An exciting new era for Papirfly, with the same drive for excellence
Karl-Fredrik Lund
3minutes read
An exciting new era with the same drive for excellence
Empowering brands is what we do. Since Papirfly was founded back in 2000, our customers have received game-changing solutions to activate their brands on both a global and local scale. Our success has provided us with the wonderful opportunity to practice what we preach – to fully take charge of our future and activate our own global brand in a new, fresh and exciting way.
In March 2021, we created Papirfly Group as we merged the companies of Papirfly and Brandmaster – two brands born in Scandinavia, with the same global vision to transform marketing operations with innovative tech solutions. Having added Meriworks six months later, with the trust and support of our growth-investment partners, Verdane, we’ve been excitedly working behind the scenes. I’m grateful to everyone within the company, as they’ve all helped play their part in increasing our momentum as pioneers in the Brand Activation Management space.
We’ve recruited and acquired a great deal of new talent in these last few years. As we move forward together to serve our customers with one united vision, I’m proud to announce our launching as one brand identity – Papirfly.
Creating a look that matches our high standards
Evolving as a company and platform has meant that our brand has needed to catch up.
As you can see, our expert design team has created a new visual identity that recognises the legacy of both Brandmaster and Papirfly. Our common personality and professionalism is presented in a bright, energetic and unique style. Rooted in Scandinavian design, our heritage is woven into our DNA – remaining playful, innovative and passionate, reflecting the way we inspire and empower brands.
Our recent growth and development as a notably fresh brand does not change the level of delivery and drive for excellence at this next level of innovation – rest assured, that is business as usual.
In fact, working under one brand means that our teams are working more closely together than ever, creating solutions and developing personal relationships and collaborations with brand leaders. Our customers can still expect to drive their own brands to the next level and unleash the potential of talent within their global teams.
Specialising across various niches – corporate communications, employer branding and the mult-faceted aspects of retail, hospitality and consumer brands – our expansion and evolution benefits everyone. Helping brands build on their foundations to reach greater heights in the coming years. And in unpredictable times, keeping up with and being one step ahead of the competition has never been more important.
The future of brand management
I hope you like our new brand identity. Naturally, we used our own all-in-one brand management platform to manage our rebrand. Whether you’re launching a new brand, going through a rebrand process, or simply looking to achieve global governance and total brand consistency, we’re excited to serve forward-thinking brand teams at the start of their own new adventures.
Connecting your message across your own people is essential, as is staying on-brand and aligned to that message with customers at every touchpoint. Every person across your brand deserves to excel in their role. There’s a better way to empower your marketing teams – and with a fresh new look brand, we’re more ready than we’ve ever been to help you grow and succeed.
It’s that time of year again, as people up and down the country get their first glimpse of this year’s Christmas adverts. These highly-anticipated ads bring a welcome distraction from the monotony of the year and gently move us into the embrace of the festive season.
2021 has been no exception, as several leading brands have already showcased their holiday offerings…
John Lewis
For many, John Lewis is the benchmark for all Christmas ads in any given year. This year’s effort is everything you’d anticipate from them – a heartwarming story, loveable fictional characters and a goosebump-inducing soundtrack.
However, this ad has faced a fair amount of backlash and apathy in comparison to their previous offerings. A quick scan through their YouTube comments showcases this sentiment:
Nothing will ever beat (insert previous ad here)
I didn’t get any Christmas vibes from the advert
It was formulaic and melodramatic
Whether it is a case of previous years setting the bar too high, or the ad didn’t encapsulate the Christmas spirit as John Lewis has in the past, their 2021 contribution is undoubtedly polarising.
Boots
Boots leaned on a touch of celebrity for their advert, telling the story of Jenna Coleman and her magical #BagOfJoy, gifted to her by her nan.
It is a whimsical story that stays completely on the Christmas message, with Jenna using her infinite bag of gifts to treat her friends and family, with the final heart-tugging scene of her giving her nan her own gift.
Again, a scroll through the YouTube comments puts the spotlight on one word – ‘lovely’. That’s the Boots ad in a nutshell, a sentimental, traditional and uplifting tale.
M&S
Meanwhile, the M&S 2021 Christmas ad hones in on humour by bringing lovable character Percy Pig to life.
With great voice-over work by Tom Holland and Dawn French, this ad sees Percy revel in his first Christmas, with Dawn’s fairy showing him all of the delicious food on offer this year (conveniently skipping any pork products!)
While significantly shorter than the other two, this injection of humour and the adorable characters will be sure to capture the imagination of many.
The making of a classic Christmas advert
As these three distinct ads demonstrate, every year the stories that brands tell battle it out to become the one that resonates most with the general public.
But often the bid to stand out ends with very similar outputs. While Coca-Cola’s ‘Holidays are coming’ stands firmly in a category of its own, many other brands fall into the trap of producing repetitive narratives and production styles that have left the iconic Christmas ad format feeling a little tired and formulaic, such as:
An adorable protagonist
An acoustic cover of a well-known pop song
An unexpectedly touching ending
An accompanying product range for said protagonist
An original strapline to tie it all together
Many would argue John Lewis’s 2021 effort fits firmly in these parameters, which is maybe why it has received a middle-of-the-road response. And while there is undeniable creativity and effort that goes into these adverts, their stories may no longer be enough to engage audiences that have endured two years of real-life plot twists and an endless stream of emotionally-fuelled messaging from brands.
Below we’ve highlighted some Christmas classics that helped to lay the path for iconic holiday promotions, and what brands can do to take a leaf out of their book this year.
While internet shopping and mass closures plagued the brand, Toys R Us is set for a mini-revival thanks to Macy’s. Prior to all this though, their advertising was highly effective, and while this ad dates back over three decades, there’s still a lot it can teach brands of today…
What can brands learn from Toys R Us, Magical Place?
We briefly mentioned covers of famous songs as one of the strings brands have to their formulaic ad bow. But if you take a look at this advert, one of the first things that stands out is the original music.
Composing a jingle or song that sticks in the minds of consumers is of course an incredibly difficult task, but the lesson lies more in the level of commitment and effort that went into it.
