Imagine for a moment that you could create your own reality. Like the Christopher Nolan film Inception, you get to be the architect, determining the unique makeup of your dream – the experience, the colors, the sounds, the people. This is not just some mythical plot for a movie. As marketers and founders, we have the power to co-create a brand universe with our customers, team members and broader community. Most brands simply don’t take full advantage of this, missing a huge opportunity to continuously connect and engage with both new and existing customers.
No doubt, as a consumer, you’ve experienced the lasting effects of engaging within an immersive, experiential brand universe already. One of the most well-known and classic examples is Disney. The spatial planning alone within a Disney property has been studied by architects and experiential designers around the world. Each detail has been carefully coordinated to make you feel as though you are in a wonderland from the moment you step through the gates. The elaborate set designs and detailed storytelling throughout the parks reinforces the experience of being in a universe all of its own.
Beyond the Physical: Building a Digital Brand Universe
Today, building a cohesive ecosystem no longer requires you to have a physical space. A brand universe exists in the minds of customers more than it does within the confines of a physical location. Your platforms online are now the ‘space’ for your audience to interact within your brand universe, to share in common beliefs, values, stories, interests, trends, and even goals and dreams.
A great example of this is Taylor Swift. She has her own brand universe, with her own visual and vocal language and – through her shows, albums, and social channels – creates a platform for her fans to inhabit. She puts her heart and soul into something that’s meaningful to her, and invites her audience to participate in it.
Audiences today want more from the brands they interact with. Customers aren’t just your buyers anymore. They are collaborators, community members, and co-creators building your brand with you.
The ‘Game’ of Universe Building
The first step in universe building is to identify that core idea which will allow you to create a compelling brand universe.
If you follow the principles of improv, world-building is similar to finding the ‘game’ in an acting scene. The ‘game’ is to recognize a unique thing that comes up organically in a scene and amplify it. Rather than engineering something from scratch, you are discovering something that is unusual from the scene.
In brand building, we’d consider this unusual or unique thing an ‘insight’. It could be about your audience, the industry, or a unique attribute about your product or brand. It’s something that provides fertile territory for a bigger idea. That bigger idea is what gives you a sense for how to shape your brand universe (just as it would shape the improv scene), identifying how things and people within that ‘world’ would look, sound and behave.
What Makes a Great Brand Universe?
As you begin building your brand universe around your big idea, it’s important not to get too distracted by the gymnastics of what you need. Not every brand needs a podcast, for example, nor does this format suit every brand identity. Rather than thinking channel-first, build your brand universe from the inside out. Prioritize the identity of your brand first, then select the platforms, media, and channels that will best amplify your identity and can provide layers of story and personality for your audience to explore.
It helps to think of your brand world as a physical space. Imagine creating ‘lands’ on a map, each with their own distinct value and opportunities for audiences to engage with your brand. These multiple points of interest should collectively make up a cohesive ecosystem – furthering your brand’s overall ethos.
The most intriguing brand worlds also have one important element in common: scaffolding. There should be a certain amount of brand-regulated structure to these immersive brand environments. They’re not simply free-for-all places where anything goes. There’s socially accepted behaviors, unique practices, and even rules that participants know about and (mostly) abide by. While it’s important to know that people may break these rules, having them is important to create consistency with what is at the heart of the brand so a brand’s identity is not lost.
And finally, a brand universe should reflect the times and culture around it, evolving with the outside world to maintain relevance. This is why audience collaboration and input is crucial. Even in the most distinct and immersive Brand Universe, there should be a connection – direct or indirect – to insights, truths or realities about the audience. Simply disregarding the outer world is the quickest way to be deemed a ‘tone-deaf’ brand.
