Author: Jennifer Krabbeler

Creative teams, such as Marketing and Advertising, can spend as much as 50% of their time managing projects. Project management ensures that budgets and deadlines are met through strategic planning and efficient organizational processes. Branding initiatives should apply strict management tactics to keep projects on track and achieve goals. By partnering with a brand activation agency that employs strong project managers, creative teams will spend less time managing and more time creating or reviewing metrics from their streamlined project.

People

Processes and analytics are nothing without the right team to implement them. You’ll want to find a brand activation company that employs teams that are aware of the business impact that results from your branding efforts. An effective team will strategize the installation of your branding (large format graphics) so the process does not interfere with your daily business activities. For example, if the branding installation process of a vehicle is started, it should be finished that day. Your brand identity is vital to the success of your business and a partially installed graphic, on a vehicle performing daily duties, does nothing to help those initiatives.

Processes

The right processes streamline communications between all parties involved. Communication is critical to the success of any project. Teams with open communication paths are able to swiftly address issues, navigate an unforeseeable, and easily share vital documentation that in turn is relayed to the partner’s creative team. These processes should include a combination of technology and practices.

Metrics

Metrics allow creative teams to view the progress of their branding projects so they know exactly where to focus their energy to reach project goals. Knowing where installations are occurring, the quantities of surfaces that have been branded versus not branded, and any potential issues that may have surfaced allows for quick resolving of issues and measurables that are easily understood and reported.

Signature Graphics can propel your brand forward with our disciplined project management practices. We have invested heavily in people, processes and technology to provide the most efficient, measurable, and cost effective services to our partners. Ask us about the innovative tools we have that will simplify your procurement and management of future branding materials.

Need a Brand Management Partner?

Vinyl graphics are more durable than paints. They can be removed at the end of a vehicle’s life cycle, eliminating the need to paint over existing painted graphics. Vinyl graphics are, typically, more cost-effective than painted graphics and can also be applied in a fraction of the time. If this does not convince you, we’ve assembled a list of things you should consider before you paint your vehicle.

Resale Value:

Keeping your vehicle’s original factory color will allow you to keep your resale value intact. Bright or exotic colors are often a hard sell to potential buyers if the color is not their preference.

Options:

Vinyl wraps give you the option of easily transforming your vehicle should corporate make changes to their branding guidelines.

Installation Time:

A paint job can leave you without transportation for up to 2 weeks. A branding company can fully wrap your vehicle in a matter of days and get you back on the road in no time.

Protection:

Your vinyl wrap will shield your factory paint from the hazards of weathering, prolonged sun exposure, chipping and abrasion.

Protection:

Your vinyl wrap will shield your factory paint from the hazards of weathering, prolonged sun exposure, chipping and abrasion.

Easy Maintenance:

Vehicle wraps require little to no maintenance. A simple hand washing with soap and water will have the film looking like new again. Paint will require washing and waxing maintenance.

Long Lasting, Safe Removal:

High quality vinyls are long-lasting and safe to remove without affecting your current paint.

Signature Graphics understands that time is money. The last thing you want is for your vehicle to be out of commission for any length of time. That is why we’ve developed solutions that provide you with a high-quality product and an expedited turnaround time.

Need a Vehicle Graphic Quote?

Graphic design is a critical component to visual branding strategies. To build on-brand supporting graphics, there are a few concepts designers need to consider during the creative process. In designing an effective campaign, they should research the brand, select fonts and colors that harmonize with the logo, and utilize these decisions to create a memorable experience that enhances that brand.

Research

Research is essential in implementing any brand activation campaign. In developing a strategy, a consultative team will conduct research to gain a full understanding of your brand’s personality and the goals you wish to achieve. Research helps designers to identify messaging that will resonate with your customer base and attract new ones.

Harmonizing Typography and Color Choices

The right typography and color palette should align with all the elements of your brand identity. Good designers will choose secondary colors that illicit the right emotions for your strategy and harmonize with the colors in your logo.

Memorability

Above all else, your branding should be memorable. It should inspire your customers to connect with your brand and remember the positive, past experiences they had with it and to imagine the future ones, as well.

Brand identity designers, like the ones we employ at Signature, have marketing expertise that differentiates them from typical graphic designers. Day to day, they work with organizations’ marketing and advertising teams or develop tailored solutions on their own, utilizing their vast industry expertise and marketing knowledge. When it comes to branding, you need more than decorators. You need specialists that can align your design with a strategy that achieves your goals.

Need to Speak to a Brand Identity Specialist?

