The best moment in a campaign branding process, Chad Paris told me, is when a co-chair who’s been iterating on messaging for two years sits back and says, “for the first time, I feel like I can finally touch it.” That’s the whole job. Chad runs Parisleaf, and he builds the brands behind university and nonprofit campaigns. His core belief is that a campaign brand isn’t decoration, it’s what makes an abstract future feel real enough to believe in.
Watch the full-length version on Youtube (52 mins)
I agree with Chad when he shares that too often, brand is a wrapper. The strategy’s done, the goal is set, and then someone says, now make it look pretty. Chad’s point is that brand deserves a seat at the table from the very beginning, not the end, and that great campaigns make a choice. They stake a flag in the ground and own a space, instead of saying everything to everyone and nothing to no one.
He calls his process “fifty percent creative, fifty percent politics,” because, as he put it, politics eats great creative ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Getting hearts and minds bought in, across deans and presidents and donors, is the part he’s least worried AI will take. The future may be easier to render than ever. Getting a whole institution to believe in it together is still a profoundly human job.
Big Themes This Week
A campaign brand isn’t a logo bolted on at the end. It paints a picture of a future that doesn’t exist yet and makes it tangible enough to believe in.
Brand drives dollars through clarity, confidence, and belief, and the best brands are easy to understand, remember, and repeat.
Great campaigns stake a flag in the ground. Saying everything to everyone says nothing to no one.
Team Discussion Questions
Are we treating brand as strategy, or as a wrapper we add at the end?
Where are we saying everything to everyone instead of owning one distinct thing?
Does our communications team have a real seat at the leadership table, early and often?
