Albert Einstein said that examples are not one of the ways of teaching, but the only way of teaching. Therefore, it is not bad to start with an example. Suppose a company wants to plan its advertising campaign. A trade council meeting is held and everyone gives reasons for their proposed plans. Often, the reason goes back to previous development. Since the same method worked in the previous campaign, repeating the same method this time will lead us to victory.
But what is the reason for the success of this Integrated Communications (IMC) campaign company?
According to the Director of Marketing and Public Relations, well-written content in humor is the main reason for its success.
However, the director of the advertising agency that sold the media considers the right choice of media, proper preparation of the television program, selection of suitable reviews for the group, and purchase of media such as posters as the main reason behind this. Message to reach the public. According to the Sales and Distribution Manager, detailed product planning and correct focus on the product and selection process is the main reason for increasing sales and…
We have seen this story a lot in different companies. The point is, even if everyone thinks they are right and sticks to all the cases, can success be guaranteed? We still don’t know what to focus on to make the next campaign 100% successful! Numbering success factors is generally more useful for articles in the marketing and advertising press.
what makes a good advertising campaign?
I will give another example. Even if you know the conditions that guarantee the survival of living things on the planet and you guarantee everything, you still cannot guarantee that it will survive. Several times I bought different pots and asked to grow from books and guides.
Knowing that water, sunlight, nutrients, and good soil are necessary for plant growth does not guarantee plant survival. Until I thought about the situation the question of what conditions caused the death of plants in my apartment! With this in mind and to avoid harmful factors, I maintain and grow the plants I want. Perhaps the only way to succeed is to know the conditions that destroy the success of any work.
Pulitzer Prize-winning physiologist Jared Diamond points this out in his comparative work Guns, Germs, and Steel. He believes that it is necessary to excel in various areas of life to survive, but it is enough to not have one condition of life to perish. Many species have survived and propagated their species through domestication: for example dogs, horses, and cows.
But the animals that could not be domesticated have disappeared or decreased in number over the centuries. All domesticated animals are domesticated for the same reasons, but wild animals are not domesticated for different reasons and go towards population reduction and extermination. According to Diamond, we humans tend to look for reasons for our failures.
But in fact, it is a series of rules and prohibitions that leads to failure. In his book, Diamond proposed the “Anna Karenina” theory, which takes its name from the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy. The first sentence of this novel inspired Diamond’s Species Success Theory: “All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family has its own stories.”
The experience of many companies and large companies dealing with the design and implementation of campaigns has made this principle also used in advertising. Anakarnina’s principle in advertising: “The main characteristics of successful advertising campaigns are similar, but the reason for the failure of every unsuccessful campaign is itself.“
That’s when Anacarnina entered the marketing communications and advertising debate in recent years. On the other hand, Anacarnina also delved into the topic of customer satisfaction and the customer journey (from search to loyalty). It has been said: Satisfied customers are the same, but dissatisfied customers have their reason for dissatisfaction.
Therefore, materials are written and designed to avoid customer dissatisfaction. On the other hand, in classrooms dealing with marketing communications campaigns at prestigious universities, instead of describing successful campaigns, professors explained why these campaigns failed.
That is, to be successful, we must focus on the problems that are the cause of failure. Several books have also been published on brand failures, brand gaps, and common mistakes in advertising campaigns.
One such book is the work of the famous advertising theorist, John Philip Jones, entitled: “Advertising Myths, Fads, and Truths: 28 Common Mistakes“. In this book, Jones examines the common mistakes that ruin advertising campaigns.
Years of research, analysis, and study have taught Jones and other social media players that “to be successful we need to reduce the chances of failure as much as possible.” If we understand where we hit, we can reduce the chances of failure by preventing mistakes. Jones believes that the only way to get the full picture of integrated marketing communications is to know “what has not been done”.
What areas of an advertising campaign should you consider before making a mistake?
- The first area is orientation.
Many campaigns fail due to the wrong selection of campaign objectives, the wrong target audience, unclear media goals, and incorrect targeting in positioning issues. Atalay jewelry store in Turkey is a good example. As long as the brand Atalay has chosen women as its target audience to sell its diamond gemstone rings, one campaign after another has not been successful. But since he changed his target audience to men and convinced them to buy diamond rings for women, he has seen a huge increase in sales.
