Advertising

Advertising is a targeted, paid communication designed to promote a product, service, brand, or idea to a specific audience.

Its core objectives are to build brand awareness, drive consumer engagement, generate leads, and ultimately spur actions like sales or subscriptions.

Advertising develops the relationship consumers have with the brand. That relationship is determined by the way consumers interpret brand meaning in the context of their set of values and motivations. 

Crucial to the success of a given piece of advertising is the degree to which the communication message and the brand are integrated in the creative content. The  advertising concept must be  inextricably linked to the brand to establish the desired mental connections. 

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT 

The customer is at the heart of everything and not just as the purchaser of a certain product or brand. They are never an interruption, they are the business and the reason brands exist.

The focus is on the customer’s life and the brand is only seen in the context of part of the customer’s life experiences – and competing with other brands for this privilege.

Advertisements, for example, are for the most part only encountered when viewing or reading media content. So for brands the actual contact with the customer is through the advertisement of the brand/product as it interacts with the surrounding media content, in other words, the article/feature context. 

The more appropriate the context is to the advertisement, the more engaging contact is likely to occur with the customer.

That’s why no matter the communication channel, the advertising content provided for that channel should be relevant to the channel, the brand and the audience.

Engagement plays a critical role in brand communication and impacts on advertising recall, and message believability. 

The depth of engagement is determined by the contextual relevance in which the advertisement is framed and presented – based on its surrounding context.

People consume content when, where and if they want, on any platform or device. The fact that new technology provides access to consumers easier, does not mean they will always be open and responsive to advertising messages. 

They are more averse than ever to intrusive, unsolicited communication. 

But somewhere behind all of those advertising messages across all possible delivery platforms, there exists a brand and a creative story about it… 

And when artfully told audiences won’t mind the interruption if it relates to their values and interests delivered within context on the platform they engage in most.

This means customizing the same brand idea to different consumers suitable to each platform, allowing each audience segment to experience the brand in a more individualistic and idiosyncratic way. 

By framing, evolving and modifying the associations and meanings attached to a brand, advertising plays a pivotal role in the generation of brand meaning and subsequent consumer behavior. 

The successful outcome of the process depends on the advertiser’s skill in creating and influencing those meanings – and how they are interpreted in the light of the target consumer’s motivations, values and aspirations.

Advertising resonates more meaningfully and operates more effectively at the symbolic, intuitive level of consciousness.

Such advertising often employs emotionally charged images and visual metaphors that speak directly to the mind.

On the one hand, memory is strengthened by heightened affect. On the other, it has been shown  that visual, nonverbal content (most human communication is nonverbal) has direct access to the  subconscious, without being filtered by the conscious. 

Whereas the conscious mind has only limited recall, the subconscious has permanent memory. 

Symbolic metaphorical advertising, which elicits an emotional, intuitive response, has the potential  to tap into the deepest, most enduring substance of the human psyche.

When there is brand linkage and integration, the advertising triggers the brand associative network, which it may either reinforce or modify in some way. Where brand linkage and integration is weak, the creative content may be recalled, but the brand may well either be misattributed or simply not noticed. 

Even if there is correct advertising–brand attribution, there may still exist the danger that the brand is being sustained less by its meaningful properties and values and more by its advertising halo.

DO YOU ADVERTISE CORRECTLY, IN THE RIGHT CHANNEL OR MEDIUM WITHIN CONTEXT?

Every year millions of dollars are wasted on generic or misattributed advertising due to agencies not representing the brand correctly and brand managers not capable or experienced enough to inform a better approach.

Consumers are bombarded with hundreds of commercial messages. Most of them are screened out because they are not relevant or not within context at the right time and place.

Maximum audience reach isn’t achieved by pushing the same generic content everywhere. It is achieved by placing the right message in front of the right mind, in the right context, at the exact moment they are engaged.

When content is produced without factoring in the specific psychological state and demographic profile of each channel’s audience, reach and money bare wasted.

RDL engineers advertising plans that ensure every impression lands with maximum force.