We celebrated our 18th birthday this June. Eighteen is when we enter adulthood, an age at which most of us start coming into our own. It’s a milestone that offers a chance to reflect as well as think about the future and how we’ll choose to grow up. Here are a few simple takeaways that… Read more »
Blue Daring likes a Challenge
For 15 years, Blue Daring has been connecting strategic thinking with world-class design. It’s how we bring vision to life. So, what happens when we give life to this innate dichotomy through the arts? Presenting the “Creative Challenge,” a year-long, three-part celebration of creation and connection that beautifully intertwines branding and strategy through the arts.… Read more »
Innovate Authentically: The Importance of Purpose When Trying Something New
You cannot innovate if your brand stands for your products and services alone. While adopting a culture of innovation has many benefits — finding new, more efficient ways to work, staying connected to a more active consumer and product diversification to name a few — it can also appear insincere if your brand doesn’t already… Read more »
More than Sauce: Branding Diversity
The perfect ad—you’ve seen it before. A group of friends or a family; one brown, one yellow, one white. A utopian mix of races, genders, even lifestyles. For decades, brands have approached diversity (and inclusion) in this way, and it makes sense. In fact, a 2016 study found that 80% of millennial parents enjoy seeing… Read more »
Talk to Me: Reading Out Loud as Part of the Writing Process
Confession: when no one is around, I talk to myself. Yep. I pace around my house and read the same document to myself repeatedly with different inflections. I’ll listen for the version that sounds best, the sentences that feel the most natural coming out of my mouth, and the areas that need a good rework.… Read more »
From transaction to interaction: Brands in the modern tech landscape
In the not too distant past, brands were fairly contained organisms. A logo might have lived on a street sign, on a product, in a magazine advertisement… and that’s it. The companies those brands represented were focused on a simple transaction: money for goods or services. Today, things are a bit different. From blogs to… Read more »
The Company That Cried “Innovation” and a Ridiculous Case Study That Has To Do With Cats
People ask me to create messaging to drive others to engage with them. When I ask them how they would like to be perceived, the number one word I hear is (you guessed it) — Innovative. Innovate, Innovation, Innovating… any variation you like. But heed my warning — the word is in danger of losing its weight. While “innovation” is a potent… Read more »
Innovate With What You’ve Got
Many companies hear the word innovation and get nervous. Although innovation suggests change, you don’t have to shake things up completely to see the impact. What do you do really well? Instead of trying to chase a fleeting industry trend or blindly add new areas of specialty to your company, take the the time to… Read more »
Your Products Don’t Matter
Your brand’s value is not what you make or what you do. It’s certainly not your tagline. Your brand’s value is the net change your business catalyzes in your customer’s life—the purpose and goal of your products or services. Through this lens, Tesla does not make cars, but rather energy efficient solutions. Waste Management does not… Read more »
Keep Calm and Party On
Every time I throw a successful event, at least one person asks me how I did it. “How’d you get it to all come together?” and “I can’t believe this went off without a hitch!” are common conversation starters at work the next day. But really, what’s the point of putting in all of that… Read more »