“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”
– Albert Einstein
I first came across this quote on the inside of a Snapple cap around the time I was getting ready to present the WONK brand concept to the American University administration. It was quickly taped to my office door and became inspiration for the AU brand team and me.
Now, you’d never hear me say that the WONK campaign is absurd, but it is bold. And, let’s face it, ‘bold’ isn’t an adjective that you typically associate with higher education marketing and branding. Given the numerous audiences we have to serve, decentralized environments, and need to get broad institutional buy-in, we’re lucky that we’re able to land on anything at all. Let alone something bold and unexpected.
The truth is, we never set out with the explicit goal of creating a bold branding campaign, but we ended up with one because we landed on something that hit all the other criteria that we imposed on ourselves. Like most higher education branding and marketing efforts, our primary objectives were related to the strategic goals of advancing the university on multiple fronts.
But creatively, we knew that we wanted to come up with something that captured people’s attention and was distinctive to the university and its people. The American University brand team took inspiration from the Heath brother’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, and interpreted the principles of the book for a brand campaign. As the Heath brothers say, ‘You don’t need all 6 to have a sticky idea, but it’s fair to say the more, the better!’
Here’s how we interpreted the Heath’s brothers sticky principles in our brand work.
Simple — dig deep to get to the essence of your brand
Unexpected — get people’s attention so they’ll want to know more
Concrete — make it relevant and memorable
Credible —make it truthful, believable and authentic
Emotional — humor, attitude, personality, etc. can help to reinforce your brand
Stories — make sure the brand can be demonstrated in institutional stories
We tested all of our proposed brand concepts against these criteria, which helped us rule out the uninspiring options and led us to WONK. If you’re fortunate enough to have an integrated brand effort, how many boxes can you check? I agree with the Heath brothers. More is better. It could make the difference between a brand campaign that is completely uninspiring and one that will stick around for years to come.
