Also in this section...   A Practical Guide to Brand Management Ad Liking and Brand Buying a Neurological Perspective Applied Brand Valuation Brand Equity: What It Is and How It Should Be Measured Brand Leadership Is a Niche Activity View All »

Alternative Brand Awareness Strategies

Research has shown that to build a truly marketable brand requires sustained exposure in the marketplace. A new door is opening for small and medium businesses to build awareness of their brands by getting them onto the medium that has long been held to be the pinnacle of advertising. Advertising on TV is generally out of the reach of most SME’s because of the enormous costs associated with this medium.

Traditional TV advertising to stimulate brand awareness is very important, but at the same time very expensive. If you are looking to advertise a specific service that you provide or a need that you fulfill and you have the necessary budget, then traditional TV advertising is the way to go.

However if you’re simply trying to get people to recognize your brand when next they are in the market for something that you provide, then you need a ‘Non Traditional Brand Awareness Vehicle’ - something that will provide you with the reach of TV, at a fraction of the cost of traditional television advertising.

Over the last few years certain production companies have done things a little differently. They have entered into agreements with broadcasters who have given them the go-ahead to produce programs that can be used as ‘Brand Awareness Vehicles’. The concept is simple but the benefits are substantial.

Firstly, a program is shot and packaged by the production company and because all the expenses are covered, there are no budget worries. When the program is finished it is added to their catalogue and is ready to be aired. Clients then view programs from this catalogue and are able to find the right program that suits their companies brand and image. There are many different programs in the catalogue, each one can be assessed to identify the type of market for that specific program, based on age, gender and particular psychographic profile. Finding your demographic is very easy.

Once you’ve found the program that is best suited to your needs you would pay a once off fee for the program and become a ‘Broadcast Sponsor’. The advantage of this title is that according to public perception you actually helped to fund the event/production. This in turn generates a feeling of good will towards your brand. At the same time, being associated with a high quality production automatically implies celebrity of the brand.

A further benefit is that adverts last a few seconds but a full program can be anything from 26 to 52 minutes allowing your brand to be on screen for most of that time.

Depending on the event/production the program could be shown up to eight times as is usually the case with sports channel productions. Furthermore doing brand awareness on a weekly program allows you to share screen time with other non competitive brands and run your campaign over a longer period of time for the same budget.

This is not a replacement for traditional advertising, rather an additional means of keeping a brand in the public’s mind. It can be used by small and medium sized companies to create further brand awareness through national coverage or by larger corporate entities as part of a multi-pronged approach to constant brand awareness.

In the end it all comes down to repetition, repetition and more repetition!
To find out more please contact neil@spitfiresa.com