Brand and Celebrities launches Kolsquare, its new brand devoted to Influencer Marketing

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Today we are very proud to announce the launch of Kolsquare, a new brand from Brand and Celebrities whose mission will be to accelerate our Influencer Marketing technologies and activities.

Thus, Kolsquare is a new name and a new visual identity to better respond to the needs of brands and influencers.

But most importantly, nothing else is changing: our platform still boasts the power of over one million influencers with the most refined research and campaign management tools on the market and our team continues to push itself every day to help marketers make the most of the platform!

We invite you to keep reading to learn how and why Kolsquare was born.

Why Kolsquare?

Since 2011, Brand and Celebrities has become a pioneer in digital influence.

Our first collaboration pairing Jean-Marc Mormeck and McDonald’s exceeded all expectations on the brand’s networks. That is because it was an authentic partnership: on the Facebook page of McDonald’s France, we told the true story of this boxing world champion who succeeded in launching his career thanks to his first job at McDonald’s.

And already in 2011, it was data which made it possible to identify this affinity.

Brand and Celebrities quickly became the leader in Celebrity Marketing in France thanks to our technology-based approach: a search engine, web and social network data, a relationship-building platform and more.

With the firm desire to bring rationality and responsibility to the market.

The partnerships formed by Brand and Celebrities take many forms: celebrities become ambassadors for major brands, renowned experts give inspiring speeches in large corporations…and influencers born on social media are starting to create content for brands on their own networks.

Today the market has changed significantly: digital influencers have become veritable Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). It is a fully-fledged media of its own whose activation is a critical stage for advertisers looking to earn the trust of consumers.

This is why Brand and Celebrities is launching its Kolsquare brand in 2018.

With Kolsquare, we are bringing our technological expertise to marketing and communication professionals to enable them to rise to these new challenges with authentic, inspiring partnerships with the best influencers.

How was the Kolsquare brand born?

The brand platform

At Brand and Celebrities, we began thinking about creating a new brand platform back in the summer of 2017 to personify and propel the Brand and Celebrities offer dedicated to Influencer Marketing.

After several months, the planning resulted in an internal document that became both a birth certificate and a long-term road map for the new brand.

Our brand positioning is one of the most robust components of this brand platform:

‘Rational Affinity + Authentic Inspiration = Effective Communication’.

This means that our technology-driven, rational approach makes it possible to identify true affinities between brands, influencers and consumers and that our unwavering quest for authentic influencers and content enables us to craft campaigns that inspire their communities.

This is the only way we can offer advertisers a truly effective communication tool.

This positioning is also a tenet of our baseline:

‘Tech-Powered. Human-Driven.’

The name

After multiple internal brainstorming sessions, we decided to call the new brand Kolsquare.

Why that name and what does it mean?

‘Kolsquare’ is a portmanteau of two powerful terms:

1. ‘KOL’ stands for ‘Key Opinion Leaders’ and refers to social media influencers; the term is currently getting a lot of use, especially in China.

2. ‘Square’ has two meanings:

• It denotes evenness, a nod to our very rational approach to matching through data and technology.
• A square is also a gathering place, suggesting a forum for exchanges.

Thus, the name Kolsquare describes a gathering place for the most fruitful exchanges between influencers (or KOLs) and brands: ‘Where Brands and Influencers find their perfect match!’

Kolsquare’s visual identity

Kolsquare’s look is crucial. It must meet all the fundamental requirements of an enduring, high-impact visual identity (simple, memorable, timeless, effective) while reflecting the brand values we wish to convey (meaningfulness, inspiration, affinity, responsibility, authenticity).

The logo

The starting point for the design process was a brainstorming session exploring all the concepts that are at the heart of Kolsquare and giving them a physical expression.

The essential concepts identified during this exercise were:

• The world of influence (represented by an atom, a galaxy, a drop of water, etc.)
• A place for exchanges, encounters and myriad possibilities (conveyed by the infinity symbol)
• Matching (suggested by a positive/negative effect)
• The ‘square’ from our name, synonymous with trust, rigour and responsibility
• The letter K, as in Kolsquare, which is a highly distinctive component

Visual construction of the Kolsquare logo.

Once the concept was approved, it was fine-tuned by applying the golden ratio to achieve harmonious proportions.

From left to right, the process from the initial explorations to the final result.

Font style

Alongside this symbol, the font style plays a determining role because it also affects the perception and suggested effect of a logo.

Therefore, we opted for an ultra-bold, sans serif font that is extremely easy to read to establish and cement our identity, as well as a complementary font style for headings (Playfair Display) to create contrast.

Colour palette and patterns

Colours also have a role to play. They should speak to our audience and showcase the technological aspect of our solution without dehumanising it (in keeping with our baseline: Tech-Powered. Human-Driven.).

Working from the initial brainstorming concepts, we drew a parallel between them and a natural phenomenon: the Aurora Borealis. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, are the result of numerous interactions between atoms and ions. They are both ephemeral and infinite.

And that is an apt description of social networks, places of incessant interactions on which limitless quantities of new content are posted each day.

After multiple iterations, we settled on a shade of deep blue (‘navy’) for the logo and font and an especially vibrant pink for the accent colour.

To illustrate the two worlds of Technology and Influence, we decided to use two-tone patterns:

• Sky blue and turquoise for everything pertaining to our tool and technology
• Pink and lavender for the realm of influencers

This gives us a consistent identity while creating distinguishable worlds. The patterns themselves were created from components of the logo.

https://www.kolsquare.com/en