How is Dove’s “Real Beauty” like Geico’s Gecko?
We tend to think Dove’s campaign is a stellar example of purpose-driven marketing. But is it?
Yes, they’ve done amazing viral content on real beauty & self-esteem. (Including the recent one on beauty standards in AI-generated images.)
And yes, they’re one of only 11 CPG brands in the world with sustained growth over the past decade (according to Kantar.)
But is that tremendous growth really due to the cause? Maybe. But maybe not.
How Much Do Ad Agencies Love Young People?
*Obvi that means old people are, uh, well, ah.
“It’s not that you’re… We’re just going in a different direction…”
(I can neither confirm nor deny whether this is a real quote spoken to me.)
How bad is the “average” ad?
How bad is the “average” ad?
Turns out it’s, uh, pretty bad.
And it’s even worse for B2B brands.
Did “Got Milk?” Got Sales?
The “Got Milk?” campaign is famous, lauded, & iconic.
Nearly 300 celebs participated over 2 decades. Even Yoda had a milk mustache in ‘99.
But did it work? “Look at the data, you must.”
Should you use ROI to measure your advertising?
(Especially don’t trust in-platform measures of ROI. They’re incomplete, speculative, and, well, designed to make the platform look good.)
To boot, 99% of your future buyers are building consideration sets in their minds today for purchases they’ll make next [week month year].
So maybe use ROI to measure ad efficiency.
Should You ”Bland” Your Brand?
Just to clarify: a logo is not a ‘brand’. Or at least it’s not your BRAND: your ‘Big B’ brand is your entire reputation and the sum total of all you do — product, pricing, where you’re sold, what your CEO Tweets, is it hip on Cape Cod, do you have a store in Monaco, etc.
But a logo is a key, often essential element of your brand. It’s your “little b” brand.
Here are 3 key reasons to keep (or create) a funky logo:
Do Ad Campaigns Suffer Wear-Out?
Like, what if the campaign is still on strategy, still makes sense, but isn’t working as hard as it used to? Or it’s already been a couple years? Does that mean it’s dead?
Four in five of the new campaigns did worse than the effective campaigns they replaced. (That’s 80% for you who don’t like to be ratioed. :-) )
Does 80% of Your Revenue Really Come From 20% of Your Customers?
The latest batch comes from over 330 publicly-traded non-CPG firms, for both product & services, care of scholars Daniel McCarthy at Emory & Russell Winer at NYU.
Do they find an 80/20 pareto ratio of revenue? Not quite.
For non-subscription firms, they find a 68/20 ratio on average. For subscription-type firms, the average is nearly 10% lower, at 59/20.
What if we're all a little ageist?
Benny Barak gathered studies from 18 countries around the world on how people feel subjectively (their “felt” age) and what they think is the “ideal” age.
Universally, people FEEL about six years younger than they ARE, and they WISH they were another five years younger than they FEEL.
Why Aren't Old People in Your Ads?
I mean, they’re not in almost any ads, outside the obvious ones for medical devices prescription medication.
Do ads have to completely mirror your audience? Of course not.
But adland is stuck in a curiously ageist loop that could be leaving millions — or billions — on the table.
Big Brands Have Higher Loyalty. Again.
One of the oldest laws in marketing is that small brands suffer twice: they have many fewer buyers, AND those buyers buy slightly less often (lower repeat, AKA loyalty, but don’t say loyalty, it’s a terribly messy word that should only be used for pets & sports teams). This is called Double Jeopardy. It’s older than me.
Is Your Brand Easy to Recognize?
A quick & unscientific way to test is to do an online image search of “your brand” or “your brand + your category”. (E.g., “Starbucks”, or “Starbucks coffee”.) Then zooooom out (Ctrl - or Cmd - ).
Check it on its own & against competitors. Can you tell them apart? Is there anything beyond your logo or product that pops? Do you look like everyone else, or are you creating your own distinct look?
What Media Drives Long-Term Sales Best?
Despite rumors of its demise, TV is the king of long-term sales.
Do Heavy Buyers Stay Heavy?
The TL;DR: not so much.
In a classic study,The NPD Group measured the purchase frequencies of 2,261 consumers across 27 brands in both CPG and non-cpg categories. Then they came back a year later to see how much folks were stll buying.
Is Advertising a "Tax for Being Unremarkable"?
If this is true, why is Amazon — clearly a pretty remarkable company, a TECH company, and seemingly ubiquitous — why is it the largest advertiser in the US today, spending $16.9Bn last year on ads?