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This article talks a lot about what happens when branding is done right. It’s never about the visuals, it’s about the experience of your customers.

When we talk about branding and design, many people immediately think about the visuals. But, only a few people understand how branding and design drive emotions and how far those emotions could run if the branding is done properly. Only a few people know why large and small corporations invest quality time and resources into good design.

This is a love story not of 2 people but of my love for branding and design and how it came to be. At the end of this, I guarantee that you will be in love too. At least, that’s my hope.

My name is Ola, and every day before the 22nd of May 2022, I was a designer with some love for design and all the abilities and opportunities it gave me. It was after 22nd May 2022 that I felt genuine love for the craft because of what it had achieved in the lives of over a thousand people.

AIESEC, a non-governmental youth development organization present in over 120 countries, has committed to transforming the lives of youths between the ages of 18-30 by facilitating countless practical experiences to the end that its members attain remarkable personal development and that the organization would achieve Peace and fulfilment of Mankind’s Potential.

They have designed an incredible experience model for both members and externals. This model was structured to enable “Exchanges”. Exchanges here mean that provided you are in a country where AIESEC is present, AIESEC has systems in place to help you travel to another country where AIESEC is present for you to volunteer, experience diverse cultures and learn things you can only learn firsthand.

One of these systems is “AIESEC Conferences”. There’s no need to explain what conferences mean. I only need to emphasise how AIESEC conferences were different from the conventional conference and how the particular conference that birthed my new love for branding found its way into this story.

NEXLDS (National Exchange and Leadership Development Seminar) is a conference designed specifically for members of the organisation to learn everything required to facilitate these exchange experiences better.

In a typical NEXLDS, members learn about sales, analyse data from past exchange experiences, run Hackathons to boost conversion, secure partners to enable better implementation of the exchange experience and so on.

Every conference was branded according to the location of the conference but in the case NEXLDS 2022, the branding was targeted towards the experiences to be delivered and that rationale, associating Branding to Experience, was what set the precedence for everything that happened after that design-wise.

This love story has its birthplace and setting a place in AIESEC in Nigeria, one of the many countries the organisation was present in. It was a National conference meaning the experience to be delivered was targeted towards all 1000+ members of the organization at the time and would happen at a central location selected as the conference venue.

The selected venue for this conference was Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

Results from a quick Google search describes this place as:

“the city where the Yoruba (one of the top 3 most recognised ethnic groups in Nigeria) believe their civilization began, as well as the location where the gods descended to earth according to the Yoruba tribe’s belief in the origin of the world. The name, Ile-Ife, literally means place of dispersion. According to Yoruba tradition, Ife was founded by the deities Oduduwa and Obatala when they created the world.”

There is already a lot of cultural heritage to lean into here, so naturally, when the Head of Brand and Marketing for AIESEC in Nigeria reached out to me to work on the event branding, my first thought was to go all in on the cultural aspect of the location.

A quick disclaimer, this is not just a love story. As a matter of fact, from here on out, you will be learning every step that was taken and needs to be taken to develop and deliver this branding and, as a consequence, some of the steps required to design a successful brand.

Steps to take to deliver a successful branding

Conducting research.
Developing/clarifying strategy.
Designing identity.
Creating touchpoints.
Managing assets.

Step 1: Conducting research

This is the phase where you gather as much information as possible about the product, service, person, or event to be branded.

For NEXLDS, research entailed digging into the branding assets of past conferences, analysing the overall attendance for the conference, collating data on the conference location, itemsing the goals and milestones set for the conference.

At the end of the research process, we found that:

Every other conference was focused on the location as the theme and that caused a subtle disconnect between delegates and the messaging of the conference.
Having suffered an operational hit since the halt of operations (selling and facilitating exchanges) due to the emergence and departure of COVID in 2020, the goal of the conference was to inspire, motivate, and re-orient members on the relevance of the product post-COVID.
As the conference was expecting members from 13 different states, inclusiveness was also necessary. As members in attendance were going to come from other ethnicities besides Yoruba which the conference venue was populated with.

Step 2: Developing/Clarifying Strategies

This phase is for coming up with clear directions and strategies having conducted research.

At the end of this stage we resolved that:

The event had to facilitate individual experiences so each attendee would connect to the goal of exchanges personally.
The branding had to drive inclusiveness.
It was necessary to map out each touchpoint to facilitate individuality and regard for culture.
To truly captivate its youthful audience, we reimagined NEXLDS as a thrilling movie/game-like simulation where each delegate was the star of their own blockbuster. They weren't just passive attendees; we created a canvas where they were the ones driving the plot, creating a truly unforgettable experience.

Step 3: Designing Identity

This phase is where the visual design actually starts, and the exploration of concepts for the visual appeal based on the branding strategy comes in

Here is the make-up of the brand identity:

The Wooden Torch: to symbolize ancient history and enlightenment
The Movie Strip: to symbolise a movie cause the conference was themed as a movie where the delegate was a character.
The concaveness of the NETFLIX logo: as a reference to the movie theme.

Step 4: Creating touchpoints.

This phase is where you develop channels where you want your target audience to interact with your brand.

For NEXLDS, we were looking to sell the conference as a movie experience, so we needed to integrate the theme as much as possible and here's how that was achieved,

Instagram and Whatsapp were used for sharing posters for the event.
Google Mail was used to distribute delegate mailers (a document containing all the details of the event).
The room doors had welcome notes scripted like movie manuscripts.
The registration was done on a customized website themed for the event. Every person who registered was addressed as “a character” and the texts in the form were crafted accordingly.
At the conference, every character took a movie headshot as momentum.
The color grading for the event was adjusted to rural and mundane feel.
The dress-code for the event was largely cultural.
… And so on.

Step 5: Managing assets

This usually entails making sure that everything that represents the brand is in line with the style guide (a book that contains the dos and don’ts of the brand down to the messaging).

Everything was shared in a google drive.
The styles guide was detailed and it contained colors, fonts, patterns and the logo in difference variations.

Till date, there are testimonies about NEXLDS being the best conference of 2022 or the best by them. Not just because everything looked super good visually but because from the point of registration, to getting a registration ticket to the conference location to the sessions, dances and post-conference tour visit to a landmark in the city, everyone knew what was trying to be communicated and they bought into it.

Here’s a link to the event documentary:

https://youtu.be/Ls8_tsGNzc4

Here’s a link to the event website.

https://nexldsife2022.vercel.app/

My love stems from knowing that, to date, people still regard the conference as one of the best, and as a character, they have endless memories over a thousand people to hold on to from it.

Branding is a powerful tool, Take time to use it.