Top 5 Messaging Strategies To Win at Media Buying

How Does Messaging Drive Brand Recall in Media Buying Campaigns?

One of the primary goals of a media buying campaign is to drive brand awareness and brand recall. Marketing agencies specializing in these campaigns develop a media plan (a literal plan detailing where clients will spend on advertising) to meet this goal. Brand recall is defined as the ability to recall a brand or product we’ve been exposed to in the past when we intend to take action. For example, say you’ve talked about looking into any programs that may be available to get a discount on your utility bill. You haven’t had the time to look into it, but you’ve seen ads in your social news feed for utility rebates for consumers for the last three weeks. When you saw the ads, it didn’t register that this was something you had intended to do. Yet when you actually sat down to think about ways to save on your bills, you were able to recall having seen a rebate offer from a specific brand.

What gives the brain the ability to remember that brand at the instance of intent is a mixture of a positive experience and word of mouth. Someone in your trusted circle mentioned the brand offer or exposure to messaging that resonated during the times we experienced the ads. Nowadays, it can take up to 18 exposures to a brand or message over two weeks to drive brand recall!

How brand recall reflects your media buying and advertising strategy will differ based on your priorities and an understanding of your customers. For a media plan to be effective, it is not only where you place the media but how you target and customize the message to fit your audience’s needs. Messaging is what will drive brand recall when there’s momentum in the decision to take action.

Top 5 Things To Know When Creating Targeted Messaging For Your Media Buys:

  1. Intent: What intent is your media addressing? When looking at your customer, what is it that is going to drive them to your product or service?
  2. Media Demographics: Content consumption varies based on demographics. As an example, using a short video effectively will depend on the content, age, and medium targets viewing it. Millennials’ appeal to video is undeniable. However, having grown in the video era, they are quick to identify stock footage from original videos and are therefore more resistant to pay attention to a video that is stock. In contrast, videos created in partnership with influencers will be far more effective as these are perceived as real experiences. In general, highlighting the benefits of watching the video, like a special offer, discount, or other services, will engage the user to watch and take action.
  3. Media Ethnography: Awareness of media diversity is one of the critical drivers of consumption in diverse communities. Our exhaustive “Marketing Means Diversity” report highlights a 2019 Bloomberg report showed that African Americans are 20% more likely than the total population to say they will “pay extra for a product that is consistent with the image I want to convey.” In this report, we’ve gathered data from more than 20 reputable sources on how diversity affects marketing effectiveness and media placement. Download the free guide: [mc4wp_form id=”6483″]
  4. Media Proximity: How close is the consumer in proximity to the product or service. At our agency, we develop strategies that, in specific cases, prioritize budgets and messaging based on proximity by creating geographically fenced areas both in digital and physical mediums. Within these areas, we deliver customized messaging targeted to persons in the vicinity of the advertised product or service.
  5. Media Relevance: Each advertising medium is active in a different way to appeal to diverse audiences. While a billboard is just a billboard, the messaging on that billboard may be relevant to a diverse audience than the advertisement’s creation. The relevance to foot traffic may be different than it is to transit. While you won’t always please everyone, it is essential to base those decisions on your measurable priorities to determine how effective your existing message is to achieving the ROI that your advertising should yield.

Brand recall is a primary goal when developing media buying campaigns, and success requires effective messaging. By creating enticing messaging that appeals to the desired consumers, the opportunity for consumers to see and remember your brand increases. At Los Angeles-based multicultural marketing and advertising agency, Wicked Bionic, we offer media buying strategies and campaigns for large organizations and government agencies targeting diverse audience engagement.

Your Small Business and “the Cloud”: Is It for You?

These days, cloud-based computing and cloud applications have become the predominant way many companies do business. As of 2018, ninety-six percent of all businesses were utilizing the cloud in some way. At the same time, “the cloud” is one of those things that lots of people talk about, but many people have very little understanding of what it actually is. What is the cloud, exactly? Do you have it on your computer? How do you know when you’re in it?

In reality, businesses who understand how to utilize cloud-based services typically find that it streamlines their efforts and improves their ability to do business efficiently and safely. In fact, chances are you’re already using cloud applications without realizing it. Let’s take a closer look at cloud-based computing and how it can help you.

