One of the biggest misconceptions about content marketing is that these marketers are not interested in advertising, however, the story is completely the opposite.
We hate bad advertising and ineffective marketing.
The advertising campaign is one of the words that is heard a lot nowadays and has a significant impact on brand awareness and sales increase in different time frames.
For example, I have seen many times on LinkedIn that it has been said: a brand’s advertising campaign was successfully implemented, or another brand’s mini-advertising campaign in that period did not have a correct and principled strategy and led to failure.
So, what do we mean by an advertising campaign?
What steps does the advertising campaign follow?
What points did successful advertising campaigns follow that became immortal?
Organizations and business owners usually have two approaches to holding and developing an advertising campaign:
- Using a digital marketing consultant in the company to compile the campaign and provide its reports
- Outsourcing the advertising campaign process to marketing and advertising companies is also expensive
Before starting, let’s study a comprehensive definition of advertising campaigns together to reach a common and correct view of this concept and go through the next steps together without any doubt.
Many phrases and terms in advertising and digital marketing are taken from military science and techniques, why?
Because advertising campaign is a war, a war between all brands!
Table of Contents
What is an advertising campaign?
In short, the advertising campaign is all the planned actions and activities that deliver the advertising message to the target community with the appropriate media and with a specific budget.
Identifying, prioritizing, and writing a marketing plan
A marketer must have access to a business plan or marketing plan to develop an advertising campaign so that the advertiser can see and fully understand the company, long-term and strategic goals of the business, products and services, competitors, micro and macro environment, etc. to have in the industry.
It has been seen that some marketers write an advertising campaign without any knowledge, and sometimes clients ask them to prepare a creative and effective advertising campaign with a brief introduction. Of course, both of these approaches are wrong, and such campaigns will not be effective except for wasting time and capital and will be doomed to failure in the current competitive environment.
Determining the goals and vision of the advertising campaign
When it comes to advertising and advertising campaigns, the purpose of the implementation should be determined first; whether the purpose is to introduce or persuade or remind old customers of products and services.
When the goal is clear, it is easy to define the target community and pave the way for the right advertising.
Determining the goals of advertising is one of the most important and at the same time the most sensitive parts of designing advertising campaigns.
Unfortunately, setting advertising goals among advertising customers in our country is defined very carelessly and short-term, and instead of making a good name for a brand in people’s minds, we only try to increase sales.
It is true that every organization tries to gain more market share and of course increase sales.
But should the goal of advertising always be to increase sales? No, it is not. Advertising is one of the tools that should have a positive impact on the organization’s key indicators or KPIs.
The purpose of advertising can be things like:
- communication goals with the target market, such as creating a relationship and the level of engagement of the audience with the brand
- Brand management goals, such as increasing brand awareness
- Creating a brand slogan
- Creating a positive reminder of the brand, such as being lovely, modern or old, etc.
- Increasing the number of customer requests for more information such as brochures and catalogs, etc.
- Increasing sales in the short or long term
A few important points…
An advertising campaign can have all or some of the mentioned items as part of its targeting
1) Advertising goals should be measurable
Campaigns that pursue goals only qualitatively and not quantitatively are vague. Because during and after the end of the advertising campaign, its effectiveness should be measured, and this can only be done with numerical indicators.
2) The target market and society should be clearer for us!
Another important step that should be taken into consideration in developing an advertising plan is to determine the target market of advertising to avoid wasting the advertising budget.
Studying the marketing plan mentioned earlier is one of the helpful steps in the field of target markets of advertising campaigns because, in a smart marketing plan, the target markets and their segmentation are discussed in detail.
However, the advertising agency must know what market it is advertising for to develop an advertising plan.
The segmentation of a company’s attractive markets can be divided from a geographic, demographic, behavioral, or similar point of view.
This helps the agency significantly in terms of media selection and effectiveness.
3) Product or service life cycle
A marketer should pay special attention to the product or service life cycle (PLC) for developing an advertising campaign.
He must consider this because, for example, a product that is in the market introduction period, compared to a product that is close to the end of its life, requires completely different conditions in terms of advertising strategies.
Paying attention to this issue helps the budgeting and media selection in advertising campaign planning.
4) Sending advertising messages to the audience
Perhaps one of the most important parts of an advertising campaign, which unfortunately has been discussed a lot in our country, is this part of our message and content.
Basically, what message are we going to give to the audience based on the goals of the advertising campaign and their fulfillment? And in other words, what is he going to be arrested for promoting?
5) The message should be simple
We, the advertisers, always try to engage the viewer by creating creative messages. This is very good, but sometimes an excess of creativity and innovation causes the audience to be confused or the essence of the message is lost.
Therefore, I emphasize again that the message of the advertisement should be simple so that the audience of the advertisement can understand it well and of course, keep it in mind.
Another important point that should be considered in the design of the advertising message is to avoid sending multiple messages in one campaign.
Sometimes we see that companies think that it is better if they point out several advantages in an advertisement and their money will not be wasted by giving one message, not knowing that sending multiple messages in an advertising program not only wastes the advertising budget. In the end, customers won’t remember any of your messages.
After completing these steps, we will review some examples of the world’s best advertising campaigns and review them together to better understand this issue.
