On 8 October, the Bank of England announced a cast of wildlife characters that will star on its next series of banknotes: the Atlantic puffin, the barn owl, the buff-tailed bumblebee and the European hedgehog.

This of course sparked the interest of someone who runs a studio named after hedgehogs!

Now, I should pre-empt this article by admitting a banknote is a faintly ridiculous place to go looking for a brand lesson. But it’s a good story, so I’m doing it anyway.

The vote

The public chose from a shortlist of 18 animals, and 478,531 people took part, the most the Bank has ever had for a banknote imagery consultation. The hedgehog stormed the mammals category with just under 260k nominations. The red fox came second with 245k. If you’ve read my story Fox or Fuzzpig, you’ll know this is the closest I’ll come to gloating.

For the record, the hedgehog didn’t win everything. The barn owl beat it on votes, and the bumblebee beat everyone with over 360k. The puffin got its place by being the most popular marine animal. Nobody has said what the puffin thinks about that.

The brief

Here’s the bit that’s a gift – the Bank’s aim was to create a distinctive set of notes that makes counterfeiting harder. Its Chief Cashier, Victoria Cleland, called the winners “four distinct and inspiring animals”.

So the plan is four creatures that look nothing like each other, so nobody mistakes one note for another. And the Fuzzpig is the most distinctive mammal of the set.

Security and branding are different jobs, and the Bank has far more technical tricks than I do. But the principle underneath is the same one I bang on about. Something distinctive gets recognised quickly. Something that looks like everything else gets squished.

You don’t study a banknote. You glance, recognise it and move on. That’s how most people meet your brand, too: in a hurry, in a shop or halfway down a feed. They choose what they can recognise without effort. And that’s why small to medium sized businesses need to lean into their character and work hard to utilise their core positive truths. making the most of every touchpoint to communicate your clear difference and personality.

Which note, though?

The Bank hasn’t decided which animal goes on which denomination, and the first note is a few years away. So I can’t tell you whether the hedgehog gets the fiver, the tenner or the fifty.

But when it does arrive, and you unfurl one, let it be a reminder that being distinctive pays off!