Our customers have told us stories of passing business cards in parking lots or at red lights when riding around in their wrapped vehicles and this type of interaction is easy to measure when weighing the effectiveness of your branded vehicle. But, how do you track the amount of people that jot your number down or visit your website after viewing your vehicle if you have no interaction with them? After over thirty years in this industry, we’ve assisted numerous organizations in doing just this.

Use An Alternate Landing Page

Consider creating a unique landing page and using that url on your wrapped vehicle. Most companies use web analytics to track traffic and behaviors on their sites. The only way your visitors will arrive at this page is if they saw the web address on your vehicle. This will enable you to easily see the amount of traffic and interest your vehicle is generating.

Use An Alternate Phone Number

This tactic involves getting a second phone line for your business. If this alternate number is advertised only on your wrapped vehicle, you will easily be able to measure the effectiveness of your vehicle wrap. The only calls received from this number will be generated by the visual impression your vehicle left upon your target audience.

Run a Promotion

You can also test the effectiveness of your vehicle wraps by incorporating a promotion into the design. By offering a percentage off or including a free service, via a promotion code, you will know that every caller that mentions it is doing so because of the impact your graphic had on them.

Signature Graphics has been helping brands come up with creative ways for measuring the return on investment of their brand activation campaigns for over three decades. If you’re looking to employ your company vehicles as a marketing medium, our experts will create a unique strategy for your business that will make a meaningful impact.

Looking to Make an Impact?

In a previous post, we talked about the importance of consistency in branding. One of the easiest ways to achieve consistency is the development of a brand guide. Every brand needs a guide that defines the proper usage of their logo and accompanying elements. Your guide should address typography, logos, colors and placement instructions.

Typography

For consistency across all branded material, choose one to two fonts and use them and only them. Consider the types of materials that are distributed by your organization to guide you in determining what types of typography need to be defined. Some of the most commonly used typographical elements are headlines, body text, and bullet points. Once these have been decided, you can start determining font sizes and font weight. For example, you can ask yourself if a headline should appear bold or if your bullet points are the same font size as your body text.

Logos & Colors

How do you want your logo to be represented visually? Take into account the backgrounds that might appear behind your logo. What is the smallest size that your logo can be scaled without it losing legibility? What amount of negative space should surround your logo before text can be butted up against it? We recommend making a do’s and dont’s list on the usage of your logo and creating a visual aid of your list to insert into your brand guide. Show the colors that can appear behind your logo and include their PMS number. If your logo can be rotated, illustrate the angle and mark the degrees.

As a branding expert, Signature Graphics would be happy to offer advice should any questions emerge during your guide development. We’re a trusted partner to some of the most recognizable brands in the world and would appreciate the opportunity to be yours as well.

Have a Branding Question?

Businesses understand that the ability to strategically connect with consumers through an efficient and effective message is critical to their long-term success. For years, advertisers have communicated through the traditional media channels such as television, magazines, internet and mail. Trends have steadily been leading advertisers to migrate towards non-traditional alternatives.

Non-Traditional Media:

The non-traditional media segment allows advertisers to offer more creative ways to reach a specific type of consumer with the right advertising marketing message. Consumers are more mobile and less attentive to conventional ad media. Non-traditional marketers promote products and services with unique applications such as advertisements imprinted inside buses and elevators as well as wrapped on the outsides of cars, vans, trucks and trains. These graphics and images are becoming increasingly elaborate and ingenious and reach consumers on the go.

Successful outdoor advertisements establish a link between a medium and the corporation or brand’s relevant icon, leaving a memorable impression with the viewer. Signature Graphics offers powerful strategies in the outdoor, out-of-home media segment that are as unique as the brand they are representing. Our diverse talent base can bring bold insights to your future brand activation campaigns.

Need Some Signature Ideas?

Using a consistent aesthetic to communicate with your consumers builds brand awareness and familiarity. Research shows that people buy from brands they trust and recognition plays a critical part in this equation. Consumers rely on brand and trust because there are often too many choices, coupled with too little time. The right partner can assist you in building brand loyalty by ensuring your branding is represented with visual predictability.

Creating Consistency:

Consistency is created by continually using the same colors, placement, logos and fonts in your brand activation campaigns. When adding branding to your company vehicles or the architecture of your building, the color of your logo should be perfectly matched to clearly project your image. This should extend to the placement of your branding as well. For example, if your company has a fleet, the placement of your branding should be consistently applied to similar locations (or identical locations for the same make and model vehicles) and at the appropriate scale. This will create the cohesive messaging that is marketing gold.

