If you're in advertising or marketing, you may have heard the catchphrase "combined campaigns" thrown around, and you probably wondered what all the fuss was about.
However, combined campaigns aren't exactly new. Television game shows that request viewers phone in their vote or infomercials that offer limited-time discounts are early examples of combined campaigns that use both television and telephone outlets.
For as long as ads have existed, companies have known that using just one medium is not nearly as powerful as creating a campaign brand spread across many types of ads.
Today, combined campaigns are gaining importance because consumers connect with more types of media than ever. So, what exactly are combined campaigns? How can you use them in your marketing efforts?
Combined Campaigns Defined
Combined campaigns use multiple forms of media such as traditional advertising techniques (e.g., print and television ads) along with relatively new channels, such as social media, online video advertisements, text content, and more to increase engagement across the marketing spectrum.
Moreover, successful companies understand advertising isn't just about "hard" advertisement. Sometimes, the most engagement comes from building awareness and consumer relationships through "soft" ads, such as hashtags, giveaways, and social media engagement.
New marketing channels are powerful enough alone. Creating a Facebook page can increase the frequency of store website visits by up to 131% (via Forbes). However, as many marketers have seen the effectiveness of using new channels, they have begun to realize that combining multiple channels is exponentially more effective than using them as standalone campaigns.
Using combined campaigns has increased benefits because it allows you to get better ROI and engagement from each campaign. For example, look at brands that combine paid television commercials with low-cost social media hashtags. They reap benefits because their campaigns hit some consumers with television ads then remind customers of the campaign if they see it on social media and other customers who find out about it on social media and re-recognize the branding of the campaign when they see a television commercial about it.
A combined campaign cements a campaign into the audience members' mind because they are seeing it in different formats at different times.
Why Use Combined Campaigns
Motivating consumers to connect with your company in more than one way cements brand association and motivates valuable engagement.
Marketing campaigns such as the 2013 New York Fashion Week in February drew attention and gained successful returns because they combined online and offline outlets for comprehensive advertising that built the brand's image, states an Inc. article.
Additionally, using multiple forms of media helps you because you can use analytics gained from each medium to measure total engagement.
For example, analyzing the success of your television commercials versus online video ads helps you see where your customers are engaging and what strategies work for which medium. That helps you better elevate your campaigns while also making your efforts more cost-effective because you can gain moment-to-moment data on how your campaigns work for your target audience. By taking into account how each campaign performs, you can detect patterns that affect when you employ which advertisements and what mediums you use.
Moreover, an ad doesn't affect everyone equally.
Different demographics relate to different mediums depending on what they use frequently. For example, a younger demographic may be more familiar with receiving marketing from social media channels or on their mobile devices and older populations may prefer traditional methods.
Using multiple forms of media allows you to specifically gear your efforts towards target and sub-target markets to reap the highest rewards. Outliers in target market populations may connect with ads in a way you haven't predicted yet. Only through hitting your audience on all fronts can you gain the invaluable data that allows you to focus future campaigns.
Don't waste your time or energy sending out generic ad campaigns—relate to your consumers by interacting with them in the most effective way possible. However, combined campaigns take the guesswork out of focusing your campaigns. They lay the groundwork for you to collect data over time that allows you to understand how to create the best campaigns possible.
* * *
The above are just a few of the many ways combined campaigns can benefit your marketing plans.
