People (not consumers), Building Momentum (not awareness)

I came across this article today about old school vs. new school of planning....

I think it explains very well where advertising is heading. People aka consumers are so savvy to being marketed to that the upping the frequency of ad messages just doesn't cut it anymore. It's like my friend, the wonderful, wise Erin says its about starting a conversation and I wholeheartedly agree. It's about starting a meaningful relationship that engages people in a two -way conversation. It's about giving people the ability to interact with the brand. To get to know it without being intrusive and just taking up valuable time in a person's life.


momentum versus awareness

I’ve been thinking about the value of brand momentum versus raising awareness. The old marketing/advertising model looked at reach and frequency as successful ways to raise awareness of your brand. If ‘x’ amount of people are exposed to your brand, ‘y’ amount of times, they are more likely to engage with your brand. So, the equation looked like this:

x (amount of people exposed) ‘times’ y (amount of times) = awareness

A CMO can take this soft data and defend the current marketing campaign to the CEO, CFO, etc. The problem with this model is that it focuses strictly on traditional advertising mediums such as TV, print, radio and traditional interactive. All which are one-way form of communications and doesn’t factor in engagement, interestingness, etc.

That’s where marketing 2.0 comes in with brand momentum.


From CP+B’s Hoopla,
“momentum is a better goal to strive for than awareness…Momentum, if sustainable will roll over everything in its path.

How do you know if your brand has momentum? The answer to this is…you just know. People are talking about it without being prompted. New stories are being done about it. Independent websites spring up, where enthusiasts swap tips about it…”

Get the picture? It’s about connecting with people (not consumers) and building authentic relationships and holding conversations (not advertising) with them. This is similar to the transmedia planning model Faris talks about and what Leland just wrote about.

Also, marketers are looking into the momentum effect to measure campaigns on social networking sites.

The “Never-Ending Friending” study identified a metric dubbed the “Momentum Effect” by Marketing Evolution, a marketing, measurement and consulting firm. The metric attempts to quantify the impact of a brand within a social network beyond traditional advertising impressions to encompass the viral power of consumer-to-consumer communication.

“We looked at awareness levels, responses to an ad, the number of people who came to the custom community–and asked what the exponential value of the conversation happening in the social network is,” Browning said. In other words, what value can be placed on the brand chatter among friends in your network?

Read the rest of the Mediapost article here.

We can start by replacing traditional advertising lingo with different phrases and goals.

Raising awareness -> Brand Momentum
Targeting individuals -> Engaging a brand community

Does your brand have momentum?

Posted at 5pm on 04/30/07 | no comments | Filed Under: advertising read on