Power Your Ads With Brand Link

Have you ever watched an ad on TV and wondered who the advertiser is? You're not alone. Our extensive advertising norms database shows, on average, only half of those who recall an ad can also correctly name the advertising sponsor. We call the ability to match creative with the right advertiser brand link, and it is the cornerstone of advertising success.

Why should advertisers care about brand link? Our data demonstrates repeatedly that only viewers who know who the advertiser is show improvements in awareness and perceptions of the advertised brand. In other words, your messages--and the substantial media dollars associated with them--are completely wasted when those who have seen the ad cannot recall the sponsor. Even worse is when those who recall an ad associate it with competitors: competitors then get credit for your message!

How can you power your ads with brand link? Our advertising norms database and accumulated learning suggests there are three strategies to enhance the brand link of your advertising. Optimally, you need to apply all three for exceptional results.

1. Build on Uniqueness

   What the ad communicates becomes synonymous with your brand. Therefore, you need to have something to say about your brand that is unique in the marketplace. This can be a unique positioning, brand association, or brand imagery, or a unique functional benefit or product feature that becomes associated with your brand.

   Developing a unique message or a unique positioning can be difficult. Subtle nuances are usually not enough when everybody in the category is saying essentially the same thing. Therefore, additional brand link strategies are required.

2. Branding devices

   Incorporating elements that help identify the brand and tie it back to what the brand is all about can aid viewer memory. Branding devices can be icons, themes, continuing characters, jingles, taglines, spokespeople, styles, etc.

   However, creating successful branding devices is not easy. Doing this should be part of creating the campaign idea. When you create a new campaign, you need to own the branding device quickly, which necessitates a simple launch ad. As your campaign progresses, do not contradict yourself by changing branding devices. You want to get to a point where the branding device becomes easily recognizable, resulting in an "oh yes, this is another one of their ads" response among your audience. Branding devices become the triggers to what the brand stands for.

   Continuing themes or "look and feel" can be good, but you need to be obvious. Most of what we marketers and advertisers may think of as a clear continuing theme for our campaigns is not clear enough for the busy advertising target to decipher. If you have any doubts, test your ads among your target audience before they air.

3. Badging

   These are recognizable brand shots of the product, logo, or label, for example, which are present in the ad in a clear and recognizable format. Badging gives the brand a strong relevant presence in your ad and can be helped immensely by

   1. introducing the brand shots early in the ad during the first 10 to 15 seconds;
   2. giving the brand shot more than a couple of seconds of time on the screen; and
   3. using audio and visual combination cues so viewers both see and hear the brand.

   One caution here: we repeatedly find that simply throwing many shots or long shots of the brand in an ad is not enough. You do not want to be just a "sponsor of the ad." Your brand should be inextricably tied into the story: essentially the hero of the story. When you look at a creative idea, always ask yourself, "Can this story happen without the brand?" Even ask, "Can the story happen with any competitor brand?" If the answer is yes, then it is very likely your ad will have a brand link issue. Any humor, insights, emotions, etc. that are part of your ad should be wrapped in the brand or triggered by the brand in a unique, "ownable" way for your badging to be effective.

One question that our clients ask at this point is whether brand link issues are common across all categories. The answer is yes. Tracking advertising in over 75 categories shows that, in almost all categories, the proportion of viewers providing correct brand link is the same.

Financial institution advertising is one of the toughest categories to succeed in with well-branded advertising. As mentioned, in almost all product and service categories, approximately half of the target audiences who recognize an ad correctly link it to the advertised brand. However, only three out of ten do so in the financial category.

This factor has most likely been taken into consideration in awarding Coast Capital Savings the 2006 BCAMA Marketer of the Year Award. Having tracked Coast Capital Savings advertising for the past two years, this credit union is one of few financial institutions that has consistently achieved higher than average television brand link compared to financial institution brand link norms, and consistently exceeds the higher norms across all categories.

Coast Capital Savings has successfully applied the brand link strategies presented above. They have a unique positioning, "How can we help you," and a unique product feature, "The Free Chequing, Free Debit, and More Account." The Credit Union has applied a consistent, clearly recognizable look and feel to its advertising, and has used badging effectively in terms of making its employees and its branches the stars of its advertising while incorporating enough background shots of the brand.

As this year's Marketer of the Year winner, Coast Capital Savings' television advertising campaign embodies how to maximize the impact of advertising: make it work by ensuring you will have strong brand link. Provide your audience with a unique message that you can own, and help them remember your advertising by using branding devices and badging. If you work to incorporate these elements your messages are far more likely to win in the advertising arena, and perhaps your firm will be the next Marketer of the Year as well!

This article has been reprinted with the permission of the BC American Marketing Association (BCAMA) marketline magazine. For more details go to www.bcama.com.