Is on-brand becoming oh-so-bland?

Placeholder Text or Powerful Idea? The Bold New Take on Modern Branding 

Frontify, the brand building platform, has launched its first ever billboard campaign, targeting the thriving New York creative and agency community by getting them to engage with an all too familiar fear - getting something wrong for a major launch.

The campaign is launching prominent billboards in New York City with a notable mistake - a chunk of classic Lorem Ipsum text left in the headline of what is otherwise an “on-brand” asset.

However,  what might first seem like an oversight is actually a deliberate and carefully crafted campaign that seeks to spark a conversation about the future of branding.

The billboards, designed by Frontify, are commentary on what it means to be "on-brand" in today's fast-paced and AI-powered world. The campaign challenges traditional notions of “on-brand” as flawless consistency and encourages marketers to rethink their approach to brand-building as emotional connection.

A New Branding Philosophy

As automation and AI transform how brands communicate with their audiences, this new reality has made it easier than ever for brands to replicate traditional branding elements without substance or true brand identity. As a result, the old benchmarks of branding — technical consistency and rigid adherence to a set aesthetic — are no longer enough to differentiate a brand or make it resonate on a deeper level.

Insights Driving the Campaign

1. On-Brand Is No Longer Enough: Being "on-brand" does not necessarily mean being impactful or meaningful. In an era where design tools and AI make consistency easy to achieve, adhering to brand guidelines has become the bare minimum. The real challenge is to maintain brand relevance and surprise.

2. Embracing Mistakes as Opportunities: The value of mistakes. Rather than seeing mistakes as failures, Frontify views them as opportunities for creativity and engagement. In a world where content is rapidly produced and consumed, a carefully planned "mistake" can humanize a brand and foster a deeper connection with audiences.

3. The Importance of Improvisation: Brands must be flexible and reactive, adapting and innovating in response to their surroundings, using their deep understanding of their brand identity to create something new and dynamic with each campaign.

*The billboard campaign will run in New York City across The Penn District during Advertising Week from October 7 through October 10th.