Alan M. Siegel's Blog, page 12
July 26, 2023
A glimpse into the summer intern experience: 2023 edition
Internships are vital in guiding and kickstarting careers, as some of the most valuable life skills cannot be taught in a conventional classroom. Each summer, we select an ambitious group of interns to gain hands-on experience and mentorship from succoring managers and peers. During the past eight weeks working alongside seasoned brand experts, our interns adopted our simplicity mindset and learned to navigate the branding world in typical Siegel+Gale fashion: smart, nice, unstoppable and inclusive. As the summer draws to a close, our interns answer, How has your work at Siegel+Gale changed the lens through which you view brands?
Account Management
Aidan Pachino
My work has taught me that brands are more than just taglines and images; they are an experience and a promise delivered. The enemy is complexity, so to combat that, the Account Management team works to keep both the client and our team on track to deliver a simple brand experience for a target audience. I have learned techniques in research, factors that shape the perspective of a given brand, and the impact it all can have on distinguishing one’s business. These lessons will undoubtedly influence my future work.
Research & Insights
Eman Mozaffar
One of the first things I discovered as an intern is that we don’t just know brands, we experience them. And a lot of what makes a great brand is more deliberate than you’d think! You can measure different qualities against one another, hone in on what matters most, and determine what a company should focus on when crafting its customer experiences. It’s been cool to see that process from start to finish.
Strategy
Jennifer Kahn
My work has enhanced my understanding of how facts intertwine with creativity to fuel a brand’s success. Siegel+Gale’s motto, “Simple is Smart,” has truly become a baseline for my analysis, slides, and communication. I am so grateful to have worked with such a diverse and talented group of people in tackling brand challenges this summer!
Emilie Hofele
Working at Siegel+Gale has transformed my perspective on brands by emphasizing their role as experiences. I’ve realized that every aspect of a brand, from its color palette to its values and language, contributes to the overall experience. This experience is how brands deliver on their purpose. We deconstruct brands to their essence, eliminating complexity and chaos and instead focusing on simplicity. In Strategy, we use this simplicity to craft a strategic path toward a compelling brand experience.
Naming
Parker Eboli
Working at Siegel+Gale has opened my eyes to the world of branding—how brands are not just words, colors and pictures, but are intricately composed to create a story. My role as a namer is unique because the brand name is the opening line of that story. With simplicity at the heart of our work, brands can breathe life, inspire creativity and share knowledge.
Brand Communication
Stephanie Bucuroaia
As a Brand Communication intern, my experience working on the intern project and connecting with my team has redefined how I interpret language. Especially in New York City, every street feels like a playground for branding. The most interesting perspective I’ve gained is thinking about a brand as a person– their voice, personality, and mannerisms all play a role in shaping their identity in the market. It’s exciting to develop the toolkit for understanding how and why brands choose to communicate in the way they do.
Experience
Haylee Lee
As the work I’ve done at Siegel+Gale pertained mostly to designing digital experiences, I’ve become more attentive to the experience of entering and browsing a brand’s website. I’ve also started paying attention to other signatures, like newsletters and how some companies design their physical shops. I’ve realized how intentional brands can be in curating a customer’s experience. Overall, I’m situating myself in the creator role more than a consumer role in my everyday life.
Brand-led Change
Erica Nam
My experience has renewed my appreciation for brands, especially ones that demonstrate simplicity. More specifically, being a part of the Brand-led Change team has further taught me not only brands’ external but also internal value. Brands play key roles in informing and shaping an organization’s culture and an engaged employee experience. I find it exciting that I can participate in this kind of meaningful, people-focused work!
Design
Anna (Yu Jung) Jung
Through my experience, I’ve realized that brands are not just about logos and marketing campaigns but rather the embodiment of a company’s values and the emotional connection they establish with their audience. Siegel+Gale’s emphasis on simplicity has shown me the profound impact of clear brand communication in building strong relationships. As a Design intern, I gained an appreciation for the immense potential to use design to make a difference in today’s competitive market.
