Knowledge centre

Going green - sustainable software development

Not worth a DAM?

Where are all your images and other visual assets associated with your brand? Sitting on a shared drive somewhere? Or maybe you got some cloud storage a while back and some of them are on there? Oh yes and also there is that ‘secret’ drive just for you and the marketing team which you dive into and dish out the right assets to people?

Can SSO help you manage your brand?

Integrating your brand centre with 'single sign on' will bring you plenty of benefits to help you manage your brand if you are implementing a brand management platform.

How to manage effective Internal adoption of a brand management platform - pt3

In this blog post, we’re looking at creating a roll-out plan and internal adoption. This is the exciting part. All the hard work that you’ve put in up to this point will feed into your roll-out plan and the effectiveness of your user adoption.

How to plan for effective internal adoption of a brand management platform part 2

In part one of this blog series, we took a look at how to set a solid foundation for an effective brand management platform rollout. Now we’re going to delve a little deeper into how to roll it out.

How to plan for effective internal adoption of a brand management platform part 1

You’re in the market for a brand management platform. You’ve carried out thorough research and you’re thinking about what to include in your brief for your shortlisted suppliers. You may think that now is a bit early to involve internal audiences, however, getting key people involved from the start will help you pack a punch when you launch.

Encouraging equality in the tech industry

Encouraging women into tech needs to start at an early age. It needs to be reflected in the media we consume and are exposed to, the way it’s introduced and taught at school, exposure to strong role models and an understanding of the possibilities.

15 minutes with WWT

We've been integrating sustainability into everything we do and the suppliers we choose, so we thought we’d catch up with Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) to see how they’re protecting wetlands whilst engaging with their supporters. The work they’ve been doing is truly fascinating. It proves our connection with nature is more than skin deep.

How to prepare a brief when sourcing a Brand Management platform

So you've narrowed down your choice of brand management solutions by following our advice in our previous post, How to start your brand management platform research. What now? We take a look at creating a brief for prospective suppliers and the type of information that you may need to include when you source your quotes.

That's a wrap!

We find ourselves at the end of the year and we’re not sure where that time went. As with last year, it’s been another interesting one.

How to conduct effective research for a brand management platform

Over the last decade job roles have evolved exponentially. Gone are the days where they neatly fit into their own place within an organisation. Job role maps now look like an overly complicated Venn diagram. There are certain skills sneaking into job roles that historically weren’t there. So the question is, how does this affect your brand?

How to launch a rebrand internally the right way.

Technology, trends, & priorities change over time and it’s important that brands adapt with them. There are many examples of big brands that have famously fallen from grace as they failed to keep up. Nokia & Kodak were market leaders in their respective fields, the market changed, however, they were too slow and progressive brands took their place.

15 minutes with… Alzheimer's Society

At BrandStencil we love to develop features and functionality in our brand management platform that are genuinely useful. There’s no room for gimmicks here. This is why we introduced social share features last year. Users now have the opportunity to share artwork created with a template and ready-made assets directly to social channels.

There’s a lot of buzz about Buzz

There’s an army of people and potential supporters out there with their phone in their hands absorbing and sharing content. There’s no reason that it shouldn’t be your content they're sharing. With the right tool, it’s easy.

Happy International Women’s Day!!

Happy International Women’s Day! In honour of this day, we wanted to talk about women in tech. As I work for BrandStencil (parent company, Electric Putty), you might say that it was an obvious choice. As a woman in tech, I’m privileged to work in a company that embraces and sees the value of diversity, not just in regards to gender.

Make your digital marketing work harder

The last year has been tough and we’ve needed to adapt. We’re all biting at the bit ready for the doors to open so we can go out into the world again. As marketers, we’re facing budget cuts, staffing cuts and we still need to perform and hit our KPI’s. We need to make every moment at work and every pound we spend count, bringing positive returns.

What a year 2020 has been!

The end of the year is nearly upon us and it’s been quite a year! As we prepare, in anticipation, to embrace the new year and say goodbye to the old, we reflect on the highlights of the past year. 2020 has been an eventful year, to say the least, and we have all faced its challenges head-on. Here are a few highlights.

Top tips for building an awesome template

Using digital ‘smart’ brand templates can save your organisation time, money and save your designers a headache or two. This means creating templates people within your organisation want to use, so where do you start? What makes a good template? As experts in our field here are our top tips for building an awesome template to increase engagement.

4 benefits of using a brand management tool vs a design tool

Imagine a world where your artwork was instantly on brand, where there were no sneaky off-brand fonts or pixelated images popping in to say ‘hello’ or needing approval. Doesn’t that sound great? Using a brand management tool can make that utopia a reality, but is it the right thing for your organisation?