Hiring someone to perform a cover, along with the legalities of using a well-known artist’s song doesn’t come easy, but it’s been done so many times before. John Lewis even managed to get Elton John to sing and star in their ad back in 2018.
So unless brands put a completely new twist on a song, they will only continue to out-celebrity each other with covers for so long. We know that music is an integral part of many Christmas adverts – usually resulting in the original or cover song re-entering the charts – so it’s important that agencies move away from the standard cover format if they want to bring something new to the table.
Change the words. Switch up the genre. Surprise people with its delivery. Give the opportunity to an unknown artist. Make it instrumental and let the story speak for itself.
How the delivery looks will vary from brand to brand, but one thing’s for sure – audiences will only react to acoustic covers of Oasis and Coldplay songs for so long.
Though Yellow Pages ceased printing in 2019, it’s a brand that’s still imprinted in the minds of multiple generations. Since going digital ‘Yell’ doesn’t need to release TV ads like they used to (they’ve had some great ones, you can watch them here), but this particular Christmas ad can teach brands some traditional and modern lessons.
What can brands learn from Yellow Pages, Mistletoe?
With the rise of TikTok, busier lives and shorter attention spans, short videos now make frequent appearances on social media. This advert from Yellow Pages is under 20 seconds, yet it tells a powerful story that highlights the product it is trying to push.
We learn that the book is so thick and comprehensive that the young boy is able to use it to gain significant height. It engages, it informs and it tugs on the heartstrings with its Christmas mistletoe spin, all with just 4 words of narration and 19 seconds of footage.
With many of the modern Christmas ads, we usually have to endure much longer sequences, not seeing any payoff or surprise until the last few seconds. A good strategic move for many reasons, but wouldn’t it be clever if a brand could tell their story and leave a great impression in much less than a minute?
Imagine a powerful series of shorts that stood out from the long-winding adventures of woodland creatures and animated vegetables to deliver Christmas messages that were concise, on-brand and equally as effective.
A brand needs to get across a lot, and with Christmas adverts usually being amongst the most expensive to produce, it’s understandable to want to say everything in one go.
Exploring shorter stories to create a connection, spark intrigue or encourage an action could help your brand stand out.
This wholesome TV ad effortlessly captures the spirit of Christmas in exactly a minute. Featuring many traditional elements of a holiday scene – Santa, Christmas tree, soft glowing lights – this was one of the most iconic adverts of its time. This advert, though over 30 years old, could still land well on screens today. Let’s explore why…
What can brands learn from Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Ho Ho Ho?
The power of nostalgia in advertising can never be underestimated (Sainsbury’s proved this back in 2014 with their ‘1914’ Christmas ad). Since the end of 2019 many doubts have been cast on the future by media outlets and politicians. Reminiscing about the past and simpler times is a great way to bring back hope and revive the Christmas spirit.
This could take the form of introducing a well-known character from the past, capturing the essence of particular decades, bringing back historic brand adverts, or simply encouraging a tech-free, family-focused season. The simplistic nature of the ad is what gives it such broad appeal.
And after a succession of catastrophic events, audiences will want to reconnect with times that have gone by in a way like never before, and feel hopeful about the future.
Which brands’ Christmas ads will stand out this year?
We expect to see some brands really push purpose and socially-driven narratives this Christmas. From saving the environment and the Christmases of the future, to taking brave political stances on global events, there is going to be some breaking of the traditional formula in more ways than one.
Brands and agencies that take this approach will need to be cautious of ‘purpose fatigue’, be creative and ensure that whatever actions follow the TV spots match their holiday focus.
On the other hand, we are likely to see brands wanting to inject happiness and humour into uncertain times. We therefore believe we will see some imaginative and borderline offbeat approaches that will thwart the traditional TV ads. Expect clever and curious direction, feel-good stories and optimistic stances on the future.
What audiences will engage with best remains to be seen, but as each person has responded so differently to the pandemic, it would be impossible for brands to hit the mark every time. There will be some people who want straight-talking sales and promotions ads, and others who crave humanisation and big-scale gestures from brands.
One thing that’s guaranteed is that brands across the world have a fantastic opportunity to round up the events of 2021 in a truly creative way, and set the tone (and bar) for 2022.
Attracting graduates: a new wave of employer brand
Papirfly
6minutes read
The graduates of today are the future leaders of tomorrow. So getting your company noticed at a pivotal time in the careers of these bright young prospects is crucial.
Gen Z and beyond have experienced turbulence much like any other generation. But when it comes to the outlook on careers, the environment and the future, they have been exposed to a much thicker wall of negativity, which employers will have a partial responsibility in helping them break through.
Employers need to not only work hard to bring their employer brand to this new wave of prospects – they need to inspire this generation into believing anything is possible once again. It’s a big challenge, but it’s a vital one to ensure that the right talent is nurtured, retained and driven in the right direction.
Overcoming challenges with graduates
There are typically two main scenarios employers are finding themselves in with graduates.
They are inundated with applications for certain roles
For more specialised roles, there is a smaller pool of talent and competition is high
First let’s look at the most common situation: receiving too many applications.
This can be a problem for a number of reasons that will affect your ability to recruit quality graduates…
Problem…Too many people with similar skill sets are applying and it’s difficult to distinguish who might be most suitable based on their application alone, suggesting there’s a flaw in the application process.
Solution…If you are using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), there should be options available to introduce more detailed screening questions. These answers should give you insight into an applicant’s personality, communication skills and general motivations for the role before considering their skill sets.
Your team should also set some common rules for what a good applicant looks like. For example: they must include a cover letter, they must have tailored their cover letter to your company, they must have a nicely presented CV – those kinds of things. This sets parameters that can help you weed out those who haven’t made the effort.
Additionally, ensure your employer brand’s mission and purpose are coming through enough on your job creatives – give candidates an accurate feeling of what it’s like to work for your brand, and they will likely deselect themselves if they don’t feel they are a good fit.