Matthew Cuschieri
The work I’ve been able to take part in has changed how I view where a brand’s impact takes place. Instead of being confined to consumers, a brand can change the internal company culture. Working within the Design team, my views on simplicity in branding evolved. I learned a simple brand is easily understood with concise messaging and considered visual choices.
Creative Services
Nate Krohn
As this summer’s Creative Services intern, Siegel+Gale has offered me exciting new avenues to approach and study brands. We engage with brands through a truly multidisciplinary lens. This approach is embodied by all teams throughout the entire process of creating a truly effective brand experience. As someone from a primarily production and design background, this holistic method of viewing a brand has proven greatly valuable to my own practice and work.
Marketing & Business Development
Lauren Wechman
My summer at Siegel+Gale showed me that when a brand creates its identity, every element is crafted with an emphasis on experience. Effective marketers excel at embracing simplicity, allowing the various moving parts to seamlessly write a unified story that is packaged with a bow and presented on our internal marketing channels. The beauty behind branding is how the brand essence is handled with care and respect throughout the process, upholding the values of both the brand leaders and consumers.
Brooke Bisceglia
I learned that a brand is the sum of many parts, and to achieve simplicity, those parts must converge at what we call the intersection of clarity and surprise. Brands come to life through color, shape, font, taglines and company values; they exude personality at every touch point, and it is all for a purpose. On the Marketing team, we work together in service to Siegel+Gale’s brand. We keep our brand salient through amplification and storytelling, using the sum of the creative decisions that went into our brand’s creation to advance business.
Human Resources
Russell Eustace
My work this summer has greatly simplified my approach to analyzing a brand’s success. As a Human Resources intern, I understand that building a simple brand starts with the employees. Through learning about what attributes make a brand successful, I have gained a deeper understanding of why I admire certain brands. At Siegel+Gale, I have become familiar with the various ingredients necessary to form a dynamic brand that can achieve long-term prosperity and adapt to the changes in the industry.
Each intern came to us with a unique background and an equally fresh take on the industry. Like our clients, they experienced each step of the branding process, from ideation to finished product. Through our championed simplification process, our interns funneled a world of information into meaningful lessons that will guide them in their career trajectories.
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Future of Branding: How CMOs are committed to building more inclusive brands
As the preeminent global brand experience firm, we at Siegel+Gale have made it our mission to help our clients build great brands. Inclusive storytelling is one of our preferred lenses through which to view and build brands.
With inclusive storytelling as the focus, we recently hosted a CMO Panel series, which convened 39 leading CMOs from around the world to explore how brands are at once building their brands and forging a more gender-equal world, as well as how storytelling in our marketing programs can shape culture and public opinion.
We asked our panelists: “What is your organization’s commitment (or personal commitment) to forging greater gender equity, and how will you measure progress?”
To explore the themes that emerged and how these commitments elucidate the opportunities and realities facing CMOs and illustrate the arc of a brand’s or leader’s commitment to creating a more inclusive world, download our report.
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July 16, 2023
The role of brand in M&A: Energy
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June 15, 2023
Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience (June 2023)
In this month’s newsletter, go behind the scenes of newly launched branding work for Warner Bros. Discovery and QuidelOrtho. In honor of Pride Month, download posters that create visibility and support for the trans community. Our brand experts discuss building a purpose and identity for Nielsen in our latest podcast episode. And, explore our new “Simplicity at work” study showing organizations that invest in simplifying their workplace benefit from greater trust, advocacy, enrichment and retention among employees.
Warner Bros. DiscoveryThe merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery brought together two entertainment conglomerates with very different backgrounds. Find out how we helped build a bold new brand for the media giant.
QuidelOrthoQuidel Corporation and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics merged and mobilized to reimagine the future of healthcare. Through data-driven visual language, we designed a new brand identity communicating QuidelOrtho’s passion for precision and empathy.
