Comments on: This Decade Will Welcome The End of The Branding Campaign

By: LED TVs For Sale

LED TVs For Sale — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:45:33 +0000

Great comment! The best way on how to find a good brand is knowing the feedback of these brands using tweets and other social media.

By: eranshir

eranshir — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:58:59 +0000

Darren, here's hoping. Good points. Two quick remarks:
1. I think we should not confuse campaign goals and measurability. Certainly conversion based campaigns are the most easily measured today, but there's no reason why we won't solve the hard metric problem for other campaign goals in other parts of the funnel. So for example, "drive traffic" is a goal, that in order to measure it you need a metric that takes into account the contributions of all advertising channels to increasing traffic, not only clicks. But there's no reason why we can't do that for goals such as traffic, engagement, buzz etc.
2. One of the main hurdles is getting advertisers comfortable with 'inferred' metrics, rather than explicit. Obviously, it's easy to attribute the click to goog because that's where you clicked, but that kinda does a disservice to the advertiser, who actually is probably better off spending his money somewhere else building towards that click. This requires inference based attribution which is still very messy.

Eran

By: annehunter

annehunter — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:44:39 +0000

Great article Darren! We at comScore do belive that digital media will be measured in a new way as well. Ensuring delivery with GRPs and demographics will still be important but measuring effectiveness will also become standard for all media. I just wanted to let folks know it's COMSCORE not Nielsen that offers the AdEffx suite. We're very proud of the comprehensive indepandent measurement we have brought to market and hope you'll check out comScore when you think of advertising effectivness.

By: senithomas

senithomas — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:07:29 +0000

Thought provoking post. I think there are a number of aspects to branding that are still very valuable.

1. Long consideration period purchases

2. Brand loyalty and evangelism

3. Perceived utility - Do Nike shoes provide any more utility than Adidas shoes? They do from a fashion perspective, which is 100% based on branding

4. Based on above, you can increase margins on products. Is a Sony TV 300% better than a Vizio TV? Doubtful, but people will still pay the premium.

I think we are heading toward a grey world not a black and white one. Conversion and sales are very important and initiatives like Nielsen Adeffx are trying to close the loop on online branding and sales, but I think we are a far cry away from seeing an adless Times Square... And lets not forget catering to company EGOS. What is the return on buying the naming right on a Stadium? Box seats whenever you want.

The real solution, in my opinion, is a solid unifying metric to understand the impact on the bottom line (like premium pricing) of branding.

By: dherman76

dherman76 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:36:30 +0000

Thanks Kevin!

By: dherman76

dherman76 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:36:21 +0000

Great point.

By: Kevin Marshall

Kevin Marshall — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:58:49 +0000

Good stuff! I read his post first and already commented on it, but my first reaction was that he was basically complaining that there is no good affiliate model for 'brand advertising' right now…I sort of made that comment on the post I guess, but as usual, you make more sense of it all than my ramblings

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:34:59 +0000

Regarding your caveat, for considered goods and services in particular, I think you could argue awareness, consideration and conversion are occurring almost simultaneously now, due to the internet and smart phones. Example: you're standing in front of a shiny, new 52-inch Samsung LED HDTV at Best Buy, after having done some online research prior to your shopping visit. You're still undecided. Should you buy the Samsung LED for $3,400 or the Sony LCD for $2,400…or the VIZIO for $1,800? You can't find any sales help to answer your questions, so you pull out your iPhone and Tweet the question. Or, IM your friends. Or, check your gdgt community for some help. And, once your trusted community helps you determine the VIZIO is a pretty good choice, you want to know if this even the best price on the VIZIO? Again, you phone can help. An app like Red Laser compares this price at Best Buy to a host of other retailer prices. All of this was determined on in the store, on the fly, with little to no influence from Sony's “Panel” TV and magazine ad campaign, the Samsung display (which just so happened to not be working while you were there) or the non-existent sales people. What value did any of those components truly add to the experience when you were in full control from the get go?

By: dherman76

dherman76 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:32:21 +0000

Sounds like a plan. I'll send you a note tomorrow.

By: fredwilson

fredwilson — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:38:47 +0000

let's go to lunch and you can explain to me how this is going to happen