In the time of mass media, the cost of entry was very high. To make a TV commercial could cost thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Airing on network TV was also prohibitive, even if you already had a commercial.
This meant two major things: marketers had to take time and be careful what they decided their message would be, and smaller advertisers were shut out of the media.
With the advent of social media, entry cost is very low for advertisers. I can put together something that passes for an ad for almost no cost and I can do it overnight. Media is also cheap compared to network TV days. Plus, ads can be targeted more precisely, geographically, and through use or interest in use of the product.
Much of the industry’s emphasis is now on distribution and feedback, ignoring the importance of message content.
We can even use AI to develop a message without having to brief and engage a creative team. This has opened the door to anyone who wants to advertise. Products or ideas. It also leaves the door open for fake messaging and subversive messages from who knows where. More noise to compete with messages.
While the lower cost of entry has democratized advertising, it has led to a cacophony of thoughtless messages. The industry churns out messages and throws them against the wall to see which ones have sticking power, without seeing the risk.
It is like the old joke of the kid asking every girl he meets if she will sleep with him. He might get 99 of 100 rejections, but he might make a sale. There is a negative side to this activity.
We are inundated with these “BUY ME!!” messages everyday and every hour. They are the background noise in our lives. And they are ignored.
We evaluate the quality of any medium by looking at the percentage of editorial compared to the percentage of ads. The more editorial in a publication or website, the better its quality, the more people will go to it for information. Consumers are rarely going to media sources for the advertising.
So how does an advertiser get their message through and build a brand with all this noise?
Influencers are one strategy. As long as those influencers stay true to their persona. If they are seen as shills for an advertiser, they start to lose credibility with their audience. That credibility is based on trust from the viewer. When the influencer is more motivated by revenue from advertisers than from a desire to share their “truth” then their endorsement loses its value.
Advertisers to think through their messages to make sure the messages are provocative, memorable and clear – no matter how the message is delivered. While it is cheap to throw anything together and toss it out into the metaverse, every time a dumb message is thrown at a prospect, it dilutes the brand equity of the product or service it is supporting by confusing the brand’s identity.
What should advertisers do in this low-cost entry world with so much noise?
- Have a brand creative strategy that all messages align with – ALL messages
- Make sure every message is consistent with the brand’s character
- Make sure the message is credible and sustains the trust the brand has built
- Make sure the message is provocative enough to get noticed and is not lost in the noise of the many messages all around it
- Make sure the message is distinctive and memorable
- Make sure that the brand is clearly linked to the message, not just a logo sign-off
- Make sure the message is specific to the brand and not just its category
- Learn from the lessons that the advertisers learned when they had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to craft a message
Strong, consistent messages with clear ideas build brand value and that is equity.
Don’t fall victim to the ease and low cost of producing messages. Every message that a brand issues is part of a long-term conversation between the brand and its public. The brand builds equity and value through that relationship over a long time. Make sure you keep building equity without weakening it.
Think of it like your relationship with your partner, domestic or otherwise. It is a long dialogue. You might say or do something inappropriate and recover, but you are better off to stay consistent with your character.
Even expedient short-term needs – a sale, a limited time offer – should be consistent with the overall brand message. AI might be able to generate “ads”; it tends to rely on existing ideas which are not as memorable or provocative. Make a checklist of what you need in your ads: consistent with strategy, clear, good brand identification, user benefit prioritized, uniqueness. Every box should be ticked.
The lessons from the more careful days of brand advertising have a lot to offer. Rarely can brands pivot and change directions. It takes time to build the equity each brand has, and that equity has real value. It is easy to squander it.
Politicians have learned this, sometimes the hard way. A small slip can torpedo a career. Just because you can say it, doesn’t mean you should.
No matter how quick and easy it is to whip an “ad” together, making sure it stands out and is persuasive in the barrage of ads out there is no easy task. Some of the hidden cost in the inexpensive ad is in eroding your brand value.
For more detailed lessons and more thorough analysis on putting persuasive messages together, read Overcome AD-versity.