Pride 2023: Creating tools for trans visibilityEvery June, we employ our unique branding talents to champion the LGBTQIA+ community. This year, we focused our Pride efforts on designing posters that create visibility and support for the trans community. Download hi-res versions of these posters to use in this year’s Pride marches and rallies.
NielsenTo increase relevance in today’s radically reshaped media landscape, Nielsen—the global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics—partnered with us to evolve its brand. In this episode of Siegel+Gale Says, Nielsen’s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer joins our practitioners to discuss the intersection of brand building and inclusion.
Simplicity at workBrands that provide simple experiences win the hearts and minds of consumers—and employees. So, we surveyed 15,000 people across nine countries to measure the impact of simplicity in the workplace on employee engagement. Learn how our findings can help elevate your brand.
The post Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience (June 2023) appeared first on Siegel+Gale.
Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience
In this month’s newsletter, go behind the scenes of newly launched branding work for Warner Bros. Discovery and QuidelOrtho. In honor of Pride Month, download posters that create visibility and support for the trans community. Our brand experts discuss building a purpose and identity for Nielsen in our latest podcast episode. And, explore our new “Simplicity at work” study showing organizations that invest in simplifying their workplace benefit from greater trust, advocacy, enrichment and retention among employees.
Warner Bros. DiscoveryThe merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery brought together two entertainment conglomerates with very different backgrounds. Find out how we helped build a bold new brand for the media giant.
QuidelOrthoQuidel Corporation and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics merged and mobilized to reimagine the future of healthcare. Through data-driven visual language, we designed a new brand identity communicating QuidelOrtho’s passion for precision and empathy.
Pride 2023: Creating tools for trans visibilityEvery June, we employ our unique branding talents to champion the LGBTQIA+ community. This year, we focused our Pride efforts on designing posters that create visibility and support for the trans community. Download hi-res versions of these posters to use in this year’s Pride marches and rallies.
NielsenTo increase relevance in today’s radically reshaped media landscape, Nielsen—the global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics—partnered with us to evolve its brand. In this episode of Siegel+Gale Says, Nielsen’s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer joins our practitioners to discuss the intersection of brand building and inclusion.
Simplicity at workBrands that provide simple experiences win the hearts and minds of consumers—and employees. So, we surveyed 15,000 people across nine countries to measure the impact of simplicity in the workplace on employee engagement. Learn how our findings can help elevate your brand.
The post Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience appeared first on Siegel+Gale.
BorgWarner: Charging Forward
In SMPL Q+A, we interview our practitioners on all things relevant to branding, design and simplicity. Here, we speak with our experts about our work with BorgWarner . For more than 130 years, BorgWarner has been a transformative global product leader bringing successful mobility innovation to market. Today, the brand is accelerating the world’s transition to eMobility—to help build a cleaner, healthier, safer future for all. (Learn more about the transformation here.)
Why did BorgWarner engage Siegel+Gale?
Laura Marino, Senior Director, Account Management: In 2021, BorgWarner unveiled Charging Forward, the company’s accelerated shift to electrification. Charging Forward reflects the enterprise-wide excitement about the potential and promise of electric mobility. Siegel+Gale was engaged to define the building blocks of a unified BorgWarner story: a new brand narrative, voice and messaging. The output was a communications playbook, a tool for creating compelling, authentic content unique to the BorgWarner brand.
In late 2022, Siegel+Gale was re-engaged when BorgWarner announced its intent to spin-off the Fuel Systems and Aftermarket segments (now named PHINIA), consistent with its Charging Forward strategy. The company was in a place where they had achieved, or were on a solid path to achieving the three pillars of the Charging Forward strategy they laid out in early 2021. We continued our partnership and developed a future-focused logo for BorgWarner to signal a new chapter for the company. This marks the first time the logo has changed in over three decades. We also developed a detailed roadmap for implementing the new logo globally across its 80 facilities.
Strategy How was the new brand strategy developed?
