As an organization that has been dedicated to better work for more than 100 years, the International Labour Organization has deep credibility. The organization’s authority is further bolstered by its tripartite structure of employers, workers and governments. The ILO is a trusted source for helping governments track their progress toward improving labour standards.
Your choices about applying branding to communications tools should be guided by a larger theory of change. Given its stature, it makes obvious sense for the ILO to brand its research reports and fact sheets. The ILO is the gold standard of research in this area, and also accepts accountability for the quality and accuracy of the data it shares. Research on what’s called “Umbrella Branding” suggests that when people know and trust the credibility of one product produced by a brand, that will extend to new products.
Where choices about branding get more complicated is in developing other tools that rely on ILO data and stories–the kinds of tools you may develop to support research reports.. For example, if you’re writing or producing a story about child labour or forced labour, heavily branding that story with the ILO’s logo on the front end will signal a likely ending to that story. Readers or views will surmise that this story is a success story, produced to burnish the reputation and credibility of the ILO. A story that’s heavily branded in this way loses one of the aspects that make stories compelling–their uncertainty. When we are introduced to compelling characters whose challenges we identify with, we’re eager to find out what happens to them. This combination of authenticity and uncertainty can be incredibly compelling.
Here’s an example of a project that unifies story, data and brand effectively. The University of California San Francisco developed this approach to sharing data and stories in partnership with the Bigger Picture and Youth Speaks to show the complex factors that lead to diabetes and obesity among young people. A particularly compelling example is a story written and shared by Tassiana Willis. She opens with a compelling story, and the video closes with the organization’s brand and a deeper discussion of some of the key data that are linked to the story. If the story, data and branding appeared in a different sequence, they would be less compelling, and we might not be inclined to watch it at all if it were branded by the University’s resarch team. Tassiana’s compelling story, which she tells herself through spoken word poetry, is authentic, powerful and moving. Once we understand type-2 diabetes through her authentic lens, we have a schema that brings meaning to the data when we hear it.
Another place where branding matters is when you’re disaggregating data to develop a data visualization or meme that you’re sharing on social platforms. In those cases, you’ll want to lead with counter-intuitive data with a citation for the ILO, and link back to the larger data set. But leading with strong branding in those contexts is likely to lead to people scrolling past what could feel like paid content if it’s heavily branded. Research shows that heavily branded content almost never performs as well as culturally created content on these platforms.
There are three important factors to think through when you’re determining how heavily to brand a product you’re developing: authenticity, predictability and credibility. Authenticity is critical in storytelling because a story has to feel true in addition to actually being true. Avoiding predictability is important because when stories become predictable, we just check out. When it comes to sharing data or research, it’s critical to assert your credibility, especially in a moment when misinformation is everywhere.
Applying these insights:
In sharing reports, data sets or dashboards that are likely to appeal to experts who already rely on your data to make decisions, lead with your brand to demonstrate the credibility of the research and rigor of the approach.
In storytelling, lead with compelling individuals telling stories in their own voices. Include your brand at the end, after you have shared the story and the data to bring credibility, authenticity
