However, writing effective prompts can be the difference between receiving an insightful, entertaining, targeted response, and a vague, unhelpful one.

We’ve been talking a lot about our “go-to prompts” in the Fuller office – and in an effort to share some of them with you, we went straight to the source to find out the top dos and don’ts of interacting with AI, according to AI itself!

Here’s what ChatGPT said…

How to get the best responses from AI

Do, follow the RISEN Framework

• Role: Tell ChatGPT who it should be, including context about your business or audience.
  Example: “Act as a content creator for an Australian communication agency.”
• Instructions: Clearly describe the task.
  Example: “Draft a blog post on AI prompting tips.”
• Steps: Break down the task into steps, as though you were training a junior employee.
  Example: Instead of “Write a blog”, you should say “Write a blog with an interesting hook, include 3 main points, each with examples, and end with a strong call to action.”
• End Goals: Clarify the purpose of the request, communicating the broader strategy of the task.
  Example: “The LinkedIn post should summarise the key points from the blog and encourage people to read the full blog on our website”
• Narrowing: Add constraints for more precision. Can include aspects such as word count, type of language and tone, topics to emphasise or avoid, formatting preference etc.
  Example: “Use simple, easy-to-read language suitable for LinkedIn. Tone should be professional but warm, avoiding overly formal phrasing and jargon.”
  

Do, encourage reflection

Before submitting your prompt, ask ChatGPT to “think before” and to show its thinking. This not only encourages deeper analysis, avoiding generic responses, but also allows you to sense check the results – is the answer appropriately justified by its reasoning?
Example: “Before suggesting blog topics, I want you to think through what makes a topic engaging for readers and elaborate on your reasoning before you write each header.”

Do, ask for clarification

End prompts with, “before you start, ask me any questions that you need answered to help you generate the best response”. Clarifying questions can help refine the AI’s understanding of your intent, reducing the chances of receiving irrelevant or incomplete answers. This step is particularly important when dealing with complex tasks or nuanced messaging.

Do, iterate

Always ask ChatGPT to make edits or iterations. Consider each AI response as a draft. By iterating, you can fine-tune the output to better align with your needs. You might even discover fresh insights during this refinement process.
Example: “Now, revise the blog introduction to make it more engaging.”

Mistakes to avoid with AI prompting

Don’t upload sensitive data

Avoid sharing personal or proprietary information with ChatGPT, especially in an open AI system, as they do not comply with specific data privacy laws.

Don’t rely on AI for critical decisions

Avoid making business, legal, or financial decisions based solely on AI-generated content.

Don’t assume perfect answers

AI can occasionally provide incorrect or biassed information – so always double check its responses with a reputable source. A great prompt to get around this is to ask ChatGPT to “show its working” and cite its sources, then always double check answers with your own research.

Be aware that ChatGPT is skewed towards Western culture and performs worse with non-English languages. ChatGPT’s dialogue nature can also reinforce a user’s biases over the course of interaction, so it’s also important to be aware of this.

Don’t disregard AI’s carbon footprint

Be mindful of environmental considerations. Each AI interaction has a carbon footprint; managing AI usage efficiently and purposefully can help reduce this impact.

Be aware of updates and evolutions

As AI continues to evolve, so do the ways we interact with it, and the quality of responses we receive from it – so it’s important to be aware of updates as they happen.

OpenAI-01 is the latest version of the language model, which came into effect as recently as mid-September and has been designed to “spend more time thinking” before responding to prompts. According to ChatGPT, OpenAI-01 can “reason through complex tasks and solve harder problems than previous models in science, coding, and math.”

This is the first in a series of new releases expected from the language model, which will make the technology even more intuitive and intelligent… eventually making the need for prescriptive prompting (and articles like this) obsolete.

The post Tips and tricks for effective AI prompting appeared first on Fuller.

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They’re also packing their lunch, and having friends around for barbecues on the weekends instead of going out – noticed your local bars are closing too?

These canaries in the coalmine are a dire sign that cost cuts are having a real impact and these austerity measures are now also making their way into the big budgets of our big businesses.

With every household in Australia tightening their pursestrings, corporate businesses are starting to feel the pinch too, and the first thing to go when profit margins are low (or non-existent) is often marketing.

But can the marketing department really afford to fall off the radar at times like these? Or is this the time they should be taking a step up and surveying the bigger picture, to prepare themselves when things start to look a little brighter?

As a brand strategy and communication agency that has been in business for over 30 years we have seen our fair share of ups and downs – from recessions and a global financial crisis, to inflation and wild interest rate rises – and the one thing we always do when things are tight is to go back to basics.

For us, those basics are three fold: research, strategy and content – none of which involve spending a cent on media placement, but all of which will put you in good stead for when the cash starts flowing again…and it will start flowing again.

Research and reflection

When you’re taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture it’s always helpful to try and gain a different perspective, ideally the perspective of your clients or customers.

What do they value most about your business, what do they want more or less of, how do they feel about your brand and your service offering, is there anything you’re doing really well and anything you’re colossally failing at? These kinds of questions are hard to ask and sometimes the answers can be even harder to swallow, but the results can be magic for your marketing!

When you gain real insights into what your audiences want from your brand, and how they see you among your competitors, you can use this information to thoughtfully and strategically approach your communications and marketing tactics, from refining your brand messaging, to tailoring your service offering, to speaking to the right people rather than spending all of your money on reaching people you’re never going to resonate with.

Whether you take a qualitative approach through in-depth interviews or workshops conducted by a third party, which will engage your audiences to understand consumer insights and perceptions towards your brand; or a quantitative approach using surveys which extract data-driven insights to measure brand awareness, identify gaps and highlight key challenges relating to your brand; you can utilise this information to reflect on your offer, better understand your customers, and plan for how best to reach them.

Strategic planning

At Fuller we love starting with strategy, which basically means getting on the white-board and coming up with a plan or roadmap to follow, so you don’t get lost along the way.

It’s easy to get distracted – particularly during trying times – by the shiny new thing that may promise to reap quick rewards, but when it comes to brand communication, slow and steady wins the race.

Using research to reflect on your brand is a great place to start, and if there are clear gaps you can then work with professionals to tease these out and design solutions.