Matt Egan, Managing Director, Strategy: BorgWarner approached us at a very exciting time for the company. They had a clear and transformative business strategy—Charging Forward—that laid out clear goals to become an electric mobility leader. All of our work was rooted in this business strategy, making it evident and tangible to BorgWarner employees and the outside world. Importantly, we needed to capture what this transformation would mean for the long-term, not just the next 2-3 years. Therefore, we defined a new promise for BorgWarner anchored in the idea of ‘Living Well and Driving Well,’ rooted in the ultimate health and wellness benefits that BorgWarner’s transformation would deliver to people.
Why is the investment in brand such an important milestone for BorgWarner?
Matt Egan: There is a lot of activity right now in the e-mobility space. New technologies and new suppliers have the potential to disrupt longstanding industry leaders like BorgWarner. BorgWarner made bold business moves, and the brand captured that in a very important signal to the outward world with for example, the Integrated Drive Module (iDM) that powers Hyundai’s electric vehicles.
DesignHow does the new logo showcase BorgWarner’s transformation?
Jason Miller, Creative Director: The new logo underscores BorgWarner’s commitment to accelerating the transformation to eMobility. It boldly signals a new chapter for the brand. The updated logo embraces the future of mobility with dynamism and speed. It has the spirit of a continuous line, like an electrical current flowing through it.
How can the new logo’s spirit extend into the existing design system?
Jason Miller: The simple linear forms of the new logo are highly compatible with BorgWarner’s existing design system. We also evolved the brand color palette to more fully embrace the contemporary dynamic of the new logo.
“To be in charge of updating a logo that has been in place for 30+ years, for a company with a history of over 100 years is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I knew we had to get this right. We needed to excite our employees and our external stakeholders. I believe we achieved that together with Siegel+Gale, as one team with a very purposeful and thoughtful approach.”
—Michelle Collins, Global Director, Marketing and Public Relations, BorgWarner
The post BorgWarner: Charging Forward appeared first on Siegel+Gale.
June 2, 2023
Pride 2023: Creating tools for trans visibility and support
We stand proud with Siegel+Gale’s LGBTQIA+ employees, their families and the broader community, and every June, we enlist the help of our LGBTQIA+ members and allies to show support in relevant ways and utilize our creative branding talents.
This year, we focused our Pride efforts on providing branding tools that will create visibility and support for trans people. Hundreds of bills across the country have been proposed and passed, criminalizing trans lives, denying them needed healthcare and attacking trans kids. Trans people continue to face physical violence and other forms of abuse at extremely high levels. And trans suicide rates continue to be among the highest in the LGBTQIA+ community.
A group of our strategists, writers, namers, researchers and designers came together to use their talents to help amplify the issues plaguing trans people. They created expertly designed posters with creative lines to carry in upcoming Pride marches, parades and rallies. But we decided to take it one step further. We are offering hi-res versions of these posters to download so that you can print and carry them at events across the country and worldwide.
Siegel+Gale champions all LGBTQIA+ members; now, more than ever, we support the members of the trans community.
(You can view and download our previously designed Pride-inspired Zoom background images here.)
The post Pride 2023: Creating tools for trans visibility and support appeared first on Siegel+Gale.
Pride 2023: Designing symbols of support
We stand proud with Siegel+Gale’s LGBTQIA+ employees, their families and the broader community, and every June, we enlist the help of our LGBTQIA+ members and allies to show support in relevant ways and utilize our creative branding talents.
This year, we focused our Pride efforts on providing branding tools that will create visibility and support for trans people. Hundreds of bills across the country have been proposed and passed, criminalizing trans lives, denying them needed healthcare and attacking trans kids. Trans people continue to face physical violence and other forms of abuse at extremely high levels. And trans suicide rates continue to be among the highest in the LGBTQIA+ community.
A group of our strategists, writers, namers, researchers and designers came together to use their talents to help amplify the issues plaguing trans people. They created expertly designed posters with creative lines to carry in upcoming Pride marches, parades and rallies. But we decided to take it one step further. We are offering hi-res versions of these posters to download so that you can print and carry them at events across the country and worldwide.
