3 Ways Your Brand Can Stand Out From The Rest
In 1938, the first female advertising executive in the US, Helen Woodward, famously said: “advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for.”
Whether or not both ends of that statement holds up today is up for debate - but from our point of view, the part on publicity is absolutely true.
There isn’t really a formula when it comes to going viral. You can get hundreds of thousands of hits, and millions of views - but whether or not your company becomes a household name is another issue. There is also the matter of what avenue you should use to build organic growth; some people swear by PR, while others recommend SEO.
We’ve studied branding for a long time, trying to figure out what makes certain companies more popular than others, and how we can replicate it. And we think we’ve found some formulas that come pretty close to the answer.
Put your ads absolutely everywhere on a platform.
Think about Youtube ads. Not the in-stream ads - nobody really cares about those.We’re talking about sponsored ads, the kinds that content creators talk about midway through a video. What companies come to mind immediately?
Depending on your algorithm preferences, the answer might change somewhat, but here are a few companies that you’ll definitely have heard of.
Even if you don’t use these products/services, it doesn’t take much imagination to think that someone else would - that’s why these companies can remain in operation in the first place.
When people who have been exposed to these ads require similar products, the above companies will come to mind immediately. This is known as Brand Recall, and is vital when it comes to marketing. It’s the reason that fast food is associated with McDonalds, why soft drinks are associated with Coca Cola, and why professional chefs are associated with Gordon Ramsay.
On one hand, mass advertising is a very effective way of building brand recall. On the other hand (as you can imagine), it costs a lot of money to implement, and it only performs particularly well on Youtube. Facebook ads only work well when targeted, and Instagram ads are dependent on people not skipping your reels. Tiktok is oversaturated with companies, and Twitter is almost nonexistent.
Breaking away from ‘politically correct’ branding
Also known by K-pop fans by the ‘Gap Crush’ effect, this refers to the instances when companies become extremely personable when interacting with their consumers. The best example of this, by far, is Wendy’s, which has become the cultural icon of witty snark.
Fast food chains are a great example of this, with McDonalds and Burger King also having friendly scuffles with each other on social media, drawing plenty of interest from their fans.
Take note, however, that you cannot directly feature your competitors in your ads - and it’s still a massive hit or miss if you go after other brands. This is one reason that Coca Cola never bothers attacking Pepsi in its ads. For a more recent example, Vitagen Singapore received a lot of flak for pushing their healthier nutrition grade compared to Yakult, with many people saying that they prefer Yakult.
As you can see from Pepsi’s famous advertisement, they changed the name of the cape to Cola Coca.
Unorthodox creatives
Thailand insurance ads make use of this a lot. By telling a story that goes one way, only to reveal a twist at the end, you can create a lasting impression in your audience’s minds.
Some examples of unorthodox creatives that really took off include:
That being said, the ad still has to be captivating enough for people to watch until the end. If people click out within the first 5 seconds, you miss out on them noticing your ad completely.
If you’ve read this far and decided that you don’t have the confidence to do your own marketing, why not give us a try? Drop us a message via the link below, and we’ll offer a free consultation to see what we can do for you!