The Power of Email Marketing

Here’s a question for you… do you think that most people check social media or their email first in the morning? We’ll give you a second to think about what it is that you do…

If you said check your email you are correct. Most people check their email first in the morning before anything else. This is one of many reasons why email marketing has the top ROI of any marketing strategy or channel. A study done in 2015 showed that for every $1 spent an email has an ROI of $38 according to DMA. Therefore, it’s important to draft a great email campaign for your readers. Not only can it be great return on investment it can help your business grow. Here are just a few ways that it can do just that.

1.     Increase your brand recognition and awareness. Every time someone sees your brand logo in their inbox their recall will improve. Talk about things that your company values, its products/services, its mission. Help your audience understand who you are. Help them connect with you as a brand.

2.     Customer engagement and retention. Add interactive content such as videos, infographics, etc. Feature some of your customers in your email marketing. For example, perhaps you have worked with an influencer or done an affiliate program. Extend your thanks by featuring them in your email marketing campaigns.

3.     Customers are enticed to act. Put call to actions in the emails. Make them stand out with brightly lit colors. Keep them short and send them to a landing page rather than your home page.

4.     It’s personal and builds relationships with customers. Everyone hates mass emails. They feel spammy. Personalizing emails to your customers so that it resonates with them. Create connections that will build relationships that last by giving them information they want.

5.     Increased website traffic. This one is a given. Your email should have links to your website listed for a number of reasons. It could be to a blog on your site. Some work you’ve recently done. A sale you have going on. You get the idea. People may not always be looking at your site so this is a way to drive traffic.

6.     Optimized time and budget. As stated above, ROI is insane for email marketing. Email marketing is cheap and some is even free. By putting effort into the emails and using the 80:20 rule you will increase your revenue with little budget spent. The 80:20 rule states that roughly 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients. Focus your energy on that 20%. This is where personalization can come into play as well.

Now that we know why email marketing is a powerful marketing tool, do you have the proper criteria to create a stand out email marketing campaign? Here are some basic rules of thumb to follow to create a killer email.

1.     Personalize, personalize, personalize! Same as we stated above and this couldn’t be more important.

2.     Make it visual! This increases engagement and motivates people to take actions.

3.     Promote action! Make sure there are plenty of calls to action in your email. This will also allow you to track how the email is doing.

4.     Write a catchy subject line. We would say that this is second most important next to personalization. This is where you have one chance to hook your audience into reading. Also, email marketing should have short excerpts so make every word count!

Email marketing is one of the most efficient ways to grow your business and see great returns. It can help build your audience and increase sales if done correctly. To sum it up, don’t slack on your email marketing. The benefits far outweigh any cons.

Performance Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing

A hot topic right now is performance marketing. It’s somewhat similar to affiliate marketing but has a lower risk involved and encompasses a wider umbrella that includes affiliate marketing as its sub category. It’s not something that is new but is now rising to the top as a new way to market. Let’s define each for some more clarity. Affiliate marketing is where a relationship is set up between a brand and an individual or organization where partners will receive a percentage commission of the sales they help create. Performance marketing where brands only pay when a certain objective has been met, such as clicks, leads or a sale. Here, advertisers connect with agencies, publishers or influencers to design and place ads on their company channels. Similar to that with affiliate. This is done instead of traditional advertising and now the advertisers pay based on how their ad performs and is measurable in number of impressions, clicks, shares and sales. It’s “performance based,” hence the name. Let’s now talk about the ways in which your brand’s performance-based marketing can be tracked. Here is where you see the difference in payment structure from that of affiliate marketing.

1.     Cost Per Click (CPC): as the name implies, advertisers only pay when their ad is clicked on.

2.     Cost Per Sale (CPS): the advertiser only pays when the sale was driven by the ad. This is what is used for affiliate marketing.

3.     Cost Per Impression (CPM): advertisers pay for every one thousand views. For example, if your ad gets 30K views then they pay their base rate 30x’s.

4.      Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): advertisers pay when consumers complete a specific action, such as giving their contact information, getting a sale, etc.

5.     Cost Per Lead (CPL): advertisers pay when someone signs up for something such as an email newsletter, webinar, etc.

