In Advertising, Media Channels Are also the Message

A brand that seeks positioning and impact must take into account that it is vital to make informed decisions, both for the creation of the campaign and for the choice of medium.

Brands must have a clear strategy for their media choices. This is partly to avoid risks and potential backlash. But it's also to create positive alignments between brands' ads and the environments in which they're delivered. However, for a campaign to be successful, we must not only have powerful content; it is also important to make the right media selection.

That is why every time a media investment is made, we must do it in the most efficient way in order to achieve our objectives and a successful brand construction, but when talking about investment, one of the challenges is knowing if it is not only efficient, but also effective.

It's essential to create a culture of measurement within companies, which allows better decisions to be made, understanding how each dollar invested in media and marketing contributes to increasing the power of the brand, and how it contributes to the business.

Often, the challenge in the sector is that people know that “50%of my advertising works, I just don't know what that 50% is.” Maybe it’s time to put an end to that. It is important to continue measuring and evaluating the results of advertising campaigns in order to continuously improve and obtain a greater return on investment.

In 2022, spending on digital media increased. In Mexico, 50% of advertising investment is in digital media, 36% in television, 7% in outdoor placements and 5% in radio.

Effectiveness + Appropriate Media Channels

There are many ways that brands can make mistakes when it comes to communicating their message. But today, due to social media, they immediately make these mistakes public. What this means is that brands need to question every decision they make, including their media choices and whether their values ​​align.

A brand's actions can reach the public consciousness through many different touch points, but advertising is one place where brand personality is routinely conveyed.

Today, advertisers have a responsibility to ensure that they are not seen as impostors, whether the goal in question is to support a social cause or authentically communicate their identity. But the reputation of the media brands that host this online advertising can also affect the authenticity with which a message is received. That's true whether the media brand in question is an established player like Facebook, Amazon, or Google, or the most popular players, such as TikTok.

The changing reputations of these media brands can sometimes make advertisers feel insecure. According to our Media Reactions study, for example, around 41% of marketers believe that many online platforms do not adequately balance the right to free expression with the need to protect the safety of their users and advertisers.

Good media choices in how they emotionally engage with consumers can go a long way toward building ad equity. This boost in reputation is the advertising equivalent of Brand Power for media advertising platforms. For brands, it is now key to understand the emotional valences of not only their category, but also their selected media.

Get Media Right

Consumer sentiment is important for brands looking to choose where to place their advertising, but they also need to take into account the views of the marketing team. According to our Media Reaction study, the marketing team's ranking is quite different from that of consumers.

Neither TikTok and Amazon are in the Top 5 for marketers. Instead, Instagram leads the chart, as the marketing team believes it has especially high ad receptivity. Among marketing teams, Instagram also enjoyed a balanced perception of "trustworthy"  versus "innovative" advertising on its platform.

The No. 2 brand for marketers by 'ad value,” YouTube is considered to have particularly reliable advertising. TikTok is perceived as the most innovative advertising platform according to marketers. However, they also want innovation to be balanced with a perception of high reliability, and for them, TikTok isn't there yet.

Now the question is: What should matter more when designing an online marketing campaign: consumers or the marketing team when choosing a digital media platform to advertise on, and which attributes should matter most: fun, reliability, innovation, or something else entirely?

So while brands need to take responsibility for their marketing and media actions, it's not enough to just give the media agency a rundown and consider the job done. Brands need to consider all aspects of their choices: not just what to avoid, but what to actively look for in advertising and media partnerships.

It's important for brands to match the brand personality and campaign goals with the media. The next step is to make sure that the correct advertisement appears in the correct context. Each ad can be tested to determine if it fits the chosen platforms.

Subsequently, brands usually measure the performance of the guidelines with interaction metrics, but is it enough? Engagement metrics with a digital campaign have very little to do with ROI or brand building.

You have to match the audiences and the context, because the attention on the surrounding content is transferred to the ads.

Measure the Attention Paid  to Ads

Those ads that are most successful get 25% more retention and 20% more people see the full commercial. In addition to generating attention, it is crucial that advertising builds equity (brand power) since this in turn influences the predisposition.

Movements in market share are strongly determined by changes in brand equity. For this reason, it becomes essential to amplify the brand’s proposal to pay equity. 

Powerful communication translates into increases in market share due to its ability to pay brand equity. For this reason, measuring using brand-building metrics is critical to gaining full performance. When you have performance metrics, it is possible to make informed decisions that allow you to analyze what works and what does not work based on data. Thus, we have the necessary signage to trace the path of a successful and memorable campaign.