We all want to stand out.

We all like stories.

No one wants to be ordinary.

How is the above related to a company's content?

Content creation is not an option but a prerequisite in the digital world. Amid the barrage of information and image, marketers invent new ways of promotion and communication in order to spread their message to the public and stand out from the competition.

In other words, a brand must stand out, be heard and differentiate itself from the competition, while maintaining its identity and being easy-to-understand. And its content should always be fresh. Ugh.

As it turns out, content creation requires strategy, solid targeting and, above all, connection with our audience. Every time we create content, we must ask ourselves: What would I do if I saw this in my newsfeed? How does my client feel? Do I have anything essential to say?

But it isn’t enough for our strategy to be "on point". Our content, in addition to being strategically structured, must also be visually fascinating (or even magical at times).

From the very beginning of a brand, great emphasis should be given to the visual content. Our visuals should communicate the company's culture, its people and its history – not just its products or services.

More and more companies are turning to illustrations for this very purpose. Illustrations (fictional characters, objects, places, etc.) are the perfect pretext for telling a story. Human figures make our ideas more active, accessible and digestible, in other words they present the world the way we want it to be.

Many companies, in fact, go one step further regarding illustrations. For example, to promote their diverse corporate identity, Airbnb designed from scratch new characters for their illustrations, inspired by the whole world (literally), with different families, professions and even people with disabilities. And since one picture = a thousand words, see the results below:

We must always keep in mind that our "real" competitor is a dog (!) (@JohnThornton). Indeed, when we create content for digital media we have to compete with thousands of funny videos of puppies, babies and family pranks. No user (including me) wants to see an ad, we all want to get value from the content we consume, whether that value is humorous or educational.

We end the discussion exactly as we started:

Corporate identity must stand out.

Every brand has a story to tell.

Your competitor is a four-legged.

By Evangelia Kalinoglou, Graphic Designer of our super team!