The peanut butter cup of media strategy

Chocolate and peanut butter. Brand and performance. Immediate sales and long-term growth. They all go great together.

Last week we explored why you need to play the long and the short game. Today we’re going to explore one efficient and effective way to put it all together.'

Welcome to the “best of both worlds” — the brand-response campaign

In an ideal world, your long-term, broad-reach, emotional brand campaign would be supported by robust, short-term, direct response tactics that drive immediate sales.

For example …

This Nike spot is pure brand and pure emotion. It’s all about the love of the game and building mental availability for Nike as the basketball shoe of choice.

And while this McDonald’s ad is infused with their distinctive brand assets, it is a performance ad designed with clear promotion in mind and a direct action they want the audience to take.

Of course, Nike and McDonald’s have marketing budgets larger than the GDP of a small country (Belize, for example). Most of us live in the real world where our budgets have to work harder and smarter than ever before.

Brand-response campaigns are a hybrid approach.

They weave emotional storytelling with features and benefits and a softer call to action … and they feature the best of both worlds.

For example, every Progressive spot that ends with something like, “Switch to Progressive and you could save hundreds,” or, “Progressive can’t save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us,” is a brand-response ad.

These ads tell stories, make us laugh (or at least chuckle), build mental availability for Progressive as a trusted insurance provider … and then deliver an invitation to take action.

Of course, brand-response campaigns don’t have to be video spots. They can be print ads with a QR code or audio spots or even billboards. The idea works across channels and activations.

According to Binet and Field, “Brand-response campaigns are only slightly less effective at driving short-term effects than pure response campaigns and only slightly less effective at driving longer-term share growth than pure brand campaigns.”

source: Effectiveness: the long and short of it

Dollar-for-dollar, brand-response campaigns are better at driving direct sales, market share and profit than either pure response or pure brand campaigns.

So, if you are a challenger brand looking to grow while stretching your marketing budget as far as it will take you, talk to us about a brand-response campaign.

We’ll see you next time.

Sources!

The Long and the Short of It - Les Binet and Peter Field

“Brand & Direct Response TV Ads” - Tatari TV

"Effectiveness: the long and short of it" - Ben de Castella