Now that we’ve discussed the ways that advertisers pay for performance marketing let’s talk about some of the benefits. The most important one is that is tends to be lower risk since advertisers only pay after a desired action takes place. This will leave more budgeting wiggle room. Second, it’s very trackable. Performance marketing can be measured to where advertisers can watch the entire journey of their audiences’ buying path. It shows which channels are showing better results. Lastly, it increases brand awareness and increased ROI. This is a way to reach new audiences’ brands have not already tapped into. The pros are the same for affiliate marketing. However, there are some down sides to this style of marketing. Brands will have less creative control, they risk putting their brand’s reputation at jeopardy with an affiliate and most programs rely on third party cookies to measure performance, which will no longer be available when Google phases out 3rd party cookies. In summary, having both marketing strategies in your brand’s back pocket is good. Both have benefits but with the phase out of 3rd party cookies soon performance marketing will be taking a front seat. It’s honestly surprising that it took this long to come to the forefront with all the pros it produces. They both assume the risk of overpaying versus how much sales it generates but with performance marketing the risk is lessened. Could performance marketing be the marketing strategy of the future?

Marketing on a Budget

Inflation is here and it’s having an effect on every industry today. There’s no denying it. With the current state of economic affairs, we thought an article on how to maximize marketing on a budget was beneficial. Here’s a quick bullet point list.

1.     Harness the POWER OF UGC. Of course, we’re bias on this topic since this is what we do. That being said, this is one of the best ways to market on a budget. It can cut the costs of production and according to Hubspot, production takes up to 24% of the marketing budgets. Pre-production and post-production come in at the second highest costs.

2.     Hire student/amateur actors. If the brand does want a produced marketing campaign, then save money by using students or amateurs who aren’t big stars yet. Most times they will be eager to gain experience and do the job for much less or possibly free.

3.     Use free editing software. Mac already includes this with your device. With a PC, Windows Movie Maker can be installed. There are others available online as well.

4.     It’s all about lighting & sound. Don’t waste money and time on equipment that you don’t really need. You can save money here on high end cameras. However, having good lighting and good sound are important. Good lights and good mics are a must have. BUT… you can have your cake and eat it to. There are plenty of lists that experts put there that can help your brand get the best bang for their buck.

5.     Film with your smartphone. Phones have really good cameras now. Some even have cinema mode for cinematographic style shots. This can help your brand save money on equipment as well to be used in other areas of your campaign.

There are plenty of options to help save money when marketing on a budget. We hope that our quick tips helped get your journey started. Video marketing is by far the best way to reach your audience today. You cannot  merely skip out on it because you think you may not have the funds for it. There are plenty of hacks to make video marketing a reality for your brand. It will take some research and planning ahead to stick to the budget that you have allocated while getting the highest quality videos simultaneously.

Advertising Effectiveness Contributors

What makes an advertisement effective? Take a second to think about it. We’ll wait…. Now that you’ve thought about it, we’re going to give you a hint. It’s not a cut and dry answer. As we’re sure you’ve guessed, it’s not just one thing that will make an advertisement effective, it’s multiple aspects. That being said though, turns out that creativity is still the most important part of advertising effectiveness. There are 5 other important contributors to advertising effectiveness. According to a study done by Nielson Catalina Solutions, creative lands on top at 47% but the other 5 include reach at 22%, brand at 15%, targeting lists at 9%, recency at 5% and lastly, context at 2%. It’s interesting to note that creative is still the top driver of advertising effectiveness, but this does not mean that brands can neglect the other 5 contributors. Let’s take a look at recency. Recency is a theory stating that advertising will have a greater sales impact when exposure occurs close to a purchase. Determining when your audience will buy will determine when to run your ad. If they buy on the weekend, then the ad should be run on Thursday or Friday right before their purchase. This article only touches on the topics that increase advertising effectiveness and each contributor could have an article of their own. It’s crucial for brands to understand what drives their advertisement effectiveness in order to increase sales.

Friday Fun Fave 6/24/22

This week’s favorite is titles Liquid Billboard by Adidas. This amazing advertisement aims to make women feel more comfortable with their inclusive swimwear collection. “32% of women globally say they don’t feel comfortable swimming in public,” according to the ad.  We recently wrote a blog that talked about audience engagement. This is the perfect example of that! Women of all shapes and sizes jumped in for a few laps instead of the typical models that we see on these types of ads. Their swims were visible to all and streamed live online. How cool is this interactive advertising!?!? Not to mention that it promotes body positivity on so many levels.

