The majority of digital advertising is direct response advertising that directly stimulates online purchasing behavior. Listings and retargeting, for example, have the role of reaping the benefits of emerging demand in the latter half of the purchasing funnel. However, as consumer attention has shifted from mass media to smartphones, digital advertising is now required to play the role of "brand advertising" for the purpose of indirect in-store sales promotion and strengthening brand power.
However, there is a large gap between the brand advertising approach held by many marketers and the response advertising know-how in which specialized digital agencies excel. As a result, digital media is still largely underutilized in the area of brand advertising, and is not sufficiently complementing the declining effectiveness of mass media. Many marketers are being urged to make further use of digital media and need a new way of thinking about brand advertising that takes advantage of its characteristics.
Multi-Segment Marketing
Digital advertising can reach only specific segments. However, no matter how pinpoint the message delivered, narrow targeting means limited returns and is not always attractive to marketers. Given a top-line growth target, marketers will want to target as many consumers as possible. However, in terms of scale and efficiency of direct reach, digital advertising will never surpass television. Digital media will never be used to its full potential for brand advertising unless it leverages characteristics other than reach.
Digital media's ability to deliver highly precise targeting means that it is possible to deliver the most appropriate advertisements to each segment. Even for mass brands that target an entire market, it is not always correct to deliver the same ad to everyone. Effective advertising should be something that people can relate to and feel that it is directed to them. Digital advertising allows for "multi-segment marketing," where multiple messages are sent to multiple segments, allowing for both scale and accuracy in advertising.
Qualitative Indicators and Brand Lift at the Top of the Funnel
Brand advertising does not have an online conversion point. Therefore, quantitative metrics such as clicks and views, and value metrics such as CPC (cost per click) and CPV (cost per view) are primarily used to measure effectiveness. However, these indicators only represent the scale and efficiency of reach, and do not include the presence or absence of attitude change. In other words, optimizing ads based on these metrics may result in ineffective ad delivery with ineffective efficiency.
Measuring the effectiveness of brand advertising requires qualitative metrics such as awareness and purchase intent rates at the top of the purchase funnel. However, setting and measuring these goals is not as easy as with response advertising. In brand advertising, numerical targets for the upper funnel, such as awareness and purchase intent, are estimated based on the figures for the purchase stage of the funnel, which can be calculated from the marketing ROI (gross profit targets relative to the marketing budget). Then, to measure the effectiveness of the brand, it is necessary to acquire behavioral data showing attitude change or use brand lift surveys. Outcome indicators are those that literally point to results and are not related to ease of measurement. Without correct measurement from the three axes of quantity, quality, and value, it is impossible to measure and maximize the effectiveness of brand advertising.
Native micro-content.
Delivering ads designed for TV to smartphones is not likely to be viewed aggressively. Sei-katsu-sha can now get the content they want anytime they want from their smartphones, and they are beginning to feel a new sense of value in the few minutes of spare time they have. And they don't want to be deprived of even that short amount of time by blatant advertisements. We have all had the unpleasant experience of being forced to watch a completely irrelevant pre-roll ad before watching video content. This means that the ad does not offer us enough value to make us willing to spend a dozen seconds of our time.
Smartphones have given us a vast array of content choices, whereas before we were forced to watch ads. We have been given the freedom not to watch ads, and our tolerance for ads has dropped dramatically. If digital advertising on smartphones is the same as traditional advertising, there is no way it will be viewed. For digital advertising to be accepted by viewers, it must combine the content they watch, affinity with the platform (native), usefulness or interestingness of the ad itself as content, and shortness that can be consumed in fragmented disposable time (micro-content). The cost in "time" paid by the viewer must be as low as possible, and the value must be commensurate with that cost, without discomfort, in order for the ad to be viewed.
With the widespread use of smartphones and social media, the scale of digital advertising rivals that of mass media. In addition, it has various advantages over traditional advertising, such as highly accurate targeting, interactivity to obtain viewer response, and diffusion of information. However, without a proper understanding of the characteristics of digital media and the psychological changes that occur when consumers view advertisements, there is a great possibility that the advertisements will not be viewed, or even cause damage to the brand. In the ever-changing world of digital advertising, there is no formula for success. However, if you do not keep trying new things, the effectiveness of your advertisements will only continue to decline. Modern marketers must continue to search for new ways to create brand advertisements by combining their traditional mass marketing-centered know-how with various types of digital knowledge.
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