Branding a conference
for brand experts
BrandSmart 2020 Conference
The ask
The American Marketing Association of Chicago engaged McGuffin to create a fresh look and feel for its annual BrandSmart conference, the longest-running brand marketing event in the country, to encourage attendance among more Midwest marketing professionals. Mid-conference planning, the global pandemic necessitated moving the event online. The show would go on, “for the love of the brand.”
The answer
McGuffin refreshed the conference logo and visual identity with an attention-grabbing palette and bold iconography. Using the new identity, we developed social media, email campaigns and other materials to promote the conference and its speakers. Once the conference became an online-only event, McGuffin proposed renaming it to BrandSmart Virtual Experience. Nearly 350 marketers attended BrandSmart 2020 online, beating 2019 attendance. As an event sponsor, McGuffin also debuted a Hitchcock-inspired company video that told conference attendees all about what a “McGuffin” really is.
What we did
- Brand identity
- Email templates
- Social media templates
- PowerPoint templates
- Messaging
- Video
The team at McGuffin set a new standard for creative design and content for our largest annual event. The McGuffin team had a strong understanding of our brand, the goals of the event and our audience and were able to deliver an extremely creative campaign brand that we will be leveraging for years to come. They were very responsive, extremely professional and overall just a joy to have as a partner. I’d work with them again in a heartbeat.