We approach brand strategy in a relatively structured way at Fuller, starting with discovery, taking insights from research, customer data and competitor analysis and then reflecting on this prior to workshopping brand pillars and a brand story, the heart of your brand. This then leads to foundational messaging, which underpins the brand visual identity (if one is needed) and external messaging to help communicate the new brand to key audiences.

It’s a simple process for a powerful outcome – a brand that speaks to your audiences and responds to their needs.

If your brand is solid, but you need to reach new audiences, a communication or marcomms strategy is another essential document to set you in good stead for when budgets are loosened. This involves thinking about your audiences and really getting into their mindset, what they want and need from you, then making a tactical plan for how best to reach them – from slightly adjusted messaging per target, to different marketing approaches, digital ads, TV, podcasts, TikTok, articles, or activations to engage niche audiences.

The great thing about working on a plan like this when spending is low, is that you can include a calendar and budget for what you can afford now, and what you can hold off on for the future. Look at you getting so organised!

Content is still queen-bee

While the term “content creator” is now a job title for 14 year old millionaires on TikTok there’s no reason you too can’t dabble in the dark arts, and that doesn’t mean dancing to Doja Cat in your underwear for millions of followers..

The most valuable thing you can do for your business in times like these is to stock-pile content.

Think thought-leadership articles for your website (just like this one), which you can post on social accounts now for free, and distribute with some media spend when funds are freed-up…and all the while these smart little blog posts will continue working for you day and night to boost your SEO rankings. Win win!

Also, now is the time to produce case studies, lots of case studies – tell your story, spruik your wares, and get in touch with that happy customer to ask for a testimonial. Then publish these on your website and add them to your pitch-decks so you’ll be ready to go when the floodgates open.

This rule of three is what has gotten us at Fuller through some of the harder times in business over the years, and if you follow suit you’ll be ready to hit the ground running when the RBA finally comes to its senses.

If you’re interested in having a chat about your marketing, you can reach out to our Agency Manager (Sydney), Kate Fuller at kate.fuller@fuller.com.au or get in touch with us. 

The post Can you afford to cut your marketing right now? appeared first on Fuller.

The post Beyond Awareness: A Human-Centred Design Approach to Impacting Behaviour Change appeared first on Fuller.

But what roles do business strategy, brand strategy and marketing strategy each play? And how do they interrelate? In this blog post, we explore the relationship between them.

Business Strategy

A business or organisational strategy details a firm’s vision, mission and long-term objectives. The organisational objectives form the heart of the strategy, which lays out specifically how the firm plans to achieve them and the resources that will be needed to deliver.

Business strategy considers many things, including market structure and competitors, entry and exit barriers, market segmentation, market trends, organisational scale, spread and structure, organisational agility, organisational culture, product/service portfolio, branding and differentiation, IP, business model, distribution channels, supply and demand, sources of revenue, cost structure, cash flow, technology, strategic partnerships and the keys to success.

The strategies proposed should reflect the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as its competitors and the market.

Brand Strategy

Brand is the expression of the essence of an organisation, product, or service – its reason for being. It communicates the characteristics, values and attributes that the organisation or product stands for, how it is positioned differently to competitors, and why a customer would buy it.

The brand strategy exists to amplify this brand to enable, express and bring to life the business strategy.

It consists of the brand positioning- the unique, relevant, credible and sustainable position in the market that it owns – along with the brand story, values, personality and brand tone of voice.

It should also include the employee value proposition (EVP), which is closely linked to your brand.

If there are multiple brands, it may also include a brand architecture framework and brand portfolio strategy. And if there are multiple brand audiences, the brand strategy may also include customer value propositions (CVPs).

Marketing Strategy

Once an organisation has signed off its brand strategy, it will need to create a marketing strategy and a marketing plan.

Whereas branding is strategic, marketing is more tactical and focuses on actively promoting and selling a product or service. It’s about putting the right product/service in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. It unearths and activates buyers. All marketing initiatives and campaigns should reinforce and support the brand essence.

A marketing strategy typically answers the following questions for a product or service:

• Who are its customers?
• Who are its competitors?
• What makes it stand out in the market?
• Which market trends can be taken advantage of?
• What are its strengths and weaknesses and what are the opportunities and threats?
• What initiatives and programs can be used to promote it and take advantage of its strengths and the available opportunities, mitigate its weaknesses and minimise the threats?

The intersection of business, brand and marketing

As you can see, there are several points of intersection between business strategy, brand strategy and marketing strategy.

The competitive environment, market structure, market segments and target customers are fundamentally important to all of these strategies, and all three strategies must consider market trends to be viable in the long run.

Branding precedes and underlies marketing efforts, and so marketing initiatives and campaigns should reinforce and support the brand positioning.

To create effective integration between business, brand and marketing strategy, consider the sequencing of these strategic plans so that each plan can be informed by the plans gone before them. Business strategy comes first, closely followed by brand strategy, and then marketing strategy.

We consider these connection points and associated conundrums as part of our daily fare. If you’d like a point of view on how to resolve or reconcile any of the above, we’d love to hear from you – please contact us.

This article was originally produced by BrandMatters, an expert brand strategy, research and insights agency, which was acquired by Fuller in 2023. Find out more.

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While double digit growth in premiums on the back of rising inflation and a slew of natural disasters haven’t helped the industry’s reputation, much of this damage can be sheeted back to poor brand communication.

The customers that are battling insurance affordability and availability don’t understand that increased exposure to risk comes at an increased cost. 

The fact that the industry manages more than 4 million claims a year with positive claims experiences for 90% of customers is lost on government regulators and the media who focus on the other 10%.

This means the industry is failing to attract smart young talent – especially women – at a time when technology such as AI and predictive modelling will threaten current work practices.    

The good news is that clients of insurance brokers have much higher trust levels than large companies. The Vero Insurance 2023 SME Index (undertaken by BrandMatters which was acquired by Fuller last year) shows that small to medium business satisfaction with insurance brokers is at 78%, well above pre-COVID levels. This satisfaction is particularly strong amongst larger businesses who value the pivotal role they play in explaining risk management and being a specialist risk adviser, whilst simultaneously acting as a true customer advocate.

“This is a testament to the strong relationships that brokers have with their clients and serves as evidence of the value of the profession to Australian business,” the report says.