15 minutes with.....Healthwatch

We love working with clients to help with their digital transformation and make their lives easier, especially throughout campaigns. Today we're talking to Healthwatch to find out more about their #BecauseWeAllCare campaign and how they used BrandStencil to increase campaign awareness and engagement through public templates.

What we learnt about the struggles of brand management in public sector comms at CommsCamp

In August we sponsored #commscampathome, an conference for comms people working in the Public Sector.

Why user-generated content is key to increasing supporter engagement

Running a successful digital campaign will no-doubt include a solid social media strategy, but how can you ensure you get the best results and increase your organic reach without splashing the cash? The answer is simple: focus your energy on user-generated content (UGC).

Introducing...Team-Based Approval

One of the main troubles we hear from BrandStencil Product Owners is managing artwork approval. Within national or international teams it can feel like a bit of a nightmare; approval emails flying in day and night, demanding your attention and taking up all of your precious time.

Digital transformation: how other charity organisations have used digital to transform their brand (part 2)

We’re back and talking about digital transformation in the charity sector. Last time we spoke about how other charity organisations have used digital externally to transform their brand, so this time we’re going to take a look at what changes organisations have made internally to drive forward their brand delivery with digital transformation.

15 minutes with.....Time To Change

At BrandStencil we're on a mission to help organisations digitally transform and change the way they work. Today we're catching up with Time To Change to find out how they use BrandStencil to help deliver on their mandate and increase their campaign awareness and engagement.

Anti-racism statement

Following the recent #blacklivesmatter protests in the UK and around the world we have been reflecting on how our company can be actively anti-racist. We've been learning through all the resources that have been shared and thinking about how we can pledge to tackle racism in our industry and beyond.

Digital transformation: how other charity organisations have used digital to transform their brand

Digital transformation is the buzzword of the moment but it’s a well-known fact that the charity sector is falling behind. One of the biggest challenges charities continue to face to enable digital transformation is funding; change costs money and with lack of funds it can be put on the back burner.

Brand governance made easy: tips for managing your brand

Brand governance across any organisation can be tough, but when you’re a nationwide or global brand with local hubs this becomes ten times harder.

How to increase internal engagement with your digital tools

Digital transformation is the buzzword on everyone’s lips. From marketers to operations, everyone in the charity sector is thinking about what they can do to bring their organisation into the 21st century and make sure those pennies are not wasted. And then you’ve got to think about how to actually get people to use any digital tools you introduce!

Survival tips for when you're working from home

We’ve all been there before. You’re working from home and ‘oops!’ the TV magically turns itself on, or you make a ridiculously over-complicated lunch because ‘hey - you can!’ and then realise you’re late back in the afternoon.

Introducing...Share with my Team

Working remotely can be lonely and it can be hard to get inspired, especially in the times we’re currently experiencing. Our latest / newest feature helps people stay motivated and connected through a sharing feature that allows people to share their artwork with each other. We’re proud to present...drum roll please…’Share with my Team’!

A COVID-19 update

Due to the most recent government advice regarding COVID-19 our entire team is now working remotely.

2019, it's been a good one

It’s that time again already when we say goodbye to 2019 and a big ‘hello!’ to 2020 and all the possibilities a new year can bring. 2019 has been great for BrandStencil so in the classic ‘end-of-the-year’ style let’s do a quick round up of the highlights:

Getting started with artwork automation - part 3

How much time can you save with artwork automation? Measure your current workflow against a self service workflow using templates to find out.

Getting started with artwork automation - part 2

In this post we give you four questions to ask to evaluate whether you need to transform how you manage artwork production .

Getting started with artwork automation - part 1

In this post we will answer questions about what it is and why you should care

6 reasons to use a template for making on brand designs

Here’s a handy set of reasons for people in your organisation to use a template tool for making their on brand designs and communication material.

Place orders from your account.

Online ordering can streamline your artwork production process and improve efficiencies. Place orders for artwork or ready-made products direct from your BrandStencil account to your preferred centralised supplier.

New and improved version 2 is coming

You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet on the BrandStencil Change Log over the past couple of months. There’s a very good reason for that. We are in the middle of our biggest code refactor, ever.

Third Light DAM integration

BrandStencil now seamlessly integrates with Third Light media library. This means you can browse and use images from your Third Light platform when making artwork with a template in BrandStencil.

Keep control of your brand value with approvals

One way you can enjoy as much control as you need to over the use of your brand is by setting up some people as managed users.

Deep dive into user behaviour with Google Analytics

You can now integrate BrandStencil with Google Analytics to get more detailed metrics about user behaviour.

See what your users are creating in the report gallery

Learn how your staff are using BrandStencil by viewing all resources created by your staff using your templates.

Working with multi-page documents is a breeze

Working on multi-page documents can be tricky - not only have you got your content to worry about but you have to make sure all the pages are in the right order for printing.