Praekelt joins Frontify in the new age of branding

Swiss-based SaaS company Frontify has partnered with local tech and service design outfit Praekelt Consulting to bring their all-in-one brand management software to the South African market. The partnership brings together over 25 years of multinational experience in the digital branding space.

Multi-agency engagement models have become a long-term trend in the corporate market, and more and more people are now responsible for creating brand collateral. With consistency being such an integral part of building a brand, the need arose for a single space to house cloud-based corporate identities.

The Praekelt/Frontify partnership provides a single source of truth for multiple partners to engage with their clients’ corporate identities, allowing everyone to speak the same brand language.

Global giants such as Facebook, Pepsi and Lufthansa are among over 2,500 brands who have made use of Frontify to define their brand guidelines, manage their assets digitally and collaborate on multiple projects from a centralised space. However, one does not have to look too far to find a South African client who has used the software to stunning effect.

Absa’s use of a Praekelt-led Frontify brand site ​to relaunch their new-look brand in 2018 not only laid the foundation for one of the biggest rebrands in South African history, but also gave birth to a partnership with the potential to transform branding in the Middle East and Africa.

“We’re very happy to partner with Praekelt and further expand our presence in South Africa,” said Ritchie Yoshikawa, agency lead of Frontify. “More and more, we continue to see interest in companies on the African continent who want to future-proof their brands and find a way to be consistent across all touchpoints. Digitalisation, scalability and centralisation are key, and we’re excited to help take these brands to the next level.”

Praekelt Consulting managing director Dawood Patel is excited at the prospect of solving an age-old problem and looks forward to a new frontier.

“In today’s corporate climate, it’s rare for a single agency or partner to be solely responsible for a customer’s branding,” he says. “With multiple partners – most of them now working remotely – this is a much-needed move toward a new age of branding.”