How to Use Brand Assets Across Different Platforms
It’s a jungle out there. No really, it is! In today’s highly competitive market, creating a recognisable and consistent brand identity is crucial for standing out, but the competition is stiff. Your brand assets are the tools that ensure your audience immediately recognises and connects with your brand, so they’re not something you should take lightly.
But how do you effectively use these assets across various platforms? In this guide we’ll break down the essentials and show you how to maximise the impact of your brand assets.
Keep reading and don’t forget to download your FREE worksheet at the end!
What Are Brand Assets?
Brand assets are the visual, verbal, and strategic elements that represent your brand. They create a cohesive identity that customers associate with your business. Here are the key components:
Logo: The cornerstone of your brand, representing your business in a single, memorable mark.
Colour Palette: A set of colours that evoke specific emotions and reinforce your brand identity.
Typography: Fonts or typefaces that convey the personality of your brand.
Imagery: Photos, illustrations, and graphics that complement your message.
Tone of Voice: The style of communication your brand uses across platforms.
For example, think about Coca-Cola. Its vibrant red color, Spencerian script logo, and uplifting tone create an instantly recognisable identity that’s consistent across all touchpoints, from vending machines to social media posts.
Adapting Your Brand Assets for Print and Digital
Your brand assets need to shine in both print and digital mediums, but the approach to each differs due to technical and contextual considerations. It can get faffy when you start to question RGB or CMYK, but let us try to break it down into an easy to understand summary:
Print Applications
Resolution and Colour Modes: Print requires high-resolution files, which means 300 DPI (or “dots per inch” since this is physical media) and CMYK colour mode for accurate colour reproduction. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black), which are the four ink colours used in colour printing. It's important because this colour model accurately reproduces colours on physical materials by layering these inks, ensuring printed designs closely match the intended appearance. Ensure your logo and imagery are optimised accordingly.
Material Considerations: Printed materials, such as business cards or packaging, allow for textures and finishes (like embossing or matte coating) to enhance your brand assets.
Example: Apple’s print advertising often features minimalistic designs that emphasise clean lines and high-quality imagery. This is how they showcase their sleek and modern brand ethos.
Digital Applications
Responsive Design: Logos and imagery must adapt to various screen sizes. For instance, you might need a simplified version of your logo for small devices like mobile phones.
RGB and Accessibility: Digital assets use RGB colour mode and must consider accessibility guidelines. RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue, which are the primary colours of light used in digital screens like monitors, TVs, and smartphones. This model creates a wide spectrum of colours by combining these three colours at varying intensities, making it essential for digital design to ensure colours appear vibrant and accurate on screens. Use high contrast for text and avoid overly intricate details in small visuals.
Example: Nike’s digital campaigns maintain brand consistency with bold typography, dynamic imagery, and a clear call to action, whether viewed on a desktop or smartphone.
Ensuring Consistency Across Platforms
Consistency builds trust. It’s another one of those subliminal—almost magical—things that good branding and strategy can do. If your brand looks different on social media than it does in an email newsletter, it can confuse your audience, and you really don’t want that. Here’s how to maintain uniformity:
Create a Brand Asset Guide
A comprehensive brand guide is your blueprint for consistency. It’s something you can refer back to and also share with others who have access to your brand assets (for example, social media teams). It should include:
Clear rules for logo usage, including minimum size and safe space requirements.
Guidelines for color codes in HEX, RGB, and CMYK formats.
Typography rules, such as acceptable fonts and their pairings.
Templates for common applications, like social media posts or presentations.
Example: Airbnb’s brand guidelines detail everything from logo placement to photography style, ensuring a consistent look and feel globally.
Use Design Tools and Platforms
Collaboration Tools: Platforms like Canva or Adobe Creative Cloud libraries allow teams to access and apply brand assets easily. These are amazing platforms for teams working on the same projects, because all assets and copy is centralised in an account that multiple people can have access to and edit.
Automation Tools: Social media scheduling tools, like Hootsuite, Later, and Tailwind can help you ensure posts align with your brand’s visual identity. One of the best things that we love about scheduling tools is the ability to get a “bigger picture” of your social media before it’s even live. It gives you the opportunity to tweak and amend as needed to make sure that when your posts go up they go up with flare.
Examples of Effective Brand Asset Usage
Starbucks
Starbucks demonstrates exceptional consistency in its use of brand assets. It has its signature green logo, and those seasonal red cups—every element is unmistakably Starbucks. You could be in a physical store, or just scrolling through their Instagram feed, and you know exactly where you are. The experience feels cohesive and aligned with their brand promise of quality and community.
Spotify
Quick shout-out for Spotify. We couldn’t live without it at Cosy Fox. Ahem, anyway, Spotify’s use of vibrant colours and playful genre-inspired imagery sets it apart in the competitive music streaming space. Their Wrapped campaign, which highlights personalised listening stats for users, is a prime example of adapting brand assets to create a viral and shareable digital experience.
(Small fact: for two years running now, Spotify’s Wrapped end of year recap has left us with lumps in our throats. It’s just… so shiny and nostalgic.)
Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s quirky illustrations, bold yellow background, and informal tone of voice create a friendly and approachable brand image. These assets are always consistent across their website, email campaigns and advertisements, and they certainly reinforce their identity as a user-friendly email marketing platform.
Download a FREE worksheet:
How to Use Brand Assets Across Different Platforms
I’ve compiled this blog post into a handy PDF workbook that you can print and fill out.
Final Thoughts
Using brand assets effectively across different platforms is a balancing act between creativity and consistency. By adapting assets for print and digital mediums, creating comprehensive guidelines and taking inspiration from successful brands, you can ensure your brand’s identity remains strong and recognisable.
Remember, consistency doesn’t mean being boring! It’s about creating a unified experience that builds trust and makes your brand memorable.
Keywords: using brand assets, brand consistency, graphic design for platforms, print and digital branding, brand asset guide.
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