Branding is a core part of every business, but are you clear on what is OK and not OK when you want to use someone else’s brand in your marketing?
Recently Brandrally was hired by an Aquatic Centre Management company to refresh their brand. We have created a great new design that the company loves and will be using in all of their marketing collateral … including their centre staff uniform.
The company also is active in social media, and wanted to include their social media addresses on their t-shirts along with the Twitter and Facebook logos alongside each respective URL. The client figured it would be brilliant cross promotion – their brand gets recognition and social media wins because we promoted them.
But could they legally do it? Could they use the logos of Facebook and Twitter alongside each URL?
Both Facebook and Twitter logos are instantly recognisable, trademarked and have extensive brand permission policies that spell out when and how you can use their logos.
http://www.facebook.com/brandpermissions/logos.php
http://support.twitter.com/entries/77641
We like to push the boundaries, so we approached both Facebook and Twitter to see if we could get permission to use their logos on our client’s shirts.
Well, both Facebook and Twitter responded within 24 hours (which was awesome for such massive organisations). And the answer… Twitter said yes! They allowed us to use the Bird without their brand logotype of ‘Twitter’ and Facebook declined as their guidelines specifically restricts the use of their logo in any form of “Merchandising”.
So what can you do if you want to send people to your social media profile? In brief, you can use a design of a bird, or a letter “F” with a “Follow Us” statement. But, you can’t use the full Twitter or Facebook logos unless your brand is formally endorsed by each respective organisation.
Remember, if you want to use someone’s logo, never move forward to print until you have the company’s approval on your file. And always double check the fine print of their logo use rules. It doesn’t matter how public the company is, or how visible the brand is in the public eye, unless you have the company approval, you can’t use their logo in any of your marketing.
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Brandrally ~ Web Design Brisbane | Graphic Design Brisbane
Find us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/brandrally
Find us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/brandrally
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