Congratulations to our client Bodman LLP for winning two first-place awards at the annual Legal Marketing Association Midwest chapter awards banquet in Chicago last week. The firm’s new website and the 2009 biennial review took top honors in their categories.

The Midwest chapter includes 300 firms in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa. Bodman held the distinction of being the only Michigan firm among the 2010 award winners.

The judges called the biennial review “a piece with stunning graphics that demonstrates high-tech speed and innovation. The piece makes you want to look at it and play with it…[it is] fun, innovative and memorable.” The judges also praised the shared look and feel of the biennial review and website and called the site “attractive and easy to navigate.”

Way to go, Bodman!

Lately—well, in the last 20 years or so—we’ve noticed many of the brands we’ve created go astray. All the money, time and effort spent in creating the brand is forgotten, as the brand grows older. Recently—well, in the last year or so—we’ve determined to take a close look at this drift in order to help our clients sustain their brands.

Our entire creative team (strategy and design) sat down to review two or three brands we developed with clients recently. We spread out the creative work in front of us as well as on a nearby monitor. Then, in each case, we promptly disagreed on many details that constituted the “brand.” As the meeting wore on, some light bulbs went on, such as…

Insight #1. Newborn brands share a lot in common with babies.
As brand strategists and designers we believe we know what we have created but, if our brand review was helpful at all, we learned that the only thing we’d created was a baby. We had no fully-formed notion of what the brand would look like when it was six years old, much less a teenager.

Don’t get me wrong. A baby is a miracle but requires lots of care and feeding to help realize its potential. Sure, a brand has your firm’s eyes and complexion, but there’s more unknown than known. So we realized job one is to take lots of pictures. Literally, spread everything out and create a baby album. See what the brand looks like from every conceivable angle. Analyze the font usage, the relative white space, the type of imagery used. Tickle the color palette. Listen to the voice.

And finally, see if it has five toes on each foot. A newborn brand has everything implied in its early shape and form but not every detail has been worked out. For example, imagine the as-yet uncreated small-space charitable ad. How will that future creative application reflect the brand? Your PowerPoint might have the right logo in the corner but does the overall presentation reflect the brand?

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We surveyed AmLaw 200 marketers and found that there is a planned uptick in some marketing activities on the horizon for the coming months, including some surprises. Read the full article below as it first appeared in the ABA’s Law Practice magazine. View full article