Erin Molan
Most brand work starts by asking who a business is and what it should be known for. When the client is a broadcaster with a national profile, other people have already answered that question for her.
When the person is the brand.
Erin's career runs in a lot of directions at once. A current affairs show, radio, a newspaper column, keynote and MC work, charity ambassadorships, and the advocacy that led to the Online Safety Act, the legislation the Prime Minister of the day called Erin's Law.
A site serving all of that cannot be a portfolio, a media kit or a personal blog. It has to be all three without looking like a compromise between them.
- Brand direction for a personal brand, built around her name
- Website design and build on Squarespace
- The site copy, from the opening statement to the booking pages
- A five page structure: Home, Bio, Work with Erin, Press and Contact
- Separate booking routes for speaking, MC work and charity partnerships
- Before this, the website for her baby range, By Erin
From a template to a masthead.
Drag across the homepage to compare. The same person, the same career, and a very different first impression.
Before
After
A black and gold template with a script logo, a welcome line, one testimonial and a Twitter feed. It listed her services but never said what she stood for.
Her name set as a masthead, her advocacy ahead of her credits, and one hot pink carried through every page.
Four decisions I would defend.
Underneath the editorial surface it is a booking engine. Bio, press and current projects all lead to Work with Erin, where speaking, MC work and charity partnerships each have their own way in.
ERIN MOLAN runs across the top of the page in heavy capitals, set like a masthead. A public figure does not need an emblem. The name is the asset, so the design treats it as one.
The first thing the page says is not a list of credits. It is that she is a leader for change, with the Online Safety Act in the opening lines. The media profile undersells that, so the site says it first.
Ink, off white and a single hot pink, used without apology. Confident enough to hold its own next to a broadcast identity, and distinctive enough that the site could not belong to anyone else.
The testimonials come from the organisations that book her, including the Salvation Army and Soldier On. Someone deciding whether to hire an MC needs to hear from someone who has hired one.
One name, many stages.
Television, hosting and keynote work all book through the same site, so the imagery had to carry all three.
By Erin.
Before the personal site there was a product. After her daughter was born, Erin designed a baby singlet that clips together at the side, so nothing gets pulled over a baby's face. That became By Erin, a range sold with part of the profits going to charity.
I designed and ran the site for the range, and kept running it until Erin sold the brand. Her story sat one section below the products, because on a product site the product comes first, even when the founder is on television every week. The profile opened doors. The singlet had to close the sale.
There is no conversion rate on a personal brand. The measure is whether the person feels properly represented, and whether the site holds up in front of an audience that already has a view of her.
Are you the face of your business?
If people look you up before they decide whether to book you, the site is doing more selling than you think it is.