Macro issues

The conference – which was something of a crystal ball summit – highlighted  a number of global trends and issues that are affecting the future of the industry.

Changing technology

The industry suffers from ageing IT systems, which were frequently bolted together as acquisitions occurred over time. These businesses are losing their competitive edge against faster moving companies that are adopting AI and predictive modelling technology to manage risk.  In this changing technology context many large, legacy insurers often appear as “deer in the headlights” paralysed by the need to change and unsure where to prioritise. The industry has long had a reputation for being slow to act and cope with technology transformation and is struggling with the challenges of the sheer volume of information and data points, the need for automation of these data points to deliver cost savings and the increasing sophistication required to leverage both these elements. 

Climate change

As one of the presenters highlighted at the conference, the increasing severity and frequency of catastrophic events has pushed up premiums by as much as 28% in some areas. In this new climate reality, insurers are distracted as they build a view across risk ratios and what risk is acceptable or not. How to define vulnerabilities in a rapidly changing climate and how to manage what are seen as solutions is the big challenge. For example, how does the industry respond to the desire by 85% of Australians to live near the coast when it is more vulnerable to storms and floods? And how does it manage the boom in EV technology when unstable lithium batteries may have an increased fire risk?

Regulation

Government regulators (and politicians) are increasingly frustrated with claims speed after catastrophic events. However, the sheer size of the workload after these disasters is beyond the capacity of most companies. Another presenter highlighted for example the Northern Rivers floods which created 224,000 individual claims in less than one week which is an impossible task for existing teams. Technology and its ability to process claims more quickly has a huge role to play here. 

Cyber risk

The insurance sector is a large holder of customer data and therefore represents a target for the global web of ransom-wear criminals. After Medibank Private and Optus, how prepared is the insurance sector for a breach?

Geopolitics

The ongoing geopolitical instability of wars in Europe and the Middle East is a chaotic environment for all industries but with 40 countries globally undertaking elections in the coming 12 months, the geopolitical outlook will be particularly unclear.

Implications through our lens of brand communication

Regulators are looking for insurers that have a clearly communicated internal culture around compliance, regulation and governance.  This includes fairness and transparency around policy wordings, claims, timeliness…and where the matter is grey erring on the side of the client. This includes reducing the inherent insurance product complexity within the insurance transaction. 

With this in mind companies need to set a clear purpose for their brands, beyond risk ratios, GWP and shareholder growth.
This means accepting the challenge of re-inventing their businesses around their customers.

• They need to do a better, clearer job of explaining to their customers what they are actually buying.
• They need to proactively control their brand’s narrative.
• They need to reduce complexity right across the insurance transaction with plain language, simplified graphics and the use of more contemporary explainer technologies such as video and animation.
• They need to take a positive community education role, becoming a thought leader in the press, on radio and on social media.
• They also need to build a sharper Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that seeks to attract and retain the best and brightest young talent who will drive the insuretech revolution.

In tough and turbulent times, clients seek the security offered by a strong, clear brand. 

Now is the time to refresh yours.

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But why is it we don’t ask a specialist to check our brand health?

The answer is that most managers assume a healthy bottom line is a sign of a healthy business – like being able to climb stairs without breathlessness. But like the hidden aspects of our health that are easy to overlook (but can prove to be fatal), a brand health check measures the subtleties that can make or break your business.

Business owners and organisation managers can be forgiven for feeling a little heart arrhythmia after the last five years. As if COVID wasn’t a big enough once-in-a-century challenge, humanitarian and political turmoil in Europe and the Middle East as well as the tepid relationship with a slowing China has led to anti-inflationary pressure from the Reserve Bank, raising interest rates, pressuring consumer cost of living and threatening business confidence.

If you’re feeling like a medical after all of this, imagine how your brand must feel. Isn’t it time you rolled up your sleeves and got your brand’s bloods done to determine how well it is positioned to handle these challenges…and others we don’t even know about?

So what is a healthy brand and what is a sick brand?

A healthy brand delivers on its promise to its customers so they keep purchasing your products and advocate on your behalf to other potential clients. If your brand is healthy it will also be serving its stakeholders (Board, investors, staff) ensuring they remain satisfied and loyal and engaged. 

A sick brand provides a less than optimal experience for your customers – service, quality, attentiveness to their needs. This means they will eventually look elsewhere for the same products and even worse, say negative things about you. It means your business can be vulnerable to new entrants and industry disruption. An unhealthy brand also means an unhealthy culture which can affect staff retention and investor loyalty.

What is a brand health check?

A brand health check is a cost effective research program that measures how your brand is perceived by your customers and stakeholders (including investors and staff), compares your brand to your competitors and then recommends strategies for improvement.

The core purpose of this measurement process is to not only understand the commercial strength of your brand now. If you measure and evaluate your brand on an ongoing basis you can help uncover issues before they arise, and develop strategies to manage that change.

Fuller takes an holistic three stage approach to brand health measurement, using a methodology which is designed to extract maximum insight and develop clear, objective recommendations. The three stages are:

Quantitative Research

We conduct an online brand tracking survey of an appropriate sample of a client’s customers and stakeholders. The measurement metrics are developed collaboratively with our clients but will often include brand awareness, brand consideration, brand preference, brand perceptions, purchase behaviour, your Net Promoter Score, and customer loyalty. 

There is a lot more to surveying customers than a simple MailChimp blast. The digital fingerprint of each respondent is checked and the survey path and browsing history is recorded, along with checking of open ended and contradicting response checks, ensuring the best possible sample. 

Our analysis is deep and comprehensive – we don’t just look for one dimensional answers to questions but we compare responses by segment or behaviour,  providing rich insights. Ideally this will take place twice a year to track important changes.

Qualitative Research 

Qualitative research enables us to dig deep into the data to understand underlying perceptions and motivations – not just the “what” but also the “why”. Focus groups or in-depth interviews  (especially for B2B or high net worth individuals) held once a year are an opportunity to bring together key audience groups in a semi-structured conversation to understand the nuances of consumer reactions and to explore the brand’s potential. 

The group format allows for individual responses and also provides an opportunity for respondents to react to and build on each other’s ideas. 

We believe that conducting focus groups at least once a year  will provide a more holistic understanding of brand health and highlight opportunities to further refine and enhance brand marketing activities. 