Emotional Advertising

Of course, we all buy things out of necessity or want! However, as it turns out a lot of us buy things driven by emotions. A study done showed that “70% of viewers who experienced an intense emotional response to an ad were very likely to buy the product” (Unruly). This brings to mind that overly drawn out commercial for the SPCA. In the ad you’re shown sad faced, pitiful looking animals while Sarah McLaughlin sings in a melancholy tone the background. Yea, you know exactly which one I’m talking about. They’re really selling it home hard with triggering the emotional response here. This is the text book example of an emotional ad. Makes sense to advertise this way. IPA Research showed that, “ads with purely emotional content perform twice as well (31% vs. 16%) compared to those with only rational content.” It appears we are emotional beings rather than rational. Side note, Italians are the most emotionally engaged with brands at a whopping 65%. We thought this fact was interesting. Although very effective, it can be somewhat risky. There’s really no predicting if it will beseech the emotional response intended from your audience. This is why we believe user generated content should be a big part of every brands advertising strategy. UGC is one of the best ways to create emotional connections from brand to audience using the lens of the customer experiences. With an array of emotions and reactions through UGC video, it’s not a surprise that it is the most engaging. When you can sympathize with another “real” human who isn’t a paid actor, you build an authentic relationship with the brand and its mission. But don’t take our word for it, Frontify showed a statistic that 85% of people find UGC to be more influential. If your brand hasn’t already tapped into the infinite potential of UGC or sourced content marketing contact us to learn how.

Multicultural Advertising

Gen Z is the most multicultural generation to date and it’s expected that multicultural advertising budgets are going to increase in the coming years. It’s estimated that the white population in the U.S. will actually be the minority by 2043 according to the U.S. Census. Large cities all across America are now enmeshed with loads of diversity and with the social justice movements during the pandemic, inclusion is now necessity in conducting good business. Yesterday we wrote an article on cross-cultural advertising, so today we’re going to focus on the importance of  multicultural advertising. As essential as it is today, it is still no easy feat to create multicultural ads that resonates with its audience and does not offend or alienate them. Thus, we thought we would put together a tips list to help you get started.

1.     Research and analyze data. Look at multicultural campaigns that have worked. What did they do? A prime example would be Coca-Cola’s “America’s Beautiful”. Also, don’t forget to make sure to do research into specific cultures that you’re trying to reach as well. Understanding the culture will help you know the motivations of the audience as well as what triggers them to buy something.

2.     Have a diverse multicultural marketing/advertising team. Of course, someone from a particular region will understand that place better than anyone. This can help you contextualize your campaigns through your team who has, quite literally, been where your audience is or has been. This diverse team can help you check for accuracy of campaigns.  

3.     Triple check accuracy and authenticity of campaigns. As stated above it’s important to check the accuracy of the multicultural campaigns. Aside from having your diverse team, your brand can run it by colleagues that may also represent that cultural group. Get their feedback. What emotions did it invoke? This can also be done through A/B testing to see what appeals to the group(s) you’re targeting. Whichever way you shake it, having a cultural expert look at your campaigns is a must before they hit the market.

4.     Create empowerment in multicultural communities. How can your campaign create a sense of empowerment? How can you shed some light on issues or diversities that a particular culture has faced? People will trust your brand if you’re authentic in your support to give representation to underrepresented groups!

5.     Overcome preconceived cultural beliefs. This could be thought of as research listed at bullet point number one above. Make sure to study the culture and beliefs are your target audience. Even following influencers in that culture can help you understand the mood of target cultures. Keep an open mind and a humble heart while you learn about new cultural groups.

Overall, in the coming years it will be important to develop deeper and stronger understanding of different cultures. A new ecosystem of advertising space is coming to light and it’s right around the corner. It’s crucial to stay up to date with cultural trends and keeping your work space diverse. We’re excited for this new multicultural advertising space and embrace it with open arms. As a business who holds high DEI standards we couldn’t agree more with the increasing importance of multicultural advertising. To see more great examples of brands that got their multicultural advertisements right click HERE.  

Cross-cultural Advertising

First off, let’s note that cross-cultural and multi-cultural advertising are not the same. Multi-cultural advertisements are created with a specific ethnic group(s) in mind where cross-cultural advertising is created in order to reach many different cultures simultaneously. Although it may seem straight forward, multi-cultural advertising is a little easier to achieve than the broader spectrum audience of many cultures. Specific ads that may do well in one country may not always do well in another and in countries that are melting pots, such as the U.S., you want to make sure your message gets across the way you intend. Thus, cross-cultural advertising brings with it certain challenges. That being said, cross-cultural advertising has never been more important in today’s global society. Different cultures are more accessible in every part of the world with technology and transportation. It’s imperative that agencies adopt a cross-cultural approach to their advertising strategies. It’s not straight forward but the work will be worth it! Here are some things to consider when creating cross-cultural advertisements.

