Alexis Kestler
As a social media marketing guru with over 10 years advising brands on campaigns, I cannot stress enough the importance of quality brand advertising. In an oversaturated marketplace, compelling branding sets you apart and forges lasting emotional connections with customers.
Through this comprehensive guide, I‘ll equip you with 10 powerful brand advertising tactics to effectively strengthen your marketing efforts.
Let‘s define branding, explore influential examples, and most importantly, how you can craft campaigns that uniquely express why your passionate company matters.
What Exactly is Brand Advertising?
Simply put, brand advertising spotlights your values, personality, offerings and reasons for being to foster recognition and affinity.[1]
It centers around your logo, visual identity, messaging, and more to communicatively answer:
- What makes your business special?
- Why does your brand exist?
- What values do you stand for?
The end goal isn‘t direct sales. Effective brand advertising indirectly drives revenue by embedding your brand character into audiences‘ minds and hearts through emotional, entertaining or educational campaigns.
Over decades, this cultivates a loyal community that closely identifies with what your brand represents. They don‘t just purchase your products; they proudly champion your underlying ethos.
Companies like Nike and Coca-Cola built brand dominance through iconography, slogans and experiences that transcended physical products. Their record-breaking brand equity demonstrates brand advertising‘s immense potential.
10 Brand Advertising Strategies for Business Success
While creativity is vital, meticulous strategy separates great brand advertising.
Here are 10 techniques I guide clients on to express their mission through multi-dimensional campaigns:
1. Spotlight Your Founding Story
Your origin often holds an intriguing narrative. 74% of consumers identify closer with brands after learning their backstory.[2]
Patagonia does this perfectly – its mountaineering roots shine through in campaigns centered around preserving nature. This attracts fellow outdoor enthusiasts who connect with their mission at a core level.
2. Recruit Brand Ambassadors
Trustworthy influencers carefully chosen as brand ambassadors can expand awareness. Their ability to organically integrate sponsored messaging into content helps convey authenticity.
Aerie leveraging body positive advocates like Iskra Lawrence who genuinely aligned with their empowering ethos led to their #AerieREAL movement reaching 190 million online users.[3]
3. Strategically Sponsor Relevant Events
Evaluate events, communities and partners where participation as a sponsor grants exposure to well-matched audiences.
As part of their ethical branding, TOMS Shoes sponsors numerous charity events benefiting youth education and medical resources for those in need – further promoting their compassionate corporate values.[4]
4. Produce Short Films
Moving mini documentaries focused on your "why" beyond profit, through true stories, allow audiences to deeply connect at a heart level.
Everlane‘s Transparency film gave an inside look into their commitment to ethical factories and fair labor rights – winning over millennials who insist on purpose-driven policies from companies they patronize.[5]
5. Repurpose User Content
User-generated social content often authentically captures delighted customers‘ affinity for your products through ecstatic reviews, photos and videos. This helps humanize your brand when re-shared.
Outdoors giant REI regularly re-posts UGC of users adventuring while donning REI gear, tying into their branding around enabling the thrills of the life outdoors by providing quality equipment. This builds a perceived community.
6. Launch Engaging Hashtag Initiatives
Much like Nike‘s famed #JustDoIt, branded hashtags can ignite social media conversations, community sharing around values, and ultimately impressions.
Sportswear leader Adidas‘ recent #CreatingNewStories Instagram campaign inspired users to defy barriers and share their journeys. This generated 8.2 million views and 29,900 hashtag uses in just weeks after launch.[6]
7. Produce Inside Looks
Broadcasting one-of-a-kind insider footage conveying your brand purpose creates perceived transparency.
Ethical fashion pioneer Everlane offers glimpses into their Los Angeles factory emphasizing sustainable manufacturing processes through Instagram mini-docs – liked over 30K times.
8. Champion Your Causes
Brands today must stand for something greater than profits to truly resonate. Promote causes dear to your organization through creative awareness and fundraising.
Aerie‘s longtime Like A Girl initiative backs events and legislation furthering opportunities for young women, while rebutting stereotypes through viral ads – propelling goodwill.[7]
9. Showcase Exceptional Employees
Storytelling spotlighting standout staff upholding values from intern to executive reinforces an authentic commitment beyond lip service.
Leading software provider SAP profiles professionals who dedicate personal time to codes camps advancing skills for underserved groups – winning over social-impact oriented enterprise clients.
