So much of what we see and hear is just noise. It is an ever present mixture of sounds that becomes meaningless. It blends into a steady hum that we ignore, and overlook — just like the AC hum and fluorescent buzz in most offices. Advertising and marketing cannot blend in to be effective.

The theory of “branding” only makes it worse.

Branding has been around so long that it has become a theoretical buzzword everyone accepts as law. Everyone except consumers. Consumers have developed immunity to the traditional methods of advertising and branding. In fact, technologies are being developed to further devalue the most important tools of branding—TV and radio spots. Yet these methods were already losing some of their impact, due to the fact that they rarely helped perpetuate the most important form of advertising—word of mouth.

That’s why cue:creative is devoted to Iconography—the strategy of using marketing communications to maximize word of mouth. We understand that creating an icon is more powerful, longer lasting, and more difficult than simply slapping a logo on the side of a building and calling it branding.