1.     Know your market. Do some research on different cultures that are within the target audience(s). There are so many sub cultures within a country, such as rural areas, southern towns, west coast culture versus east coast culture, etc. You get the idea. Therefore, it’s important to research each and know what strategies to take for your advertisement campaigns to tailor to all and not just one. Make sure to look into what cultures may consider taboo as well.

2.     Understand cultural norms within that market. Cultural norms are important when designing your advertising campaign. Avoiding missteps here can save you a lot of headache later. More research here is required. Think about whether a certain culture is more conservative than another. Thai culture believes that the head is a sacred space and that you patting someone on the head is disrespectful. It’s understanding these subtle cultural nuances that will keep your head above water for your cross-cultural advertising campaigns.

3.     Consider language. Sometimes particular words do not translate across cultures. There may not be a translation for a word. Also, avoiding particular jargon or slang may be necessary to advertise cross-culturally. For example, hella is a word used in the northern part of California and other parts of the country may have no clue what this word is meant to be used for.

4.     Know the values of your audience. Does the target culture(s) stress the importance of collectivism or individualism? Do they promote selflessness for the good of the whole or applaud having a strong personal identity?

5.     Pay attention to visuals. Colors invoke specific reactions and have powerful effects. Each culture is different. Certain colors can have meaning in one and a completely different in another. The same can be said for numbers and superstitious objects, such as black cats. In America, black cats and the number 13 are considered unlucky whereas in other cultures they are thought to be signs of good fortune.

There is an art to taking multiple cultures and connecting them together by commonalities. Brands that have great advertising in essence should already have good cross-cultural advertising strategies. However, they will need to branch out to untapped cultures in order to grow if they haven’t already. A brand will need to make sure to stick to their instilled brand culture and find commonalities with the cultures they wish to branch out to. This will ensure that they remain authentic to themselves and their original mission. They will also come off as being “real” to their new cultural audience. Innovative brands should have no problem with this since they are used to being at the intersection of multiple cultures at once. In short, for cross-cultural advertising, research will be required, time will be required and cultural preconceptions may change as a result. Expanding and learning about new cultures will help you understand the world overall much better, reduce stereotypes, enhance communication skills effectively and prevent ethnic/racial divisions.

Ethical Advertising

We’ve written about bridging the trust gap between consumers and brands previously. However, another way to strengthen trust in this way is through ethical advertising. The Institute for Advertising Ethics was established to ensure that brands are advertising in a truthful, fair and equitable way. We’re pretty certain that if you’re an advertising agency you already know this, but even though this organization exists to keep brands and agencies in check, it’s interesting to note that when creating advertisements, “most professionals are only influenced by legal considerations; ethics exerts a relatively minor role,” according to a research study. This topic has not been exhausted as many are still very skeptical of the ethics of advertising.  Now more than ever, if done correctly, can be an way to build continued trust between your brand and its audience. A few ways to practice ethical advertising is to attract your customers through transparency with accurate and honest information. Always avoid deceptive advertising and make sure that you ensure the privacy of customer data and their information. With the removal of 3rd party cookies, this last one has never been more crucial. These all fall under the eight ethical standards from the IAE. Another one to consider in today’s social climate is to practice safe production and safe use. According to Forbes, “73% of millennials are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings.” It could be argued that a new ethical way to produce, do business and advertise is to consider the environmental impacts your brand has due to the climate crisis we are now in. Ethical advertising means always doing the right thing! Your brand needs to be honest with their audience, always, without losing sight of brand purpose. 63% of people have stopped purchasing from a brand because they lost trust and 69% would never purchase from them again for this reason” (Microsoft).  