Implications Workshop

We then facilitate a 3-hour interactive workshop to report on the findings and translate them into a clear action plan. Facilitated by Fuller’s research and brand communication strategists, this is an opportunity for the team to interrogate the findings of the research and to collaborate to develop an integrated marketing action plan that will help clients sharpen and achieve their brand objectives.

So what are some of the questions businesses and organisations want answered with a brand health check?

The most common question CEOs want answered at the moment is, where can I get the best return on investment? A brand health check will provide a clear direction about marketing and business spend based on solid evidence. These are some of the key areas of interest we have identified.

Sponsorship

While a high profile brand sponsorship may appear to be building brand awareness, brand health research will be able to provide answers to questions such as; is the sponsorship building awareness with the right target audience? And what does the sponsorship communicate about the brand?

Advertising

A brand may be using a particular advertising campaign to overcome barriers to purchase, and brand health research can identify whether the audience is taking out the intended message, and whether the advertising is successfully changing perceptions.

Websites

Some businesses are slow to recognise the importance of a frequently renewed and updated website. When the marketing department needs customer evidence to show that the website is not working as well as it should, a brand health check will provide the empirical data to build a case for change with the CEO.

ESG

In a rapidly changing socio-political business environment, many clients and customers want to see their suppliers reflect their own views about sustainability, ethics, and diversity. How does your business measure up in these areas and how can you modernise your public persona without running the risk of cynical greenwashing?

Competitors

It is not helpful to always look over your shoulder at your competitors: it makes you insecure and double guess your strategy. However, an annual stocktake of your industry and what the fast movers are doing in terms of new clients, services and staff appointments will help you sharpen your sword.

Staff

It is easy to become complacent about staff motivation – no noise is good noise. But a confidential survey can reveal hotspots that need cooling and bring up great new ideas that will not only build culture but create differentiation in the marketplace.

Confidentiality, transparency and independence

Using Fuller to undertake a brand health check not only assures you that the services will be professionally executed but that the complex analysis of metrics will be summarised in an understandable and practical way. 

Fuller brings unique expertise across the marketing spectrum – not just research but brand development, strategy, creative and tactical implementation through content, digital, advertising and communication to ensure you gain a positive direction for the future from your brand health investment. 

Our independence will also ensure that the findings are confidential and transparent.

Like telling porkies to your doctor about how much you drink, truth is an essential outcome of any health check. 

Without it you’re wasting time and money and running the risk of a sobering surprise. 

For a confidential scoping conversation about checking your brand health contact Kate Fuller, Managing Director. 

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In 2023 we saw an abundance of creativity and progression in video advertising – with commercials and content reaching new levels, while also giving a respectful nod to the past.

From steps forward in technological advancements to paying tribute to technologies from generations before, the last year showcased the dynamic intersection of expression and innovation, and the evolution of storytelling in advertising.

Let’s focus on some of the trends that dominated the landscape of video in advertising and are poised to shape the future of commercials and content in the coming year.

Trend 1. Mixed Mediums

While mixing mediums is not new, 2023 saw all perceived “rules” thrown out the window, with audiences engaged in a greater variety of creative collaging than ever before.

Combining contemporary digital video with “outdated” formats like miniDV (VHS), 8mm & 16mm film, digital and film still photography, hand drawn animation, and computer generated animation, created a bigger palette for marketers and creatives to work with.

Mixing mediums is great for amplifying an audience’s engagement through film by connecting with the audience’s emotions through feelings, such as the nostalgia associated with older mediums, the excitement of a night out associated with flash photography, or the childlike wonder that can be felt when watching animation.

https://youtu.be/Z8WuvH8HK2E?si=6eJZFI7U5AHoWDtH

Sydney Sweeney x Ford Bronco® | Built Ford Proud | Ford
This spot for Ford is a great example of using mixed mediums. The film contains digital video, 16mm film, miniDV/VHS, still photography, drone footage and VFX.

Australian Government | One Talk At A Time
This campaign by the Australian Government utilises 3 different styles of computer generated animation to illustrate the perspectives of children

Elsy Wameyo | South Australia – A New State of Mind
This spot produced by Fuller for South Australia uses modern digital video alongside miniDV, still photography, drone footage and hand drawn animated elements to tell the story of musician Elsy Wameyo.

Trend 2. Shooting for all delivery channels

With average internet users spending more than 2 and a half hours a day on social media platforms (more than 30% more than spent on television), 2023 continued the ongoing shift in the hierarchy of delivery channels and reaffirmed that television is no longer a marketers primary platform.

Global ad spend on social media continues to increase and is projected to reach US$219.8bn (AUD$333.82bn) in 2024, ensuring campaigns that are customised for all platforms are essential to maximising reach and ensuring audience engagement.

Fortunately for marketers, these shifts have occurred in a time when updates in camera technology have resulted in an increase in recordable image sizes (4k+).

These extra pixels are now being leveraged to frame and compose one larger image that can be cropped for both horizontal and vertical.

The outcome is one shot which can be cropped for TV, YouTube, feeds, stories and reels, while saving time and costs and ensuring consistency of appearance across all platforms without sacrificing quality.

Marketers and creatives are now planning compositions and production around this technical approach with plenty of success.

Trend 3: Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) certainly created headlines in 2023, and its impact is being felt in the visual advertising and media landscape as creatives leverage this new technology to take their ideas in new directions.

From crafting compelling visuals to personalised content, AI algorithms are transforming the way brands engage with their audience. In the realm of visual content creation, AI-powered tools are becoming indispensable.

Like any tool, Generative AI is only as good as the person using it (see the Burger King example below). Whether it’s generating unique imagery, transforming visual effects processes or even producing entire video campaigns, the best AI applications are carefully considered, well planned and thoughtfully applied to amplify an original creative concept.

Coca-Cola® Masterpiece
Set in an art gallery, Coca-Cola’s Masterpiece utilises generative AI (along with other visual effects) to bring paintings by artists such as Ady Warhol, Edvard Munch & Van Gogh (amongst others) to life.

La Compil des Bleues (The Blues Compilation)
French telecom company Orange used Generative AI & visual effects techniques to transform footage of female football players into male players. The spot aimed to challenge prejudice against women’s sports and perceptions that female athletes are not as skilful as their male counterparts as a part of their campaign for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

BURGER KING® France | A.I.LLOWEEN
Not every commercial that has leveraged generative AI has been a beautiful execution of creativity or a thoughtful statement of equality. For Halloween in 2023, Burger King France launched this 100% social media campaign using generative AI to create fear-inducing images of Burger King customers losing their human form as they eat hamburgers.

