website.  A large majority of your potential customers are researching their future homes online- don’t miss out on targeting them. You can reach users organically by employing both onsite and offsite SEO.

Onsite SEO includes copywriting website content which strategically targets relevant keywords. There are also several technical onsite SEO techniques we can use, including meta tag optimisation and site speed analysis.

Offsite SEO includes running an ongoing campaign on creating backlinks on domains which have high authority ratings, and making optimisations to any Google Map listings that are relevant.

Find out more about SEO here.

AdWords

Google AdWords (soon to renamed Google Ads) is a very effective way of increasing your online presence, through both Search & Display.

Search:

Search advertising can help ensure your website is at the top of the search rankings for relevant identified keywords. An example of some keywords could be: “Mortgage calculator, places to live in Dublin, Greystones new homes etc.”. Ads can be targeted to audiences who Google have identified as searching for property based on their web browsing activity as well as a full range of demographic information.

Display:

As property is often sold on a visual basis, display advertising is hugely important to:

  1. Make users aware of your new property development if they are not searching
  2. Keep the development in the user’s attention if they have already visited your website before, by placing visually appealing ads on other websites that they visit.

You can target certain demographics, keywords on websites or individual placements based on website categories, while there are also placements available outside these networks, such as Daft and MyHome.

 

A strategic digital marketing campaign can have a huge impact on property sales and brand recognition – don’t miss out on these essential sales tools.

Need help with your digital marketing strategy? Why not benefit from our experience? Get in touch – info@idea.ie

 

Andrew Browne, Account Manager

 

20th June 2018

If it Ain’t Broke – Why Run with a Rebrand?

 

For many the risk of renaming and rebranding something that is much loved and highly successful can be too great – but for others the danger of becoming ignored and no longer relevant is even greater. So what companies are choosing to give themselves a refresh to stay ahead of the game?

Grass Roots Ambassadorship

Circle K, formerly known as Topaz have begun rebranding the 420-strong network of forecourts around the country. This rebrand is part of a global rollout and is expected to take 18 months to complete with an estimated total cost of €55m (with €35m being invested in the development of four new sites)

Niall Anderton, managing director of Circle K in Ireland, said the Irish rebrand was the final leg of a Europe-wide rebrand by the Canadian group, which also owns the former Statoil network on the continent.

Grass Roots Ambassadorship

The company’s investments to date go beyond the rebrand and new sites – with money also being spent on new pumps, new coffee machines and new premium products. “We have to stay investing in the market so our consumers get the best offers,” said Mr Anderton. Circle K is currently running a television and outdoor marketing campaign this summer to highlight the new brand and the change from Topaz to Circle K.

The current marketing and advertising shows the value of engaging employees with the rebrand by making them brand ambassadors. Ultimately, no marketing strategy or advertising campaign will ever communicate the brand as favourably, or as sincerely, as engaged employees, amplified by social media. Understanding your employees and empowering them with marketing savvy and social media freedom can incentivise ambassadorship and sincere messaging. Your workforce can double-up as brand evangelists, inadvertently communicating the awesomeness of your company to the world!

 

Here are some successful rebrands you may remember happening within your lifetime.

Marathon to Snickers

In 1930 Mars introduced Snickers, a chocolate bar consisting of nougat, peanuts and caramel coated with chocolate and named after the favourite horse of the Mars family. The bar was marketed under the name “Marathon” in the UK and Ireland until July 19, 1990, when Mars decided to align the UK product with the global Snickers name.

Marathon to Snickers

BackRub to Google

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University in California, developed a search algorithm – originally known as “BackRub” in 1996. The Google company was launched in 1998 by Page and Brin to market Google Search, which would later become the most widely used web-based search engine in the world.

BackRub to Google

Opal Fruits to Starburst

Opal Fruits were introduced by Mars in the UK in 1960 and introduced in the US in 1976 as Starburst. In 1988 the UK name was changed to match the US brand in order to keep a constant brand name.

Opal Fruits to Starburst

Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike

On January 25, 1964, Blue Ribbon Sports was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. On May 30, 1971 Blue Ribbon Sports officially became Nike with its iconic “swoosh” logo to represent the sound of speed.

Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike

 

Your brand is vital to your company’s potential, and must be instantly identifiable for the successful future of your business, it’s important to get it just right!

Have questions about your company’s brand? Why not pop in and chat to Idea?  

Stephen Gibson, Creative Director

Idea Digital - Leading Marketing Agency in Dublin Ireland

24th May 2018

Our Rebrand Journey

After 22 years of breathing life into brands for our clients it was Idea’s turn for some love. We felt our mission, brand statement and values were no longer reflective of who we were. So we assessed the risk of rebranding, conducted a client survey, and then asked ourselves some tough, but thought provoking questions. Who are we, and what is it that we love to do?

The results of our client research gave us great reassurance about to our decision to rebrand. What also emerged from this process was that it was time for Idea & Idea Digital to merge under one overall Idea umbrella to create a fully integrated agency with a strong team of creative consultants.

Keeping the name Idea was probably the easiest decision in our rebranding process. It was too good to change. Initially it stood for Image, Design, E-Commerce and Advertising. All which remain relevant to the business today, but we work with ideas…creating them, growing them and making them happen, so it was a no brainer to keep the name, it stood the test of time since Ciaran Flanagan named the company 22 years ago! The client feedback confirmed that this was the right thing to do!

We divided our talented team into two and conducted an internal competition to develop a new brand and overall brand strategy for the business and we were delighted with the end result! We refreshed our colour palette (hello raspberry red!), modernised our logo and more importantly updated our brand values to reflect who we are now. We are thrilled with our new look, energy and feeling. But rest assured, we are still the same Idea that thrives on using branding, marketing and digital to craft strategic and design success stories.

Our new brand reflects the core philosophy of our business; collaboration. We believe great work comes from working collaboratively with great clients and fellow creative partners.

Our Rebrand Journey

There were several challenges we faced along the way:

  1. Time: Making time to treat ourselves as a client. Our client work always came first, which resulted in our rebrand taking a lot longer than we’d have liked (despite us having all the skills in-house!)
  2. Colour: After some initial testing it became clear that the neon colour we initially chose was going to be a nightmare to work with and reproduce consistently, so we had to change it! It is important to examine fully how a colour will work across all channels, digital, print, paint etc before going with it!
  3. Budget: it would be lovely to change everything at once, but that is just not practical, so we focussed initially on the client facing touchpoints…our website, signage, meeting room, furniture and redecorating key areas of the office (pop in and see our new look!)

Key learnings  

Don’t try to do it all at once, we had to phase our work with the rebrand for both time and budgetary reasons. Once the initial audit was done we knew the scale of the work involved and we had to break it down into phases…we are delighted to have our new logo/ website /documentation and initial office refresh done…but there is plenty more to come in the phases to follow!

Tips

Do some research with your clients, you might think you know what they want/think but let them tell you…this allows for concrete foundations for change/keeping some elements of your brand/values/name/colour palette/tagline/messaging.

Our advice for anyone rebranding

  1. Decide why you are rebranding in the first place.
  2. Understand the scale and scope of the task
  3. Set realistic expectations and measure performance
  4. Find out what people’s views of the current brand are before you change anything
  5. Involve your people in shaping a new brand for the future
  6. Use the opportunity to sharpen up your act across the whole business

 

Give us a shout if you’re thinking of rebranding or if you’ve a development you’d like to develop a brand for…having just gone through the process ourselves we know what it’s like to be in your shoes! info@idea.ie.
Check out some of the works done by Idea Digital

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