The Branding Awards: The Best, Worst and Weirdest Things We’ve Seen

This past week has seen the internet and social media flooded with the best and worst dressed of Australia’s TV personalities, thanks to the Logies. Inspired by our home grown talent, we thought we would marketing it up and bring you the best, the worst and the weirdest in branding.

While attire choices for the Logies can see celebs under scrutiny, they’re unlikely to have a lasting impact on their reputation. An awkward suit, a daggy dress — whatever, you’ll be popped on a worst dressed list for the year and we’ll move past it. We will likely continue to enjoy a TV program regardless of the actor’s fashion sense.

When it comes to branding a bungle can prevent your brand from growing and in worst-case scenarios, be hard to come back from.

First things first, let’s take a moment to remember that branding is not just your logo. It’s everything about your identity as a business coming together — a personality, a point of difference, a story, a feeling. A thoughtful, authentic brand identity makes a meaningful connection with its target audience.

Sometimes brands really nail it — sometimes not so much.

In some instances, it’s fascinating to see what resonates. Here are a few stand-outs:

The best branding award

Goes to: Who Gives a Crap.

Helping consumers to create an emotional connection to any product can be a challenge, let alone toilet paper.

And yet Who Gives a Crap has developed a brand persona that is incredibly convincing and well-loved.

Melbourne social entrepreneur Simon Griffiths is behind the brand, which uses 50 per cent of its profits to build toilets in developing countries. While that’s an impressive angle, the brand doesn’t just rely on the good it does to stand out — if anything, it’s more renowned for being fun, embracing puns in its marketing and its, ahem, cheeky persona.

The worst branding award

And the winner is: Women’s Network Australia.

Chances are we all saw this one doing the rounds earlier this year. While we do maintain that your logo isn’t the be all end all of your brand, it’s still essential that it represents your brand effectively.

The choice of what most people found to be a phallic-inspired design is probably not the best choice for an organisation representing women and gender equality.

Fortunately for Women’s Network Australia, the impact on their reputation was minimal, mostly because everyone just found it to be quite amusing. Plus, Scott Morrison was blamed for this branding blunder so the organisation escaped unscathed.

The weirdest branding award

And the weirdest award goes to: AAMI.

Sometimes a marketing campaign can be so powerful that it becomes a vital part of a brand’s story to the public. This is what happened when we were introduced to the love story that was Rhonda and Ketut.

Initially, the campaign promoting AAMI’s Safe Driver Rewards Program seemed bizarre, but we all fell in love in the end.

The growth experienced by AAMI as a result of this campaign was huge.

So too was/is the fact that AAMI’s campaign has become one of those special ones that gets incorporated into Aussie vernacular: ‘You look hot, like a sunrise’. Rhonda and Ketut even made a campaign comeback in 2020, showing that they are still going strong #longevity.

Get ready to appreciate the power of branding

To get it right, effective branding requires strategy.

According to this B2B marketing report, while 74% of B2B organisations have a documented marketing strategy, only 42% have a brand strategy.

If branding hasn’t been a focus for you up until now, or you’re fearful that you could end up on the worst or weirdest list, let’s chat.