 

What Is “the Cloud”?

 

Let’s start with the most basic question: What is the cloud? First of all, it’s not in the clouds, nor is it somewhere in the ether. Cloud-based computing simply means you’re accessing and retrieving data from a remote server via the Internet rather than a server that you own or control. It’s still a physical server in a physical location—it’s just not in your home or office. The server is owned and maintained by a service provider. Your data and/or applications are being hosted there, and you can interact with them from any place where you have an Internet connection.

 

How Do We Use the Cloud?

 

An increasing number of computing and business functions are now available as cloud-based services, and most of us use the cloud in some way during our normal business day. Some examples of ways we use the cloud:

  • Data storage and retrieval (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive)
  • Backup and recovery (e.g., Backblaze, Carbonite)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)—any of a number of pay-by-use applications you might be using (e.g., Adobe Creative Cloud, Salesforce, Microsoft Office 365, Quickbooks Online, even VoIP phone services like Skype)
  • Full-cloud computing—a growing number of companies are shifting their entire computing functionality to cloud-based services. Their employees log in to the servers and conduct their business via virtual machines with their entire desktop consisting of cloud-based applications.

 

Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing

 

To understand how the cloud can help your business, you need to know both the good and the bad of it. Let’s do that now.

The advantages:

  • Lower overhead costs. Cloud-based computing tends to be much more cost-effective than operating your own servers and hiring IT staff to maintain them.
  • More agility and mobility. With more people working remotely than ever before, cloud computing allows you and your team to conduct business from almost anywhere.
  • Protection from loss. Data loss is the bane of any business’s existence. When your data is stored and backed up remotely, crashes become a mere inconvenience, not an emergency.
  • While some might be concerned about whether an online system is vulnerable to cyberattacks, cloud-based systems are considered highly secure because they use multilayered encryption.
  • A cloud-based system can be scaled easily to match your company’s growth.

The disadvantages:

  • Reliance on the Internet. While the Internet is more consistent now than ever before, you still have to have an active Internet connection to access the cloud. If your Internet goes down, your productivity stops until it’s back up.
  • Internet demand. Cloud-based computing requires more Internet bandwidth, so some businesses have to upgrade in order to do more online.
  • Vendor lock-in and non-negotiable agreements. Some cloud-based vendors have service agreements that lock their clients into terms that make it difficult to switch later. (Always check the EULA before entering an agreement.)

 

Taking the positives with the negatives, the vast majority of small businesses find that the cloud enhances their productivity and ability to function—and even their ability to promote their brand. If you need expert help with cloud computing reach out to MelroseINC to learn how your business can become more efficient. Learn how to maximize your marketing at Wicked Bionic.

Cybersecurity Tools to Protect Your Business in 2021

Business may have slowed down for some people during the past year, but rest assured the hackers have not. According to an annual email security report from Mimecast, over half of all organizations have suffered some sort of ransomware attack over a 12-month period, costing them an average of three days of downtime overall. Eighty-two percent of companies have experienced some sort of downtime due to a cyberattack. Suffice it to say that cybersecurity remains one of the top concerns for small and large businesses.

 

The good news is that securing your business’s online presence doesn’t have to be complicated. There are a number of tools available that help you maintain digital security without having to dive into a complex web of IT jargon. Let’s talk briefly about some basic safeguards every small business should have in place, and then discuss a few specific tools that might help you.

 

Basic Elements of Cybersecurity

Depending on how much time you spend online and how big your organization, there are many types of solutions that handle various types of vulnerability points. For now, let’s take a look at the minimum basic set of tools all small businesses should have in place for their protection.

 

  • Firewall—a device or system that monitors your network’s Internet traffic and flags or blocks suspicious activity.
  • Antivirus—a program that scans your computers and email regularly for known virus and malware threats.
  • VPN (Virtual Personal Network)—if you ever do work on public WiFi networks, having a VPN adds a layer of encryption to protect your activity from hackers.
  • Cloud backup—A service that backs up all your data to a remote server to prevent data loss.

