Evidence-based research for advertising performance has been on fire for the past decade. Thanks to rigorous research and studies by WARC, The Ehrenberg Bass Institute, Les Binet & Peter Field and the IPA covering tenss of thousands of campaigns around the world, it’s becoming pretty clear what works and what doesn’t. While there are no sure bets in marketing, there are certain actions, elements and approaches that will make your advertising way more likely to outperform.

By following the research and implementing the finding into our own work, we’ve built a pretty amazing track record for developing high-performing creative advertising. And by high-performing we mean creating strong brands that outsmart, outsell and outlast their rivals. Our campaigns consistently deliver an unfair share of attention, memorability and ultimately, sales for our clients over and over again. No matter the category. No matter the budget.

How do we do it?

Well, first off, we’ve learned what works. Through trial and error and evidence-based marketing research, we know that high-impact ad campaigns must satisfy five conditions:

• Reach

• Attraction

• Memorability

• Branding

• Occasions

 Or RAMBO, for short. To maximize results every single ad in every single integrated campaign we create must satisfy the following:

Reach

The more people who are exposed to your brand, the more chances you have to build awareness, consideration and ultimately sales. That’s why an uber goal of every creative campaign we develop is to reach as many potential buyers as possible within the budgets we’re given. As Professor Byron Sharp recommends in How Brands Grow and How Brands Grow: Part 2 the most successful brands don’t hyper target or over segment their audiences. Instead, they strive to reach their entire market with a focus on marketing to new buyers. To maximize growth, Professor Sharp’s research concludes your brand must:

• Be Seen By As Many People As Possible – market penetration is the most important growth factor

• Target Light And Non-Buyers – this is what generates real sales growth

• Grow Awareness And Memorability – both work together to influence buying decisions in your favor

• Increase Physical Availabillity - this can be done via e-commerce and search to sell directly online via your own site or resellers + increasing the # of bricks and mortar stores your sold in

All of the above require extended reach.

“It is not possible to grow market share without reaching category buyers who never, or seldom buy your brand” - Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow: Part 2

Attraction

Ads only work when buyers notice and pay attention to them. The more attention an ad attracts, the more likely it will deliver short-term sales. What’s more, ads that attract greater attention are more likely to be remembered longer and drive much bigger long-term sales. Creativity is the key. Ads that try to persuade through logic or hard sell messaging are way less effective. They do not attract as much attention or stick in peoples’ memories as messages that are entertaining. That’s a fact.

Memorability

In marketing, it’s not who you know but who knows you. The brands people buy are the brands people remember. When given a choice, people are 70% more likely to purchase a brand they know or are familiar with. What’s more, memorable ads reduce your media spend. They don’t require to be seen as many times as forgettable ads.

Branding

Ad memorability is wasted if people can’t remember who the ad is for. That’s why every ad must explicitly connect memorability to your brand. It helps tremendously to have distinctive brand assets like a unique mark, strong colors, fonts and even sound, touch, and smells associated with your brand. A powerful tagline and copy are also extremely helpful in making your brand stick in people’s minds.

Occasions

When possible, your ads and other branded communications should clearly link your brand to important buying occasions and the benefit your brand brings to each of them. A key buying occasion or customer entry point (CEP) is simply a task or event that triggers a need for your brand. For example, if your brand is Oxy Wash you might want to show the cleaner being used to clean and brighten clothes or to remove a stain in a carpet. Tying a key buying occasion to your brand, ensures your ads focus on solving a real problem your buyers’ have. When you clearly connect your brand as the solution to specific problems buyers need solved, your brand is more likely to be remembered and purchased when those problems arise. In fact, the more key buying occasions your brand is known and preferred for, the larger share of the category you’ll own. Note: You should only use one key buying occasion per communication and it must be demonstrated in a very surprising and engaging way - like we did in the ad below for Streamlight.

SCORING YOUR ADS

Score each ad you’re assessing by giving it 1 to 10 points on each of the attributes above. Only produce and run messages that have the highest total scores.

Want to put some RAMBO effectiveness into your marketing? Email us with a few dates and times to schedule a call.

For a more detailed approach to maximizing your marketing performance READ MARKETING’S SILVER BULLET.