Friday Fave 6/17/22

Father’s Day is a few days away, so what better ad to spotlight this week than one that promotes celebrating dad’s day everywhere! Our Friday favorite this week is for Oreo titled, “Milk’s Favorite Cookie!” The ad features a son waking up his dad for a midnight snack. As they sit down to enjoy their Oreo together, his son tells him to wait. He looks up at the clock and waits for it to strike twelve. He then tells his dad Happy Father’s Day. This heart felt advertisement actually has the most recall of any ad produced in the past 4 weeks according The Nielsen Company and it was created by the advertising agency, FCB Global

Efficient Marketing Campaign Planning & Management

Marketing campaigns by definition are an organized, strategized effort that promotes a specific company or brand goal. This could be done for a number of reasons. It could be to promote a new product/service, increase brand awareness, gather feedback, get new leads, increase revenue, boost engagement or promote an upcoming event. Whatever the reason, it is important that the campaign be planned and managed properly. Here are some steps to help your brand efficiently plan for their next marketing campaign.

1. Know the purpose and goal. Use the SMART technique. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Is your goal to promote a new product? Is it to get more engagement across social media channels? Key Progress Indicators (KPI) will define the goal, show how it will be measured and which metrics will track its progress.

2. Know how you will measure metrics. This will also depend on the goal of the campaign so it will be different for each one and for every brand. For example, say the goal is to increase brand awareness you can measure this goal by keeping track of shares, social mentions and press. Another example would be for increasing revenue. Tracking new leads, sales as well as upsells would be a way to measure the success of the campaign.

3. Know your audience. What are your audience’s interests? Where do they spend time online? Instagram, Facebook, TikTok? What problems do they have that my product will fix? These are all questions that will help define your audience. It’s imperative to understand who they are, what their age range is, if they’re predominantly male or female or both. Knowing their age range and sex will help to determine where they hang out online on social platforms. It also helps to know what you can solve for them. You’re not going to market a joint pain supplement to the age group of 18-25 for example.

4. Know the right management software. There are so many marketing management softwares now. Here’s a short bullet point list of some and what they do.

   a.     Marketing automation & data analytics: offers campaign scheduling, customer segmentation, content creation, and analytics. Helps track campaigns in real time.

   b.    Project management: helps assign employees to tasks and gives an overview of the project when using a multi-team campaign.

   c.     Online advertising: measures ROI across all advertising channels.

   d.    CRM: deals with accounting and reporting so that your team can focus on more important aspects of the campaign.

   e.     Social media marketing: helps schedule content, monitor brand sentiment and gather data.

   f.      Email marketing and lead nurturing: examples are Mail Chimp and Constant Contact. We’ve all heard of these.

   g.     SEO Marketing: 93% of all web traffic comes through search engines according to Search Engine Statistics.  These SEO marketing tools help improve search presence and help with keyword brainstorming. These tools are more relevant than ever before.

   h.    Content and graphic creation: these tools offer consistent graphic design across all channels.

5. Know you have created the perfect team. Make sure to develop the right team. Define clear roles for each employee and an understandable brief. Make sure to keep them motivated. Have check ins often and empower your team through positive and constructive feedback. Don’t forget to celebrate the small wins!

A successful marketing campaign comes from the successful relationships within the team. Having the right people and the right tools ensures a smooth and successful campaign. Therefore, planning the marketing campaign starts with building a good team. Monitoring the success of the campaign in real time allow for adjustments to be made as needed so that success rates are almost certain.

The Rise of Interactive Advertising

Did you know that there is a term called ad blindness? It is a term to explain the phenomenon in response to how people have begun to cope with being subject to constant advertising. People have developed a coping mechanism to subconsciously and sometimes consciously tune out advertisements. In fact, 82% of Gen Z skip or ignore ads completely according to A List Daily. You can check out our article from yesterday on tips to make your advertisements more engaging but there is another kind of ad emerging that seems to increase engagement; interactive advertising. Actually, interactive advertisements have been shown to increase consumer attention by 47% and 32% more memorable according to a study conducted by Magna Global. So, let’s talk about some different types of interactive advertisements.

1.     Playable ads. This type lets the viewer get a taste of what it is like to use their product. Examples can be viewed HERE.

2.     Interactive films. A few movies on Netflix have done this now. It gives the users the options to make certain choices for the narrative giving them control of the how they experience it. Bandersnatch is a great example. We have actually participated in this interactive film.

3.     Interactive display. These expand when clicking or rolling over when viewed on a website. When it is expanded it will reveal the interactive advertisement. Visit this website for some examples.

4.     Augmented reality. Think of filters in social media apps. A great example of this is Taco Bell’s Cinco de Mayo lens on Snapchat that allowed users to turn their heads into tacos. Here’s an interesting take on it.