Problem…Too many applicants are under-qualified for the role they’re applying for – this may mean the application process is too easy or the information provided is misleading.
Solution…If you’ve been a victim of the ‘Indeed effect’, where applicants are just clicking apply to your role even if it’s not aligned to their skills, you can consider the following ways to reduce the amount of unsuitable applications you are receiving:
Consider promoting your roles on more specialist jobs boards, as this will prevent the vacancy from being accessible to anyone and everyone
Review your advertising creatives – are they giving out the wrong message about the roles? Is the company’s expertise shining through?
Make sure the essential skills, experience and qualifications are clearly defined in the job description or landing page
Problem…There’s no time to view the volume of applications coming through with any kind of detail – leaving you missing out on talent and those who don’t hear back feeling disconnected to your employer brand.
Solution…Again, this is where putting in some key filter questions can come in handy. You can use the answers to help determine the quality of the application before committing to reading the CV cover to cover.
For more high-level roles, you may ask the candidate to include a portfolio or include a short task as a first or second stage of application. Make sure this is clear in your job description, as plenty of people who don’t have the skills you need won’t want to proceed based on that request alone.
Lastly, ensure your ATS is set up to give automated responses to applicants. Make it clear that if they are unsuccessful they will not be contacted (providing that there’s no time to respond to each individual), but be sure to encourage them to apply for future roles again after 6 months, a year, or whatever time frame you choose.
Next, let’s explore scenario two: small or hard-to-reach talent pools for specialist roles.
This can also create an equally overwhelming amount of problems for your team.
Problem…Your specialist roles aren’t being filled because your offering isn’t strong enough.
Solution…Graduates in niche industry areas are likely looking for the role that’s going to benefit them and their careers the most.
When looking at your employer brand, think beyond just the salary and benefits. What are the candidates actually going to benefit from by being your employee as opposed to another brand?
Candidates need to feel excited about the future, not just the initial role they’re taking. Financial security and a decent roster of benefits are an expectation for many and alone are often not enough to inspire a big career move.
Problem…You may be losing talent to competitors.
Solution…When an applicant turns down your job offer for another opportunity elsewhere, it’s important to keep the window of opportunity open.
Ask them politely what your company can learn from their experience and what they could be doing differently, and add them to future candidate pools. Teams can then follow up in 6 months or a year via LinkedIn to make them aware of any new roles available.
Problem…You are not receiving a decent quantity of applicants.
Solution…Reviewing the media placements of your employer brand advertising should be your number one priority. Are your teams promoting the roles in the right places? Are they targeting aspiring developers with ads on Facebook instead of Reddit? Or hiring for a remote role in very specific locations?
Consider putting out an incentivised survey on LinkedIn or appropriate channels to gather first-hand insight into where someone might look for a specific role.
Problem…You are struggling to find the exact skills needed for your specialist roles.
Solution…Graduates aren’t going to come with the exact skills needed to join your organisation and hit the ground running from day one. In the longer term, it’s worth really thinking about how important these skill sets are to the business. Do they warrant creating a company-sponsored degree? Or an in-house training programme?
These kinds of opportunities help to mould prospects into the kind of employee your brand needs, and give them on-the-job training and experience. It’s a very time-consuming commitment, so you need to be sure that the investment is worth the outlay and disruption.
What are the priorities for graduates?
Depending on the industry and the individual, priorities for graduates will vary from person to person. A recent study by Bright Network did help to shine a light on what graduates as a whole are prioritising, some of which we’ll explore here…
They want to be upskilled
95% of members want to be upskilled directly by employers. Having a clear path of progression and training allowance can help graduates understand how your company can take their career to the next level.
They want a genuine commitment to inclusivity and diversity
Many employers preach about inclusivity but fail to live up to the reality. Having HR provide training on important subjects such as unconscious bias, celebrating a wide range of holidays, a commitment to fair pay and having dedicated strategic training programmes are all small steps every company can take towards becoming more inclusive and diverse. But a few gestures aren’t enough – the commitment must be ingrained in your employer brand.
They want to know that employee mental wellbeing is a priority
53% of Millennials were already burned out from work pre-pandemic, up to 59% today. Gen-Z is a close second, with 58% reporting burnout post-pandemic, up from 47% in 2020. While working from home orders and more flexible working have been introduced because of the pandemic, it doesn’t mean the workload has reduced in any way. Having a company show they put people before profit and prioritise mental health will be a key driver for many graduates.
They want to work for a company that’s actively reducing their environmental impact
If graduates are painstakingly separating their recycling each week, using metal straws and reducing their carbon footprint, they want to know that the company they work for is doing their bit, too. It’ll take more than an annual beach clean to impress candidates too – the products, services and practices your brand undertakes need to work hard to reduce short and long-term impact. This is increasingly becoming a dealbreaker for candidates.
Does your employer brand need to work harder to accommodate graduates?
With only 42% of students saying they feel prepared to enter the world of work, being there for them at this confusing time can help them build a stronger connection to your employer brand.
Make sure the application process is clear and uncomplicated. Don’t avoid questions about salary and progression. Have your company’s mission dominate your employer brand. They are the talent of the future, and in many cases the talent of right now too.
How you communicate your employer brand is vast – social media, emails, videos, adverts and more. Staying on top of your messaging and adapting your creatives with a constantly moving market can be a challenge – but BAM by Papirfly™ can help you digitise your employer brand, simplify your processes and help teams create infinite promotional materials every month.
How to meet management requirements when investing in a DAM
Papirfly
3minutes read
You may have heard the expression DAM? Or you have heard colleagues talk about it? Probably because these days, content is EVERYTHING.
Companies and digital systems
In today’s society, all companies have the need to invest and adopt technology that enables competitiveness and increased revenues. With a large selection of tools, it’s difficult to find the right course. Everyone would like a product that pays its own dues and anticipate where in the lifetime cycle you will break even.
You may have heard the expression DAM? Or you have heard colleagues talk about it? Probably because these days, content is EVERYTHING.