Morphettville | A Day At The Races
In a creative use of technology, Fuller used generative AI to develop an animated group of horses in full gallop with jockeys riding in a scenario where filming on location or using stock footage was a limitation of production.

Trend 4. Unique Lenses

Specialty Lenses provide unique points of view that engage audiences by catching their eye and drawing them into the world. Probe lenses, ultra wide and telescopic lenses all allow for unusual perspectives that create interest.

Embracing the imperfections of vintage lenses allows filmmakers to create softer and more organic worlds away from the harshness that can be associated with a digital image. Vintage lenses also hold characteristics that are unique and not associated with modern glass, allowing content to subconsciously imply an emotion from the viewer. As with many trends, what’s old is new again and once forgotten glass is now seeing a dramatic rise in popularity.

https://vimeo.com/878522914

SATC | Travel. Our Way.
This commercial produced by Fuller for the South Australian Tourism Commission utilised 1970’s Canon K35 lenses due to their amazing performance and unique character.

https://youtu.be/j_sv4P_WOMg

META X RAYBAN | The Art of the Downtime
This content piece advertising the collaboration between Meta and Rayban and their smart glasses range used vintage 1970’s Zeiss Super Speed lenses combined with a modern cinema camera to give an organic texture to the piece.

Trend 5. Visual FX

For the most part, technological advancement is the underlying driver for a majority of the trends we saw in 2023 which are likely to continue this year. Visual effects, once reserved for the Hollywood productions with multi-million dollar budgets, are now accessible to productions with much leaner bottom lines.

While the eye-catching glamour of visual effects are great, the most exciting aspect of this technology (and the reason that this trend is here to stay) is that it opens up a new world of contemporary storytelling for creatives that was previously out of reach. This helps marketers to communicate to audiences with unique voices, create more engaging content and stand out from the sea of same.

CITB | Trade Up
In this commercial for the Construction Industry Training Board, Fuller used an assortment of visual effects from sky replacements to computer portals, all with the purpose of telling an engaging story that spoke to a youthful audience and encouraged them to change their perceptions of what a career in the trades stands for.

MTN DEW | Your Soul Needs DEW
Mountain Dew utilised high end visual effects to drive the storytelling in this amazing execution aimed at empowering audiences to unleash their “true selves” by drinking their beverage. Combining dynamic camera movements with thoughtful production design and costumes allowed the visual effects to feel cohesive with the storytelling, creating a bespoke world to draw in audiences.

Final Thoughts

In 2023 the video trends in advertising were led by technological advances and saw visual narratives expressed in new and exciting ways. A new arsenal of tools and methods to engage with an audience were added to a marketer’s toolkit, with almost any idea seemingly within reach (and budget!), inspiring what feels like a renaissance of visual storytelling in advertising.

This was balanced against a renewed passion for using older technologies and practices that has allowed brands to connect with their audiences (albeit subconsciously) by using textures and feelings that evoked an emotional response.

I believe 2024 will see these trends and creative freedom flourish, as further advances in technology allow the conventions of the past to be pushed and morphed further into new directions.

Brands and marketers can leverage this freedom to create unique perspectives, and tell human stories that will cut through and connect with their audiences. For those who are brave enough to embrace the change (while keeping their own truths intact), success will follow.

We are lucky enough to be living and working with so many options at our disposal, where the possibilities of the future will be limited only by our imaginations.

The post New Tech vs. Old School Feels: Five Video Trends for 2024 appeared first on Fuller.

When it comes to web accessibility, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the tangle of technical terms and complex compliance processes that can make understanding accessibility feel, well, not very accessible.

Meeting compliance standards can feel like a significant investment of time and budget, as well as the loss of some creative freedom. But with roughly 18% of Aussies having a disability, it’s important to consider the different barriers that may be preventing up to a fifth of your audience from engaging with your business via your website.

In our experience, it’s more than possible to create websites that are aesthetically beautiful, accessible, and user friendly, and we have 8 tips for improving the accessibility of your website. But first..

What is web accessibility?

Usability vs Accessibility Compliance

Whilst sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference between usability and accessibility compliance.

Usability relates to the quality of your target users’ experience. It tends to be measured via methods like usability testing, which involves assessing how intuitively and efficiently research participants can perform key tasks using an existing digital product or prototype.

Accessibility compliance on the other hand involves assessing a digital product against set criteria detailed in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG.

Together, good usability and accessibility compliance work to create intuitive and inclusive digital experiences that meet the cognitive, sensory, and emotional needs of diverse users.

Understanding WCAG

WCAG was created as a means for assessing digital products and determining how well that product accommodates the needs of users with disabilities, ensuring your website is..

• Perceivable: Can the content be perceived via different sensory channels such as sight, hearing, and/or touch?
• Operable: Can users navigate the site using a range of methods and assistive technologies such as keyboard navigation?
• Understandable: Can users understand content and features via clear terms, instructions and labels?
• Robust: Can the website reliably support and integrate with third-party technologies such as screen readers and be accessed via a variety of browsers and devices?

The specifics of meeting compliance are organised into different levels of agreement.

• Level A: Requires the most basic level of accessibility features
• Level AA: Addresses the most prevalent barriers for disabled users
• Level AAA: Thoroughly addresses barriers to the highest level

WCAG can act as guidelines for unofficial compliance, or be used as part of a rigorous certification assessment process, which is often required by policy for organisations operating in the government and disability support sectors. However most industries can cater for users with disabilities by simply designing and developing website features that comply with AA WCAG criteria.

8 Tips for Achieving Accessibility

1. Get Clever with Colour Contrast

With colour blindness affecting 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women, it’s important that the colour choices we’re making for text and backgrounds are perceivable for colour blind users. To find out if a colour combination is accessible or not, you can use a free online contrast checker.

Level AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4:51 for small to medium text, whilst AAA requires 7:1 contrast. In best UX practice, we adhere to a level AA contrast ratio for all web projects.

