There are an infinite amount of variables that an advertiser can control to maximize the success of a marketing program. It starts with how to position the brand, which media to use and how to allocate the investment. The puzzle is getting even more complex with the emergence of programmatic buying, second screen opportunities, native advertising, social media vehicles, and all of the other trendy tools out there today.
But if we step back from all of the trends and all of the intricacies of marketing, what it really comes down to is creative. This is what determines the effectiveness of a marketing campaign (yes, it’s even more important than the amount of money you have to spend). And the number one place where creative falls short is the simplest, but often forgotten task – assuring that those who see an advertisement link it back to the correct brand.
That’s right – Brand Linkage is the #1 problem with advertising, and it’s the easiest to fix. Take television for example – 56% of those with proven awareness of a given TV commercial do not know what brand was being advertised. That’s over half of the earned audience members who are essentially wasted. The problem is even worse for media like promotions (67% of those aware don’t know the brand) and radio (78% of those aware don’t know the brand).
And unfortunately, based on our research, there’s no subliminal advertising effects. Those who see your ad but don’t link it back to your brand demonstrate the same changes over time (in brand favorability) as those who do not see your ad at all.
So how do you fix it? We provide some fundamental solutions in this article, this article and this white paper. Sometimes, it’s as simple as making Brand Linkage a priority in creative development and pre-testing. One of our clients was able to improve Brand Linkage for their portfolio of brands by over 200% over a 9 year period of working with Communicus, just by changing the way that the organization thinks about creative. Just think of all of the marketing dollars you could not be wasting!
