Managing brand identity in a highly regionalized and specialized service industry means the creative has to work very hard. Solutions have to be very flexible to scale to the thousands of staff representing the brand globally.
I designed, vetted, and trained a compressive Visual Identity Guideline system for an internal organization of 18,000 employees within Microsoft. The system works within the established MSTF brand. It carves out a unique and recognizable look that helps to reinforce the mission, create operational clarity, and level-up the polish and perception of the organization. The guidelines are protected by Microsoft but I can share elements via screen share upon request.
In addition to table-stake design elements—such as color, font, and tone—this Microsoft VIG included my innovative “Flywheel” design elements to be used across all of the organization’s internal touch-points. The “Flywheels” were tied to on-going initiatives and raised adoption of core business goals by 45% and raised org recognition by 90% among surveyed respondents.
Working with senior communications partners, I created an end-of-year wrap communication system that showcased each of the org’s six executive leaders in a festive and sincere way. I proposed the recipe-share direction—which evolved to a broader “wellness” theme—and designed a SharePoint page that allowed each of them to display prominently without hierarchy. Perhaps more importantly, the page included a automated Yammer/Viva Engage feed which encouraged everyone to share and contribute they’re own tips, gain a bit of exposure, and act as promoters both for the message from the org, and as an incentive to participate in Viva.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Real estate market reports are an industry tent pole. They provide essential data to clients, substantiate the business’s expertise, and can provide a point of lead generation. There is very high volume; these are done in 500+ metro markets around the world — quarterly, with variations by asset class (e.g.:,office, industrial, retail), and usually split into various sub-markets. So, this volume and the variability of market expectation — and employee skill — resulted in a commoditized, inconsistent and generally poor level of quality. The expectation is they be made available in a traditional stand-alone document.
THE SOLUTION
In addition to executing redesigned and elevated national and global market reports, I created a system of templates, guidelines, and training tools to enhance brand standardization, yet allow for local variation for regional reports across the globe. Examples of the templates in action can be found across the colliers.com site.