Rebrands, crunchwraps, and gas stations.

Greetings from back to school week, though mentally we’re still on National Lighthouse Day, which you definitely knew existed before this moment. For obvious reasons, we take this holiday very seriously at Lighthouse Creative and spend it in the most professional way possible — taking the day off and doing whatever the f*ck makes us happy.

While we could talk to you all day about lighthouses (or the company’s late namesake, Lighthouse the Dog), we'd rather talk to you about something far less fun…

How many more weeks will the writer’s strike go on before we give up and just watch Suits? 

Kidding. We have even more mundane content to share with you than that.

On to the #content:

Do you need a multi-million dollar rebrand or do you just need a content strategy?

There comes a time in every marketer’s life when  someone brings up the idea of a rebrand. OK who are we kidding this comes up roughly every 3 years, not so shockingly correlated to the average tenure of a CMO.  It always starts small, with someone suggesting looser kerning on the logo or something.  Then, before you know it, you’re  disemboweling Mr. Peanut during the Super Bowl. 

And while rebranding can be exciting (and very lucrative for your agency/expensive for your company), it can often blind you to a much simpler solution: updating your content strategy. 

So often brands are relying on outdated strategies that used to work. And instead of updating their strategy when it stops being effective, they throw the whole thing out. But that’s the wrong approach (obviously). You should constantly be evaluating your content strategy and seeing if it’s time to make changes.

We know. This “update” plan is far less sexy. But it’s also a lot easier, and it’s almost 100% guaranteed not to end with a crane stand-off in San Francisco. 

So, how do you actually do this? Step one: Evaluate your current goals. You have clear goals for your content, right? Maybe it’s brand awareness? Or top-of-the-funnel leads? Or direct conversion? These are three popular — and yes, broad — goals that each would lead to a different strategy. 

From there you want to identify your audience. Who are you trying to reach? And where do they hang out? There are approximately 800 ways to reach people. Odds are that 797 aren’t applicable. Advertising on LinkedIn, when your audience is on Threads, will never work (we know no one’s audience is actually on Threads, but still). 

Once you have a clear picture of your audience, it’s time to figure out what you can offer them that no one else can. If you’re a credit card, it’s a series on the best ways to spend points. If you’re Duolingo, it’s a TikTok bird doing weird daddy things. As long as the content is unique and providing value, then your audience will return for more. 

Like we’re doing right now. A minute ago, you had no idea Duolingo’s strategy included the word zaddy. Now you have something to share during your team’s awkward zoom lull. 

Value accomplished. 

Look, a rebrand can be fun. A rebrand can get headlines. But it won’t resonate if it doesn’t give people  something to hold onto. So before you go all in and tronc up your brand, try updating your content strategy and see what happens. 

Department of self-promotion:

Unlike everyone out there doing their best to get a lazy girl job, we’re out here creating great shit. So much so that it was hard to pick our favorite. However, like all parents who want to ensure their kids have enough therapy content, we knew which one deserved the spotlight: 

While your agency is busy pitching an expensive rebrand, we’re out here in the real world putting gas station ads together for our homies at Bay Alarm – the largest independently owned security business in the United States.

The gas station TV spots are just a part of all the work we do for Bay, including rebuilding their website, running their digital ad campaigns, and every kind of creative imaginable (except for blimps. We haven’t done blimps. Yet.)