 

In addition to these tools, you should always have strong password protocols in place, and you should always train your employees on best practices (e.g., not opening suspicious emails, not leaving a workstation open). Most cybersecurity breaches involve human error.

 

Suggested Cybersecurity Tools for Small Businesses

 

Many services and platforms are now available for small businesses that seamlessly handle many of these functions, along with a few others. Here are just a few to look at:

 

  • Bitdefender Total Security—provides a suite of security solutions that include anti-malware, ransomware protection, VPN, and more, for a modest price. Take a look at their GravityZone line for even more features.
  • Intruder—an online vulnerability scanning system that identifies weaknesses in your network before the hackers do. Offers services at several price points with a free 30-day trial.
  • Malwarebytes—a service providing comprehensive multi-layered protection against cyber threats for both personal and business applications. Pricing starts at $119.97/year for businesses.

 

Cyberattacks can be devastating, especially for small businesses—but they don’t have to be feared if you take the proper precautions. As for Wicked Bionic, you can rest assured that when you work with us on branding and marketing we understand the ins and outs of cybersecurity so all your personal information is kept safe and secure using top-line technologies.

How is your 2021 “Brand EQ”?

Here’s a question to ask yourself as we’ve moved out of a particularly challenging year into 2021: How would you evaluate your “brand EQ”?

 

What, exactly, are we talking about?

 

Do you have a favorite song—perhaps one that sounds exceptionally pleasing in your headphones? The reason it sounds good is that when that song was being mixed, an audio engineer ran the music through an equalizer, or an “EQ”—a device that boosts certain frequencies and lowers others to make the overall sound more pleasing. Similarly, good “brand EQ” refers to brand messaging that resonates well with your audience on an emotional level. Another term for this is emotional branding—the art of tuning one’s brand messaging to create an emotional bond with the audience.

 

Why Is Brand EQ Important?

 

Extensive research shows that we choose to buy based on emotion, then justify based on logic. In other words, it doesn’t matter how well your physical product solves a problem; if you don’t reach the customer emotionally first, they’ll pass you by. That’s why virtually all good marketing and advertising seeks to make an emotional connection (EQ) before trying to show why their product is the most intelligent solution (IQ).

 

Brand EQ actually takes this principle a bit further. In today’s marketplace, and especially considering the challenges of the pandemic, consumers more than ever before are choosing to align themselves with certain brands—or pass judgment on other brands—based on how those brands make them feel. An eye-opening survey from Deloitte indicates that among today’s buyers, only 3 percent recommend a brand to others based solely on shared values. A whopping 44 percent of them recommend the brand based on an emotional connection they have with the product or service.

 

Emotional Advertising Isn’t Enough

 

From this information, we can see almost a “sandwich” effect in which logic is “sandwiched” between emotional responses. The customer first decides to buy based on emotion, justifies it logically, then chooses whether to keep buying that brand based again on the emotional connection. These stages are handled by effective emotional advertising (advertising EQ); the final stage, the one that actually builds brand loyalty, comes from brand EQ—the overall tone you set in your messaging that “hits them in the feels.”

 

As we embark on the New Year, it’s a good time to evaluate your brand EQ. Do you believe your messaging is effectively creating an emotional bond with your target market? If not, what can be done to improve it? At Wicked Bionic, we specialize in helping brands like yours to connect more effectively with their audience, not just resulting in more sales but in increased long-term loyalty.

Marketing Winners and Duds of 2020

It’s often said that experience is the best teacher—but that doesn’t mean it has to be your experience. Sometimes the best lessons we can learn come from the successes and failures of others. As we look back on 2020—one of the most turbulent years in memory—we’ve watched many brands try to navigate these challenging times by striking the right tone in their marketing. Some did quite well; others, not so much. Many of these efforts attempted to navigate the “black swan” of the pandemic, as you might expect. Let’s look at some of these marketing winners and duds and see what they did right—or wrong.

