How Brands Can Embrace Transformation in 2024

What are the hallmarks of a great brand? Notability? Certainly. A strong presence? That always goes a long way… but what about adaptability? 

Therein lies a real key to success, as businesses evolve with the times and keep their marketing on the cutting edge. Sure, there are best practices in place which have brought many brands into alignment, but at what point do they grow outdated?

Take a look at digital transformation, for instance. Specifically, for the past five or six years, brands have emphasised refining their CX, smoothing out commerce platforms, organising data flows, and having their tech stacks prepared for any new and disruptive tech on the horizon (looking at you, AI). 

So what next? With so many new emerging categories, should brands and their agency partners be looking to evolve and focus on something new? As it turns out, the answer might be brand-dependent. 

Max Bon de Veire, partner and managing director at M&C Saatchi Stockholm and Re Nordics emphases that great branding and digital experiences should not be considered as entirely separate entities, because they’re strongly connected.

“Today, following best practice design is the fastest way to create digital products. But, being more brand-led is the key to standing out, being more engaging, and ultimately, to success,” he says. 

Observing that digital products can be thought of like any other product, Max notes that brands who opt to follow the same paths as their competitors risk ending up with the same results, which while possibly safe, certainly isn’t desirable. “Take for example, if every brand in the automobile industry followed the same best practices. We wouldn’t have the interesting, innovative and distinct options available on the market today. Fiat would look the same as Lamborghini, Tesla, and Volvo. The differences that push the industry forward would be fewer, and the quirks that build brand loyalty and fandom would be nonexistent.”

We Are Royale founder and CCO Brien Holman agrees with this, adding that because digital has been the great equaliser, companies now have to find new ways to stand out and avoid sinking into a sea of sameness. 

“You no longer need a massive physical presence to captivate audiences,” he says. “In fact, we’ve seen smaller pop-up shops have a better online presence than their bigger competition – David versus Goliath – and the reason consumers are gravitating to them is because they offer a more human connection.”

This appears to be crucial. As Brien puts it, if the move to digital has been a global business shift, then properly harnessing social becomes the differentiator between brands that connect to their audiences and those who can’t… meaning that the “secret sauce” has to be having a community-forward social presence. 

But the recipe for success requires more ingredients than that. To this end, another key factor, according to Audrey Melofchik, global chief brand experience officer at VML, is having a good foundation of work. 

“Digital best practices alone won’t transform a brand, and in an age of technology and fascination with AI, it’s easy to forget the importance of a good brand foundation,” she explains.

Rather, in a world rife with media fragmentation, technology advances, and nuances on social channels, brand context and brand experience become all the more critical. “While the channel ideally has a big effect on how the brand message is conveyed (tone, style, format, references etc.), the message itself must be consistent across the brand,” she continues. “It’s quite difficult to transform a brand without an emotionally resonant and desire-building story at the core.”

If brand transformation is fundamentally creative and strategic - representing the application of both facets to enhance business models and brand potential, what does this look like, when done well, in practice? 

A few examples come to mind, including Richard Huntington’s (chief strategy officer at Saatchi & Saatchi) work for EE in late 2023. Herein, the mobile company was reborn as the lead consumer brand for BT Group, representing a project three years in the making which has since led to the creation of entirely new offerings, and is on track to becoming the largest consumer brand in the UK. 

While the new-look EE still provides premium connectivity from in and outside the home, approaching it from the perspective of real people’s lives and how they need help proved the ticket to success, rather than product emphasis or proposition. 

“This is a fundamental shift from trying to win a greater share of the market to serving a greater share of the lives people lead,” Richard explains. “And, this transformation into a share of life business was only made possible by entirely rethinking the EE brand.”

Specifically, by starting with a new understanding of the business EE wanted to be in, the customers it wanted to serve, and the way in which they’d want to be served, the team at Saatchi & Saatchi found the “red thread to the future.” Specifically, they understood that current and growth audiences, as well as customer journeys lie at the heart of brand-led business transformation. 