- The second area is the message or more generally creating a connection with the audience.
In this field, a common mistake is to ignore the triangle of “special brand value, mental position, and creativity“. It is this triangle, if set correctly, that will show ads in the right places, provided we have patience. Designing an appropriate strategy for this area requires careful discussion. Therefore, we will discuss this in a separate article.
- The third direction is communication channels and types of communication between the audience, the message, and the media.
Inappropriate ATL and BTL programs will waste large budgets each year. The miscalculation of reach and the inappropriate number of message repetitions have resulted in countless campaigns with the wrong message and objectives.
A topic I must mention here is the concept of Integrated Marketing (IMC). When the
concept of equality was introduced, many believed that advertising would fall out of bed. Now we need more specific concepts like sales activities, social networks, and public loyalty, which are mostly based on social media and communication programs in terms of communication with the brand that is found The customer does not buy the brand and there seems to be no other place to advertise.
Father and daughter Rice ignited the fire with the book The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of Public Relations. Then, social responsibility campaigns and a post-modern vision of communication were raised, and changes were seen in the communication practices of organizations. We had the same discussion in the drama sessions.
So, the truth is that these things are coming from the west and we are just keeping our mouths shut. We have not experienced a fall in advertising. I can’t forget that in one of these meetings, one of the carnies spoke very well and talked about the destruction of the announcement of fear and regret that came to me with why I chose the advertising space.
When I told about this to one of the old gray-haired professors, who was sitting next to me, he replied: “This venerable speaker is my student. From diploma to doctorate, he didn’t work full time for one month in a company or marketing job, and his subject is market research!
Our problem is not the collapse of ads. Our central question goes somewhere higher than operational planning in advertising. During these years, we started advertising again.
We only have 5 television channels, but the number of media and the volume of advertising messages speaks of an extremely saturated population. theories in the field of marketing communication; We all know that models and scientific methods were imported from the West. However, in every country there is a history, We know that the economic and cultural structures are different.
Therefore, we must look at the issue of advertising campaigns on our terms. Still, in Iran, advertising and face-to-face sales are the most important processes leading to persuasion. The most direct method of communication available to obtain sales promotions is still advertising.
Because the audience knows that the message they receive is aimed at achieving the advertising goal of the organization. Ads can still have a huge impact if the message and media are rightly matched. But what is the solution that I fell into elimination vision?
With the arrival of a new idea, the old idea must be sacrificed so that the new word becomes more important. One day we have to live with advertising, and one-day advertising will die.
But what we need to develop is not a particular point of view, but a unified and unified point of view and the use of all communication processes. From advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, and face-to-face selling to the word of mouth, and anything that brings human creativity. Moreover, all these methods involve complex market factors that are implemented in their proper channels.
Therefore, depending on the target group and product, campaigns with specific goals, depending on the personality of the brand, and the holistic use of all the communication tools that can be obtained from the mixed marketing output together will be most effective. target. We.
Now, according to the Anacarnina principle, all prohibitions that will affect the effectiveness and success of this campaign have been identified, and we leave the imperatives to creativity. Don’t start with the red lines of the brand and move on to things that are not convincing with the message. Doesn’t that change the mindset of the user?
This is a point that today’s people cannot reach without using all the communication power they know. People’s prejudices and attitudes about an issue are formed and change over time – from the habit of misusing a product to behaviors such as wanting a car not to go between two lanes!
At the moment, only Simorg can create such a drastic change in the attitude of people who are addicted to their habits. If we consider SIMORG as integrated marketing communication, marketing communication chickens: advertising, public relations, word of mouth, direct marketing, personal selling, internet marketing, sales points, and other specified things.
Meanwhile, the Anakarnina Sutra teaches us that there are many ways to reach the top of Khaf, this way only needs to learn “what not to do” and pitfalls, otherwise the “must (must do)” is born with a new creation every time.
a day and that’s it. Bring your own do’s and don’ts to overseeing the campaign until the goals are met with the right mix of successful campaigns from creative people on the campaign team, such as the art director, and the dos and don’ts of the campaign designer and leader. If you would like to study the branding steps, you can click on the link.
In this article, we talked about what makes a good advertising campaign, but we think that we can still use your experience to produce a better and more comprehensive report.
Share your experiences with us.