 

WINNER—Budweiser: “Wassup Quarantine Version” and #OneTeam

 

Budweiser hit the mark at least twice with two very current, relevant, and relatable campaigns. First, they revived their popular “Wassup” series from the ’90s with some clever audio overdubs with the men “just quarantining, having a Bud.” Second, they launched their “OneTeam” campaign honoring frontline healthcare workers and pledging $5 million to the American Red Cross. Here’s why these campaigns worked:

  • The “Wassup” revival touched a note of nostalgia that played well among millions of Americans who were re-watching their favorite shows and thinking back to better days—all while making quarantining “nerdy-cool.”
  • The #OneTeam campaign specifically addressed the crises and promoted social responsibility while acknowledging the hit the sports world had taken due to the pandemic.

 

DUD—Progressive Insurance: “Off the Mara-Ket”

 

“Flo” has delighted viewers for years as the funny agent/spokesperson for Progressive Insurance—but when she showed up with her annoying counterpart, Mara, in an ad released March 2020, the bit fell flat. Not that it was a poorly done spot—it was just a victim of poor timing. The backdrop was a karaoke bar—which, of course, had no social distancing because it had been filmed pre-virus—and the ad was released just as bars and restaurants across the nation were being forced to close. Progressive’s execs might have done better by shelving the spot and coming up with something a bit more sensitive to the moment.

 

WINNER—Apple: “The Whole Working from Home Thing”

 

Apple struck an excellent balance of humor and relevance when it brought back the cast of its famed Underdogs storyline for a 6-minute video. The team struggles to maintain business as usual while working from home. The bit worked brilliantly because it reflected the challenges millions of workers now face due to the pandemic—in an amusing manner—while also demonstrating how Apple products help them get the job done.

 

DUD—McDonald’s: #StaySafebyStayingApart

 

Where Apple succeeded in positioning itself as a relevant brand during the pandemic, McDonald’s flopped—and evoked some hypocrisy in the process—when McDonald’s Brazil altered its logo in new ads by “separating” the two Golden Arches to convey social distancing. Considering that McDonald’s was already taking PR damage by requiring 70 percent of their workforce to stay active during the pandemic to maintain drive-thru service—at low wages—this campaign shot itself in the foot. Instead of conveying sensitivity and promoting safety, the campaign sent a conflicting message that came across as self-serving.

One lesson we can take away from all these campaigns is how important it for brands to tailor their marketing to changing circumstances in a relevant and sensitive way. At Wicked Bionic, we keep our finger on the pulse of public sentiment and current events to help ensure our clients create brand stories that resonate.

5 Marketing and Branding Terms Explained

When you talk to marketing agencies about what they do, have you ever been baffled by complex marketing terms like ‘OOH,’ ‘media buying,’ and ‘reach’? You are not alone.

 

As the owner of a successful marketing and advertising agency in Los Angeles, many of our clients are business owners who want to ramp up their brand awareness but may not be familiar with marketing jargon.

 

So, here’s a quick review of a few common marketing terms you may be unfamiliar with…and how to use them to get the word out about your brand.

 

  1. Reach vs Impressions

 

Reach is the total number of people who see your content. Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed, whether it was clicked on or not.

 

A high number of impressions can give you an inflated estimate of the potential customers you are able to target, but reach is what really matters.

 

  1. Sandboxed

 

Google’s search algorithms often hide newly created websites from search results, a practice referred to as “sandboxing.”Although Google has neither confirmed nor denied this practice, there is ample evidence that while a new site may perform well on Bing or Yahoo, it may not do so on Google.

 

A comprehensive SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and content strategy could keep your website out of the Google sandbox.

 

  1. Shadowbanned

 

If your posts and pics are not appearing on social media sites, you may be shadowbanned and not even know it. While platforms are reluctant to confirm this practice, the user experience reveals that individuals and businesses can find their voices muted.

 

As a brand, getting shadowbanned can hurt engagement and cause you to lose followers. You can use digital tools to check if any of your posts have been shadowbanned, and take steps to ensure your content starts showing up on the platform again.

 

  1. OOH

 

OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising, or outdoor advertising, consists of all the visual media you see outside of your home. This includes billboards, signs, ads at bus stops and on benches, and so on. OOH is a wonderful way to reach a larger local audience in a more impactful way, since it circumvents the limitations that come with digital advertising, like adblockers.