And, as a result, EE has since become a platform business - one that can find growth in new places beyond its original (and fairly saturated) telecoms category. As long as these new places (whether it’s gaming, home security, or electronics retail) fit that platform and make sense, these new opportunities can be embraced.

“Most importantly, brand-led business transformation is about imagination. It’s about the ability of the organisation to imagine a new future for itself, freed from category orthodoxy, best practice, and the tyranny of tried and tested,” he says. “Rather than iterating to an unknown future, it is about manifestly taking control of the destiny of the business.”

But, this isn’t the only route to brand transformation. Other viable cases can be seen in both the recent work of Cadbury and McDonald’s, observes Kantar brand strategy consultant, Lindsay Gorton-Lee. 

“Cadbury is a brilliant example,” she says. “By reflecting and leaning on its Quaker roots and heritage positioning around generosity as a point of difference, the brand has been able to tap into cultural insights to connect with people in relevant and impactful ways, such as through its ‘Secret Santa Postal Service’ at Christmas.”

Specifically, this 2022-based case represents the value of multi-faceted transformation. Not only did it evolve upon the brand’s ‘Secret Santa’ initiative (which had been running since 2018), the work also highlighted the benefits of evolving brand media - via hundreds of digital six-sheet, static and flyposters across the UK - and cultural connectivity, as Cadbury leaned into its heritage and used bars of chocolate to spread joy and draw notice across the country.

Fundamentally, this embodies a key point in Lindsay's list, which consists of three pieces of advice for brands looking to change gears this year. With the first step being understanding one’s starting point, brand equity, pricing power (and where it sits versus the competitors through reliable customer insights), the chocolate company’s work is step two incarnate: prioritising opportunities which play to the brand’s strengths. 

As for stage three, the aforementioned, golden-arched chain represents the value of consistently reinforcing unique qualities - a sentiment that the books (especially in recent years) are quick to testify to. In 2019, the brand integrated decision technology into its restaurants, which has since enabled personalisation of its kiosk menus. Meanwhile, the existence of McDonald’s global brand hubs allowed for the formation of new digital strategy, as the brand now tracks and interacts with customers on social, in real time, on a daily basis. 

But, of course, campaign work across the world also reflects this in spades. In Canada for instance, when the brand learned that gen z wasn’t as aware of the ‘Big Mac’ as previous generations, it partnered with makers to design everything from cowboy boots to bejewelled set of Big Mac grills, emphasising the burger’s ability to inspire culture and earning new fans in the process.

Meanwhile, in the UK last year, the brand collaborated with filmmaker Edgar Wright to launch the iconic ‘Raise Your Arches’ campaign, reflecting a knowledge of cultural trends and behaviours by comedically riffing on ‘the look’ that wordlessly indicates you want to grab some food at the restaurant. 

And of course, broadly speaking, who can forget about its finger-on-the-pulse celebrity collaborations, which have shown a strong awareness of the times with the likes of the ‘Travis Scott Meal’, and more recently the ‘BTS Meal’ being released? 

Concluding, Lindsay observes, “Whether that’s developing new products, expanding into adjacent categories, or adapting to evolving consumer trends, McDonald’s is a case in point having achieved phenomenal, sustained growth by reinventing aspects of its product or experience while fundamentally staying the same approachable, light-hearted brand.”

According to Brien, this move has been a long time coming, as even pre-pandemic, the brick-and-mortar storefront was on its way out, already being replaced (in some cases) with more brand-focused experiences. 

“Nike installed entire sections within its stores that spoke to sport, with the umbrella brand front and centre,” he recalls. “Meanwhile, Sonos did something similar, where, despite focusing on the experience of the brand within its stores, built individual demo stations to immerse consumers in their brand.”

Meanwhile, Dylan Viner, chief strategy officer at TRIPTK echoes this sentiment, stating that brand transformation “isn’t a shiny new marketing toy or novel methodology,” but rather, the phrase itself is just becoming more commonplace now that organisations are not just open to it, but are actively seeking it out. 

