A lot of our clients share the same challenge. Somewhere along their journey towards speedy market penetration, their branding took a back seat to their need to generate revenue. Out of pure survival as a new business they rushed to create a logo and brand identity they could use to slap on everything from their website to their office coffee mugs. Over time, their brand identity simply became solidified to them, and their customers. Changing their identity now with a full re-brand would be like committing business hara-kiri. Besides, their logo isn’t what they have a problem with, it’s their materials that frankly… suck. Even with a brand identity they like, their marketing and sales collateral somehow struggles to capture the true quality and value of their brand.
This is typically when we first meet our clients, and it almost always starts with their pitch deck.
Whether they call it a Pitch Deck, or a Sales Presentation, or a Company Capabilities Deck, or even just a Sales Brochure; whatever their particular naming convention, it represents the starting point for a much needed shift in how their brand is being executed. They know there’s a problem and they must fix it… now.
We find a lot of clients only discover the cracks in their team’s approach to brand execution when it comes time to develop a set of key sales materials. This is because their brand needs to shift from SHORT-FORM (aka Marketing) to LONG-FORM (aka Sales) visual storytelling, where their branding is pulled and stretched to it’s absolute limit across multiple pages of content. This is when the gaps in execution are most visible, and Marketing tends not to have many great solutions (no offense marketing, but sales decks just aren’t your thing).
This is a moment in time, a crossroads that many entrepreneurs or even mid-level businesses eventually face. Should I fully rebrand like so many top agencies are telling me I should? Of course they WANT you to believe you have a brand identity problem only THEY can fix, because it forces you to change everything, at great expense to you, and great windfall to them. This is why the Pitch Deck (or whatever you choose to call it) can actually become the catalyst for much needed INCREMENTAL change. At this stage it’s more about brand-tweaking, than it is rebranding. So why ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ (so to speak)?
We find a lot of clients only discover the cracks in their team’s approach to brand execution when it comes time to develop a set of key sales materials. This is because their brand needs to shift from SHORT-FORM (aka Marketing) to LONG-FORM (aka Sales) visual storytelling, where their branding is pulled and stretched to it’s absolute limit across multiple pages of content. This is when the gaps in execution are most visible, and Marketing tends not to have many great solutions (no offense marketing, but sales decks just aren’t your thing).
This is a moment in time, a crossroads that many entrepreneurs or even mid-level businesses eventually face. Should I fully rebrand like so many top agencies are telling me I should? Of course they WANT you to believe you have a brand identity problem only THEY can fix, because it forces you to change everything, at great expense to you, and great windfall to them. This is why the Pitch Deck (or whatever you choose to call it) can actually become the catalyst for much needed INCREMENTAL change. At this stage it’s more about brand-tweaking, than it is rebranding. So why ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ (so to speak)?
So why START with the Pitch Deck? Why not start with something simpler like a flyer, or a one-sheet? The reason why our clients REALLY only start to notice how lacking their team’s ability to execute on their branding, is due to the sheer volume and breadth of design that is required to design a really great Pitch Deck. Most overly-simplify their pitch deck design and excuse it as “modern” or “minimalist”, because they don’t truly understand how to transform a relatively simple logo, into a fully realized set of creative materials. They’ve yet to fully explore their branding, favoring a ‘less is more’ approach as the fallback to actually doing the real work of critical experimentation.
The good news is, a Pitch Deck is a FANTASTIC environment for the critical experimentation of your branding. First of all, it’s a fully destructive environment (break it, fix it, build it back up… repeat). We typically spend the first week to two weeks of an engagement just experimenting with various ‘takes’ on the branding. We don’t even THINK about actual content until we’ve got a solid art direction to work with. Pushing the branding beyond it’s borders, pulling it back in, eventually arriving at a direction everyone is excited about, an approved initial art direction!