5.     Interactive voice. These literally speak to the user and engage with them verbally. It allows the user to respond to their voice activated device. You can read more on this HERE.

6.     Interactive video. This can be prompted through polls or trivia, such as on Facebook and allows for real time interaction with the brand audience. People love trivia and they love answering questions about themselves. Wieden + Kennedy created a beautiful ad in this type of interactive space.

Interactive ads might be the advertising of the future. With this new and creative way to engage consumers, marketers have unlimited possibilities to generate higher brand recall, increased engagement and ultimately generation of conversion rates will go up. These ads will keep your audience guessing what type of crazy ad you will come up with next. Encourage your creative team to expand their minds in order to create interactive advertisements that will keep your target audience coming back for more for years to come!

Social Media Stats 2022

Upon all our blog research here at Locomotive, there is always a recurring theme in advertising with social media. It’s now one of the most important parts of an advertising strategy in today’s world. We found some really interesting stats that we wanted to share with all of you. We know it helps us see a clear picture of who is watching what and where. It’s important to know where your target audience is to better serve them.

Pew Research Center:

• In 2005 only 5% of American adults used at least one social platform. In 2021 that number was 72%

• Percentage of adults that say they use at least one social media site by age in 2021:

  • 18-29: 84%

  • 20-49: 81%

  • 50-64: 73%

  • 65+: 45%

• More women typically use social media (78%) than men (66%) in 2021

• YouTube and Facebook are the top most widely used platforms

  • YouTube: 81%, FB: 69%

  • Instagram comes in third at 40%

• 70% of people use Facebook daily

• 59% of people use Instagram daily

These are only some of the current social media stats but in our opinion are extremely useful when looking at where to target your ads. For more interesting statistics visit: Insider Intelligence, Sprout Social and Influencer Marketing Hub.

Ways to Engage Consumers for Advertisements

Whether on a streaming service, online or when watching a video, at some point we’ve all been just waiting for the “skip ad” button to pop up so we can click on it to get to what we’re there for. It occurred to me that I do this almost 100% of the time and I’m not alone. A study done by IPG showed that 65% of people skip video ads as soon as they get the chance. Some even stated that it is purely habit at this point. So, how do advertisers get people engaged to view their advertisements? What makes someone stop what they are doing and watch the ad or forget that the skip button is even there? We decided to do some research to find out the best ways to engage an audience with campaigns and this is what we found.

1.     Know where to advertise. This is number one in our opinion. Putting ads that are similar to content being viewed will most likely pique the interest of a consumer. For example, if someone is reading a running blog an ad for Brooks running shoes would be placed on the site. Programmatic advertising can assist brands with this and increase efficiency. Knowing where your target audience is most engaged is key.

2.     Get straight to the point and keep it short. You’ve got 8 seconds to hook, line and sink er’. That’s the average attention span of Gen Z and it’s still only 12 for Millennials. As we keep saying, attention spans are getting shorter, so don’t lose your audience by creating a 3-minute advertisement.

3.     Throw in something different. Attract immediate attention with something funny, odd or by pointing something important out. You may ask a thought-provoking question or show a compelling image. We know that always gets us to stop and watch. We always appreciate a creative campaign that stands out. Take the recent Liquid Death ad for example.

4.     Tell a story or share a personal experience. Telling a story can be done very well through the use of user generated content in your spots. It will help your audience connect with your brand. Look at our past campaign for Oreo “Stay Playful.” It asks their audience to stay playful and uses shots of UGC of regular people shooting basketballs during March Madness to connect with them.

5.     Be slightly mysterious. A study found that brands who introduced themselves too early look pushy and it will not go over well with your audience. Try to throw it in after the hook in order to help keep them watching until the end.

6.     Don’t be overly positive. This one is odd we know, but it has been shown that people tend to get annoyed when they see an ad that’s seemingly too happy. Although that may seem weird, when someone may not be in a great mood themselves, the last thing that they want to see is overly artificial happiness. Honestly, we’d be bothered by it.

7.     Put the brand logo next to the skip button. This is a little trick. Since people tend to skip video ads, this is to help ensure that they will still remember your brand name after they skip your ad. Although, it’s been disputed that it may not have a high impact, it can’t hurt right?!

There are many types of video ads to promote your product or service such as outstream, instream and social media video. Whatever advertising avenue you choose make sure to get the most eyes on your videos.

