Cadmium

We saw a powerful opportunity to reframe and assert Cadmium’s position as an inclusive end-to-end solution that helps its customers achieve true engagement and success. This would help Cadmium’s main audience understand what makes the brand uniquely suited to them.

We introduced the brand concept of “Whole” to represent that audiences’ desire for a reliable, confidence-building brand partner. In industries with continuing education requirements, Cadmium fills the gap through a complete suite of products that enables customers to meet those requirements and succeed.

Cadmium’s brand attributes set a strong foundation for the next phase of its brand. Essential, Innovative, and Empowering support a brand that is purposefully differentiated. Given Cadmium’s trajectory and business objectives, these attributes are key to projecting a confident brand that is a crucial part of its audience’s tech stack, elevated above the crowded landscape, and offering its audience a true partnership. Essential is what Cadmium is – an undeniable partner. Innovative is who Cadmium is – advocating for its audience and always keeping them (and their industry requirements) at the forefront. Finally, Empowering is how Cadmium delivers that promise – collaborating closely with their audience to help them thrive.

In 2020, five companies – CommPartners, CadmiumCD, EthosCE, Warpwire, and Event Rebels – were acquired and merged into Cadmium. The legacy companies’ offerings were distilled down into three product lines and four primary products, each with a number of branded sub-products and features.

Based on our conversations with the Cadmium team, we recommended retaining the overall existing structure of three product lines (event technology, continuing education, and video), with the four primary products falling into their appropriate product lines. However, we recommended sunsetting product feature names in favor of more descriptive names and grouping them by use case. For example, Hermes (a sub-product of Cadmium) was simplified to a clear feature: Speaker Ready System.

As an added wrinkle, CadmiumCD existed as an event management and attendee engagement software, while the new Cadmium was set to be the parent brand. There was confusion between the parent brand and its product EventTech. So, we suggested establishing a more ownable name for the event product line, which eventually became Eventscribe.

Ultimately, we recommended establishing a sub-brand brand architecture for Cadmium, including current and future products and product lines. This structure allows for acquisitions to be seamlessly folded into the overarching Cadmium brand identity, while retaining a sense of recognizability for audiences that are already familiar with the products.

Cadmium are leaders at the intersection of event, learning, and video technology. With a wealth of knowledge and deep care about helping their customers succeed, Cadmium is a trustworthy mentor, dedicated to supporting others’ empowerment.

Cadmium’s Voice & Tone carries this idea forward in messaging. Like a beloved mentor, Cadmium is approachable, confident, and inspirational. They understand the importance of audience engagement for their customers and are constantly evolving and innovating as a result. This piece of the Cadmium ethos is further exemplified at the end of their elevator pitch: “You serve your communities, and in support of that, we serve you.”

Everything comes together in the brand story. It narrates Cadmium’s identity to the world and creates an emotional connection with their audience. An excerpt: “​​Whatever event you have in mind, we’re here to support and enhance it before, during, and after it happens. Whether it’s digital or in-person, live or asynchronous, or any combination you can imagine. For your community. For your organization. And for those unforgettable learning moments, big and small.”

Finally, given Cadmium’s distinct product lines, we also worked on product messaging – defining each product line's specific and undeniable USP and the Value Proposition that each product delivers.

Cadmium’s primary logo is crafted from custom letterforms that unite a sans serif and slab serif, embodying the collaborative essence Cadmium offers to all. It marries the expert knowledge of a slab serif with the modern strength of a sans serif, creating something entirely new that is the best of both worlds.

For the branding of Cadmium’s sub-brands, we utilized a color system. By assigning colors to each of the products, we created a system that is easy to manage while adding ownability to products and maintaining a strong relationship to the parent brand.

Cadmium’s color palette is inspired by classic art pieces, influenced by the connection to cadmium paint pigments. We found this to be an effective way to explore new and innovative color palettes simultaneously rooted in rich history, much like Cadmium itself.

The bold Cadmium Red was inspired by Edvard Munch’s “The Scream:” boldly original and intentionally different. Gold and the paint pattern were inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” quite literally painting a sunny picture. We explored ways to balance that joy with maturity.

Cadmium’s primary typefaces are Messina Sans and Messina Serif — two complementary fonts from the same foundry. Messina Sans appears technical while retaining a confident simplicity. Messina Serif is more traditional and detailed in form, balancing out Messina Sans’ simplicity and providing a calligraphic touch.

Marketing iconography adds a visual tool for conveying complex messages and ideas. Through their minimalist design, the icons encapsulate both simplicity and precision. Thin line work reflects technical expertise and attention to detail, while the painting pattern reinforces Cadmium’s dedication to the people it serves.

Cadmium fosters collaboration, offering opportunities for people to learn, grow, and excel together. The brand photography reflects these opportunities through warm tones, with soft natural lighting and a variety of environments. Empowering individuals with confidence, clarity, and inspiration, photos can capture the transformative impact of Cadmium, enabling users
to embrace their potential with ease.

Video is a powerful tool for storytelling within the Cadmium brand. Short clips capture moments of connection, empowerment, and trust through real-time interactions, making visuals more energizing and showcasing innovation. Furthermore, video highlights Cadmium as a versatile multimedia platform for online events and video solutions.

Cadmium’s website combines the visual and verbal identities into a representation of the brand. After all of our work together clarifying their brand architecture, the site needed to be that cohesive solution for a seamless customer journey. A mega-menu spans across the top of the site, keeping the brand architecture clear while setting up an infrastructure for future growth.

The importance of photography in the Cadmium brand can be seen on their website as well. High quality photography speaks to Cadmium’s dedication to building engaged communities. The photography also helps tell the story of Cadmium’s products: Eventscribe features images of people connecting at events, while Elevate’s photos are more about people learning digitally.

We paired photography with UI snippets to represent the various products; small screens of charts, progress bars, or files. These speak to the product without feeling overwhelming with large screens of interfaces.

Our brand support team helped Cadmium translate their new brand onto a number of existing assets such as email templates, RFP documents, and business cards. We also created exhibit booths, sales sheets, a case study template, social media templates, digital ads, and more.

Consistency is one of the most important aspects of maintaining brand integrity. Even one off-brand sales sheet or deck can create confusion and disconnect with customers and employees. During her episode of the Debrief, Cadmium’s Head of Marketing Jessie Reyes shared that employees reached out about purchasing new Cadmium swag, a great sign that employees from different legacy companies felt a connection to this new Cadmium.