Siegel+Gale champions all LGBTQIA+ members; now, more than ever, we support the members of the trans community.
(You can view our previously designed Pride Zoom background images by clicking here.)
The post Pride 2023: Designing symbols of support appeared first on Siegel+Gale.
May 31, 2023
Warner Bros. Discovery: Building a bold new brand for an iconic entertainment merger
In SMPL Q+A, we interview our practitioners on all things relevant to branding, design and simplicity. Here, we speak with our experts about our work with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) . Warner Bros. Discovery is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates and distributes the world’s most differentiated and complete portfolio of content and brands across television, film and streaming.
Laura Marino, Senior Director, Account Management: The merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery brought together two entertainment conglomerates with very different backgrounds. Discovery’s brands, ranging from Magnolia Network to HGTV and Food Network, focused on popular unscripted lifestyle content, while WarnerMedia brought the heritage and prestige of HBO and WarnerBros. WBD engaged Siegel+Gale to create a brand that captured the combined organization’s bold vision for the future, attracting creators and investors and galvanizing employees. The Siegel+Gale team represented a cross-office collaboration, with employees spanning our NY and LA offices, all who felt passionately about being part of this exciting endeavor. Our team structure complemented our client team, who also have offices on both coasts. This proved very efficient, significantly improving our ability to meet our ambitious timelines. Having quickly established a close rapport with our clients, the brand is a result of the true partnership between the WBD and Siegel+Gale teams to arrive at the final brand strategy, visual identity and campaign for the corporate brand as well as defining the brand strategy for their new streaming service Max.
Lisa Kane, Group Director, Strategy: Despite the differences mentioned above, WarnerMedia and Discovery had something in common: both companies amplified the voices of storytellers to bring the world to us and transport us to new worlds. As one company, Warner Bros. Discovery has an unmatched breadth of content—fantasy and reality, scripted and unscripted, documentaries, news and sports—and the ability to bring stories to audiences on a global scale.
The positioning, “We empower creators to dream bold and share stories that move our worlds,” was rooted in this insight. One of the most important things to note about this strategy is that it is directed at an industry audience. Consumers worldwide may care a great deal about the brands they know—HBO, TBS, CNN, TLC, HGTV, etc. But Warner Bros. Discovery’s goal is to be a home for all creators and help them bring their stories to life. They needed a company brand that could help them reach and inspire the writers, producers, directors, actors, set designers, camera operators and hundreds of other roles I am neglecting to mention here.
The Warner Bros. Discovery brand strategy is an internal mandate and a call to action—to give creators the freedom and tools to realize their dreams and create stories that capture the hearts, minds and imaginations of people around the world.
Elizabeth Rodriguez, Associate Director, Strategy: The positioning is admittedly ambitious; it promises “boldness” and the ability for stories to “move our worlds.” While ambitious, it’s authentic. We uncovered these concepts at the core of the two organizations, which, on the surface, could not have seemed more different.
Discovery boldly amplifies niche corners of the world and HBO’s legacy of boldly setting new standards for TV needs no explanation. Both companies boldly explore the intricacies, hilarities and even absurdities of the shared human condition. It’s in this bold exploration that quality content is created, writers are heard and viewers feel seen. In turn, worlds behind screens and in living rooms move a little closer.
What made this project so unique was the nature of content itself. We weren’t dealing with a product that lives on a shelf or a service that is delivered. Content, in its best incarnation, has both afterlife beyond the screen and the ability to drive the cultural zeitgeist. Our strategy needed to consider content as a total experience; we needed to consider how content lives in theme parks or even drives meaningful roundtable discussions.
When realizing the impact of content in our world, the positioning didn’t seem so ambitious. In fact, the promise felt just bold enough.
