Ashley D. Su 
Anthemic and preference changing brand campaigns have been the cornerstone of consumer packaged product marketing for decades. This is how the biggest names in CPG are built.
But in my past life as a seasoned leader in CPG marketing, I’ve had a front-row seat to see smaller, digitally-focused brands increasingly steal more and more of our long-standing pillars. Still, it seemed risky to move on to something new. As the saying goes, “no one has ever been fired for running the television”.
However, a slower pace of change often results in over-reliance on traditional media. According to the largest academic study on the long-term effectiveness of brand building by the Said Business School at the University of Oxford and data analytics company Kantar Group, the average campaign could have been 260% more efficient with a different media plan. And with buyers switching brands at unprecedented rates, the competition for loyalty is fiercer than ever.
It’s time to recalibrate the traditional marketing mix.
Building a brand takes focus
What’s the only thing your campaign needs to accomplish?
A 2021 analysis by Said Business School examined $ 13 billion in global media investment over a decade from Kantar’s CrossMedia campaign effectiveness database. He concluded that campaigns should be designed for a single specific brand result, for example, to increase awareness, or association, or consideration or motivation.
Resist the urge to think of any campaign as multi-objective. After all, you can run multiple campaigns at the same time focused on different goals that work together.
Improve the channel mix for greater efficiency
As the study attests, variations between voices, channels, and assets are needed to deliver the right mix for different levels of attention.
This is unique to each business, of course. But digging deeper, we see that most campaigns could have achieved greater efficiency by allocating less to TV. While television is an effective foundation, no channel should dominate your mix. Analysis of the Kantar CrossMedia database shows that a good rule of thumb for maximizing the effectiveness of multimedia campaigns is to ensure that no channel commands more than 50% of spend.
Move the association through relevance
Brand relevance is one of the main drivers of preference, but associations can be difficult to create or change. However, with the tools we currently have, we can make new connections between brands and new audiences.
People naturally have a better experience with content that they find relevant. Across Facebook apps, we see a variety of personally relevant approaches that are working well. For example:
- Creators and influencers: A global study by our scientific marketing team has shown that two voices (for example, a brand and an influencer you can relate to) work better than one in increasing CPG favorability metrics in apps and services. Facebook.
- Deeper Stories: Using longer format placements, such as InStream video ads, can generate more positive results for the brand. Plus, it allows brands to connect with audiences as they watch content from familiar publishers and creators.
- Interactivity: Testing innovative formats like live shopping, augmented reality experiences, surveys, and messaging can help deepen connections between people and brands.
Putting the media to the test
An American sports drink brand wanted to understand the full impact of its media. So, in partnership with Facebook, he participated in a third-party research study with Kantar.
In the analysis that spanned two years of its media activations across all channels, the results revealed that Facebook and Instagram are effective and efficient channels for generating long-term brand equity. Collectively, apps were the second largest contributor to spontaneous brand awareness and preference, just behind TV.
Brand strengthening boosts long-term performance
While the tools of the trade change rapidly, the basic concepts remain the same: determining is the key is the key to lasting success for any brand. Marketers today can make their branding work for the long term by:
- Design brand campaigns for a precise brand result such as awareness, association consideration or motivation (alias, conversation).
- Harnessing the power of association thanks to the relevance of Facebook apps and services with influencers, deeper stories and interactivity.
- Reassess the weight of Facebook and Instagram in your media mixbecause they can be effective and efficient channels for building long-term brand equity.
To explore ways to digitize buyer marketing to build brand value, drive product discovery, and enable frictionless payment, visit our CPG Performance Marketing hub.