When creating the brand ID for The Autistics’ Guide to Adulthood, we utilised pastel and charcoal tones to create a palette that is both effective in creating an aesthetically pleasing look and feel, and compliant with AAA standards. Along with more colour options for illustrations and graphic devices, this brand ID was able to inform the design of a WCAG certified micro-site and LMS experience.

2. Add Alternative Text

When uploading images to the backend of a website, you’ll see a text field labelled ‘alt text’. With the exception of purely decorative images, adding a succinct description of what images and graphics depict will enable users with vision impairments to be able to navigate and perceive your website content using screen reading technology.

As an added bonus, Google also loves alt text. Making sure you’re adding brief alt text for all the images you upload to your website is not only good for accessibility, but can improve your website’s SEO too, which means your website will be easier to find via Google search. Win win!

When it comes to graphics like tables and infographics, you can adapt this content so that text is entered as page body content. That way, accessibility tools are easily able to navigate and interact with that text.

3. Add Alternative Media

When it comes to perceiving and understanding content on the web, there are more barriers than just vision impairments. Some users may have difficulty processing written language, and addressing colour contrast doesn’t account for the fact that different colours can convey meaning, like traffic lights.

It’s important to make sure that a combination of media types are used to convey meaning. For example, when a user has made a mistake filling out an online form, it’s not enough to communicate that error via a red outline around the form field. Nor is it enough to display an error message below the field. Or just an icon. The best case scenario here is to display all three.It’s also just good comms practice to provide a combination of video, text, image, and audio content that cater to different needs. Some users will prefer to read content at their pace, and others prefer to follow along a video.

Take care when adding motion to your website. Videos that autoplay with sound can be distressing, and animation that is too fast or flashy can be harmful for users with conditions like epilepsy. Users should have a way to pause any videos or animation if they so choose.

It’s also important to make sure accurate subtitles are uploaded for videos with speech audio, and that closed captions and playback controls can be accessed and used easily.

4. Create Clear Links & Labels

Helping your users understand what different features are for, where they are in the site, and where a link will take them are important for understanding and operating a website.

Ambiguous links like ‘More’ and ‘Click here’ can be unclear for users, as can icon buttons or form fields without labels. However, there are contexts where ‘Learn More’ or an icon button make the most sense visually, and in this case developers can add hidden labels that are not visible but still accessible for screen readers.

Features like breadcrumbs and local navigation can also help a user understand where they are in a website, and clear instructions and error messages help them understand how to navigate and resolve issues. External links such as PDFs should also be set to open in a new tab, so the user is not taken away from the website unexpectedly.

5. Accommodate Keyboards

Some users will find it easier to navigate the web via their keyboard rather than a mouse. This means using the TAB, ENTER, SPACEBAR, and arrow keys to navigate and operate the website.

Structuring page content to follow a logical order is helpful for supporting keyboard navigation. When it comes to implementing a UI design system, we always include focus states as well as hover states for clickable items, so it is obvious which item is in ‘focus’ when navigating via keyboard.

6. Follow a Logical Page Structure

Whilst also improving SEO, using correct heading styles throughout your content can help with accessibility. Descriptive headings not only effective for skim reading and visual processing, but also helps screen readers make sense of page content. Here are some examples of good html structure for pages and articles.

7. Integrate with Plugins

Third party plugins can integrate with your website to make it more operable, and a robust build is important for supporting these plugins. One plugin we’ve used is userway, an accessibility widget that allows users to adjust the user interface to suit their individual needs. These plugins aren’t a band-aid solution for accessibility issues, but as a supplementary tool to provide another level of control and customisation.

When building the Believe Housing website, the use of colours, icons, minimalist layout and logical information architecture informed a website experience that was fast to load, easy to process, and intuitive to navigate in various ways. The UserWay widget then extends on this by allowing users to change the colour contrast and saturation, increase text size and spacing, and more.

8. Test and Iterate

Whilst WCAG compliance is a great way to align your website with universal standards and consider barriers, it is at the end of the day, a guide.

There are certain aspects of user experience, like page layout, wording, and visual prompts like icons and imagery, that cannot be properly tested via a set of strict, objective criteria. That’s why adequate user research and usability testing with your target audience are crucial. Recruiting users with disabilities to test your current, functional website can be a great way to uncover fixable points of friction and make it easier for more people to engage with your business online.

Ready to build an accessible digital experience? Or explore ways to optimise your existing website? Our team of developers, designers, researchers and producers can help you do it. Get in touch today.

The post What the WCAG: Our guide to web accessibility and 8 tips for success appeared first on Fuller.

Brand architecture is how you organise, manage and bring your brands to market. It reflects your overall business strategy and shapes how your brands are presented to customers and how they relate to each other within your portfolio. 

These models are commonly used to structure brand portfolios, guide long-term brand strategy and support business growth decisions.

There are a few ways to structure brand architecture. In this article, we’ll focus on two main approaches: House of Brands and Branded House.

House of Brands

A House of Brands strategy is built around the idea that individual brands should stand on their own rather than relying on the parent company. Each brand operates independently with its own identity, positioning and target audience.

This approach is especially common in industries like FMCG, retail and consumer goods where businesses need to target different customer segments across various categories and price points.

Nestlé Australia is a classic example, owning brands like Milo, KitKat, and Nescafé, with the parent company largely invisible to consumers. Foster’s Group, now Carlton & United Breweries, works similarly with Victoria Bitter, Pure Blonde, and Carlton Draught.

The beauty of a House of Brands is flexibility. Each brand can target different audiences, markets, or price points without being constrained by the parent brand or conflicting with other offerings. 

It also helps isolate risk, so if one brand hits a bump, the others aren’t automatically affected. This is particularly useful when trialling new brands or launching experimental marketing campaigns. 

The trade-offs include higher complexity and cost. Each brand requires its own marketing, creative assets, and sometimes even separate teams. Customers may also never connect individual brands to the parent company, meaning slower brand building and missed opportunities to transfer trust and credibility.

Branded House

A Branded House places the parent brand at the centre, with all products and services drawing meaning from it. This approach works particularly well in industries where trust, reputation, and consistency matter.

Commonwealth Bank is a good example, consistently rated as one of Australia’s most trusted brands. Its reputation extends to products like the CommBank app, CommBank Awards, and CommSec. 

