The Power of a Brand Campaign
At MOVE, we are predisposed to action. We believe that doing some form of marketing far outweighs doing nothing at all. While it’s good to set a strategy, we don’t advise overthinking it. Go with your instincts and the insight you’ve gained through basic research, then get started. By taking action you’ll discover certain things that work—where you gain marketing traction. You’ll learn what vehicles people respond to, who become qualified leads, and why they became customers.
Something that will unify your efforts and contribute to the emotional connection the customer will make with your brand is a “brand campaign.” It is a key enabler for developing momentum for your brand. It does this by expressing the essence of who you are, providing an integrated approach for communicating your unique value proposition, and providing consistency for all of your communications.
Without a brand campaign, the tendency will be to just create various project communications. These all may have individual merit but aren’t as effective, because they are one-offs. They live in isolation. When you have a brand campaign, each communication can work harder because it builds off the same theme. Your communications will express a brand truth that, when repeated, becomes noticed—then is remembered, and finally acted upon.
An example is our brand campaign for MOVE Communications. We wanted to motivate new customers to be attracted to us by conveying our value proposition, which is to bring MOMENTUM to businesses through marketing, and in particular, through our core skill of storytelling. To reflect our name, we wanted everything to suggest “movement.” Movement visually. Moving hearts and minds.
And it needed to suggest movement in a direction. Toward a desired destination. Purposeful. Simply put, we wanted people and their businesses to MOVE ahead.
And so was born the #MoveAhead Campaign. #MOVEahead became a rallying cry. A promise. Something achievable for everyone.
In the execution of the campaign, we tease interest through different headlines for various ads. All of these headlines pay off the idea of moving ahead through some basic action.
“Bust A Move.”
“Tell Your Story.”
“Take the First Step.”
“Are you social?”
Each ad has a “cup of copy” that describes the suggested action further, and all have impact through their simplicity.
“Are You Social?” has become a book that we made available through a Call To Action form on the website. It Is a “value-added” presentation that serves as a primer on how to make use of the main social media channels. It’s downloadable free when a visitor provides their email address so we can follow up afterwards. We’ve also produced it as a coffee table book.
We also were able to enhance our service work in the community by tying it into our brand campaign. Our MOVEahead Detroit video (which just won a TELLY award) rides on this campaign theme.
Our vision for what happens for your brand when you #MOVEahead is expressed in our brand positioning line: “inspiring brands for the greater good.“ Our brand intent is to help you be this kind of brand.
Our approach for how we do that is expressed in a simple equation:
E + N = M.
Emotion + Numbers = Momentum.
A brand campaign helps build MOMENTUM because it expresses the EMOTIONAL appeal of your brand. It gets at your essence—what is of greatest value to your customer. When you express it through the brand campaign in words, pictures, and metaphor, you then can measure your progress in the NUMBERS. How many people signed up for your newsletter? Who clicked through to your website from an email? How many filled in a Call to Action form? Which leads became closed deals?
In the end, by taking the time to develop a brand campaign, you make your life easier. You don’t have to decide with each opportunity or project how to express it. You just go to the brand campaign and let everything nest in that. It saves you time, streamlines the development process, and is more likely to be recognized by your audience because they’ve seen your campaign expressed in some way before. It helps you #MOVEahead. Further. Faster.
If you are looking for support developing your brand campaign, “bust a move” and get in touch with us. All it takes is a first step.
