The Brand Roadshow – How to Launch Your New Brand and Gain Stakeholder Support

In today’s business world, creating a strong and meaningful brand is more important than ever. It can set your organization apart from competitors, build customer trust and loyalty, and create long-term value for everyone involved. At BLVR®, we help changemaker organizations to chart a new path for their brand. And when we’re nearing the end of a project, one of the top questions we get asked is how to launch the brand internally. That’s where the brand roadshow comes in!

WHAT IS A BRAND ROADSHOW?

A brand roadshow is a series of meetings or presentations where the CMO can share the company’s new brand direction with various stakeholders, such as employees, customers, investors, and partners. The goal is to build awareness, understanding, and support for the new brand direction and ensure everyone is on the same page. It’s a powerful tool that can help to facilitate conversation and insights from stakeholders, ensuring that the new direction aligns with everyone’s needs and expectations.

HOW DO YOU CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BRAND ROADSHOW?

Let’s talk about how to create a successful brand roadshow. First things first, you need to build your story. We always like to start with an overview of the company’s history and an explanation of why now is the time to recraft the direction of a brand. This provides context for the new brand strategy and helps stakeholders understand its reasoning. 

The main content comes next, which should be a deep dive showcasing the new brand in detail, including the goals and objectives, insights and learnings from the discovery phase, brand positioning and the strategic framework, brand values, messaging, visual identity, and comms elements. 

It’s important to find moments for storytelling within the presentation, like using manifesto videos to rally the team or hype reels to build excitement about the brand rollout elements. 

After the brand presentation, allow time for stakeholders to ask questions and provide feedback. This is a great opportunity to address any concerns or questions that stakeholders may have and gather feedback on the strategy. Before wrapping up, discuss the next steps and how the brand strategy will be implemented.

HOW CAN YOU FIND MOMENTS TO SUPRISE AND DELIGHT AT A BRAND ROADSHOW?

When hosting a brand roadshow to socialize a new brand direction, finding moments to surprise and delight your audience can elevate the experience. It’s about more than just delivering the key messages and getting everyone on board with the new brand direction. It’s also about creating a memorable experience that people will talk about long after the roadshow.

One way is to bring in a guest speaker who can offer a fresh perspective or provide inspiration related to the new brand direction. This could be someone from outside the organization with expertise in the industry or even someone from within the company with a unique viewpoint. Having a guest speaker can help break up the presentation and add variety to the agenda.

Another idea is to build out branded swag kits for participants. These can be small tokens of appreciation that show your gratitude for their attendance and support. We avoid the typical chac-key items like notebooks in favor of more memorable items like tote bags, branded moleskins, or collaborations with other relevant notable brands. Not only does this make participants feel valued, but it also helps to reinforce the new brand direction by putting it in their hands.

HOW CAN YOU AMPLIFY STAKEHOLDER BUY-IN ONCE THE ROADSHOW IS OVER?

Once the brand roadshow is over, keeping the momentum going and amplifying stakeholder buy-in is essential.

We love to follow up after the meeting with an internal brand launch kit that provides stakeholders with the tools they need to support the new brand direction. This kit could include Q&A sheets, branding guidelines, messaging templates, and business assets. Providing these resources makes it easier for stakeholders to share the new brand direction with others and helps to ensure consistency across all touchpoints.

Consider setting up an internal brand ambassador program. Identify individuals across the organization who are passionate about the new brand direction and empower them to spread the word. Provide them with training and resources to help them effectively communicate the new brand direction and encourage them to share their experiences and successes with others.
Lastly, follow up your roadshow with departmental break-out sessions. These sessions, led by the brand owner and departmental head, are a great way to workshop how each team within the organization can align their activities to the new belief-led brand positioning. Together they can identify values and behaviors that support the new belief and brand positioning, ensuring it is lived out throughout every aspect of the organization.

A brand roadshow can be a powerful tool to socialize a new brand direction across the organization and with various stakeholders. By building awareness, support, feedback, motivation, and relationships, a roadshow can help to ensure that everyone is aligned around the company’s goals and committed to its success. If you’re a CMO developing a new brand strategy, take into account the power of a well-executed roadshow to help you achieve your objectives.