How to develop a clear marketing brief that unlocks insight and gets to the heart of the marketing challenge

Our primary role as marketers is to constantly solve new and different types of challenges and demonstrate this insight through an effective marketing brief. From a client-side perspective, this may be responding to a change in the market, for example, a new competitor disrupting the status quo or a sudden change in consumer demand as a result of a new trend. From an agency perspective, this will often involve responding to a client request to help formulate a strategy for a new campaign or initiative, usually in support of the challenge they’re attempting to solve! I’ve written about the importance of an effective marketing brief before and its positive impact on both clients and agencies. However, whilst a written brief is essential, one of the keys to the success…

Marketers who are willing to take a hands-on approach can achieve dramatic results with personalized data strategies

Regardless of what your short- or long-term business goals are, an imperative part of achieving success is knowing who your prime audience and decision-makers are, and then identifying the best way to reach them.

Major advancements in technology and data analytics have certainly helped shed some light on who ideal audiences are and how to reach them in a specific, hyper-targeted way.

Natural air freshener brand Citrus Magic, which creates sprays and air freshening products free from harsh chemicals, had a few ambitious marketing goals:

Increase brand recognition and exposure Drive foot traffic Promote an in-store sales lift [caption id="attachment_152108" align="aligncenter" width="526"]…

Understanding the specifics of the lifestyles, habits, preferences, and needs of people of various cultural backgrounds can be the key to rapid campaign success

If you really want to engage your customers, then you should know what it is like to be in their shoes. Understanding the specifics of the lifestyles, habits, preferences, and needs of people of various cultural backgrounds can be the key to rapid campaign success. If you have already dabbled in international marketing, the following is nice to keep in mind: your customers are people who come from different countries, with different goals, purposes and daily challenges. They may not have equal access to the internet and particular web sources where you could communicate with them. Understanding this should be the first step towards growing a robust, diversified marketing campaign. [si_guide_block id="39230" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Marketing campaign planning guide" description="This guide is designed to enable you…

How sparking debate can reward the risk-takers in advertising

Despite the immediate public backlash around the British Army’s latest recruitment campaign, data suggests that it led to a drastic turnaround in the organization’s well-known struggles to bring in new recruits in recent years. While certain behaviours of the younger generation are seen as faults (from binge gamers’ obsessive drive to snowflakes’ overly emotional state of being), the campaign aimed to explain that these flaws can, in fact, be valued character traits among army personnel. In this blog, I’ll take a look at this emerging demographic before delving into the immediate public reaction post-launch, the campaign’s results and the risks involved with a campaign of this nature.

Who are "Generation Z"?

Often to the dismay of those defined as "Generation Z" - much like the Millennials who came before them - the…

Coca-Cola prove that sounds - or a lack thereof - can produce powerful results in advertising

“Try not to hear this” is the tempting message behind this campaign, and you’d be hard pressed to find many consumers capable of doing so. Coca-Cola’s latest campaign reminds us all of the position this brand occupies not just in the market, but in our own subconscious. All that’s required to hear the satisfying sound that precedes the experience of drinking Coca-Cola is catching sight of one of the three print ads that make up this series: The popping of a bottle cap from a glass bottle of Coca-Cola The fizzle of a freshly poured glass of the drink …

The steps you need to take to make sure you get the most out of your marketing campaign

A digital marketing campaign is a complex undertaking, one that will require your dedication and attention, from the moment you first conceive of the campaign, right up until it is being presented to an audience. Digital marketing campaigns are much more dynamic and sustained than traditional, analog marketing methods. A digital marketing campaign involves a lot more than simply placing adverts for your business or brand around social media and other websites. With digital marketing, there is a constant or near-constant exchange of data between the business and the various online platforms on which they market. For example, an integral part of most digital marketing campaigns is SEO. But SEO is not something you can simply buy or implement with a single transaction. SEO is an…

Chart of the Day: Millennials  (18-34 year olds) utilize a greater range of channels before purchasing products online than Gen-X and Baby Boomers

As consumers, we are more savvy with our purchases that ever before. By the time we have finally decided to buy a particular product we will have spent a good chunk of time researching our options to try and find the best deal we can for the product that suits our needs. In research conducted by Salesforce surveying 4,000 consumers across the UK, USA and Canada, it was found that while the respondents spent most of their time researching on the internet before purchasing online they also spent a significant amount of time using multiple channels including email, in person, on mobile apps and more. Interestingly, there are significant differences between the behavior of millennials, Gen-X and Baby Bloomers. Millennials seems to not favor a particular channel after using websites with…

Get Ahead With an Integrated Marketing Campaign

Integrated marketing campaigns bring different channels together to deliver a message that helps the customer to properly identify the brand or product being promoted. One of the best examples of an integrated marketing campaign done right is from Compare the Market and their meerkat. By creating a toy that customers could own, the campaign went far deeper than a mere advertising campaign on TV or the internet. The fun and friendly characters have helped turn insurance into something that even children can connect to and after a year, the campaign had helped to increase the market share of Compare the Market by 76%. According to David Pickton and Dr Amanda Broderick, authors of Integrated Marketing Communications, there are four essential C’s that need to be followed in order to craft an integrated campaign. For anyone looking for ways to create a successful strategy of their…