This blog looks at why your profile and visibility is important for your brand and four examples of how to increase it.

It's Christmas time and as per tradition we're giving away 12 more of our reports. They address key issues like lobbying, fundraising and trust, plus a couple of niche ones like Gift Aid and media spending. Enjoy!

• Charities spend the bulk of their budget on direct mail, with it representing over two thirds of their spending at an average of 69% since 2006. In 2013, charities spent £238.9m on direct mail (slide 16)
• UK charities spend just 2% of their advertising budget on internet ads. That has barely risen since 2006, when it was 1% (slide 25)
• In the rest of the advertising industry, internet advertising has constantly increased since 2010 to reach 46% (£14bn) in 2013.

For a long time, charity brand building has focused on awareness:

• Are we well known?
• Are we visible enough?
• Are we cutting through?

Awareness still matters (if people don’t know you exist, they can’t support you) – but recognition alone is not what drives preference, advocacy or long-term support. The more pressing question today is not “Do people know us?” but “Do we feel relevant?”.

There are storm clouds on the economic horizon. Again.

Maia Coelho

Support for charities is personal, and a strong brand personality is key to creating lasting emotional connections amongst current and potential supporters. But what makes the ideal charity? Let’s uncover the attributes that truly resonate with people.

Ben Roberts

In today’s crowded charity landscape, branding is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. A strong brand builds trust, communicates impact, and enables charities to stand out and compete effectively for the attention of their audiences. In the words of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put it: “Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room”.

Eva Spencer

In the early 1900’s, Unilever co-founder Lord Leverhulme surmised a problem just as relevant now as it was a century ago: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” Benchmarking success in marketing and advertising has always presented this problem, with any sort of understanding relying heavily on retroactive review once your marketing budget is already spent.

Ben Roberts