Playing with your brand: a quick DO's and DON'T's list

We've all been there, the temptation is irresistible. 

St Patrick's Day is approaching and the Boss thinks we should 'Do something'. Maybe something on social media perhaps?

Before anyone goes any further your mind flashes forward to changing the colour of your logo to a bright emerald green, perhaps it gets a jaunty Leprechaun's hat, tipped just so, maybe there's some clip art of the tipsy little fella that you can lean up against your logo like a drunk against a lamp post.

 To a traditional trained marketer these ideas sound TERRIBLE. And by and large they are.

I mean look at this.



But when you try and explain the Marketing 101 reasons why this is terrible - brands require consistency etc you just come off like a wet blanket.

Also the days when you could say "Well Coke or Telstra don't change their colours?" doesn't work as more and more big brands are willing to play with their brands and logos albeit in structured methodical ways.

So when should you change your logo for St Pats, Day, Gay Pride week or whatever?

Here are my tips:

• Does the event/situation fit with your brand personality or values? I currently work at a Uni, I would say a big NO to St Pats day, linking oneself to public drunkenness is a bad look for concerned parents. But a big yes to Gay Pride week. It fits our values and personality.
  
• Is there something in your brand armory that you alter without it looking terrible/unprofessional? For instance my Uni's logo is simply too fine to carry off being made gay-pride rainbow (which would also look terrible), but there is a lot of real estate on our website and social media pages that we could professionally and tastefully use to show our support. We could find a same sex couple kissing and use that in keeping with our current photography driven house style.
  
• Is there a way to connect yourself to this event etc without looking like a dodgy corporate? My Uni has an Indigenous Action Plan among other things, we can totally align ourselves with Sorry Day or NAIDOC Week with this a proof point of our support. However we don't really have much of a connection with Rugby League so we can't really do anything to leverage State of Origin. It's all about behaving authentically. 

And that's really it. I don't think it should be a blanket or a wet-blanket NO to ideas to modify one's brand to fit an event, but it needs to be done tastefully, authentically and be in keeping with your brand personality.