Branding? Performance? It’s An Advertising Campaign
by Dana Todd
Co-founder, SiteLab International
www.sitelab.com
As something of a branding cranky-old-lady, I feel I should step back to reinforcing fundamental ideas a bit. ANY exposure to the target audience counts as branding, and ROI is rarely calculated into pure branding success metrics.
For some reason performance marketers are uncomfortable with getting off that easily. It just doesn’t seem right! When I put on my online marketer hat (which is more closely aligned to performance marketing), the story looks a bit different because we online marketers demand accountability and trackability and sell-ability, dang-it!
In my opinion, product marketing is like high school with all its various cliques. There are the popular brands with whom, like the Jocks, everyone wants to be associated (Coke, Dell), and even though there may be some smack-talk against them on the Internet or scrawled on the bathroom walls, they’re largely immune because they’ve got enough personal brand karma built up to withstand flaming. But they have to put the time and money into it – flirting with the ugly girls, investing in the right clothes and cars, etc. Exposure brings more exposure, reinforcing the brand awareness and positive feelings of admiration; exposure on the Internet through press, ads, search, editorial, opinion, reviews, bulletin boards, etc. can easily build the same level of trust and confidence in a brand even if it “doesn’t exist” outside the computer screen (witness Amazon and Google).
There are the Nerd brands, and we can certainly point to more than a few of those in the Internet space (Digg, Engadget, CNET, Firefox). In terms of branding, the Internet is the most effective place to build a nerd brand’s personality, because that’s precisely where the primary audience spends most of their time. A subset of Nerd brands are Geeks/Gamers: WoW (World of Warcraft), Bawls, and Everquest are products that are built for, and by, geeks. Now that we can advertise inside console games directly via Internet connectivity, the ability to reinforce geek brands rises exponentially to an engagement level never before seen on television (unless you compare WoW tweeker marathons to the old Twilight Zone Thanksgiving Day marathons on Sci-Fi channel).
Next we have the Cheerleader/Prom Queen brands: Victoria’s Secret, MAC makeup, Herbal Essence, alcohol brands, luxury accessories (Coach), cell phone brands (T-mobile, Virgin), etc. Recognized by their complete lack of depth or practical value proposition, and focused entirely on superficial beauty and instant gratification, you’ll find them easily building brand awareness and loyalty via online celebrity gossip sites (PerezHilton.com, Daily Candy) and mass-appeal pep rallies such as MySpace and YouTube.
Of course there are the fringe brands/high school groups such as Emos, some of which are actually the brand and the branding vehicle both: Suicide Girls, Facebook, Nerve.com, and LiveJournal.
Suffice to say, I could work this metaphor to death and the verdict would still be the same: yes, you can brand online – perhaps to a more exciting and measurable depth than ever before. Is it still elusive and imperfect? Another yes. Is it worth trying? An emphatic YES.
I’m looking forward to the day when there’s no difference between a “branding campaign” and a “performance campaign” but rather, everything is an “advertising campaign” that is measured in multiple metrics: reach, impact, performance and sustained brand energy (deferred performance/behavior). The beauty of online marketing is that it truly allows the possibility that my dream will come true!
Dana Todd is Executive Vice President of SiteLab, a leading ad agency located in San Diego, CA. She regularly appears as a speaker at conferences such as @d:tech and Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies.
-- Guest Blogger
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