Qantas is another example, with Qantas Freight, Qantas Holidays, and Qantas Frequent Flyer all clearly linked to the parent brand, leveraging its trust and credibility.

One of the key benefits of a Branded House is efficiency. Marketing efforts focus on building one strong brand, which strengthens overall brand equity and creates a consistent customer experience. Success in one part of the business can also support growth across other products and services. 

The downsides include less flexibility for individual products to differentiate themselves and the risk that any negative event could affect the whole brand.

A data breach or compliance issue at the organisation, for example, can affect customer trust across all sub-brands because the issue is associated with the entire brand, not just a single service. 

Hybrid Models

Many organisations sit somewhere between the two extremes, mixing approaches depending on the brand’s purpose or market. 

The Cotton On Group illustrates this well. Cotton On, Cotton On Body, and Cotton On Kids operate as a Branded House, benefiting from the parent brand’s recognition, while Rubi Shoes, Typo, and Factorie function more like a House of Brands, allowing them to target specific audiences and markets independently.

Another option is an endorsed brand model, where the sub-brand has its own identity and positioning but the parent brand is visible in some way (logo, tagline, or mention). This endorsement helps customers trust the new or separate brand and can be used for new products, niche markets, or riskier ventures.

A good Australian example is Milo, which has its own brand personality and marketing, but the Nestlé name subtly reassures consumers of quality and trust.

How to Choose the Right Brand Architecture

Picking the right approach means balancing several factors. Building multiple brands can be costly, so sometimes focusing on a single strong brand is smarter. Expanding into new markets can sometimes confuse or alienate existing audiences.

Moving into lower-value or high-risk markets can also affect brand perception, which is why separate branding may sometimes be required. Where creating a separate brand might help. Risk management is also a consideration.  

A well-designed brand architecture improves marketing efficiency, aligns your value propositions with the right audiences, and creates a clear framework for launching or updating products in the future. 

Why Brand Architecture Matters

Brand architecture plays a key role in how your business is perceived and how effectively it scales. A clear structure improves customer understanding, strengthens positioning and ensures consistency across all touchpoints.

It also helps internal teams align on strategy, making it easier to launch new products, manage portfolios and scale the business effectively.

Without a clear brand architecture, businesses risk confusion, diluted brand equity and missed opportunities for long-term growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a branded house strategy?

A branded house strategy uses a single parent brand across all products and services to create a unified identity.

What is a house of brands?

A house of brands strategy involves multiple independent brands, each with its own identity and target audience.

Which is better: branded house or house of brands?

Neither model is better universally in a branded house vs house of brands comparison. The right choice depends on business goals, audience and long-term growth strategy. 

What is a hybrid brand architecture?

A hybrid model combines elements of both branded house and house of brands depending on the needs of the business.

What is an endorsed brand?

An endorsed brand has its own identity but is supported by a parent brand to build trust and credibility.

Final Thoughts

Choosing between a branded house vs house of brands is a strategic decision that shapes how your business grows and how customers experience your brand.

The right approach depends on your goals, market and long-term strategy. When structured correctly, brand architecture creates clarity, improves efficiency and supports sustainable growth.

The post Brand Architecture 101: Branded House vs House of Brands appeared first on Fuller.

Conjuring memories of campaign ideas left on the focus-group floor, and rounds and rounds of concept changes that lead to an outcome that resembles very little of your original vision.

We’ve all been there, and have the wounded egos to prove it.

But what if we said the future of our industry relied on our ability to adapt to our audience’s perspective, to learn how to compromise, collaborate, and truly listen.

The most effective co-design is not prescriptive or “design by committee”; it considers the user of the design first and foremost, and engages them to co-create the outcome.

Having worked on a number of co-designed projects in recent years, including The Spectrum, Autistics’ Guide To Adulthood, and more recently Face Dementia, we have tried, failed and learnt a lot about the best ways to approach this often tricky, yet ultimately rewarding process, for the better.

But first, a little about the methodology.

What is co-design?

Co-design (Co = Collaboration / Community; Design = Making / Creating) is a collaborative approach to design that actively involves community members in the decision making and creation process. It can be utilised in content production, service design, user experience design, policy making, or any space where the target audience’s lived experience will impact how they interface with the final product.

So what makes co-design different from other collaborative approaches to creation – such as human-centred design?

It’s all about community – and in the example of Fuller’s work with the autistic community, it was about adhering to a simple but essential project mantra: “nothing about us, without us”.

At its core, co-design is about empowering community members – who don’t just understand the problem space, but live in that space – to co-create alongside experts in order to make something that will positively impact their community.

In contrast, human-centred design requires community involvement in the form of research and testing – but the community involvement stops there. The data gathered allows experts to understand the problem space from an outsider’s perspective, so they can then make strategic decisions based on the evidence provided.

Quite simply, if human-centred design is designing for people, then co-design is designing with people.

Sounds tricky. So why do it?

If you’re getting group-assignment vibes you’re not alone, but what if we said co-design was simply about creating in a more purposeful way.

It’s more than just a set of tools and frameworks, it’s a movement!

Ultimately, we get better outcomes when we approach problems from the lens of those impacted by them, and co-design is about doing just that.

It challenges experts to take a step back, to put their own biases and perspectives aside in order to give people agency over their own experiences, desires and needs.

It provides an opportunity to hand power over to marginalised communities to create or make something that is more inclusive, culturally aware, and affirming.

It also leverages the niche expertise that comes with lived experience – like school teachers deciding education policy, CALD Australians informing mental health campaigns for their community, or First Nations Australians having a say on the policies that will impact their people.

After all, no one understands their own experience better than themselves.

So, how can we approach co-design as creatives, and what are some of the pitfalls we should look out for?

Key considerations of co-design

Before embarking on a co-design project, it’s important to ask some of the following questions:

• Who are the people we want to impact? How will they benefit from this?
• Do we have existing, quality relationships with community members we can bring on board? And if not, how will we build and maintain those relationships?
• Are we willing to invest the time and budget required to make this a positive experience for participants throughout the process and ensure positive outcomes for the community? What are the risks if we can’t?
• Are we willing to put our own ideas of success aside in order to reach a result that is truly beneficial to the community?
• Are we willing to acknowledge existing power imbalances and do what we can to make participants feel empowered, welcome, and valued throughout the process?

