Digital brand management redefined: The FUNKE brand portal
The FUNKE Mediengruppe brand portal brings together design guidelines, logos, fonts, templates, and more than 590 product brands in one central location. CRENEO designed and implemented the portal in 2024—four years after the rollout of the corporate design. The primary goal was clear: enabling teams and external service providers to access the same up-to-date resources without having to ask anyone.
Customer
Industry
Performance
Period
FUNKE Mediengruppe
Media and publishing
Brand Portal
Interface Design
Automation
Brand Implementation
since 2024
A brand system becomes manageable when no one needs to ask questions anymore
Initial situation
Before the portal, logos, color palettes, templates, and guidelines were scattered across different locations. Anyone who needed something had to contact the brand team or rely on a file whose current status could not be guaranteed. This cost time on both sides and allowed outdated elements to find their way into communications. The rules existed—the Corporate Design Manual, the Brand Manual, and the Quick Guide—but they were designed as documents rather than as a practical reference for specific questions arising in day-to-day work.
Challenge
The task was not simply to build a repository. A file repository would have solved the search problem while leaving the brand problem unresolved. What was needed was a platform that made the existing rules applicable in practice: anyone downloading a logo should get the right one without having to understand the brand architecture.
There was an additional constraint. The brand system had been developed in 2018 and rolled out in 2020/21. The portal was not intended to replace or reinterpret it, but had to build on the design parameters already in place. It also had to serve both internal teams and external service providers, with different access rights to the same set of assets.
Objectives
Four Requirements for the Portal
-
Bring all design parameters together in one place, with a single authoritative version
-
Make the portfolio of product brands accessible and easy to navigate, rather than simply storing them
-
Generate recurring documents automatically rather than designing them manually
-
Make usage visible so that brand management can be monitored and evaluated
-
Manage access and permissions centrally rather than individually
A system designed to run independently needs to be built that way from the outset
A system designed to run independently needs to be built that way from the outset
System
The brand portal is the application layer of FUNKE Mediengruppe’s brand system
The FUNKE Mediengruppe brand system consists of a guiding idea, a set of rules, and reusable building blocks. What was missing was the layer above: a central place where all of these elements could be accessed in day-to-day work. That is exactly what the portal provides, with its navigation reflecting the logic of the system.
Internal users sign in via single sign-on using their existing FUNKE account. External service providers request access through the portal and are approved by the brand team. Role assignments determine which content users can view and download—rather than access being agreed on a case-by-case basis.
The Design Guidelines section contains the rules—from the combined word and figurative mark, color palette, and typography to iconography and chart templates. The download area contains the building blocks, organized by umbrella brand, divisional brands, subsidiaries, and product brands, each provided as a complete package rather than as individual files. The Product Brands section contains the application logic: which brand belongs to which company, in which region, and how it is presented.
That is why the portal is not an addition to the corporate design, but the way it operates in practice.
The right logo can be found even without knowing the brand architecture
The right logo can be found even without knowing the brand architecture
Findability
590+ brands, made accessible rather than simply stored
The Product Brand Manager is not a standard component but was developed specifically for FUNKE Mediengruppe. It records each product brand by word and figurative mark, company, product, category, region, and brand presentation—fields derived from the brand architecture that are not provided for in any off-the-shelf system. Free-text and advanced search make it easy to find the right brand, and the current search results can be exported as an Excel file. For 397 of the 592 brands listed, a download package containing all logo variants is also available. For brands with their own corporate design, the package also includes the corresponding manual. Anyone downloading a logo gets the relevant guidelines along with it.
Anyone who wants to know which brands FUNKE Medien NRW operates in North Rhine-Westphalia can simply filter for them. Previously, this would have required asking the brand team.
Anyone who needs a presentation no longer has to design it—they simply configure it.
Anyone who needs a presentation no longer has to design it—they simply configure it.
Automation
Presentations are generated automatically rather than created manually
As part of the portal project, CRENEO also redesigned FUNKE Mediengruppe’s PowerPoint system: clear layouts for print and screen, consistent design elements, and a master template as the foundation.
The generator developed specifically for FUNKE is built on this master template. Anyone who needs a corporate presentation selects a template and divisional brand, enters their name, position, department, and contact details, and downloads the finished file. The system applies the correct logo, colors, and layout and inserts the personal details automatically. The same logic is used for PDF documents with different contact persons.
Automating template creation shifts the effort from design to data entry. The portal’s download statistics show how frequently this feature is used: three corporate presentations—one for each year, 2024, 2025, and 2026—rank among the ten most downloaded files.
Analysis
The FUNKE Mediengruppe brand portal tracks its own usage
“Analytics” is a section within the portal itself, not a retrospective analysis conducted by the agency. Page activity over time, the most frequently used sections, the distribution between internal and external users, and the status of the product brand portfolio can all be viewed at any time.
More than 1,200 people have used the portal since its launch in August 2024. Access is generally available to all employees across the Group as well as to external service providers, who account for only a very small fraction of users.
Whether a new typeface is being adopted across the organization can be measured rather than assumed.
Verena Katernberg
Head of Brand
FUNKE Mediengruppe
Operations
What has happened in the portal since its launch
Today, changes to the brand are managed through the portal, with the brand team documenting them directly: the Berliner Morgenpost logo relaunch in April 2025, the new logo folder for Ticket Shop Thüringen in August 2025, and the addition of the new talzeit product brand in July 2026. None of these entries were created by CRENEO.
The introduction of the FUNKEsans corporate typeface in 2025 demonstrated how robust the system is. Twelve months after its release, the two font packages rank second and fourth among the most downloaded files in the portal—just behind the umbrella brand logo.
A central change can be rolled out quickly across the organization when the distribution point is already in place.
Result
What FUNKE Mediengruppe can now manage independently through the brand portal
The brand team can add new product brands independently because the brand architecture provides the necessary criteria. It can update individual titles following a logo relaunch and distribute a new corporate typeface across the entire Group. Teams and external service providers all access the same up-to-date resources without having to contact the brand team or CRENEO.
Consistency is built in from the outset rather than enforced during the approval process.
Disciplines
Brand Portal
Interface design
Automation
Brand implementation
Brand management
How the brand system behind this portal was developed
Similar initial situation?
Many of our projects start with a concrete situation — not with a finished brief. If what you’ve seen here resonates with you, let’s have a short conversation.
Alexander Willuweit takes 30 minutes to understand where you stand — and whether we are the right partner for your next step. No pitch. No pressure.