Marketing Inspiration #27 - Why do we need so many ads, the secrets of neuromarketing, and Marmite for unborn babies
Your monthly dose of data-driven marketing insights
Why brands miss out on 17% of media value….
As we plan ahead for 2024, you may be wondering just how many ads your brand really needs to make the most of your media spend. After all, isn’t one big (and clever) idea enough?
Well… Meta usually advises to use 2-8 ads per campaign. In our research, we’ve proved that 36.49 for Awareness and 14.81 ads for Conversions works best.
Find out more at our next webinar “Why Do We Need So Many Ads? An Introduction to Live Creative Optimisation” will give you clarity on what you need to do. Join us on Thursday, 25th January 2024, at 5pm GMT.
Sign up now:
Top Tip from the Shiny New Object Podcast
On the Shiny New Object podcast, senior brand leaders share their vision for the future of data-driven marketing and their best tips to improve creative effectiveness.
“Understand your audience, then use data to simplify your processes” - Shaaf Tauqeer, Audience and Martech Manager, easyJet
EasyJet has access to first-party data and can run very targeted ads to ensure creative effectiveness. This may look simpler for them than for most brands. However, Shaaf explained that simplifying the strategy down to the essentials of marketing was one of their biggest challenges. Once you understand the audience you are targeting, you need to align your media goals with it, while also accepting that it will change continually. This is why data is key at any point in a brand’s journey, as is the approach of trial and error.
As Shaaf puts it, marketers need to “keep up with [...] trends, understand what your consumer and audiences are doing, and then simplify your processes by the help of data, [while] open to trial and error.” Find out more tips on data driven marketing and advertising on the podcast.
Should We Embrace AI In Marketing?
“Optimisation really opens up the world of brands… As soon as you’re not making that one safe bet, you can be so much more nuanced in your creative, you can show much more diversity, try an edgier tone of voice… running ads at scale lets you experience the breadth of diversity so much more.“
Our Global Head of Strategy, Amy Wright, spoke about the benefits of embracing AI and live optimisation in data driven marketing, on the Life in Digital Podcast.
Tune in to find out why there’s still an ethical conundrum around the use of AI, but also why Amy thinks it’s the way to supercharge your content and improve effectiveness and results: https://automatedcreative.net/creativity-advertising-automation-ads-marketing-blog/life-in-digital-podcast
Automated Creative Case Study - Durex Philippines
Challenging biases and using social listening to understand a new market, our work with Durex in the Philippines delivered a highly cost-effective way to gather first-party data for the brand, while leading to a higher CTR and lower cost per lead thanks to continuously optimising content with each new sprint.
Learn about how we helped Durex acquire 4x more leads than expected with a 286% cheaper CPA than the target benchmark: https://automatedcreative.net/durex-philippines-case-study
This Month’s ‘Best Data Driven Marketing Tip’
"Neuromarketing… teaches us that ads have either a high confusion or high distraction rate. Make it simple." - Sorin Patilinet, Senior Director, Marketing Effectiveness at Mars
Sorin told us how he uses neuroscience to drive performance and make data-driven marketing decisions when he was a guest on the Shiny New Object Podcast. Mars has tested thousands of ads in the lab, to see what brain signals correlate with sales from their target audience. The result? We often overcomplicate marketing. The data shows that brands need to focus on simple and impactful messages - e.g., just a scene that showcases feelings vs a whole longer story.
And there is more Marketing Inspiration this past month on Advertisers Watching Ads - our show where brands watch other brands’ ads and discuss their merits and failings, in partnership with Contagious.
We reviewed a daring brand activation by Heinz in Turkey:
And an interesting concept around boosting confidence in network coverage by using the local Mumbai dabbawalas in India, in the case of Vi:
Back in the UK, we asked whether babies develop their love or hate for Marmite in the womb:
Finally, during MAD//Fest 2023, we recorded a special episode rounding up the year’s best ads so far, and asking which one took the top spot:
Many thanks to all of our guests:
Steve Mudd (Director, Strategic Messaging and Content Marketing at NetApp), Deanna Shimota (CEO of GrowthMode Marketing), Sharalyn Orr (Executive Director, Global Local & Cultural Innovation - Corporate Marketing at The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.), Rebecca Dykema (SVP Partnerships & Creative Transformation at CreativeX), Duarte Garrido (VP Growth Marketing at Volt), Alex Taborda (Senior Media Manager at L’Oréal), Nikita Longdon (Senior Creative Project Manager at Expedia), Joseph Harper (Global Head of Content at Diageo), Adam Conley (Regional Insights Director, North America, at Mars Wrigley), Sai R., MBA (Senior Manager, Brand & Title Marketing, at Paramount+), and Colin Chow (Global Managing Partner at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand)
Do you want to share your thoughts about these ads or suggest a new one for us to debate? Email us on hello@automatedcreative.net.
How to Make it in Marketing
After hundreds of interviews with the best and brightest leaders of the advertising and marketing world, Automated Creative distilled their top tips for newcomers into the book, "How to Make it in Marketing Vol. 1."
Here is one of the brilliant tips you can find inside:
"Be a unicorn" - Kristof Neirynck, Global Chief Marketing Officer & Managing Director Western Europe (CEO-1) at Avon
Marketing has become an essential cost centre for businesses - a department that brings in value, but also costs a lot, so needs to be streamlined. This is why it’s essential for marketers to become a Jack-of-all-trades, dipping their toes into all the pots of knowledge available to them. This includes data and performance, understanding he creative output, brand marketing and positioning… and the list goes on. Echoing Brian Costello’s advice on the Shiny New Object Podcast, you need to keep receipts and show your worth - and the best way to be able to do that is by expanding your knowledge and areas of expertise.
This is just one tip among the 45 different pieces of advice waiting for you in our FREE e-book. Download it here now.
Finally, here are some ads you should have seen - via our friends at Contagious: