Five key priorities for delivering effective advertising

WARC today releases ‘Anatomy of Effectiveness: 2022 Edition’, a white paper giving brand marketers, advertising agencies and media owners a fresh perspective on the five key building blocks of effectiveness.

Why it matters

Much has changed since WARC published the first Anatomy of Effectiveness in 2019, David Tiltman, SVP Content, WARC, observes: “We’ve had a pandemic that saw budgets switch out of brand investment into performance marketing; we’ve seen the rise of ‘retail media’ platforms that are reshaping the media landscape; and with the impending death of the cookie we see a growing lack of confidence in advertising and media measurement.

“This updated edition of our white paper draws on new thinking and the latest evidence to present the key building blocks required to deliver commercial impact today.”

Five priorities

• Invest for growth

Understanding how factors such as brand size, campaign investment and category dynamics will determine effectiveness are key first steps when it comes to setting budgets and agreeing on objectives. Getting the right framework for investment is crucial if a campaign is to meet its potential.

• Balance your spend

Set the right framework for investment to ensure sustainable success. Whether it is long-term effects vs short-term sales impact, brand-building vs performance marketing, broad reach vs active in-market buyers or upper funnel vs lower-funnel, plan for effectiveness across different timeframes, messaging, audience types and buyer journeys to deliver maximum growth.

• Plan for reach

Campaign reach is becoming harder to achieve as media consumption fragments. This is forcing marketers to reconsider long-held assumptions about reach and frequency management. Factors to be considered include brand objectives, media selection and consumer purchase habits.

• Be creative

Creativity makes a difference and is the most powerful weapon under the marketer’s control. There is widespread evidence that creativity delivers increased effectiveness when it is distinctive, engaging, emotional and has some longevity. Recent research cited in LIONS’ State of Creativity 2022 study claims only 8% of agencies feel confident in convincing clients to invest in high-quality creativity and 12% of clients feel confident in convincing the CFO to invest in high quality creative.

• Plan for recognition

Advertising must be associated with the brand behind it, if it is to work. Planning for recognition involves creating shortcuts in consumers’ minds that make brands more memorable, impactful and easy to recall. Failure to brand communications properly is a common pitfall. Investing in and nurturing distinctive assets will enable quick recognition.

The white paper, launched in conjunction with WARC's Anatomy of Effectiveness hub, features new case studies, expert opinions and over 20 'Evidence' decks. WARC clients can read the full report here. A sample edition is available for all.

Highlights from the white paper will be presented to Cannes Lions attendees today as part of a full week’s worth of content curated by WARC, together with the world’s leading effectiveness experts, covering strategy, media, creative and digital commerce. For more details on WARC x Cannes Lions, click here. 

Wellbeing sentiment shifts towards 'betterment'

Ongoing research from Horizon Media’s WHY Group has uncovered an evolution in wellness to the concept of betterment, which concerns how people actively approach all aspects of wellbeing.

Why it matters

For brands, understanding how consumers approach their wellbeing is central to being able to respond to this core part of how people go about their lives.

Takeaways

• People’s betterment needs shift constantly based on how they manage their natural energy rhythms, and feelings of control over those rhythms affect the choices people make, with some people feeling In-Sync and others feeling Out-of-Sync.
• Constant fluctuations in bandwidth for taking on life’s challenges have been exacerbated during the pandemic.
• How much control people feel over their energy state dictates their betterment behaviors; when brands understand this, they can connect with consumers in ways that can lead to adoption and a stronger, more emotionally-based connection.

The big idea

Brands can benefit from knowing the relevant complexities and nuances of their audiences’ energy states by understanding how they are, how in control they are feeling, and by offering ways to help.

Rainbow Shops is using SMS for effective brand personalization

SMS (short message service) can serve as effective personalization with customers while remaining in accordance with digital privacy laws, according to a presentation by women’s retail brand Rainbow Shops at CommerceNext 2022.

Why it matters

In an increasingly privacy-focused online advertising sphere, SMS has emerged as a viable channel for communicating with customers directly, building brand loyalty, and serving as a space to further understand customers’ individual needs.

Tone is essential

• SMS messages should comply with the more conversational tone associated with texting, according to David Cost, vp/e-commerce and marketing at Rainbow Shops, in a presentation titled “Preparing Your Tech Stack for the Era of Conversational Commerce”.
• Cost says consumers often respond to automated SMS messages as if they are speaking with a live sales representative. As such, brands should endeavor to meet consumers at their level, by adopting a more conversational tone in their messaging, and straying away from generic promotional scripts.
• For example, using customers’ first names and avoiding long expository paragraphs is key.

