Marketing strategy first, creativity second

Marketing strategy first, creativity second

There’s no doubt the constant communication we all face from technology and the digital world is painful.

That’s why as a marketing consultant it’s important to celebrate companies and brands that are able to cut through, send a message and speak to their customers in an effective way.

Let’s start with Boobs. Bonds.

For those of you who didn’t see it, the Bonds brand created a one-word campaign, namely, Boobs. Billboards across cities proudly spelled the word in the same typeface as their Bonds brand font type.

The point of all of this: to communicate to the people of Australia that Bonds do bras, launching their new range of sporty, happy and busty bras for everyday Australian women. Clever cut-through, plenty of exposure and a great idea that suits Australian humour.

So what makes an idea a great idea? It starts from really understanding what your brand stands for. An idea can be good on its own, but if it doesn’t itself link back to the core of the brand, then it’s dead in the water. Strategy first, before creativity. Some of the biggest brands in the world have got this so wrong. Why? It’s the creatives telling the strategists what direction the brand should be going. Wrong, wrong and wrong!

A great idea starts from really understanding what your brand stands for.

How about Share a Coke?

The main objective of this campaign was straightforward. Let’s increase consumption of Coca-Cola over the summer period. The next objective was to get people talking about the brand again.

The campaign needed to make consumers see Coke in a way that would encourage them to actually consume the product, not just love the brand.

A clever campaign – targeted, on brand and touching the heart of the brands and its uses – can work, effectively. 

Traffic on the Coke Facebook site increased by 870% and the Facebook page grew 39%. In Australia, Coke was the number-one most-talked-about Facebook page and 23rd globally. Seventy-six thousand virtual Coke cans were shared online and 378,000 custom Coke cans were printed at local Westfield malls across the country.

Who cares about Facebook likes and sharing unless the purchase of Coke went up to the right? The campaign blasted the brand’s expectations with millions of Australians purchasing and ‘Sharing a Coke’ either virtually or literally. Young adult consumption increased significantly by 7% during the campaign, making 2011 the most successful summer for Coke ever. The campaign earned a total of 18,300,000-plus media impressions.

How about Jeanswest?

Recently, Jeanswest has devised three types of targeted and automated email campaigns that run concurrently with its promotional calendar campaigns:

Targeted activity: campaigns are developed based on a customer’s data and past behaviours. For example, customers who purchased a top in a floral print previously are targeted when Jeanswest releases a new top in a similar style. Smart marketing.

Triggered campaigns: Jeanswest created tailored campaigns at significant milestones based on a customer’s loyalty status. Email campaigns like ‘Birthday’ (triggered on date of birth), ‘Anniversary’ and ‘Congrats’, driving the highest ROI while requiring the least amount of maintenance. Very clever.

Life-cycle marketing: lifestyle marketing strategies were developed. For instance, regular shoppers were sent a thankyou offer as a reward for being a valued customer, and irregular shoppers were sent an offer to help reignite their interest and encourage them to re-engage. Beautiful.

So all of this activity sounds good and smart, but what about the results?

Email campaigns are now developed faster and are extremely cost-effective and. A new campaign can be conceived and executed in half a day.

The results of key campaigns include 400% higher ROI from triggered, automated emails than untargeted emails. A 200% higher ROI from product-targeted emails than untargeted emails was achieved.

Given the improved targeting, up to 150% higher open and click-through rates for targeted, event-triggered campaigns than untargeted emails were achieved

Going forward, more than 50,000 highly personalised emails are now delivered automatically each month.

 Land of Quattro

Audi Australia recently announced the winner of its interactive 2013 brand campaign, ‘Land of Quattro’, a global campaign theme that was the first to be produced locally in each market.

So what is ‘Land of Quattro’? The campaign, launched in July, asked Australians what ‘Land of Quattro’ meant to them and generated 2275 unique TV commercials produced by friends and fans of the brand. Talk about experiencing the brand!

Users were invited to produce their own version of the company’s TVC with footage of the Audi Q5 shot from every conceivable angle using state-of-the-art aerial tracking technology and car-mounted GoPro cameras. Now that’s brand interaction.

‘Directors’ were able to cycle between cameras across multiple locations that epitomised the Australian landscape. They were able to choose vehicle footage down to the second and slice in vision from a broad range of everyday Australian activities to reflect how they live their own lives.

The ‘Land of Quattro’ campaign, launched at the end of July, saw more than 150,000 unique visitors head to the specially developed micro site to interact with the Audi brand and 880,000 interactions.

And the winner of the campaign, apart from Audi? Well, he got an all-expenses trip to Europe in January 2014 as a guest of Audi to experience the very heart of the brand.

Also, as part of the prize, the winning ad was aired nationally on Sunday, 29 September 2013, with his name appearing in the credits as director.

So, in our overcommunicated society and clutter, brands find it hard to cut through. But a clever campaign – targeted, on brand and touching the heart of the brands and its uses – can work, effectively. Small and big business can learn from this.

Strategy first, creativity second.

Michael Kava, Director, Little Marketing