 

  1. Media Buying

 

Media buying is the process of procuring media placements to display ads on platforms such as Facebook and Google.

 

This can include online placements such as pay-per-click ads or website ad spots and more traditional placements such as TV commercial spots, billboard space, and print ad space. With so many available options, a strong media buyer can help you plan to spend your marketing budget strategically and achieve maximum reach.

 

Not sure how to incorporate these concepts into your marketing strategy? Wicked Bionic can help you design high-converting marketing strategies and leverage the most effective marketing methods to grow your brand. Reach out to us today to discuss your business needs.

 

Social Media Sites You Don’t Know About

Establishing a social media presence is one of the very first things most businesses do to build their brand. You may make posting to social media a high priority, but have you considered looking beyond the top sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, or Pinterest?

 

The most important point to consider is: where does your target audience hang out? By establishing a presence on social media sites favored by your audience, you can closely target them without wasting money on spray-and-pray marketing.

 

Off-the-beaten-path social media sites can reach into areas that Facebook and Twitter don’t and let you narrowly focus your targeting. Here’s a quick tour.

 

  1. Viber, Telegram, or WeChat

 

Messaging sites like Viber, Telegram, and WeChat allow users to send and receive instant messages. They can be a great way to put out updates about your business, provide customer chat support, and even show ads. As a brand, you can use this medium to communicate in a more personal, one-on-one way with potential customers.

 

  1.  Medium

 

Medium, the popular independent blogging site, is a great place to repost company blogs (or even create new content) and build a following of potential customers. Medium lets you link back to your website or blog, so you could leverage it to increase the traffic to your own business website.

 

  1. Reddit

 

Reddit has been around since 2005 and calls itself the ‘Front Page of the Internet’ and has given the world some of our most viral abbreviations like TIL (today I learned) and AITA (Am I the A**hole). Think of it as a collection of communities or ‘subreddits’ where users post content that other users have the option of ‘upvoting’ or ‘downvoting.’ Reddit can be a wonderful source of blog traffic if you post engaging content that gets ‘upvoted’ often.

 

  1. Quora

 

With over 300 million monthly users, Quora, the popular question-and-answer site, is a popular marketing tool for many businesses. Many brands use Quora to provide helpful answers to relevant questions and promote their brand or blog as a solution.

 

GoodReads, Soundcloud, Snapchat, TikTok, and other platforms offer other unique ways to engage with consumers.

 

Are you thinking of marketing on offbeat social media sites? Wicked Bionic can help you leverage off the beaten path social media sites to maximize your social presence and target your ideal customers with a customized marketing strategy. Reach out to us for a discussion today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gain More Customers by Using Storytelling In Your Marketing

Human beings, by nature, are drawn to a narrative. We love to tell stories, listen to stories, and think of our lives as a story. Brands and their marketing agencies have tapped into this inherent need by increasingly weaving storytelling into their marketing techniques—so much so that “brand storytelling” is an essential element to any business. But what if you don’t see yourself as a natural storyteller? What can you do to market your product or service in a way that captures the imagination of your target audience? Let’s talk about some ways to add the storytelling element to your marketing process more effectively. Your story is what makes you unique.

 

Make the Buyer the Hero in the Story

 

One popular approach to brand storytelling is re-creating the classic “hero’s journey” with the buyer as the protagonist. (Marketers refer to this as the “buyer’s journey.”) Just as the mythic hero embarks on a journey, encounters problems, defeats the villain, and wins the day, look for ways to help your buyer identify as the hero. Help them solve a problem, encounter pain points, and ultimately solve the problem and win the day with your product or service. 

 

Tell Your Customer’s Stories

 

One great way to implement the buyer’s journey idea above is to tell other happy customers’ stories—people with whom your target audience can relate. Some brands even provide a platform for customers to create content and tell their stories directly. While you might see this as giving testimonials, it’s more than that—you’re drawing your customer base into the narrative, making them a part of the larger story of your brand success.