Signature Graphics understands the importance of consistency in branding and part of our unique range of services are our installation diagrams. These diagrams ensure that every piece of branding that is applied to your vehicle or building is done so in a consistent manner. We understand that developing consistent brand messaging can be challenging and our industry expertise can ease that burden.

Need a Branding Strategy?

Your graphics can last up to eight or nine years, depending on the material used and method of manufacture. Branding companies should work with you to determine durability expectations and engineer your program to exceed your durability requirements. Other variables such as the quality of the installation and surface condition play a critical part in the lifespan of your vinyl wrap.

Much like paint, the longevity of your vinyl wraps is dependent upon the care you give them. Vehicle graphics should be cared for in a similar manner as a fine paint finish. A little maintenance will keep your graphics looking their best and we recommend washing them whenever your car appears dirty. Vinyl and paint jobs can also be degraded by prolonged sun exposure. Consider storing your vehicle indoors (garaged) or in shade during the day.

Reputable branding companies should be able to advise you in proper prepping of your vehicle before the graphic application because vinyl graphics stick best to clean dry surfaces. Experienced installers will be able to assess potential issues and identify a strategy for issue resolution.

Signature Graphics employs only Signature Certified Installers. These individuals are carefully selected based on numerous criteria to ensure that every installation is expertly performed. With our manufacturing and installation skills, we guarantee that you’re going to be loving your graphics for years to come.

Need a Quote?

Designing a logo seems like a simple task but there are a lot of variables that go into creating a truly great and relevant one. For branding that has long-lasting effectiveness, ask yourself if your potential new logo design has these qualities: originality, memorability, timelessness and relevance.

1. Original:

Your logo should be as unique and original as your company. The biggest mistake that a company can make is copying another logo. A logo is what distinguishes you from your competition and it is important to differentiate your brand from your competitors’.

2. Memorable:

Great logos inspire brand trust and loyalty and to achieve this, your consumers will need to remember what your logo looks like. A memorable logo is typically simple in design and can easily be described or recalled. Strive for a design that will embed your logo into the minds of anyone who views it. It should be impressive yet simple enough for instant recognition.

3. Timeless:

It can be dangerous to follow trends in logo design which come and go. This can lead to an outdated look in 5, 10 or 15 years. It should be flexible enough to stand the test of time. Timeless logos are simple and adaptable. They don’t go overboard on graphics and color which simplifies updates in the future.

4. Relevant:

A logo needs to provide an immediate sense of what your brand is about. It should convey some element of what your business does in a meaningful way. To do this, break down what your business does and use that as a guide for your logo design.

Your logo is the ambassador of your brand and is the fundamental component that must be right in effective brand activation campaigns. A good designer will work with you and do analysis work to create the perfect visual representation of your brand. Signature Graphics’ experienced team of designers have been moving brands in the right direction for over thirty years. If you need any type of support in your branding efforts, feel free to reach out to us.

Need Signature Brand Building Expertise?

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Correctly preparing your vehicle for branding can impact the durability of your vinyl graphics. We have a few recommendations to ensure that you and your vehicle graphics will have a long-lasting bond.

Dust & Dirt Removal:
For the best adhesion, the surface of your vehicles should be completely cleaned wherever graphics are to be applied. Wash and rinse your vehicle with clean water and dry it thoroughly. Any good automotive soap will do and this should be done one day prior to installation. If you are receiving a full coverage wrap, pay close attention to the wheel wells and edges along the doors, hood, trunk and windows. The surfaces around the wheels are often coated with more debris and will take extra elbow grease to remove. Once finished, we recommend storing your vehicle in a garage to keep it in pristine condition for the installation.

Avoid Waxing & Detailing Products:
Wax and detailing products can leave a slippery residue on your vehicle’s surface that must be removed before applying your new graphics. High-quality adhesives are designed to adhere to clean surfaces that are free of wax, grease or silicone.

Recently Painted Vehicles:
Has your vehicle recently been painted? Remember, paint needs time to cure. Signature recommends checking with your body shop to see how long the curing process takes. We can work out an installation schedule that takes this into consideration.

Old Graphics Removal:
Does your vehicle have old graphics that need to be removed prior to installation? We recommend calling the experts for this step. Signature Certified Installers are highly trained experts that have the expertise to safely remove vinyl applications without damaging your vehicle’s paint job. They will also be able to remove any adhesive material that is left behind from the prior vinyl application.

When in doubt…
…call the experts! Signature Graphics is here to advise you and answer any questions you may have about the preparation and installation process.

Need a Question Answered?