Brandformance: an hardsell that builds your brand

Today's world of marketing managers

In an ideal world, you invest in both brand and activation campaigns. The former are the engine of long-term growth by building awareness and brand recall in buying situations. The latter then bring in consistent revenue in the short term by leveraging the footprint that brand communication has created in customers' memories. We all know it works. Thanks to Binet, Field, and Sharp.

However, the current era is far from ideal. We often hear complaints like: "Targets keep growing, we need to sell more, but budgets remain the same or are even being cut," or "Unfortunately, we have to cancel the brand campaign. We're putting everything into the foundation, into activations, into performance marketing." But neither activation nor performance ads are delivering the results they used to.

We patiently try to explain to our clients that cutting investment in the brand is not a good idea. And that we have plenty of evidence and data showing that such investments pay off, even if in the longer term. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't.

There is a way to keep the brand alive, even with the same budget

The solution is called brandformance. We didn't invent it, nor is it some new term. It has been used for some time, but now it is highly relevant again. Brandformance ads don't choose between brand and sales. They do both at once. They take a sales-oriented, often hard-sell message and communicate it in a very original and creative way.

Brandformance ads are not ashamed of a direct offer, a discount, or excessive rationality. The product often plays a prominent role in them. But they choose a form that makes people want to watch them and share them with their friends and acquaintances.

The primary optimization of a brandformance ad is for sales. So it can be comfortably funded from a performance budget.

Several great examples of brandformance

Brandformance ads also emphasize simplicity and production efficiency. Very often, it is a single output. One clever video, one set of clever digital ads, one piece of UGC, audio, or OOH. One of our favorite examples of brandformance advertising is Etna - The Beatbox Catalogue.

This campaign perfectly meets all the parameters of a great brandformance ad. But it is definitely not the only one! You might remember the QR code at the Super Bowl from Coinbase. This work with demotivational pricing in shopping malls in Peru, the clever IKEA campaign during the World Championship in football, or this creative use of OOH in Korea.

Do you want a campaign like this too?

At the beginning of November, we will be hosting a lecture on at YYY agency about brandformance advertising. If you don't want to miss it, send us a message. We'll keep you in mind and send you an invitation. And if you've already missed it, don't worry. We'd be happy to help you create a brandformance campaign for your brand as well.