Then the real test, does that same art direction approach that worked for three slides, work across eight slides? What about fifteen? How about FIFTY?? That’s when their content, slams head-on into our art direction, and the real magic begins. How many variations of the same design element can we employ across slides before it feels too repetitive? How many subtle unique shades of the core palette can we play with before we’re TOO far off-brand. How much can we stretch, squeeze, or even mangle the company font before we’ve reached it’s limits? This exercise isn’t about OVER-DESIGNING, it’s about CRITICAL-DESIGN. It’s about OVER-EXPLORING your branding, ELIMINATING what doesn’t work, and allowing what DOES WORK, to really shine through.
Using a Pitch Deck to test the limits of your branding is a great thing. At the end of the journey, you and your team have a very clear idea of what works and what doesn’t, a clear path forward, a shaping of your brand execution that can extend to other areas of execution (a website, flyers, brochures, case studies, articles, and more).
You’ve likely heard of and even likely use Brand Guidelines in your business. These typically define the use of your logo/s, what your defined color palette is, which fonts to use, etc.. What you may not have heard of before are Visual Guidelines (or Visual “Framework”). While BRAND Guidelines define what your core branding IS, VISUAL Guidelines define how your branding is EXECUTED. This is often a companion piece to your Pitch Deck that defines the use of various design elements, the spacing between headers, sub-headers, even how much space should exist between each line of paragraph text.
But wait, there’s more… How to treat photos, an approved set of icons along with their proper sizing, weight, and distribution on a page. There’s all sorts of rules that can be defined within a Visual Guideline document. What it really is ultimately, is a way to protect your brand’s consistency across ALL of the various use-cases of your BRANDING EXECUTION. This is where it all comes full circle. This is why you really can’t build set of Visual Guidelines without first fully exploring how far your branding should or shouldn’t go with it’s execution. We’ve seen it time after time with our clients. After they’ve seen what their branding is truly capable of, within the construct of a Pitch Deck, it suddenly clicks. “This is what it should all look like!”. These are the rules we want everyone to follow, and it should ALL look this good.
We know this sounds easy and logical enough. However, as with anything in business, execution is everything. This is why most businesses don’t see the results they’re after by using Pitch Deck Templates or platforms like Canva, Visme, or PowerPoint AI Pitch Deck Generator tools. These options simply can’t capture your brand in a truly professional way. The best pitch decks will always be the ones that fit the brand best. If you feel you’ve reached a similar crossroads in your brand’s evolution, as many of our clients have, we’re here to help. We’ve helped numerous clients just like you via our unique approach to Pitch Deck Services, start their brand refresh with a (seemingly) simple pitch deck that winds up evolving their entire brand approach, all without destroying what they’ve already worked so hard to build, and without costing a small fortune to execute.
We are Falkor Digital, and we are OBSESSED with your materials. Originally founded in 2019 as a Pitch Deck design agency servicing Hollywood TV/FILM sellers, Falkor Digital has since expanded well beyond the Hollywood Sign, servicing a variety of business verticals in the creation of their marketing and sales collateral. Almost every successful client story at Falkor Digital began with a Pitch Deck, gradually evolving into so much more. From this one acorn, (the Pitch Deck) often sprouts an entire sequoia tree of revitalized sales and marketing collateral, eventually revitalizing entire brands in the process. Our team of specialist creative talent understands how to unlock the full potential of your brand’s Visual Story. With our help, you won’t have to rebrand from the ground up. You can evolve your brand gradually, on your budget, and your timeline, without scrapping your original brand identity to get there.
More than just creative services, we infuse thought leadership into every project.
Premium design balanced with your team's edit-ablity requirements.
Industry-leading materials delivered at the speed required of leading sales teams.
What you can expect
Hop on a Zoom with us, we'll review and discuss your materials. From there you can decide if we're the right fit for your goals.
What could provide your team with the greatest impact TODAY? Let's focus on that so we can prove our value.
If you're happy with the work, we can discuss your longer term goals, then decide on a plan and budget that works for you.
Ready to get started?
