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The Dispatch
Tiny Cogs driving big results
The Cogs of Empirical Marketing, Part 6
Welcome back to the Cogs of Empirical Marketing — a better map to help you diagnose problems, drive strategy, develop tactics and grow your brand.
Because once you know exactly where you are, you can chart a course for precisely where you want to go.
Today we’re talking about the tiny cogs in the lower left corner — TV, OOH, Radio, Social, Search and PR.
Let’s do this.
My aunt has her own recipe for homemade Chex Mix. Many aunts of a certain age probably do. She’s made it for every party and every family gathering at least since before I was old enough to remember family gatherings. I promise this will make sense in a moment.
Each batch has essentially the same ingredients: Rice, Corn and Wheat Chex, Cheerios, pretzel sticks, rye chips and peanuts. Toss with Worcestershire sauce, a dash of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt, garlic and onion powder. Bake low and slow until crispy. Serve.
It’s delicious, and, as far as I know, her recipe has remained unchanged for more than 40 years, except once.
One Christmas back in the ‘90s, my aunt decided to toss some red and green peanut M&Ms into the mix. It was a game-changer. Granted, we are talking about a relatively small game, but the whole family housed that holiday batch of Chex Mix. Maybe you have your own recipe. Maybe you use bagel chips instead of rye chips. Maybe you prefer cashews to peanuts. Maybe you use pretzel braids instead of sticks. The point is your recipe works for you.
Now let’s talk about your media mix. What’s your recipe?
You already know you can drive mental availability, long-term profitability and immediate sales on almost any channel.
Some channels are better than others at building lasting brand effects, including profitability and growth. TV, streaming TV, digital video and digital audio (podcasts, etc.) come to mind. Also, they’re right there in the chart.
Others — OTT, radio, retail media, paid search, for example — are better at driving immediate sales.
Again, this is not an either/or situation. Every channel does both, and you need to play both the long game and the short game.
You also know that it’s more efficient and effective to run your campaigns across multiple channels. According to a report from WARC that we shared a couple of weeks ago, each additional media channel drives an additional 11% improvement in revenue ROI.
And you know that PR amplifies brand fame … for (almost) free. That’s the point of fame campaigns. The Volvo Trucks Test Series had no media spend at all, and the FitChix campaign relied almost entirely on word of mouth. Both campaigns earned a ton of media attention, which helped Volvo reach decision-makers and FitChix reach people who truly care where their eggs come from.
And then there’s organic search, which is more than a battle for keywords. It includes creating a seamless online customer experience to capture as many sales as possible once someone shows up at your website. More on that in a few weeks.
You, a wise marketer with a keen sense of budget, have already spotted the problem. There are a lot of damn channels. You can’t possibly afford to be everywhere all the time. So you have choices to make. We can help.
The question is, which media mix is right for you?
(It’s at this point in the conversation when your CFO bursts into your office to tell you that his 12-year-old niece and her friends are on Snapchat. So, going forward, your entire budget will be spent on Snapchat ads because that’s where the kids are. Which? Might make sense if you’re a beauty brand and less sense if you’re in the aerospace industry. But even this isn’t as black and white as you might think. Also, don’t put all your marketing eggs in Snapchat.)
The answer is — and you’re gonna love this — it depends.
The optimal media mix depends on your category and your budget. It depends on the business problem you want to solve. It depends on who you want to reach. It depends on how much risk you’re comfortable with. It depends on where you are in the lifecycle of your brand.
Because there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Media strategy and tactics are easily the most complex and complicated elements of your campaigns, and it is critical you get them dialed in. A poorly designed media strategy can hobble the greatest ad campaign. The opposite is slightly less true.
The other lurking hobgoblin is attribution.
Everything works together. It’s not as simple as saying, “The radio spot did nothing while our banner ads did all the heavy lifting.” A better question would be, “Did we see a significant lift in clicks (or leads or sales) during the weeks or months the radio spot was running?”
Yes, it is more difficult to measure the effectiveness of a radio or TV spot. But it’s not impossible. Geo-lift testing is a fairly easy, cost-effective way to gauge what’s working. Anyway …
Relying too heavily on performance metrics is like asking which individual ingredient makes Chex Mix tasty.
Is it the peanuts? The rye chips? The pretzel sticks? Is the Worcestershire Sauce doing all the heavy lifting? The oven did a bit of work, too.
Immediate sales and long-term growth depend on multiple touchpoints — including word of mouth — all of which are driven by a great product, perfect pricing, the right placement and fantastic comms. Which? Includes a brilliant media strategy.
Did we mention SRH has an objectively brilliant media team? It’s true.
And with the Cogs of Empirical Marketing, we can measure what’s working and what isn’t. We can help you figure out where you are so you can properly diagnose problems, drive strategy, develop tactics and grow your brand.
Want to make sure your media mix is working for you? Let’s chat. Next week, we’ll finish this series by looking at physical availability.
See you next time!
Sources!