 

Tell Your Own Story

 

Everyone has a story —you have a story. So does your company and brand. At some point in your marketing process, you must tell that story to your audience. Describe the concept for your company, the problems you faced that led to your product’s creation, how the product solved your problems and others’ problems, etc. Weave your story in a way that creates a connection with your audience and look for the parts of your story that will help your customers see themselves in the narrative.

That last point is the crux of brand storytelling. It’s not just about telling an interesting story—it’s about helping people find themselves in the story. You may not believe you have a gift for storytelling, but that’s not the point. The point is that your product offers something that will make your customers’ story better. The key is to help them see themselves in your narrative so they’ll buy into the vision. Wicked Bionic can help you craft a compelling brand story that will resonate with your audience. Reach out to find out how we can help.

3 Signs You’re Ready to Scale Your Marketing Strategy

We all want to grow our businesses, but business owners often confuse the concept of growing a business with scaling a business. They aren’t the same thing. If you put in 50 percent more money (and time) and your revenues increase by 50 percent, your business is technically growing, but you’ve not gained any net value. You’re working harder and spending more to get that extra return. But if you spend 10 percent more and experience 500 percent growth—that’s scaling. The idea is to grow exponentially with minimal extra investment.

 

Allison Maslan

Top Business Scaling Strategist Allison Maslan explains in her bestselling book Scale Or Fail: How to Build Your Dream Team, Explode Your Growth, and Let Your Business Soar that “…scaling means being able to grow your business while at the same time managing the expanding workload without sacrificing your level of performance, efficiency, and employee safety. If you are scaling properly, you are creating processes and workflows that improve all areas of your operation and save you a lot of time, money, and headaches”.

 

The concept of scaling up your marketing strategy follows the same concept—you expand your marketing reach exponentially by developing strategies to improve your reach while minimizing your outlay, and your business begins to scale as a result.

 

Digital marketing is quite easy to scale because you can expand your audience significantly with minimal effort. For instance, it takes no more effort to send 5000 emails than it does to send 5 million, and there are many automation tools available in the digital space that allow you to reach more people for less money. That said, how do you know when you’re ready to up your game in marketing? Let’s look at some key indicators.

 

You Have the Capacity to Handle Growth

 

Scaling your marketing will inevitably give you significantly more leads and customers. The question is—is your business prepared to handle those new customers or clients when they come pouring in? If you haven’t made significant preparations within your business to accommodate a higher number of clients, orders, etc., then scaling your marketing efforts could actually do more harm than good. Word travels fast, especially online, and you don’t want to become known as the company that couldn’t fulfill its orders or service its clients. As Allison Maslan goes on to say in her Scale of Fail book, “either they (businesses) don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with the sales demand or production, miss out on major opportunities due to fear, or keep making the same mistakes over and over because systems and processes aren’t in sync with the rate of growth”. Before ramping up your marketing, make sure you have the infrastructure in place to accommodate the influx—available representatives, suppliers, manufacturing, etc.

 

You Have Clearly Identified Your Target Market

 

Expanding your marketing reach is not just about reaching more people—it’s about reaching more of the right people. Investing in more marketing is a waste of money unless you’re aiming your message at the people who want and need what you’re offering—no matter at what scale. Make sure you’ve done your homework and can identify exactly who your ideal customer is, where they hang out, etc., before you try scaling. Your goal is first to know your audience, then to take steps to reach more of them.

 

You Have Developed a Predictable Model of Success

 

Another key indicator to look at is the effectiveness of your current marketing strategy. Some businesses approach the idea of scaling from the wrong angle—they want to scale because their current marketing strategy isn’t producing the results they want. That’s entirely the wrong approach because scaling your marketing is all about doing more of what works, not what doesn’t work. You have to have developed a workable marketing strategy, one that produces consistent results, before you can hope to have success on a broader scale. If your marketing isn’t working right now at your current level, keep tweaking and testing and making adjustments until you’ve got a strategy that works predictably. Then you’ll have the confidence that scaling will produce the results you’re looking for.

 

When you’re ready to think about ramping up your marketing efforts, Wicked Bionic is here to help you strategize for exponential growth. Make an appointment with us today to discuss your business.