Before branding became a word thrown around in boardrooms, it meant a literal brand scorched into livestock to signal ownership. Barbaric, yes. It played a purely functional role and wasn’t exactly emotive — but its purpose mirrors what branding in marketing still aims to do today: prove ownership, stand apart from others, and deter copycats.
But over time, function wasn’t enough. As mass production took off and product choice exploded, brands needed something more than utility to stand out. They needed people to feel something. In the early 1900s, brands like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Kellogg’s understood they were selling ideas as much as they were selling products. Coca-Cola wasn’t just fizzy sugar water, it was happiness in a bottle. Ford wasn’t just a car, it was freedom on four wheels. Kellogg’s wasn’t just cereal, it was the wholesome start to an American morning.
This Kelloggs ad from 1962 is about more than just cereal
Source: Pinterest
The mid-century ad boom cemented this shift. Psychology and creativity combined to create brands that were less about features and more about feelings. Emotional connection became the goal, and consistency was the method.
Every billboard, jingle, and ad followed a tight brand playbook. The colours. The typography. The tagline. The voice. All synchronised to build familiarity, because familiarity breeds trust, and trust creates loyal customers.
This worked for decades.
But then the internet happened.
Social media blew it all up (in a good way)
In the 2010s, everything went off-script. Social media platforms like Twitter (now X), Instagram, and later TikTok shifted power from brands to audiences. Brands weren’t just speaking at people anymore. They were speaking with them.
This flipped the branding rulebook on its head. No longer could companies hide behind polish and perfection. They had to show up, speak up, and stay relevant, often in real time. And the ones that leaned in thrived.
According to Hootsuite’s 2025 Social Media Trends Report, 43% of organisations have tried out a new tone of voice, personality, or persona on social media in the last year, showing that ‘off-brand’ content is on the rise.
But ‘off-brand’ doesn’t mean unrecognisable. It means flexible — and informed by identity, not constrained by it.
AI is making it easier, and much harder
Add AI to the mix and things get even more complicated.
Tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Runway have made it easier than ever to produce content. Captions, emails, product descriptions, and campaign visuals can all be created at the press of a button.
The thing is, AI is a mimic trained on what already exists, and spits out an average of what it finds. It can create something technically fine, but it often flattens the edges, smoothing out the quirks and creativity.
And when every brand starts relying on AI to generate content, everything starts looking, feeling, and sounding the same.
Branding in its full, intentional form gives your content an identity. It adds a special something that AI can’t replicate — like intuition, restraint, and risk. And knowing when to throw out the brand book because the moment calls for something a little bolder.
Shrimp Jesus is a phenomenon of AI-generated images that went viral on Facebook. The images are a prime example of how AI can generate seemingly realistic but bizarre and often unsettling content.
Visual identity still matters more than ever
Just because branding has become more fluid it doesn’t mean your visual identity is irrelevant.
Yes, you can be chaotic on TikTok. Yes, your Instagram grid doesn’t have to look perfect. But the visual language of your brand still needs to show up, clearly and consistently.
That’s because humans are wired for pattern recognition. It’s called the picture superiority effect and it explains why we’re more likely to remember an image than a word. That’s why your logo, your colours, and your typography all still matter. These are called distinctive brand assets, and they’re cues that help people identify and remember your brand. Think: McDonald’s golden arches, Tiffany’s blue box, Netflix’s red ‘N’.
These cues all anchor your brand and help you stay top of mind.
So, what does branding look like now?
Branding today is less about strict consistency, and more about recognisable coherence.
You don’t need to post identical templates on every platform and make sure every ad you produce includes your logo, front and centre. But you do need to sound and behave like you, everywhere. That means showing up with a clear personality, a consistent tone of voice, and a visual identity that can evolve without losing its roots.
Heinz’s recent ‘It Has to Be’ outdoor campaign shows that, despite the absence of a logo or brand name, the design remains unmistakably Heinz thanks to its distinctive typeface.
Source: Wieden+Kennedy London
It’s about building a flexible system that gives your team creative freedom, but always connects back to who you are. Because whether it’s a TikTok, an email footer, a comment on LinkedIn, a billboard, or a 404 error page — if it feels unmistakably like you, that’s good branding.