Companies and digital systems
In today’s society, all companies have the need to invest and adopt technology that enables competitiveness and increased revenues. With a large selection of tools, it’s difficult to find the right course. Everyone would like a product that pays its own dues and anticipate where in the lifetime cycle you will break even.
You may have heard the expression DAM? Or you have heard colleagues talk about it? Probably because these days, content is EVERYTHING.
Companies and digital systems
In today’s society, all companies have the need to invest and adopt technology that enables competitiveness and increased revenues. With a large selection of tools, it’s difficult to find the right course. Everyone would like a product that pays its own dues and anticipate where in the lifetime cycle you will break even.
Actionable tips for solid employer brand governance
Papirfly
6minutes read
Why is employer branding important?
One of the biggest mistakes in employer branding is that it can easily become disconnected from what drives it in the first place — the core mission and values of your business. This is what defines your company and should come through in everything it says, does and creates.
When constrained to your HR department, or only associated with superficial perks, your employer branding is missing its potential to create a company-wide impact on everything from your talent attraction and employee retention, to your output and – ultimately – business revenue.
A positive employer brand is something your company should be shouting about, and not just in the office. As well as being a way for potential candidates to get an insight into what your work environment is really like, it gives consumers a chance to see the human side of your brand and what it really stands for.
Your employees will thank you too. By communicating with your staff to understand the things they love about their work, how you can make it even better for them, and what drives them day-to-day, you can put them at the centre of your employer branding and foster a positive company culture. The benefits of a people-first employer branding strategy include better staff morale, more chances to improve their skills within the company and a better chance of creating advocates for your brand.
Establishing strong brand governance is the first step to getting everyone in your company on-board with your employer brand and become brand ambassadors — from C-Suite execs, to new interns.
What is brand governance in the context of employer branding?
Brand governance is integral to achieving this level of consistency at scale and across local markets. At its core, brand governance is a way to make sure everything that’s produced by your brand is aligned with the same consistent thread that encapsulates the look and feel of your brand, the way it behaves and what makes it unique.
While successful employer branding needs to be governed and embodied by senior leadership teams, the same core values, mission and sense of purpose need to reach everyone in the company, even if they are based in multiple locations.
Below, we’ve outlined the top considerations for making your employer brand shine with watertight brand governance.
6 steps for governing your employer brand
#1 Understand cultural nuance
If your company has employees working in different locations, then your employer brand strategy needs to go further than just one office. Without taking cultural nuances and work practices of each market into account, you run the risk of your messaging completely missing the mark, or worse, actually offending your audience and harming employee engagement. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that your messaging translates word for word in every country, or that your images will be received the same way. Your company culture has to translate for the local culture.
Taking an employer brand campaign global isn’t just a case of switching the languages. To avoid any embarrassing miscommunication from your employer branding activities, you need to find a way to align the central values and purpose of your company with what resonates with employees, candidates and consumers in specific locations.
#2 Accommodate different candidate pools
Across the board, organisations with a diverse workforce benefit from faster growth, a boost in reputation and a large global impact. If you only seem to attract the same kind of talent, then it’s probably a sign that your employer branding only resonates with a small talent pool.
Again, this is a case of working to better understand your audience and the different motivations, concerns, challenges and priorities within them. To attract and retain a truly diverse range of candidates, you need to think beyond the obvious categories and make sure that each is represented in your employer branding strategy.
It’s then important to communicate with authenticity, using messaging that you can back up with the way your company behaves.
#3 Get organised. Get a DAM.
When your employer branding is on a roll, and you have watertight brand governance to ensure global consistency, your teams are ready to produce assets to their heart’s content. Almost.
To avoid the chaos that can come with global asset production, they need somewhere to store, share and structure the materials they created using a Digital Asset Management system (DAM). Having a visual, well-organised filing system will make finding and sharing relevant assets quick and easy, and prevent your brand’s materials being misused.
#4 Keep your EVP consistent
For your employer value proposition to make any real impact on your brand it needs to land in the same way, anywhere your company operates. Without understanding how they translate in different local markets, your core values and purpose are at risk of being misinterpreted, or meaning something totally different depending on where you are in the world. Ultimately, you need to take steps to provide the consistent message your people need.
When you include teams from across the globe in your brand governance, they’ll have a clear understanding of how to implement it in their local markets.
#5 Simplify sign-off and approvals
In the midst of global talent recruitment campaigns, staying on top of approving hundreds of marketing materials accurately and in time for launch can be time-consuming, not to mention a stressful task for brand managers.
For the peace of mind that all your materials are consistent, accounted for and ready for market, having a streamlined approval process is essential.
#6 Get a hold of your assets
Avoid the unnecessary confusion of tracking down recruitment branding assets and materials by storing and sharing them from one location.
This can be made even easier if you can set permissions to ensure that individual teams only have access to assets created for their local markets and specific campaigns.
Tools for implementing strong brand governance
There is a wealth of branding software available that will make controlling brand governance a whole lot easier for you and your teams. In fact, the choice can often get a little overwhelming. Before you lose yourself in comparisons and reviews, here are the key features you need to look out for.
Template creation
Having a template is one thing, but making them bespoke is another. Smart design templates from a brand management platform make it easy to set predefined parameters to give your teams the freedom to be creative without veering off-brand.
Work from a centralised location
Through digital marketing brand portals, you can combine creation, management and storage. With one centralised location for everything that encapsulates your employer brand, your teams can align on guidelines, processes, approvals and more.
Make global brand alignment a reality
Through digital marketing brand portals, you can combine creation, management and storage. With one centralised location for everything that encapsulates your employer brand, your teams can align on guidelines, processes, approvals and more.
What’s the point of working so hard to define your Employer Value Proposition if your entire company can’t see it?
Open up stronger collaboration with global teams with a tool that allows you to bring them to the same location to find your brand’s most up-to-date assets and brand guidelines.
Data protection
With so many brands already seeing the benefits of employee advocacy, having an up-to-date resource of assets and imagery featuring real staff is becoming of greater importance.
Make sure your chosen branding software allows individual employees to sign off the usage rights for imagery in which they are featured to follow guidelines – General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, or equivalent for your region.