Friday Fun Fave 6/10/22

This week’s Friday favorite is from Liquid Death water brand. The brand did a bold ad where they have people do a blind taste-test that had people vomiting… Literally! This one is not for the faint of heart but man it’s a belly laugh kind of ad. In order to hype up their new sparkling water the put it next to “The Most Expensive Beverages on Earth.” These “most expensive beverages” are not truly beverages at all. They consist of things such as Spanish squid ink concoctions, caviar, and lobster Béarnaise sauce. To be honest, I don’t even know what that sauce is and I can be sure I would not want to drink it. One person did actually throw up. A lot spit it out. Apparently, one guy called later to ask how to get the taste out of his mouth according to Adweek. These poor tasters had no idea what they were in for and that is what makes it so GREAT! Liquid Death water the heavy metal of packaged water. You gotta’ love what they stand for with slogans like Death to Plastic and Murder Your Thirst. Obviously, Liquid Death water won the round versus the weird and gross tasting mixes they came up with. This ad was created in collaboration with Hey Wonderful Productions.

Why Customer Reviews Matter

87% of people read reviews when considering a purchase and 79% trust them as much as they would a personal recommendation (Forbes). As we know here at Locomotive, people trust real people when it comes to advertisements and brand recommendations. It’s part of the reason we truly believe in what our company does. But do customer reviews actually correlate to increase or decreased revenue? Do the reviews actually impact the business coming in? The answer is yes, most definitely! Actually, according to a study conducted on hotel sales impacted by online customer reviews in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, there is a “significant relationship between online consumer reviews and business performance of hotels.” This is not really surprising. We all do it. Let’s say that we want to buy something online. So, what is the first thing that we do? We look at the products online reviews to see what others are saying about it. Then we weigh out our options by searching that same product from their competitors. This helps us get a clear picture of what we’re buying before we buy it when we can’t touch or see it in real life. “66% of consumers consider positive reviews to be an important factor in their purchase decision” (SOCi). It makes sense. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful factors in driving business growth. Online reviews are just the digital version of this and it has even been dubbed eWOM, standing for “electronic word of mouth” now. Furthermore, a Hard University Study found that, “a one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating led to a 9% increase in revenue.” Seems that the numbers cannot be ignored. Customer reviews do affect a business and do matter. It’s important that this is not be ignored and feedback from your audience must be addressed in order to keep a positive light on your brand.

UGC Stats

We’ve all heard it a million times now. People trust people more than paid actors. It’s for this reason and many others that user generated content is now at the forefront of digital advertising. The purpose of this blog is to shine some light on some statistics about user generated content, otherwise known as sourced content.

·      79% of people are strongly influenced by UGC when making purchase decisions (Rachna & Khajuria 2017).

·      71% of people have positive attitudes toward UGC in digital advertisements (Rachna & Khajuria 2017).

·      73% of people believe that the presence of “real people” is the most important component of sourced content (Olapic Survey).

·      Consumers are 3x more likely to say content created by a consumer is authentic compared to content created by a brand (Stackla).

·      Roughly 70% of advertisers believe that sourced content is more cost effective than traditional advertising (Catch & Release Survey).

·      90% of consumers say that UGC influences their decision to make a purchase (Cision PR Newswire).

·      Demographically, Gen Z YouTube viewers prefer UGC to professional videos more than older generations (YouTube 2020).

·      Ads that feature UGC garnered 73% more positive comments on social networks than traditional ads (IAB Study).  

·      UGC generates a 25% higher ad performance than traditional advertisements (AdAge).

·      85% of companies incorporate UGC in their marketing strategy (Semrush).

·      Almost half of customers say that UGC is a way for them to discover new products (Forrester.com)

·      UGC is 35% more memorable comparable to other media (Mediapost).

·      92% of consumers trust UGC more than traditional marketing (Marketing Insider).

This is reason enough to make sure your brand is incorporating sourced content into the advertising strategy. Of course, we will always believe it is one of the best ways to connect with your audience but don’t just take our word for it, let us show you. Contact us today for a free brief evaluation!