6) Choosing suitable advertising media
If in the previous stage, we have correctly identified who are the target market of the product or service, then at this stage it is easier to choose the advertising media that will be seen the most and of course, will have the greatest impact on the mind of the audience.
As you know, different people are interested in different media based on their lifestyles and other parameters.
For this reason, we must know that they pay attention to something to properly manage the advertising budget in this sector, which constitutes up to 80% of the total cost of the advertising campaign, by choosing media close to the lifestyle of the target market.
Another point that advertising experts must decide on in the field of advertising media is the time measurement for advertising (duration and repetition).
How long and how many repetitions should be broadcast in each media? And what information should be given to the audience at each advertising contact point to fulfill the advertising objectives?
Sometimes, unfortunately, the marketers or even the advertising ordering companies refer directly to this step before going through the steps mentioned to prepare and design the advertising campaign.
7) Specifying financial resources and advertising budget
One of the most challenging decisions in developing an advertising campaign is the decision to determine its budget.
Sometimes, before making any decisions about this, advertising companies or senior managers consider a budget for this issue in general. This method sometimes does not meet the goals of advertising.
In this case, a marketer should tell this story to the customer and encourage them towards cheaper marketing methods, because as we know, advertising is the most expensive part of the means of promoting goods and services.
Methods such as a percentage of current or future sales, a percentage of production, and checking competitors are also common methods used to determine the advertising budget. But the best method, which depends on the experience of the advertising party, is the goal and work method.
8) Specifying an executive program (calendar).
After the steps that have been briefly mentioned, the advertising managers and the partner advertising agency should agree on the design of an implementation calendar in which the implementation details are specified. This executive plan is a document that helps the parties know when what needs to be done and what stage the campaign is at. This visual document also gives a general view of the program to those involved.
In an advertising campaign, you need an execution plan.
Do not go for expensive software. Excel is great at your fingertips, provided you know its unique features.
I suggest you know these 8 important steps before you sign a contract with an advertising agency or a marketer because for an organization the target of advertising should be important, and often for the advertising agency money and expenses are important.
3 examples of the best contemporary advertising campaigns
Before starting this section, I have to make an important point.
I do not know how successful the advertising campaigns of this article have been in terms of generating profits from advertising. The reason is simple I don’t work with those brands. Also, I am not aware of the goals and many strategies of these brands.
However, I know one thing very well: these ads are amazing examples that are a joint product of brands and advertising agencies. Why do I call them wonderful? The answer is clear. They have been imitated by other brands over a short period in addition to attracting the attention of the audience. Simply put, these brands have caught many eyes with their wonderful stories. Such advertisements convey a certain feeling to us, while many advertisements only steal time between 30 and 60 seconds from the audience’s daily life.
1) Nike: find your greatness
In the world of advertising and marketing, few brands manage to attract the attention of all kinds of spectrums.
Nike is not only one of these brands but also their flagship. Nike’s foothold in the field of advertising is very clear.
The important thing in this company’s campaigns is to emphasize elements that we can all relate to.
After finding such an element, the Nike team brings out a wonderful story from its heart. In my opinion, this Nike ad is the flagship of their unique work.
Especially the part that emphasizes finding the greatness of the audience. In this video, Nike went to ordinary people who have won great honors. You may ask what the purpose of this action is. Let me answer you by quoting the common phrase among all the people in the video:
“Greatness and success are no longer a phenomenon of special people. Just like breathing, now we all can achieve it.
2) P&G: Thank you mom
Sports competitions are always a good occasion for the emergence of successful advertisements. During the 2012 London Olympics, the advertising world witnessed many new campaigns. Although many brands achieved advertising success during these competitions, the public and experts constantly talked about the “Thank You Mom” campaign and the P&G brand. The interesting thing about this ad is its opening warning: Do not watch this video without a tissue.
The advertising video of the “Thank You Mom” campaign shows the unique daily effort of mothers. From doing housework to bringing children to the school bus, dressing children’s wounds, making them laugh at the beginning of the morning, and supporting them to achieve their goals, all are shown in this video. The important point of this video is to show the importance of mothers’ support in Olympic champions achieving great success. Take a look at this amazing video with a simple search.
The emotional load of this campaign is very high, and this is undoubtedly the main reason for its success.
3) Red Bull: space jump
Some brands such as Red Bull have gone on great adventures by abandoning the model of brands such as Volkswagen.
When watching the Red Bull clip, we will encounter a person determined to set a great record. Regardless of the continuation of the clip, Red Bull has made a suitable subject to attract the attention of the audience.
Breaking records is always in people’s attention. However, Red Bull’s admirable act of sponsoring a man in pursuit of a record-breaking feat is quite strange and insane: the jump from the top of the atmosphere.
First, we see the technical team talking to Red Bull astronaut Felix Baum-Gartner about the jump and safety tips.
Meanwhile, Felix suddenly jumps out of his ship. With this simplicity, a strange apprehension is conveyed to the audience. The rest of this 6-minute clip is spent showing the route taken by the Red Bull astronaut. Finally, by opening his parachute, he lands on the ground.
The interesting thing is that when the parachute opens, the audience will see the Red Bull logo on it very clearly. Undoubtedly, the success of this clip will not be measured only by the number of viewers. The Red Bull team established a completely new tradition in the world of advertising.
Therefore, by doing strange things, we will not only attract the audience but also help the science of astronautics.