Creating effective ‘advertising' in the age of immediacy

The Warc 100 post finds social engagement to be a growing trend and states that, “Social media has increased its lead as the most-used media channel, with more than 80% of the Warc 100 campaigns using social in some way.” Faced with this finding it might be tempting to assume that all campaigns need to be socially-led in order to be effective, but to my mind that is just as bad as assuming that all campaigns start from a great TV ad. Instead of starting with what media to use, effective campaigns start with what behavior they need to change. Once the motivation for change has been found then the campaign can be structured around encouraging the desired behavior.

It used to be that creativity in advertising was like art – you knew great advertising when you saw it – but now it is more like architecture – designed for a purpose - you know great advertising when it works as intended. This, of course, implies that you have to know what the advertising is designed to achieve and that you have defined metrics by which to judge success.

I believe that one reason that social is so popular is that it is so easy to measure and if people do care enough to talk about your campaign, then at least you know it has resonated in some way. The funny thing is that I am not sure that this is anything new. People have always talked about advertising that engaged them. Kantar Millward Brown’s Digital Behavioral Analysis finds that, just as with sales, there is a strong relationship between the brand-linked memorability of advertising and the degree to which a new campaign stimulates social conversation.

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So talkability might be a leading indicator of success, particularly for less deliberative purchases, but for more deliberative purchases like electronics and automotive it would be far more reassuring if more people started search for the brand as well, rather than just talking about it.

All of which brings me back to the point that there is still no silver bullet when it comes to marketing. Volvo Trucks’ Live Test Series proved that viral and social marketing can be successful even for highly deliberative purchases; but that success did not come without some real insight, creativity and a huge amount of hard work. And the more marketers climb on the social bandwagon the higher the standards of success will become.

To read more about Digital Behaviour Analytics, click here.

About the author

Nigel Hollis is Chief Global Analyst at Kantar Millward Brown. He brings over 30 years of research experience to bear on his understanding of how marketing communications can build and sustain brands. Nigel’s first book The Global Brand published by Palgrave Macmillan, takes a close look at the challenges facing marketers and global brands today and identifies the best practices to help aspiring global brands achieve success on the world stage. His latest book, Brand Premium, details how to develop a strong brand and generate financial revenue growth. Nigel is a four-time winner of WPP’s Atticus Award for original published thinking in marketing services.

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