“While many more mature organisations have long since seen the value of this type of work, I think that for others who perhaps sat on the sidelines for a tad longer, the power of brand is (finally) being seen as a vital means to drive relevance,” he continues. “That feels imperative, especially in more crowded categories where the product or service itself is becoming commoditised.”

Expanding on that point, he adds that since factors like tone, aesthetic, and point of view go a long way toward driving preference, and that the brand choices we as consumers make signal the identity we want to project, more organisations are recognising that investing in what their brand could signal, matters. 

This only becomes more powerful in the post-covid-19 world, when amalgamated with the in-person branded experience - something Brien considers to be critical. As he puts it, “paving the way for a digital [experience], as companies focus on strengthening connections with their audiences, with the same goal of converting that good brand impression into sales.”

However, in many ways, these are cherry-picked moments. Not every brand is able to do this, let alone navigate periods of significant cultural change, or even flux.

“This space where brand and product design work together is the space occupied by the most successful organisations,” Max notes. “We’ve known it for decades, but only a few seem to be able to really crack it, often because we get distracted by new ways of doing things, new competitors or new customer trends that override our enduring brand efforts.”

And, as Dylan points out, it’s just easy to get lost along the way. “I think brands can feel unmoored in these moments [of flux],” he says. “However, they often recognise that the brand fundamentals and foundations that encompass brand transformation (thank goodness most have moved on from thinking brand is just a logo refresh) provide the relative safe harbour of a compass that points their boat in a direction, guiding behaviour and inspiring action, from product innovation and marketing to hiring.”

Now, as to whether or not the boat is setting sail in the right direction is, as Dylan continues, “another matter,” but the very fact that brands see they need a clear and aligned direction is, in itself, progress… provided they’re not subsequently sidelined by poor social marketing decisions on mainstream media platforms. 

Case and point, Brien observes that current iterations are notorious for running into difficulty when the big market spends are dedicated solely to traditional media. What does this mean? “Often, we are asked to build a campaign centred around large commercial deliverables and only supply a cutdown for social media,” he explains. “But, companies can create better engagement with bespoke content built specifically for the platforms, telling brand stories that arc across traditional into social and, if they’re smart, back into the main marketing assets.”

So, with all this in mind, where are the best brands of 2024 heading? And, like with the era of digital transformation, is there a set of best practices that teams can grasp onto even now? As it turns out, the answer really can vary by instance. 

According to Audrey, the team at VML is keen to avoid labelling a definitive “either/or” when it comes to brand transformation this year, or really ever. “Brands that grow faster are the ones that are built on magnetic brand stories, and product experiences that deliver on customer’s expectations and are easy to buy,” she says. “It’s why at VML, we deliver connected brands for our clients through our dedicated brand experience, customer experience and commerce practices. Each practice offers best-in-class work, while integrating to deliver a connected brand and outsized growth for our clients.”

Meanwhile, for Richard, the key to success lies in looking at the brand itself, and embracing its vision and direction to build a sustained advantage for organisations. However, he doesn’t want this to be confused with treating them as “ornamental baubles,” but rather, as “instrumental powerhouses that articulate with clarity the distinctive way a business will serve its customers and help it to deliver against this through every experience, every service and every journey.”

And, by doing this properly, it allows a way forward for both business and the creative industries as a whole. “With digital experience, as well as the other customer-facing parts of an organisation in support to build and deliver that vision into the lives of customers, the work will be able to serve more of their lives,” he says. 

Max agrees, emphasising that being brand-led extends far beyond marketing or even product design. “Ultimately it’s how market-leaders stay at the forefront of changing industries and customer contexts,” he observes. “By building and counting on clear, compelling brand strategies and systems – ones that are constant, but adaptable and resilient to change, all across their organisation.”

Finishing, Dylan adds that even if brand work isn’t necessarily replacing all the thinking that came with digital transformation, it ought to at least reflect the brand and feel like something only they would do. 

“One precedes the other,” he says. “Connected, not in conflict. Perpetuating the status quo isn’t really cutting it. Brand transformation recognises that a refresh might not suffice, and that it’s worth examining whether the brand’s long term strategic direction is fit for purpose in the context of the world we live in today.”