BRANDING | THE DATA TRUST

CASE STUDY:

The Data Trust

Creative Cycle teamed with The Data Trust to develop a new company brand — allowing the data analytics firm to communicate meaningful value to its target audience.

Challenge

The Data Trust is a research and data science firm that analyzes high-quality data on what voters care about most. It provides political organizations with cost-efficient access to actionable insights, which help them respond to voter concerns and run more informed campaigns. The firm knew that big data analytics offered tremendous value to campaigns, but was also a complex topic. In a campaign environment where “time is money,” The Data Trust needed a compelling, efficient way to explain its unique value to candidates — especially those who weren’t fully familiar with data science. The Data Trust and Creative Cycle worked together to restructure the company brand, using language and imagery that would naturally resonate with candidates.

Solution

Creative Cycle and The Data Trust engaged in a workshop to explore The Data Trust’s goals, brand values, communication processes, audiences and overall offering. In doing so, we discovered a major gap in the company’s messaging: a lack of human element. While the company’s services focus on people and the issues they care about, the company’s collateral was highly impersonal. It focused on facts, statistics and text explaining the data analytics process, rather than benefits to the client or empathy for voters. The company was telling a technical story that no one understood. As a result, its message carried little meaning for its target audience. Together, Creative Cycle and The Data Trust set out to tell a different story.

The Data Trust already had a clean, simplistic logo. To complement this, we devised the tagline, “Getting You Closer to People.”

This concisely conveys the company’s aim to help candidates understand and connect with their constituents. Additionally, the language is subtly goal-oriented — appealing to an audience that is typically ambitious and results-driven.

Our two firms also worked together to change the visual nature of The Data Trust’s brand. Vibrant, human-centered photography replaced plain text and statistics.

Every photo would feature individuals and families with their faces clearly in view, representing the real people the data represents. The tone would always be positive, emphasizing the friendly use of data to illuminate the issues voters really care about. Overall, the new brand would treat data not as an asset or scientific product, but as a translation method. It translates what constituents think and feel into clear insights that help candidates serve them better. Working closely with The Data Trust, we established new set of brand guidelines that reflects these values throughout.

TOGETHER

Results

This collaboration helped The Data Trust convert a technical, process-driven brand into one that promotes empathy and strategic value. Together, we explored the different ways that data scientists and political candidates think. Applying that understanding, we created a brand that bridged the gap — allowing The Data Trust and its clients to discuss the merits of big data in a common language. As a result, the firm can more effectively communicate its value — and make it clear why candidates want The Data Trust on their side.

Final Thoughts

Creative Cycle believes meaningful relationships deliver meaningful results. By intimately understanding our clients’ values, goals, attributes and needs, we’re able to design with empathy and purpose. Listening and learning are integral to our creative process — and collaborating with our clients is how we produce the most effective outcomes.

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