DAM
There are lots of Digital Asset Management Systems out there, but without the extra features and capabilities needed to make your employer brand shine, very few offer an all-in-one subscription solution.
It’s a huge advantage to have creative suites, templates, planning and analytics features built-in. This keeps things simple, with everything your teams need in one place. Plus, there’s no need to manage multiple subscriptions. DAM alone won’t be enough to solve your problems, but alongside a brand management platform it’s a powerful tool.
With the right tools for watertight consistency, successful employee engagement and easy asset management, you can put your brand’s best foot forward for attracting and retaining talented employees.
Global employer brand governance is crucial to attract and retain talent
The enormity of the tasks outlined in this article may feel daunting, but there are solutions out there that can make it all a straightforward reality.
At Papirfly, our dynamic brand management platform is transforming the way teams manage their employer brand through a centralised online portal. Teams get the tools they need to create, share and manage campaign assets across the world – and maintain total brand consistency.
Brand development is a cornerstone of business growth. With the sheer scale and complexity of developing a brand, which only increases as the brand grows bigger, an organised approach is necessary to be successful. Between brand guidelines, digital assets and campaign planning, there are a lot of moving parts among a rising number of employees and stakeholders. Keeping it all organised and under control only becomes more challenging as the scale of your brand increases, unless you have a good software solution in place to simplify the brand development process as a whole.
A single source of truth
It can’t be understated how important it is to get your digital assets organised, and make them easily accessible for the people that need them in your company. If your files and assets are in disarray and spread in all directions, stored on the designer’s computer or in a mess of folders in a cloud storage service, a lot of time is wasted trying to track them down.
There might even be old versions floating around that employees will come across. If they don’t find the right assets, they might resort to using outdated material or creating their own from scratch that breaks with brand guidelines. The consequence? Weaker brand recognition in the market due to inconsistent and ambiguous presentation, which in turn leads to loss of revenue.
With Papirfly’s Brand Hub you get a single source of truth that stores everything in one place, and is accessible by all employees and stakeholders. No more wasting time searching for missing files, and no risk of having old and outdated material in circulation, causing harm to your brand. When you can be certain that every asset is always on-brand and up to date, you can focus on brand development instead.
Central control – local empowerment
CEO of Jaguar Land Rover Ralf Speth once said: “If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design”. The second someone can’t find digital assets or the material they need for a new campaign, they will most likely create something themselves. These assets can quickly end up breaking with brand guidelines and dilute your brand, and so this situation must be avoided to preserve your brand’s integrity.
Our platform not only gives you complete control of your brand, it also empowers permitted users to create and tweak marketing material using your digital assets. By making your brand templates available online and linked to your brand guidelines, your graphical assets are ready for self-service across all your markets and time zones, with no risk of off-brand material being created and published.
Always available
An online solution simplifies brand development. It provides greater flexibility and empowers your employees to be more autonomous, so that your marketing team can focus more on brand strategy and campaign planning.
This also allows brand managers to present and share all details and content related to the brand with ease across the entire organisation and to collaborators.
If you are responsible for brand development, our brand management platform will provide you full control. Changes in your brand guidelines happen in real time and you always have full insight into how, when and where your content is used. In addition, we have solutions that allow you to create and execute branding initiatives with simplicity and make sure your launch is smoothly completed and reaches your designated target groups – always on brand.
Brand Hub – One home for your brand
One single source of truth. This is Brand Hub – your online portal connecting your people with every aspect of your brand.
A marketing portal where brand assets can be accessed, brand guidelines can be understood and the tone of voice, values and personality of your brand is there for everyone to see.
Showcase brand guidelines with clear examples for employees at all levels of the organisation, across every location.
Easy to use and update in real time, build your Brand Hub to your own specifications with the help of modules and pre-built functionalities.
Connect with other tools in Papirfly’s all-in-one brand management platform to unleash the full benefits, with features including Digital Asset Management, Template Studio, Marketing Planner, Collaboration Tool and Reporting and Analytics – everything you need to activate your brand.
Brand Hub is a home for your brand – a base of operations from which you can manage your brand and work on brand development with greater efficiency and coordination. Transform the way you work and help your brand come alive with Brand Hub.
If you want to read in more detail about what Brand Hub can do, and the problems it will help you to solve, download our brochure here.
Corporate heritage assets are strategic brand tools. A DAM solution makes them searchable, compliant, and creatively reusable across teams.
Brand management
Build brand recognition with smart design templates
Papirfly
4minutes read
Establishing brand recognition is essential if you want to build your brand successfully. When you’re going to market, you should also know that it takes 5-7 impressions before people remember your brand. This means that keeping your brand consistent, so that it looks and sounds the same every time, is highly important to attract customers. Without this consistency, customers may not give you as much as 7 opportunities before dismissing you completely.
We know achieving this consistency is easier said than done, but it is possible – with the right structure, system and the technology at hand, brand recognition is within reach. Graphic design templates make it far easier to create and publish marketing material, and keep your brand looking the same every time.
Achieving brand recognition takes time and effort. You have the recipe, and you know the drill, but at the end of the day, how your brand is presented is often out of your control. Sometimes colleagues will create material that breaks with your brand identity guidelines – or worse, they use old collateral. Sound familiar?
With design templates, this will no longer be an issue. This tool allows you to streamline design tasks and increase operational efficiency without risking a broken brand.
The power of online design templates
Graphic design templates are a powerful and lifesaving tool for marketers and brands everywhere. They allow you to automate the production of brand assets and marketing material, enabling anyone to create what they need, when they need it, with no special skills required.
Some amazing capabilities of online design templates:
Accessible online at any time:
When time is of the essence, keeping the templates always available is key. Log on, choose the desired template, and create a brand asset in an instant.
Self-serviced:
Usually, when it comes to creating brand and marketing assets, you either need a designer or designer skills. Not to mention the knowledge and capability to use design software. With self-serviced design templates, this is no longer a problem. Anyone can be a designer with this online editor, and you don’t have to worry about brand disruption. The templates have your brand identity covered.
