Headquartered in New York, Shufflrr is an innovative Presentation Management platform that enables the users to create presentations of varied array of file types that include video, MS Office files, PDFs, images and PowerPoint, and then share them from anywhere and through any device.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can reap huge benefits – increased revenue and efficiency, greater marketing share, lower-cost of capital, tax-savings, and ultimately amplified value for shareholders. The long term outlooks for M&A are great, which might be why they accumulated $466.6 billion in 2016, the highest ever. However, the short term transition can be tumultuous on all fronts, especially in branding as the two or more companies morph into one new enterprise.

New branding projects or initiatives are full of challenges. It’s not enough to design and publish a new logo with new corporate guidelines. The legacy of the old brand of the previous companies is integrated on everything, which leads us to the first challenge. How do you transition the new brand with new materials and remove old materials without disrupting everyone’s day-to-day operations?

To help streamline, following are the steps to consider to help organize and execute a new brand and message during and after a M&A, which can be categorized as external and internal.

External: External initiatives are the mass media initiatives which garner bulk attention within the new company and to the outside world. They will shape the identity and brand perception of the new company.

New Logo & Corporate Guidelines – This is always the first and most obvious step, and it also gets all of the attention. Agencies are hired to create a new logo, a new brand and identity for the newly formed company.

Announcement – The new brand and company identity is applied in all external communications – website, advertising campaign, press releases, and social media. The mass world is notified that a newer, better company with greater products and services is ready for business.

Internal: Internal initiatives do not garner as much attention as external but they are just as critical for employees who are responsible for the success of the newly formed company (that’s just about everyone on payroll) and for employee morale which often gets depleted due to all of the changes and unknowns that occurring during the transition.

Apply the New Brand to Digital Files: These are the files that your employees use and re-use every day to succeed in their jobs. There are probably thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, stored on your network. Without a clear digital asset management or presentation management strategy, this can be a tedious and laborious process. But it is critical to the success of your new company because these digital files are enterprise assets that work to promote your new brand and sell products as much, if not more so, than a traditional TV ad.

To break this down into manageable tasks, you can:

Review all files and determine what to update (i.e. keep) and what to purge. These files are typically presentations, proposals, or project plans created usually in PowerPoint or Word for a specific meeting. These types of files are typically found in your DAM, Slide Library, SharePoint or other repositories. Someone or some group will have to review the files and make a decision – what gets updated or what gets purged.

Create new collateral for the new company; New company, new collateral, new sales presentations, brochures, videos, and others. The marketing department may do this in-house or hire an agency to apply the new brand identity to theses digital assets. Everyone gets immersed in the new brand and can start using the new message and supporting materials on day one.

In most cases, your brand application will be a combination of creating brand new collateral and updating some great old files.

Internal initiatives do not garner as much attention as external but they are just as critical for employees who are responsible for the success of the newly formed company

So now that you know which files you will distribute to your team, the next step is to physically apply the new identity.

Update Old Materials: Apply the new brand identity and messaging to the old files you are keeping. MS Word and MS PowerPoint have a built in feature to change a background template, on a file by file basis. There are also other presentation management platforms that allow you to change backgrounds in bulk. These are turn-key approaches, but it’s still essential to have a graphic designer or someone with just a really good eye and QA the materials so they are consistent and professional.

Launch Digital Repository: Launching the new digital content should have just as much fanfare as launching a new TV campaign. The launch should include an announcement, some training and above all, a central repository where your team can go and get the new content. If they can’t find the new content, then they can’t use it in their day-to-day operations; so make it easy for them. This will give them a sense of pride in their new company, educate them about the new company, and above all, give them a sense of control as they navigate a new, unchartered company.

Archive Old Materials: Remove the old company materials ASAP so no one re-uses them by accident. It is a good idea to keep these files organized and stored in a repository or slide library for quick and easy reference or updating in the future.

They may be internal, but your company’s digital assets are enterprise assets. Those proposals and presentations that are created every day for various meetings – those are enterprise assets. They are working to promote your company, inform your staff, and sell your products. Therefore, they require as much branding expertise and attention as your external communications.