Posted by Tom Buchok, Preston Kelly

Lately, there has been a lot of chatter about banner ad ineffectiveness.  And we’ve all heard about search marketing’s supposed inability to build a brand.  Advertisers are in a great position to put both of these myths to rest with sophisticated campaign management.  Let’s take a look at what it takes to build a truly effective brand-building campaign – it’s not as complicated as you might think.

Idea is still king

In advertising, one thing will never change: the importance of the big idea.  But now ideas must be challenged by questions, like:

- How does messaging change when introduced to tiered messaging and re-marketing?
- How do you talk to current customers versus those who are less far along in the conversion cycle?
- Is the idea dynamic and adaptable to a variety of media – in-stream video, television, email, direct mail, search, point-of-sale, and so on?
- If an idea can’t live everywhere it needs to, is it good enough?

These questions create a tough litmus test for any idea, yes, but fear not – the canvas to build a brand has never been so massive.

Production must co-exist at all times

A television shoot that doesn’t produce online assets has fallen short; an email campaign that doesn’t reach back to in-store media isn’t trying hard enough.  If advertisers are tasked with finding big ideas that can live anywhere, they must also prepare content for each and every channel.  No longer is there “just a TV project”, or some one-off banner ads.  Successful brands will be built by content that is efficiently produced and strategically interdependent.

Integrated campaign management is the Holy Grail

Virtually anyone reading this blog is familiar with banner campaign reporting, keyword optimization and pre/post-awareness testing.  All of those things are a good start, but it is now time to integrate data tightly.  Banner ads are catching slack because of low click-through rates.  Are we forgetting about the people interacting with our ads?  And how do banner ads affect search results?

The answers to these questions lay within holistic campaign management, the Holy Grail of online advertising.  Effective advertising relies heavily on integrated campaign management.  Integrated campaign management allows you to re-market to your audience, tier messaging, gauge ad effectiveness beyond the “last click”, and more.  These tools are a game-changer.

What do you think?

Ideas spanning myriad channels and touch points … effective content that exists in every medium … sophisticated measurement and tracking across an entire campaign.  The future of advertising is challenging and filled with opportunity.  What do you think?