Smart and flexible
Unlike Office templates or Adobe Indesign templates that can be altered by the users even though it is a “template”, graphic design templates are smart. The technology lets you pre-define what can and can’t be changed, giving you total control of your brand output. Every object and item has rules that narrow the design and creation options, you decide the level of flexibility.
If you are now thinking to yourself: “I know all this, but it’s impossible to practise in real-life, there are too many things getting in the way of my branding strategy and long-term tasks.” We understand. That’s why you need graphic design templates.
Key benefits of graphic design templates
With design template technology at hand, your branding processes will become a whole lot easier and you’ll be on your way to build brand recognition better than ever.
Your brand will always be up to date
By transforming your designs to online templates, keeping your brand updated is easy. Any change or alteration you make is done within the template and your users will always have access to the latest version. No more old and outdated brand assets.
Your brand assets are always available
Part of the challenge with brand inconsistency is when colleagues either create their own assets or use outdated files. By keeping your assets available online 24/7 and easily accessible, you eliminate this problem once and for all.
Your brand assets become self-serviced
Another part of the inconsistency challenge is the need to adapt to local needs. Today, with the large range of platforms, channels, and market needs, this is more important than ever. Adapting your assets is key to staying relevant in the market. Using online graphic templates, your colleagues and stakeholders will have instant access to the assets they need, and can modify them to fit their needs in a few simple steps.
Speed is of the essence in today’s digital marketing space. You need to be prepared for fast changes and updates, and you need to be able to deliver swiftly. Without technology and tools at hand, this is almost impossible. By allowing colleagues and stakeholders to create their own brand assets based on branded templates, you won’t risk putting off-brand content in circulation, and they can have their assets created in no time. It’s efficient and seamless.
Graphic design templates secure brand consistency
Another important factor in today’s fast-moving market space is that consumers are using a whole range of channels and platforms. This makes your market presence more complicated, but your customers also expect a consistent brand presentation across all channels. By having online templates for all the relevant platforms prepared and ready for use, it becomes far easier to have a quick turnaround time and be where your customers are.
Build brand recognition with an all-in-one platform
Our Template Studio comes as part of our brand management platform. Providing every person across your organisation with the tools to create studio-quality on-brand assets, with Template Studio you empower your people with the opportunity to champion your brand – and give your marketing team more time to focus efforts on core strategic goals.
How to build an employer brand that benefits employee retention
Papirfly
5minutes read
Attracting top talent to a company is more important than ever in the current talent market. To fully realise the benefits these employees can bring however, it’s important to keep them around for as long as possible to drive continued success.
Retaining existing staff nowadays goes beyond providing a competitive salary and a few day-to-day perks – all of the elements of a workplace have to align in order to create an environment where talented people truly want to be.
Failing to meet these expectations makes it considerably more likely that staff will simply look elsewhere for their ideal role. After all, the average person changes jobs 12 times in their lifetime.
As a result, crafting an engaging and effective employer brand is critical in retaining top talent.
What is employer branding?
WAn employer brand is how a company presents itself as a place of work to existing teams in the office. As well as pay and benefits, an effective employment brand should encompass:
Although a ‘customer brand’ and an employer brand are often thought of as two separate entities, in today’s connected world, the two should be approached as different sides of the same coin.
The markers of a strong employer brand
An employer brand is a crucial tool in the fight to retain talent today. But how can you determine the effectiveness of your existing employee brand proposition?
While every employer brand is different, the following traits can help give senior marketers an idea of whether or not their employer brand is on the right track.
3 techniques for building an employer brand that retains top staff
Building an employer brand that staff truly value doesn’t miraculously happen overnight. It takes careful planning, the buy-in of managers and the aid of specific techniques.
1. Establish a strong EVP
An employee value proposition (EVP) is a unique opportunity for an employer to demonstrate how they’re different from the competition. From the pay on offer, to the company’s vision and values, these elements should be specifically crafted to excite and empower existing staff.
Creating a strong proposition is not a matter of guesswork or copying what ‘hot’ companies are doing. It’s all about spotlighting an enterprise’s unique selling point (USP) and acknowledging the wants and needs of those in the office. In the quest for a strong EVP, consider:
Offering flexible work options
Supporting the mental health of teams
Backing cycle to work schemes and other incentives
A winning EVP shouldn’t just include the physical and financial needs of workers, it should also empower employees and get them on board with the company vision.
For a more comprehensive look into this vital part of your employer branding, read our article on crafting the ultimate EVP.
2. Create an employee advocacy program
A brand advocacy program is an internal process that encourages people within the office to talk about the company both online and offline to cast it in a positive light.
Whether this involves staff sharing ‘behind the scene’ photos from their workday, or teams engaging with content on social media platforms, both approaches can not only promote the employer brand further, but also help staff feel more involved in the business.
However, before giving teams the green light to post, a successful employee advocacy program must have a concrete process in place. A single typo, poorly worded post or inappropriate image associated with the brand could tarnish an otherwise solid reputation.
Take stock of teams throughout the organisation
Map out how best to utilise employees’ voice
Educate brand ambassadors on the brand’s purpose and values
3. Build and distribute an employee newsletter
An employee newsletter is not just a useful document for keeping teams within the business up to date with the latest news and developments – it can also serve as another way in which an organisation can strengthen their employer brand.
Creating and circulating an employee newsletter helps keep teams in the loop and serves as a vessel for departments to share their wins with the rest of the company. By giving staff an occasional forum to express themselves and learn about their colleagues, people will feel more invested in the business and the work they do.
To support the creation of an effective employee newsletter, a dedicated brand management solution can help teams quickly and easily assemble a perfectly branded newsletter. With the use of intelligent templates, even those without design experience can create on-brand assets with confidence to feature within.
The benefits of employee branding
By taking steps to create the ideal environment for teams in the office, businesses can enjoy a number of powerful benefits:
Employee retention is improved
When a worker departs a company, it can cost between six and nine months’ salary to recruit and train a replacement. In the wake of multiple departures, an organisation could quickly be looking at a six-figure expenditure down the road.
