The quickest way to rankle a creative director is to ask to make the logo bigger. It’s an age-old feud that has existed since the dawn of advertising. It’s often the first piece of feedback shared, and has even led to its own song:
“Make the logo as big as you can.
And make the logo bigger.
I don’t want to tell you how to do your job.
But, could you make the logo bigger?
Bigger, bigger, make it big.
Make the logo bigger.”
A bigger logo won’t fix a small brand. It won’t make a brand more remarkable. There is no direct correlation between the size of a logo and the effectiveness of an ad. But, in the qualitative world of creative review, it’s a tangible, quantitative response. So, marketers give this feedback a lot, even if it’s superficial and even if it detracts from the strength of the creative execution.
The deeper issue is usually that the ad doesn’t link closely enough to the brand, but the debate often devolves into a tug-o-war on logo size.
That said, branding has to be prominent enough to link a creative message to a brand. There is a difference between advertising and pure entertainment after all. Sometimes, a creative director, possibly anticipating a tug-o-war over logo size, starts off with an execution where the branding is so understated that consumers will never take away which brand was affiliated with it, no matter how entertaining the ad was.
One creative director tellingly puts it this way, “Little does the client realize that your final allegiance is not to them, but to the quality of the work, something that you cannot in good conscience permit them to jeopardize with their lack of taste.” He goes on to advise a sneaky con game on “How to make your client’s logo bigger without making their logo bigger” that somewhat resembles this other cartoon I drew in 2007.
In a classic Mexican stand-off like this, no one wins. Get past the standoff, and instead of arguing about something as superficial as logo size, you’ll have time to come up with ways to make your brand more impactful.
Karl Sakas says
August 2, 2010 at 5:14 amTom, this is my favorite clueless-client line. It perfectly encapsulates what the client shouldn’t focus on.
What’s the solution, beyond intentionally undersizing the branding up front? We don’t all have the back-and-forth luxury of the “Missy the Cat” poster design process: http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html
salem smith says
August 2, 2010 at 9:22 amIf consumers don’t easily note the brand (whether this necessitates a larger logo, larger package, different position in the ad, or a different story), the ad will be ineffective.
Stef says
August 5, 2010 at 6:19 amI love your statement “A bigger logo won’t fix a small brand. It won’t make a brand more remarkable. ” I think the same can be said for a personal (human) brand: A bigger, louder voice won’t make a message more compelling; a more flamboyant, arrogant, or aggressive appearance/posture won’t make a person more effective. It’s what the product (human) actually possesses and delivers to meet the needs of the OTHER that will delight the customer.
Atrisa says
August 17, 2010 at 9:16 pmI am a newbie in a branding role and started following your blog only recently.
I was amused the day you posted this, but the day after I heard my boss say the exact same thing to the agency guy over the phone I was in splits 🙂
Will be on a lookout for more such wisdoms!
Faisal Alsaad says
August 22, 2010 at 9:41 amI used to face this problem a lot when I was back at Leo Burnett with the client service team managing two of the biggest clients in Saudi Arabia, alas, they both wanted their logos to be bigger than their heads, as if they weren’t known already to the market!