Programmatic Advertising

Some of you may already know what programmatic advertising is but just in case we thought we would explain it for those who may not. Programmatic ads are done through the use of software or AI to buy digital advertising space. This connects publishers who own website domains with advertisers and takes the arduous task away from people having to manually do it. The software uses an algorithm to determine where the ad space is best for your target audience in order to increase your ROI. The brand gives the information of audience specifications, key performance indicators and information on the ad campaigns. The program will then create the algorithm to fit and find the perfect placements for your digital ads. After the ads go live, it will monitor and look for areas of improvement. This type of advertising couldn’t be more critical with the Google phase out of thirds party cookies. We are entering a digital era of personal information confidentiality and it’s only going to get harder to find your online audience with privacy at the forefront. This will be one of the best ways to get your ads in front of the right consumers. Here are some other reasons why it is important.

1.     Real-time adjustments. Since it is being monitored, it can show how the ad is doing based on impressions and can be adjusted as needed.

2.     Larger audience reach. Since there is purchasing power from any ad space, this increases the audience it will reach. Advertisers have a large pool of publishers, which will increase ROI as well.

3.     Efficiency. Budget is better spent. “More relevant ads are served through targeting” (Publift). Taking the human out of the equation who has to search for, inquire, and purchase the spaces makes this more efficient. It is so much faster with software and will save the company money in the end.

The future is digital! Making sure your company is up to date on the newest software and techniques for their advertising is going to be a key component to their success. Taking advantage of software that performs programmatic advertising will save your brand money, streamline your digital ad space buying process and help you reach a wider audience than before. Why wouldn’t your brand want to take advantage of this when it seems like a no brainer right?! Happy advertising! 

Understanding Purchasing Motivations

We all buy things… but why? What is the reason you bought that new pair of shoes? Well, actually there are really only 6 reasons that we buy things. It’s important as a business to understand these motives in order to align your product or service to your audience. You will need to define what problem your product or service solves for the customer in order to define what motive they will have in purchasing from you. Let’s take a look at the 6 buying motivations.

1.     Buying for profit/gain. Marketing for this type of motivation requires showing the benefits of buying. How does it improve someone’s life? Does it have high ROI or great reward? What can one achieve from buying this service or product? The type of products and services that come to mind are investments and education but it is not limited to this type of product or service.

2.     Fear of loss. This type of consumer is not a risk taker… obviously. This will help the consumer hold on to something they already have, such as their home. Products and services that come to mind are home owner’s insurance or further training for employee customer service.

3.     Comfort, convenience and pleasure. This one really speaks for itself. It’s that new blender you bought for smoothies or that newest laptop for work. These purchases make someone’s life easier or more convenient.

4.     Security & protection. This one is similar to fear of loss. Think of home security, cyber security or just the safest decision over another. For example, choosing one brand over another because WOM (word of mouth) recommendations.

5.     Pride of ownership. Remember that time you bought those nice Gucci sunglasses? Was it because you really liked them and they were far superior to others? Probably not 100% true. Sometimes buying something that comes with grandeur due to their reputation can be something we feel we deserve for our hard work. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Marketing to this group of consumers will come with giving them feelings of gratification, dignity as well as a feeling of “high class.”  

6.     Satisfaction of emotion. This stimulates some type of an emotional response. Marketing for this type of audience is probably the easiest in our opinion. Most people are emotional buyers and will then justify their decision with some logic. Let’s look at an example though for clarification. Imagine that someone purchases a repurposed dining room table from a local, small business. This can create a feeling of personal satisfaction from supporting local business as well as feeling a sense of pride from choosing more sustainable options.

Understanding buying motivations is key to your marketing and advertising strategies. Knowing what category your brand falls under in terms of buying motivations will help deepen your understanding of your customer base. Why will your customers be buying your products or services? Will it create convenience or will it be purely for pride of ownership? If your brand understands where it will fall for buying motivation, sales & retention will inherently increase as a result.

Friday Fun Fave 6/3/22

This week our Friday fun favorite is one to kick off Pride Month! The “Taste so Good” music video for Cann, a cannabis beverage, and Weedmaps weed delivery service is a catchy hit! Featuring icons, such as Patricia Arquette, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kesha and stars from Rupaul’s Drag Race, the campaign boasts that cannabis infused cocktails won’t give you the hangover that alcohol does. The brand, Cann is a queer-founded company that prides themselves on creating inclusion within the cannabis industry. The ad itself features a diverse group of people of all gender identity spectrums in colorful attire that resembles the rainbow. This was produced by London Alley in Los Angeles. We truly loved this advertisement. It was so fun and promotes a great message of LGBTQ+.