Brand strategy, yes. Brand campaign, maybe.
Every day someone else writes an article about the death of branding, how nobody cares anymore. They usually have a very black and white perspective, but like most things in life, the truth lies in the gray middle.
Without some form of branding, you’re left chasing execution only, data, performance points --all good, but an inevitable race to the bottom. Every statistic says brands do better than products. They get a huge lift from the aura and effect of branding. And having no point-of-view is certainly not a way to go through life. That said, how much branding do you need?
You need a brand strategy. But do you need a brand campaign? This is the real question we should be asking.
Do you have the time, money and media to spend on a “traditional” brand campaign? Where you make executions that repeatedly drive that overarching brand message, that clever tagline, that singular look? Do you even have multiple places to put them? On broadcast, ctv, in store, OOH? If your “campaign” consists purely of a few paid social posts mixed into your feed does that give it the true value it deserves?
In those cases, perhaps brand strategy is enough…a guiding north star that all your varied executions line up under. If you have the money, by all means, do a brand campaign. But in this ever-squeezed budget world we live in, perhaps you’d be better off spending your time creating faster, short-term hits, “tactical campaigns” while the brand strategy builds over time.