Takeaways

• In 2022, roughly 70% of marketers are using SMS for “retention and re-engagement,” a ten percentage point increase from 2021, said Elizabeth Ray, vp/client strategy at SMS platform Attentive. Ray also reported that customers spend, on average, 50% more when directed from SMS.
• SMS should be used as a tool for precise personalization – not, as Cost phrases it, “false personalization,” or messaging that gets customers’ individual attributes wrong, thus targeting them ineffectively. “If we have a plus-sized customer and we send her junior-sized messaging, that’s a loss,” he said. “We’re gonna lose her.”
• Brands can acquire first-person data by asking consumers direct questions over SMS about the products and services they are looking for. This will ensure targeting accuracy later in the sales journey.
• SMS messaging can also be used to guide customers along the purchase funnel – if they have items waiting in checkout, a message might be the difference between inertia and action.

The big idea

“Clearly we need to pick up on those daily touchpoints that are happening,” said Cost of the everyday occurrence of SMS messaging among consumers.

The video market will end in tiers

As the video market enters a new period of hybrid models, many SVOD and BVOD services are moving to both ad-free and ad-supported tiers, a development that brings a fresh set of challenges for both broadcasters and advertisers, says a new report from Kantar.

The Future Viewing Experience appraises the near-term future of the TV and video landscape in which the smart TV set has become the primary driver of increased usage of connected streaming services.

Why it matters

For media owners, the era of set-top boxes is coming to an end and the battle is now on for control of the main video delivery gateway into the home: the connected TV screen itself.  

Brands, meanwhile, are facing the prospect of a two-tier advertising ecosystem in which those who can afford ad-free environments may become ever harder to reach.  

Takeaways 

• Significant steps towards vertical integration will define the long-term as global media owners seek to control the entire chain, from production of content to delivery into the home. The trend could signify a slowdown in content availability.  
• Media companies are seeking a return on their significant investments in intellectual property by promoting franchises and capitalising on global and local fanbases. The internationalisation of culture and younger audiences’ love of sub-titles is ushering in an era in which local content can go global.  

• Critical mass for a global service will be beyond all but a handful of players with valuable and extensive intellectual property. Independent production will remain significant with smaller and niche players finding value in collaborating with others to compete effectively.   
• Streaming services are taking a more broadcaster-inspired sequential release approach to flagship originals, so helping drive buzz and prolong subscriptions. There will be less box-set bingeing in future.  
• If the complexity of the video distribution ecosystem can be effectively tackled, Smart TVs can enable true addressability, offering transformative opportunities and facilitating new forms of advertising.  

  Sourced from Kantar   

CMOs look for the ‘why’ on Web3.0

The opportunity of the metaverse and Web3.0 requires careful consideration, according to a panel of leading CMOs, and brands shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon for the sake of it.

Why it matters

While the metaverse and Web3.0 is getting a lot of hype in the marketing industry, brands are doing themselves a disservice by not examining their motivations for entering the space and whether it is truly the right fit for the brand. Missteps can be costly. 

What to consider 

“When you talk about Web3.0 … you need to ask yourself a few questions,” said Mathilde Delhoume, Chief Brand Officer at LVMH, speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

In Delhoume’s view, brands need to consider:

• the longer term benefits of being in the metaverse or Web3.0;
• who exactly they are targeting, and what type of customers they want to attract to the brand;
• the added value that Web3.0 will offer to customers, if at all;
• how any activation improves the desirability of the brand, or not;
• whether an additional touchpoint will benefit or dilute the brand.

Wait and see

Tamara Rogers, Global Chief Marketing Officer at GSK agrees that brands need to make sure they have a thoughtful strategy when it comes to the metaverse and Web3.0. As a consumer health company, the metaverse isn’t in their current plans, although Rogers is looking to see how Web3.0 develops in the near future. 

“We do think there’s a big opportunity because Web3.0 offers so many possibilities around connection and community,” Rogers said. “We want to find ways to help people take better care of themselves,” 

Dara Treseder, Head of Global Marketing and Communications at fitness company Peloton, is resistant to the hype for now, although she is optimistic about the future: “I don’t feel any pressure… what I’m trying to do is understand what I think is the next iteration of the meshing the physical world and the virtual world.”

A.H.