By Jennifer Herskind, FASTSIGNS

Every marketer who has ever worked with a franchise knows, buy-in from the network is everything and impacts the relationship between the franchisee and the franchisor. At FASTSIGNS — a strong, trusted, international brand — we saw an opportunity to refresh and build new associations to take our brand — and our relationship with our network — to the next level with a rebrand.

It has been just over a year since we launched our “Make Your Statement” campaign at our annual franchisee convention in 2022, and the response to the launch was overwhelmingly positive among our franchisees. Coming out of the pandemic, it was perfect timing to present the rebrand to our stakeholders. As our target audience was re-emerging and getting back to full-on business, it was the perfect opportunity to reignite interest in the FASTSIGNS brand.

Driving Results, Measuring Success

Our go-to-market approach, with the push to creativity in both message and media, not only helped kick off our rebranding efforts to our customers, but positively impacted franchisee perception for their own business’ potential. Since the launch, FASTSIGNS has seen franchisee satisfaction rating for long-term growth grow +3.3 points, the largest year-over-year gain we’ve seen in the past nine years. We increased customer acquisition and continue to see brand interest growing as traffic to the website spiked and maintains momentum. Ad recall for campaign year one changed by +150 percent. Among non-users — those who had not been a FASTSIGNS customer in the past — we saw a significant shift in brand perception as a “brand on the move,” along with significant increases in consideration. Metrics on video engagement continue to exceed Google norms by more than 30 percent — “phenomenal” is literally what our Google team told us regarding our video view-through-rates.

The new campaign is driving more valuable leads to centers. The average order value of new customers from marketing efforts in the last 12 months is +7 percent higher than existing customers. At the same time, lead volume grew driving more qualified new customers to our centers.

These were all good “signs” that the rebrand was — and is — performing as intended. Today, more of our prospects view the brand as one that’s dynamic and on-the-move, a classic indicator of brand strength and stature. The year one results certainly speak for themselves and there are three key takeaways to share with you:

Creativity Matters — Get Noticed, Get Engagement

Our creative idea was centered around transformation — not a subtle evolution of a space or a singular vinyl banner — but full on bold, vibrant, visual transformation showcased in 15-second ads with a new, upbeat brand soundtrack with an instantly recognizable stomp-clap. Each video was a symphony of color, image and the infinite possibilities brought to life by FASTSIGNS custom signs and visual solutions. We worked to make sure the creative was not only well-branded, but interesting and engaging. FASTSIGNS exists to help customers “Make Your Statement.”

Since the launch, FASTSIGNS has seen franchisee satisfaction rating for long-term growth grow +3.3 points, the largest year-over-year gain we’ve seen in the past nine years.

 The tagline functions as a bold invitation for customers to reimagine the brand and punctuate the experience of working with FASTSIGNS — it’s not about OUR brand, it’s about YOUR brand — and it’s a perfect call-to-action.

Insights Drive Strategy

We began the entire rebrand by conducting strategic research among our customers and our prospects to really understand the drivers of choice. This research gave us the insights that shaped our strategy without straying from our core vision. At the same time our research was being poured over by our team, research from Brand Keys backed up our own insights about the opportunity associated with emotional benefits. In 2021, Brand Keys reported 80 percent of all consumer buying decisions were being shaped by emotional benefits. We wanted to ladder-up from “rational” or functional benefits we see in so many B2B campaigns and tapped into the feelings and motivations of our target to inspire the campaign message.

It is powerful when what we communicate in marketing — the promise we make to our customers — is seamless with our operational delivery and customer experience. When those are out of sync, you can do real harm to a brand. When they are in sync, like they are today with FASTSIGNS, it can be incredibly powerful.

Integrated Campaigns Make a Bigger Impact

FASTSIGNS’ ability to fund national broadcasting and online video leverages our national reach and provides the contextual environment which interests our target. The “Make Your Statement” campaign extended to all our paid and owned communication touchpoints. At over 750 center locations we incorporated the new branding on windows and vehicles, which had a tremendous billboard effect for the campaign message.

Metrics on video engagement continue to exceed Google norms by more than 30 percent — ‘phenomenal’ is literally what our Google team told us regarding our video viewt-hrough-rates.

 Make Your Statement

As marketers, we all know how media fragmentation makes it more challenging to get a brand’s message in front of the right audience — at scale. Rebranding is a way to meet that challenge, but the strategic thinking and executional power of our creative agency and media partners, who worked in “ Metrics on video engagement continue to exceed Google norms by more than 30 percent — ‘phenomenal’ is literally what our Google team told us regarding our video view-through-rates.” tandem with our internal creative and content teams, helped FASTSIGNS achieve the success we wanted to see when we started thinking about how to go about rebranding.

The “Make Your Statement” campaign ultimately stayed true to who we are — who our customers are — and how their higher order emotional needs drive decision making. Rebranding is a large undertaking, but a winning recipe will drive success: Think strategically. Be creative. Stay focused on the customer. Align with the company vision. Bring franchisees along with you. Ensure the brand message is in sync with the customer experience.

When more people perceive the brand as dynamic and on-the-move, it’s the kind of brand people choose to do business with and a key indicator of brand strength, campaign momentum and continued opportunity for growth.

Jennifer Herskind is the chief marketing officer at FASTSIGNS. For more information about IFA franchisor member FASTSIGNS, please visit franchise.org/franchiseopportunities/fastsigns.