Enabling and empowering communities

At its best, co-design empowers communities and creates radical change. At its worst, co-design can be an expensive, time-consuming form of tokenistic box-ticking that leaves participants feeling disempowered, and has little community impact.

Every time we undertake a co-designed project, we get a little better at it. From having open conversations about roles and responsibilities up-front; to opening up dialogue around feedback to ensure clarity; to knowing when to say yes, no, and more importantly when to admit “I don’t know”.

Having worked on our first co-designed project with Autism SA, The Spectrum, in 2018, Fuller was approached again in 2021 to undertake another federally funded, co-designed project for the autistic community – this time for autistic adults.

While The Spectrum content was based on extensive literature research and interviews with the autistic community, and was briefed and reviewed by autistic writers and experts, it wasn’t designed by the community in the same holistic way as, Autistics’ Guide to Adulthood.

An online life-skills resource for autistic adults wanting to learn more about adulthood, Autistics’ Guide to Adulthood, was completely co-designed – from concept and creation, to testing and promotion – by a national advisory group of autistic adults. It was also managed by a project committee of professionals made up predominantly of autistic adults from Autism SA.

The advisory group consulted on everything – from the research presented at the discovery stage of the strategy, to decisions about the brand name, colours, fonts, and messaging. They wrote draft content and provided feedback on over 10 learning modules, 125,000 words, 90 infographics and 30 videos. They even chose and user-tested the learning management system the content was housed on.

So what did Fuller actually do?

We were quite simply the enabler, the “professional communication experts” and the executors, providing the community with ideas, options, words to consider, videos to review, clarity along the path of creation, and guidance in production – the community told us what they wanted, and we made it happen.

It’s a very different way of working for many agency-types, to relinquish control of the idea – to not just think about the audience but to place a project in their hands.

It takes time, discipline, patience, empathy and acceptance, but the outcome can be life changing – not just for the communities you serve but for your team too, professionally and personally.

So, the next time you have a project to deliver, stop and think about who it’s for, what purpose it will serve for those people, and how you might best fulfil the needs of their community?

The answer just might be, co-design.

Want to learn more about how co-design methodology can lead to better outcomes for you and your people?

Contact Kate Fuller via email: kate.fuller@fuller.com.au to discuss your project today.

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However the devil is in the detail and beyond the visible changes, it is vital that the strategic intent of the rebrand is clear, both externally, to your customers and internally, to your employees.

Change can be daunting, especially for long serving employees and loyal customers who have developed an emotional connection with the existing brand and may be reluctant to embrace the change.

A rebrand can only be successful if each and every member of the organisation is on board and stands behind the rebrand. This includes the C-Suite right through to the front-line staff dealing directly with customers. A team that is part of the process and fully understands the journey of the rebrand will be more likely to embrace it and advocate it to customers.

A rebrand announcement needs to create excitement, but it also needs to be clear and consistent.

If a rebrand is well planned and executed, then the communication part should be a lot easier. Ensuring that all of the assets are up to date and internal stakeholders are fully briefed, with a clear understanding of the new brand and expectations, will smooth the roll out of the new brand externally to your customers.

There are 7 crucial steps in the communication process that your organisation should consider when explaining a rebrand.

1. Communicate the strategic intent behind the rebrand

It is important to explain the strategy behind the rebrand decision. It may be as a result of a merger or acquisition, consolidation within your brand portfolio, new strategic direction, new product/service offering or in response to a changing business environment. Explaining why a change has occurred is as important as explaining what is changing.

Some organisations like to showcase a before and after approach, so that consumers and the internal team can associate the old with the new and get an understanding of the strategy behind the rebrand.

2. Communicate what is changing

Brand changes can be confronting for both internal and external audiences, especially if there isn’t clarity around what is changing. Whether it is a proactive or reactive brand change, setting clear expectations about the role of brand in your organisation going forward and then providing reassurance throughout the change process is critical.

3. Explain the critical elements of your business and brand that won’t change

There are certain fundamentals of your business and brand that should very rarely change, such as your purpose and the reason why you exist for your employees and your customers. A rebrand signifies a significant change in your market positioning, but it shouldn’t change the intrinsic and enduring aspects of your organisation.

4. Acknowledge the relationship to date and thank them for their ongoing support

A brand change is a unique opportunity to thank your internal and external audiences for their ongoing commitment to your business. Brand changes represent a different direction for your business and their ongoing, enduring support through the process will be critical in the success of the launch.

5. Build the excitement and make a splash

A rebrand gives you a positive reason to communicate and they are often used to build renewed interest in your brand and to remind your customers of your offering and the benefit you bring. Why should your audiences be interested in this change? What is the underlying benefit that they receive from this change?

Often, this benefit is as simple as a renewed energy from employees, and for customers the sense of engagement with the brand they are choosing to align themselves with, which will positively influence their service experience.

6. Bring people on the journey

A rebrand is often one of the first elements in a changing strategic direction for your organisation. There are many more exciting things to follow on from the initial change, and this is an opportunity to keep them engaged by teasing for further exciting initiatives within your organisation down the track.

7. Monitor the response to the rebrand and track your brand health

Finally, your internal and external audiences will have questions (and potentially concerns) that must be answered. Being accessible is important and transparency from your business leaders in this period of change is essential. Once the rebrand is launched it is important to monitor the responses, not just immediately, but over time. Some brand measurement may also be required to determine how the rebrand has been received or whether you need to further tweak the messaging or ramp up the communication to have it embraced further.

When you are sick of saying it, your audiences are only just hearing it

A rebrand is a significant process and should not be taken lightly. It is critical to get the communication and messaging right in order to assure your customers that the pain of change will be minimal and that the attributes they value most will continue on.

It is also important to engage your employees in this process and ensure they are taken on the journey. They will act as advocates for the new brand if they understand and believe in the process and have been communicated throughout.

At Fuller, we understand that a rebrand process doesn’t end once the brand guidelines are handed over. Our experienced communications specialists specialise in supporting you to plan how to best communicate your rebrand to all of your key stakeholders – shareholders, customers and your employees.

If you would like to find out more about how Fuller can support your team to communicate change in your business, please contact us today.

This article was originally produced by BrandMatters, an expert brand strategy, research and insights agency, which was acquired by Fuller in 2023. Find out more.

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