Safeguard Your Brand When Using AI
AI is here. So here that other industries are referring to it as an “arrival technology”—a force so transformative that there’s no real decision about whether to adopt it. Just like the cotton gin. Just like the internet.
With this, let’s face the inevitable. Agencies, all agencies, will use AI. We said it.
This notion may have established brands quaking in their boots. Brands with years of heritage and hard-earned equity to protect; brands that feel their savvy consumers will sniff AI a mile away and think down on them.
How can brands benefit from the efficiencies that AI brings, without compromising on integrity? How can clients ensure AI helps build their brand rather than degrade it?
Here are the principles we live by (and think your brand should too):
1. Consistency is king
When it comes to core brand elements—your logo, colors, typography, tone of voice, and values—“close enough” is never good enough.
AI is powerful. Its ability to approximate reality and iterate can blur lines and loosen brand standards. But if consistency slips, so does equity.
In fact, it’s science. According to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science Institute and Byron Sharpe, author of How Brands Grow, “Advertising works largely by refreshing, and occasionally building, memory structures (and less by convincing rational minds or winning emotional hearts).”
In plain terms? Consistency builds brands. Inconsistency erodes them.
2. Safeguard what makes you you
Let’s pick on Coke. What does the brand conjure up for you? Red (of course), glass bottles, big trucks winding through snowy landscapes, the occasional polar bear—and an overall feeling of nostalgia and warmth.
Some brand elements are so distinctive, so easily recalled, that modifying them even in the slightest feels uncanny and wrong. This holiday’s AI-generated ads lacked the signature Coca-Cola feeling, and people noticed.
If a brand asset is distinctive, has emotional pull, is easily recognizable—keep it close. There’s no replacement for the real thing.
At BRIGADE, we believe the most memorable brands are built through distinction and consistency. And that when used thoughtfully, AI can support both of those efforts—while unlocking efficiencies that benefit clients.
Feel the same way we do? Drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.