By holding onto staff for longer, and improving employee retention throughout the company, time and resources that may have otherwise been dedicated to recruitment can now be invested elsewhere.
Staff productivity is boosted
Between ad-hoc chats around the office, inefficient processes and other distractions, the average employee is productive for 60% or less of each day.
Taking steps to enhance an employer brand and engage employees can play a key role in improving productivity and work ethics. When people are united behind your brand values, they will be more motivated to put in the effort at work.
Worker morale rises
26% of employees in the UK are actively disengaged. Pair that with the fact that low morale correlates to an increase in negative behaviors such as absenteeism and conflict, and it’s easy to see how unhappy workers can bring forth a number of issues.
By building a strong employer brand and creating an environment where team members feel comfortable and happy, morale soars, workers attend their job more often, and friction between colleagues is kept to a minimum.
Activate your employer brand with Papirfly
Although employer brands are a huge benefit to talent retention, taking the steps to develop and implement a winning employer branding strategy is easier said than done.
Creating, managing and coordinating the content needed to nurture the internal brand alongside other marketing responsibilities can seem overwhelming and unsustainable.
Do you bring on new staff to fulfill the vision? Do you make concessions in one area to invest more into the employer brand? The correct answer is neither.
By using a comprehensive, all-in-one brand management platform, such as Papirfly, teams can streamline content production, coordinate resources quickly and deliver a compelling and consistent internal brand that retains team members longer.
To do this, our solution features a suite of tools specifically built to enhance employer branding. Some of these include:
Smart templates
Custom templates empower your employees to create infinite on-brand assets quickly and easily. With this accessible software, even those with no design experience can build compelling collateral with absolute confidence and no risk of breaking with brand guidelines.
Digital Asset Manager
The built-in DAM allows everything from brand guidelines to EVP videos to be shared with teams all over the globe in just a few clicks. Get everybody united in a single vision with ease.
Languages and localisation
Localise content swiftly and create crucial branding documents for teams in any region, all without the need for third-party translators or agencies. Take your internal brand strategy global with haste.
If you would like to learn more about Papirfly and how we can help enhance your employer brand, get in touch or book a demo today.
Corporate heritage assets are strategic brand tools. A DAM solution makes them searchable, compliant, and creatively reusable across teams.
Content Creation
How to create display ads at speed and at scale
Papirfly
3minutes read
The use of digital display advertising has become a marketing mainstay – and with nearly 70% of the global population now online, it won’t be going away anytime soon.
But creating visually appealing ads that stand out and get attention across multiple channels is no mean feat. And doing it at speed is more challenging still. That’s why an effective banner ad creator is on one of the most precious content creation tools a marketer can have.
How to create display ads that engage and convert
Display ads play an important part in how many consumers discover products and offers online. But getting noticed is a real challenge. The average person encounters hundreds of ads across their devices every day. At least half of them go completely unnoticed. The rest, many consumers would rather block.
Success doesn’t come from simply launching an ad and hoping for the best. It requires intention – building ads that feel relevant, look professional, and avoid being filtered out by ad blockers. The secret is to meet audiences where they are, with displays ads they actually want to see. The more targeted and meaningful your content is, the more likely it is to drive action.
That’s where display advertising software steps in.
Streamline digital content creation with a banner ad creator
So, how can you create responsive display advertising that puts your brand in front of your audience – fast?
One solution is to use templated content creation tools. Papirfly’s smart, easy-to-use templates empower team members to produce studio-quality materials, whether they have design skills or not. Key elements are locked in, so there is no danger of going off-brand. The result is that anyone – regardless of design experience – can build on-brand banner ads in minutes.
Producing digital display ads at scale with templated content creation tools
As the digital marketing landscape grows more competitive, the right content creation tools become essential. Display advertising software is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s a core enabler for standing out in a saturated space.
While it’s easy to focus spend on ad placements, production time and resource costs often go overlooked. Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management and templated content creation suite addresses both these issues, offering a centralized solution packed with customizable templates and tools to help you work smarter.
From accelerating time to market to reducing agency reliance, Papirfly gives your teams the autonomy to create banner ads at scale – while staying perfectly on-brand.
Does everyone create content that’s on‑brand, every time?
Find peace of mind with better brand governance.
Does everyone create content that’s on‑brand, every time?
Why is it challenging to create display ads at speed and scale?
Creating display ads quickly and at scale is difficult because it typically requires expert support to produce engaging, on-brand designs for different channels. Without the right content creation tools, production bottlenecks can slow teams down and inconsistent execution can dilute brand impact.
How do templated content creation tools support display advertising?
Templated content creation tools, like those from Papirfly, allow non-designers to create professional, on-brand display ads using pre-approved layouts. This streamlines the creative process and ensures consistency across regions and campaigns.
What makes a banner ad effective in today’s digital landscape?
Effective banner ads are visually engaging, contextually relevant, and professionally designed. They avoid intrusive formats, align with brand standards, and deliver clear, actionable messaging that resonates with target audiences.
What role does a banner ad creator play in digital content creation?
A banner ad creator makes building responsive display ads much simpler. With reusable templates and locked brand elements, it reduces reliance on designers, speeds up content creation, and ensures every ad meets brand guidelines.
How does Papirfly help marketers scale display ad production?
Papirfly combines Digital Asset Management and templated content creation, enabling teams to produce display ads faster and at lower cost. It centralizes brand assets and empowers local teams to create ads independently, without ever compromising brand consistency.
Elements of an excellent brand communication strategy
Papirfly
6minutes read
While reaching target audiences has always carried its challenges, cutting through the sea of noise amid the millions of competing organisations in today’s hyper-competitive market is one of the most difficult tasks for any business.
In addition, according to a recent study, only a quarter of stakeholders can differentiate between individual brands. With no stand-out qualities, it is likely that success for these enterprises is down, at least in some part, to chance.
Naturally, relying on the luck of the draw to attract customers and clients to a brand is no basis for ongoing success. But, how can you improve your brand, take control and truly shine? It all comes down to effective brand communication.
