Advertising that goes beyond the screen
While an ads main imperative will always be to sell the product being marketed, there are ads able to go beyond this singular goal. The best advertisers in the world aim to not only increase profit margins, but create an identity with their clientele and the public in general. Many of the biggest businesses in the nation have used multiple methods to create footholds in not only the wallets’ of their consumers, but their minds as well. Whether it be McDonalds’ countless catchy slogans and jingles, Geico’s iconic lizard mascot or Redbull with their seemingly bottomless budget to sponsor a plethora of diverse events; these companies have been able to achieve public recognition in the minds of millions from their marketing exploits. They’ve discovered what sticks.
Jingles outlive ads
From the earliest marketing in human history, slogans and jingles have always been a staple of creating a brand image with consumers. In the original newspapers where every word cost businesses a pretty penny, coming up with memorable slogans in the least amount of space was an artform. Short, catchy quips could make one business stand head and shoulders above the rest. As time went on and humans discovered other modes of communication, radio ads became the new vogue for advertising. This allowed for businesses to create what is still today one of the most successful ways to ingrain a brand’s image into one’s mind: a jingle.
From the earliest marketing in human history, slogans and jingles have always been a staple of creating a brand image with consumers. In the original newspapers where every word cost businesses a pretty penny, coming up with memorable slogans in the least amount of space was an artform. Short, catchy quips could make one business stand head and shoulders above the rest. As time went on and humans discovered other modes of communication, radio ads became the new vogue for advertising. This allowed for businesses to create what is still today one of the most successful ways to ingrain a brand’s image into one’s mind: a jingle.
The bigger a company gets and branches out, the more their identity can shift among their user base. While one customer may use said company for one thing, another will use them for something completely different. This can make it harder for a company to grow without a uniform identity so an easy fix is to create a mascot. Even with a company having a singular purpose, a mascot is an easy identifier for an audience to connect with. It puts a living face to the name of an otherwise unliving company, creating greater character and continuity with their public image. The most successful mascots can even outgrow the company they are representing in the public eye. Try thinking of any of the major cereal brands without their cartoon mascot invading your gray matter, or how one of the biggest insurance companies in the world have a reptilian mascot who automatically enters the brain whenever the company comes to mind. Successfully creating a massively recognizable mascot is a way to ensure future success in marketing and for the bottom line in general.
The masters of sticky advertising
The last thing that makes a company have staying power in the audience mind is to extend past the conceived boundaries of advertising. Major energy drinks seem to be king at this. Having identified a large number of their consumers being into extreme sports, try finding a professional event today not sponsored by a multitude of these caffeinated drink brands. College students seem to drink these to stay up late and “study”? Send attractive young people to these campuses to hand out free samples, especially around exam time. In today’s society humans are so inundated with ads that traditional advertising won’t even register in many minds. Instead, aiming to spread a brand to a targeted audience through events sponsored, or even sometimes completely hosted by these companies, creates mass exposure and good faith between them and the audience. Other companies extensively track social media trends, often hiring a team strictly in charge of running their social media. Laws in multiple countries have even been put in place for celebrities and influencers to disclose when they are being paid by the company for the product they are pedaling.
Why pay for traditional commercials when you can pay someone who has considerable clout within your target audience to simply use your product with flowery reviews? If a company is able to think outside the box when it comes to their exposure, their average consumer is much more likely to think of them.
Short term profit increases from marketing campaigns are always nice, but truly efficient ones are able to plant seeds for future endeavors. Creating a brand image that sticks with your consumer not only bears fruit in the short term, but produces a profit bearing tree able to provide for many years when tended to with care and knowledge. As many companies mentioned or alluded to in this article, and the thousands more unmentioned, patient planning and solid foundations created in the beginning have allowed them to more easily control their public image through the years and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. Finding what sticks is the key to easily maintained, long-term success.
