CASE STUDY
Digimarc
Crafting a Clearer Story for a Complex Platform
Digimarc is a global leader in product digitization, helping businesses create digital identities for physical and digital items through advanced watermarking technology. Their cloud-based platform enables use cases ranging from product authentication and interactive packaging to recycling sortation, retail operations, industrial automation, media verification, and digital security.
OVERVIEW
A brand story overhaul -prompted by a series of new products
Digimarc came to Creative Blue with a common challenge: their solutions were powerful but multifaceted, making it difficult to tell a core story that was both compelling and easy to follow. With so many applications across industries, their messaging often felt either too broad or too technical — leaving potential customers unclear on the value Digimarc could deliver for them specifically. Creative Blue helped Digimarc bring coherence and clarity to a complex, multi-layered offering.
OBJECTIVES
Message clarity: Who is Digimarc? What do they do? And why does it matter?
While the company had decades of innovation behind it and a growing range of use cases, their core story lacked a cohesive thread — one that could resonate internally and externally, across audiences and applications.
One of the primary goals was internal alignment. The leadership team wanted to unify around a single, consistent narrative and brand messaging that the entire organization could stand behind. This would serve as the basis for clearer communication across marketing, sales, product, investor relations, and more.
But the challenge was nuanced. Digimarc’s technology, while powerful, tends to lose its value when oversimplified — and yet, when explained in full technical depth, risks confusing or overwhelming potential customers. Add to that a wide range of industries and use cases, and the result was highly individualized sales conversations, fragmented web messaging, and customers who only understood Digimarc through the narrow lens of their own use case.
Digimarc also had a broader vision: to be seen not only as a solution provider for a single problem, but as a platform powering multiple solutions — enabling richer oversight, stronger connections, and deeper insight into customers’ businesses. That platform-level ambition further raised the stakes for getting the story right.
SERVICES
Our engagement with Digimarc centered around building a core story
From that story, we developed a comprehensive messaging document designed to guide communications across teams, use cases, and audiences.
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Given the scope of the engagement, we kicked off with a robust discovery phase. This included a comprehensive brand audit and a thoughtful series of 1:1 and group sessions with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. To keep momentum high, we also utilized alternative discovery methods that allowed us to gather meaningful insights in short windows of time.
At the heart of this phase was the creation of a findings & insights document — a synthesis of recurring themes, diverse perspectives, and honest reflections. It became one of the most powerful outcomes of the project: a clear-eyed view of how the company was perceived, and where the most compelling opportunities existed to evolve that perception.
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Before putting pen to paper, we explored multiple concepts — distinct narratives that paired early language and visual components to help the team tangibly experience different directions. This approach fostered alignment and energy before locking into a final direction.
Once the team aligned around the core narrative, we developed the final core story and began building out a strategic messaging framework to support it across key audiences and use cases.
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We delivered a comprehensive messaging playbook that was utilized as a central resource for company-wide communications. It contained the core story and all the strategic messaging components for internal and external channels, and became the unified brand message and voice across company marketing initiatives.
RESULTS
The messaging playbook was met with strong internal support.
But the work didn’t stop there. After seeing the potential of a more unified narrative, Digimarc re-engaged Creative Blue to help with product naming. We extended the story deeper into the platform and reinforced a structure where individual offerings felt intuitive, connected, and aligned with the company’s broader vision.
The messaging we developed is now reflected across Digimarc’s website and customer-facing materials. Even visual concepts that were originally intended for internal exploration made their way into public-facing channels — a testament to how deeply the work resonated across the organization. What began as a search for clarity became a strategic realignment that’s helping Digimarc tell a sharper, more consistent story at every level.
In wrapping up the engagement:
“I think we can call this project complete, with a very satisfied customer. We truly appreciate your help and guidance through this process. Your team can see it manifest on our web page as early as late this afternoon!”
Corey Grice | Director, Corporate Communications & Brand Strategy
Corey remains an avid Creative Blue supporter to this day, often referring work to us and serving as a touchpoint for prospective clients who are interested in hearing more about our approach and expertise.