The role of brand communication
Winning business communication involves the use of many different techniques and mediums to convey a consistent, appealing and attractive image of the business to target audiences and shape positive perceptions.
Over time, as content imparts valuable information to customers and stakeholders, people begin to associate this enterprise with trust and value, boosting brand equity. If done successfully, robust brand communication can turn an uninformed prospect into a returning customer.
Think of some of the most well-renowned brands in the world, like Coca-Cola and IBM – you’ll likely associate these enterprises with positive terms, like ‘professional’, ‘expert’ and ‘trusted’ even if you’ve never been a customer.
This is the power of effective brand communication. It’s what differentiates generic cola drinks from Pepsi, and what helps keep the name of organisations ringing in the minds of the public for years.
As well as customers, communicating your brand effectively can also be an excellent way to better establish your brand, engage prospects and attract top talent in today’s connected world.
Now, more than ever, a strong brand has to be three-dimensional and stand up to the scrutiny of customers and candidates on the outside of the business, as well as existing employees on the inside. To do this, internal and external communication must be:
High-quality
To keep teams in the office productive and customers engaged, it’s crucial to communicate your brand, its values and its merits outwardly.
Consistent
While customers and employer brands are often regarded separately, the lines between both are blurry, making business continuity a must.
Authentic
With social sharing ubiquitous today, portraying a transparent and honest brand is key in retaining the admiration of employees and clients.
How to improve your brand communication strategy
Brand communication is one of the most important elements of an overarching marketing strategy. It’s how a brand portrays itself, how it forms deep connections with prospects and how it stands out in a saturated market.
But because this area is so complex and valuable, it can seem illogical to constantly update and refine your approach. However, the world of marketing is fast-paced. Platforms change. Customer and staff expectations shift. Best practices evolve.
To keep up, it’s vital to implement brand communication strategies as living, breathing entities.
Choose the right media channels
To shape how your brand is perceived by its employees and customers, your brand should strive to have a presence in the places where your prospects will be, whether that’s in physical destinations or on platforms like Facebook and TikTok, for example.
This is crucial because as many as 13 touchpoints are needed to turn a prospect into a customer, or an employee into an ambassador. If this content isn’t within reach, how can you expect your brand to leave an impression?
By carefully considering where content is placed across multiple channels, not only is marketing more effective, but promotional efforts are more likely to generate a greater ROI for your company.
In order to boost the equity of a brand, and ensure prospects can recall the business, it’s important to maintain brand consistency on a global scale with a unified look, feel and brand voice.
Although your collateral could be ticking all the right boxes and addressing the audiences’ specific pain points, if people aren’t able to attribute that goodwill to your unique brand, that positivity and trust are lost.
By nailing a consistent look and feel across your website and social media channels with the help of purpose-built Brand Activation Management software, a brand can become more recognisable and stand out from the competition. In the real world, this can improve revenue by as much as 23%.
Embrace crisis communication management
Brands dread the day when things go wrong. And while there is a small percentage of companies that have managed to dodge controversy, maintaining a spotless image – especially within a large or well-established business – is near impossible.
All it takes is a single brand ambassador to misrepresent the brand with a poorly worded post or a typo in a piece of corporate collateral to dent your reputation. While this is detrimental on its own, word can travel fast on social networks and magnify blunders small and large quickly.
To plan for every eventuality, a robust crisis communication plan is a valuable component of every effective messaging strategy. While these documents will vary from brand to brand, a good crisis plan should:
Note who has the authority to activate the plan under what circumstances
List the employees responsible for each task throughout the process
Draft messages for the possible crises your business could face
Collate the contact details of people and services valuable during an emergency
With a contingency plan in place, your brand can control the narrative in an adverse situation, and create a less stressful environment for workers both in and outside of the office.
Adapt brand personality for multiple scenarios
While a business must have a consistent brand voice, it’s important that this isn’t taken too literally. In order to appeal to candidates and customers on different platforms, the core message must be adapted to suit different spaces.
By taking a middle-of-the-road approach to brand voice, and failing to adapt the personality of the brand to different scenarios, messaging can seem stilted, irrelevant or unengaging as the content is not entirely relevant to the platform or audience.
Carefully tailoring internal and external communication using insight gathered from a strategic brand communication audit can drive better performance, as 74% of marketers say targeted personalisation generates greater engagement. A brand is a complex and incredibly valuable asset for any organisation, and it takes more than just an excellent customer communication strategy to form an image that employees, candidates and customers all look up to. To develop a well-rounded brand, it’s important to seek answers to the following:
What does your brand identity look like?
What values does your business image reflect?
How does your branding strategy align with overall business objectives?
Propel your messaging to new heights with BAM by Papirfly™
Messaging is a broad, vast and incredibly important topic when it comes to brand building and communication. From how you talk to your employees to how you market your products or services, this strategy is an integral part of your brand.
Due to its breadth and importance, it’s crucial to have a solid companycommunication strategy in place before embarking on a new campaign. By taking a gung-ho approach, you could risk compromising brand continuity, authenticity and quality.
However, developing a corporate communications plan that ticks all of the boxes is no easy feat – marketing is a fast-paced sector, and deadlines come and go quickly. To keep on top of your daily duties without compromising on quality calls for a dedicated brand activation solution, such as BAM by Papirfly™.
As well as featuring a suite of time-saving marketing tools, BAM is ideally suited to corporate communication because:
It allows teams the ability to develop quality, on-style content with confidence across several mediums, such as social media, leaflets, emails and more
BAM’s intelligent templates allow in-house teams with no design experience to effortlessly craft collateral that adheres to brand guidelines
The built-in DAM allows crucial documents, like crisis communication plans, to be shared globally with ease, allowing increased agility
Our all-in-one technology allows existing designs to be quickly adapted for new platforms or localised to different regions in just a few clicks
If you would like to learn more about BAM and explore how else it can help take your brand to new heights, get in touch with our team, or book a demo to see our solution in action.
Corporate heritage assets are strategic brand tools. A DAM solution makes them searchable, compliant, and creatively reusable across teams.
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