The long and short of it

Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, have recently unveiled thought-provoking insights from their current research: ‘Effectiveness in a Changing Media Landscape’.

Most notably, the report calls attention to the importance of brand-building initiatives for long-term business growth. Reviewing Thinkbox’s findings in more depth, here is our guide to achieving the perfect balance between long-term and short-term marketing strategies:

What is short-termism?

In business, short-termism refers to the practice of being too preoccupied with delivering short, sharp bursts of results, at the expense of delivering a coherent long-term plan.

This approach is especially common in marketing, with companies requesting short-term campaigns in order to promote a new offer, deal or specific service - all geared to driving sales as quickly as possible.

Essentially, there is nothing wrong with short-term sales activation. In fact, these short and sharp tactics are vital to generating increased sales at pivotal times. However, they must be done in moderation and for the right reasons.

Thinkbox pinpoints excessive short-termism as a central issue within the marketing industry, arguing that whilst highly-targeted stop-gap campaigns can boost ROI significantly, campaign performance improves significantly when supported by long-term brand-building initiatives.

Why should you focus on brand-building?

Marketing might convince you to buy from Amazon for the first time, but branding will ensure that you buy from Amazon over and over again. It includes every consumer experience - from using the website, selecting a product, making a payment, receiving an order confirmation, delivering on-time and of course the final product quality. To put it in a nutshell, brand-building is all about turning your casual customers into loyal fans.

According to Thinkbox’s research, the three ‘vital ingredients’ needed to achieve this level of brand awareness are ‘reach, scale and emotion’. By adopting these key principles, you can develop a brand identity that not only acquires new consumer interest, but also retains existing customers.

The importance of TV

Successful brand-building relies on generating an emotional connection with consumers. It requires value-driven, purposed-led actions that make a lasting impression. Because of this, it is unsurprising that Thinkbox’s research identifies TV as the most effective brand-building channel.

In fact, Thinkbox highlights that including TV in a campaign increases overall effectiveness by 40%. And, in addition to this immediate boost, TV also provides important long-standing benefits – such as increasing average market share by 2.6% for every year that it is used. Moreover, TV is at its most effective when combined with online shareable video, uniting both channels in one brilliantly joined-up approach.

What can we learn from this?

Of course, short-term tactical campaigns are necessary and effective, but the main takeaway from this research is that they should not be prioritised at the expense of equally important long-term strategies.

The ideal balance proposed by Thinkbox is a 60:40 ratio of long-term brand-building to short-term sales activation. But, in order to improve business development, increase market share and encourage consumers to trust your brand, you ultimately need a winning combination of both.

So, if you haven’t already considered a long-term brand-building approach, now is the time to start! In the meantime, stay tuned for the full report findings that will be released next year.

Accord is an award-winning marketing agency. By blending strategy, creativity, content, innovation and meaningful insights, we design strategic and tactical marketing strategies that exceed expectations. Our commercial focus is acquisition, engagement and conversion. To find out more, get in touch today.