10. Advertise Charity Initiatives
Communicating charity collaborations through inspiring messaging showcases humanity and compassion customers seek – forming a deeper bond.
TOMS‘ famed One for One campaign – highlighting how every purchase gifts shoes for underprivileged children – cemented them as a mission-driven brand devoted to empowering global communities.
Brand Advertising in Action
Let‘s explore incredibly effective examples from an industry I work closely with – apparel/footwear.
Nike remains the pinnacle of brand advertising, promoting their Swoosh as associated with concepts like perseverance, greatness and competition – concepts that proved universally compelling.
Rather than just highlight product features, Nike spotlights feeling unstoppable in clips of heroes overcoming sporting barriers or odds. This sells a motivating sensation tied to wearing Nike gear while competing. 150 million consumers now connect Nike with athletic triumph rather than just sneakers – an immense branding accomplishment.
Similarly, newcomer fashion brand Everlane rapidly became Gen Z‘s go-to for affordable ethical clothing through brand advertising conveying radical transparency. By using social media to highlight their use of only ethical factories and materials, Everlane aligned their identity with moral manufacturing absent in most low-cost apparel – winning over millennials.
Their Brand Strategy Roadmaps
While countless elements collectively comprise winning brand advertising, I guide clients by focusing on 3 key cornerstones when architecting campaigns:
Cornerstone 1: Identify Your Differentiator
In a saturated industry, emphasizing your unique differentiator in branding is crucial to stand out. This could be social responsibility practices like Everlane or patriotic local manufacturing pride like American Giant. Define what sets you apart.
Cornerstone 2: Convey Your Differentiator Creatively
Simply saying your company is innovative lacks impact. Instead, spell out how through attention-grabbing campaigns. Fintech giant Transferwise builds trust by using clever cartoons explaining their transparent fee processes differentiating them from big banks.
Cornerstone 3: Analyze Performance
Estimating exact returns from brand advertising proves tricky with indirect impact but web traffic, social media activity and sales during/post campaigns indicate resonance. A/B test video ads alongside surveys to optimize based on what content best communicates your ethos and performs.
The Payoff: Why Double Down on Branding?
In today‘s skeptical world, companies cannot just state values – they must demonstrate commitment tangibly to earn patrons.
When effectively integrated into your marketing roadmap, brand advertising produces:
❏ Increased Awareness: Repeated exposure to your branding across channels makes you highly recognizable to buyers. Surveys indicate 75% stronger consumer perception exists for businesses executing multi-channel brand campaigns.[8]
❏ Greater Loyalty: Emotionally-led branding that spotlights your purpose and personality breeds affinity leading to 28% higher customer retention and forgiveness.[9]
❏ Higher Revenue: Markets reward trusted brands with equity allowing for premium pricing driving boosted profit margins. Iconic business like Coca-Cola and Nike built billions in equity through sleek branding strategies.
So for marketing masters seeking an edge, sharpen your brand advertising strategy today with the techniques outlined – your efforts will undoubtedly pay off as you build serious brand authority.
Have specific questions on launching initiatives or tracking data? As a senior strategist, I‘m glad to advise in the comments section below!
References:
[1] Smith, Katherine Taken. “Brand awareness: what is it and how to measure it.” Cloudways, 29 Apr. 2022 [2] PRNewswire. “New Consumer Research from StoryXpress Reveals 74% of Consumers Identify More With a Brand After Learning Its Story.” 19 Feb. 2020 [3] Lane, Randall. “Aerie‘s body positive movement drives record sales for parent company American Eagle.” Forbes, 28 Mar. 2019 [4] CauseArtist. “TOMS Shoes: Evolving to Address the Complexity of Poverty.” 17 Feb. 2020 [5] Schlossberg, Mallory. “Everlane is betting that customers will pay more for fairness and transparency.” Business Insider, 5 Mar. 2019 [6] Olson, Lauren. “Adidas Originals Successfully Navigates Influencer Marketing By Letting Go Of Control.” Forbes, 7 Feb. 2020 [7] Gerzema, John. “Why Brand Activism is Good Business Right Now.” Brandingmag, 25 Jun. 2020 [8] GfK. “Making Multi-Channel Branding Work.” GfK, 30 Sept. 2021 [9] Lab42. “Effective Brand Building: Emotion Beats Awareness.” Mar. 2019