Simrit Brar, Creative Director + Jason Miller, Creative Director: Our design philosophy is inspired by the moment when a creator/bold visionary frames a shot-bringing their point of view to the stories being told by Warner Bros. Discovery. The visual expression is a manifestation of the merging of the shared ethos of the two companies around a shared ambition. It is an invitation to enter Warner Bros. Discovery’s bold, rich worlds. Worlds that are exponential, forever building into infinity, forever expanding and alive. A frame that keeps changing, revealing new perspectives. You feel drawn in, propelled by not just Warner Bros. Discovery’s clear vision but also the diverse stories that open new ways of seeing, feeling and being.
The visual identity brings in new connected perspectives—amplifying voices, building bridges and connecting to one another. This is brought to life through the deliberate use of a broad color spectrum and rich, bold imagery representing the universe of the broadest and deepest stories told—from truth to nature to fantasy. It embraces the breadth and depth of Warner Bros. Discovery at every touchpoint. There is also a quiet confidence, leaning into the company’s legacy, balancing the vibrance with appropriate restraint where needed.
The graphic element that is core to the expression is called ‘the framing device,’ and it brings the bold imagination of our creators to life with movement, expansiveness and endless possibilities. The viewers are pulled into these worlds while we reach out and enter theirs. The framing devices aren’t just about capturing a shot or a moment. They open up infinite potential as they go from the simplest to the most complex, as a modular system to hold the vast universe of content, but also an element that effectively captures the positioning: “We empower creators to dream bold and share stories that move our worlds.”
Sam Starr-Shields, Account Director: We and the Warner Bros. Discovery team were both dedicated to finding the right strategy for merging Warner Bros and Discovery content together on one streaming app. From the start of the partnership, we worked very collaboratively with the Warner Bros. Discovery team. To ensure we had a good understanding of the strengths, roadblocks and culture of each company, Siegel+Gale interviewed a variety of key stakeholders from both Discovery and Warner Brothers. We then worked closely with the Warner Bros. Discovery team to establish a strategic brand platform for Max that complimented the Warner Bros. Discovery corporate brand strategy. Once aligned, we dove into strategic architecture recommendations for the streaming app, pressure testing how best to structure Max and organize different marquee content both companies brought to the table. Ultimately, we leaned on the idea that Max could offer content no matter your mood. Max offers everything from a date night drama to a lighthearted reality show.
How did the new brand shape Max, the refreshed streaming service?Lisa Kane: While the Warner Bros. Discovery brand was industry-facing, we had to take a more consumer-focused approach for Max, the new streaming service that combines the content from HBO Max and Discovery+. We created a positioning and architecture to articulate the benefit of having such a massive breadth of content in one place and invite deeper engagement with the platform.
The brand strategy was rooted in a basic human truth-what we want can vary from moment to moment and day to day, depending on what we’re doing and who we are with. The new platform would have it all, from popular genres to beloved franchises, the fresh and unexpected to the comforting and familiar. So, whichever “self” you bring to your viewing experience, Max has something for you and can serve up the best content for whatever mood you are in.
“When it came time to choose a global brand experience firm for the evolution of HBO Max, Siegel+Gale were the clear choice. They worked with us to craft a brand architecture and strategy for the new Max offering that was designed to connect with consumers on an emotional level and convey that our broad catalog of content offers consumers something to watch for their every mood, wherever they are.” —Vikki Neil, Executive Vice President, Global Brand & Creative, Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming.
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May 17, 2023
Simplicity at work
At Siegel+Gale, we’ve long held the belief that simplicity pays for brands that embrace it. Brands that provide simple experiences win the hearts and minds of consumers and employees. Our most recent, “Simplicity at work,” study shows that organizations that invest in simplifying their workplace benefit from greater trust, advocacy, enrichment and retention among employees.
We surveyed more than 15,000 people in nine countries to understand the relationship between simple workplaces and engaged employees, and how this impacts the bottom line for companies across the globe. We then looked at the connection between simple workplaces—those where employees easily get their work done and feel productive and fulfilled doing so— and levels of engagement with people and their employer’s brand.
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