As we launch into another year of uncertainty, where and how your brand appears over the coming months is going to be crucial for long-term growth and opportunities. As we’ve seen over the past 2-years, digital channels have exploded and those businesses that have been slow on the uptake have either struggled or disappeared altogether. But for those companies that have invested in digital and ecommerce, there is still a question around the best channels and types of media they should use for advertising.

Is digital the only answer?

The pandemic has driven a huge surge in digital uptake across all markets and demographics. It stands to reason, therefore, that brands would want to focus on digital channels for their marketing – but putting all your marketing eggs in the most obvious basket might not necessarily be the best approach. Why? Because you won’t be the only ones doing it. Also, the online world is becoming more and more noisy and it’s becoming more difficult to get cut-through.

As Econsultancy highlighted in a recent stats roundup, ‘brands that were born online have increased their linear TV ad spend by 37% since 2019, according to a report from Marketing Week which outlines new 2021 data from Nielsen and Thinkbox.’ Take Peloton, for example – a brand that was born online, but increased TV ad spend by 279% over the last two years. If online was the only place to be, online brands wouldn’t be upping their TV game so vehemently.

Getting the most from online channels

If you establish that investing in digital is right for your business, you still have a range of options to consider. We’ve developed several highly successful social campaigns that have achieved excellent results thanks to one thing – research. Chucking money at digital advertising will burn through cash if it’s not done strategically. But get it right and the rewards will be plentiful.

Take YouTube as an example. Speaking at a YouTube festival last year about their experience of advertising on the channel in addition to traditional television, it was stated that research from Nielsen and Coty on behalf of beauty brand Rimmel, found that “YouTube delivered 33% higher ROI than traditional media and social channels across Rimmel’s portfolio.” By combining the two channels, Rimmel achieved 22% incremental reach across its audience.

The power of TV

There have been numerous reports and research articles over the years that have pointed to TV as being one of the most effective platforms for advertising – not just to drive emotion and achieve short term sales, but also to deliver long-term growth with a more sustained advertising strategy. However, with the huge growth of online, is this still the case?

According to figures published by WARC, TV still provides a huge and instantaneous reach that drives fame in a way that online search and social media would struggle to match, despite investment of over £15billion a year on online advertising by UK brands.

It’s also a great way to build your brand, which is hard to do via digital channels only. Using offline channels to perform the brand job is proven to exponentially improve Google brand term searches, click-through rates and ultimately, sales conversion as the consumer is already pre-disposed before the digital engagement.

And beyond Linear TV, other AV channels represent a viable addition/alternative in the form of Broadcaster Video on Demand which can be more targeted than live TV, as well as Programmatic Video on Demand, which is highly targeted potentially down to behavioural level.

Our TV Showreel

Act now if you want to get on TV

As we know from our media partners, the UK TV market has undergone a remarkable recovery following the negative impact of COVID in the summer of 2020. By autumn 2020, advertiser demand and ad revenues had returned to 2019 levels and through 2021 that demand has increased whilst viewer impacts have fallen. The result has been dramatic inflation with some months representing 40% price increases year on year.

We envisage this scenario continuing into 2022 and so recommend our clients plan and buy early to avoid the risk of zero availability and/or inflexible cost penalties for late booking. For an easy guide to getting on TV for the first time, see our 10 tips here. We also have the experience, expertise, and partners to make it simple, hassle free and cost effective. No worrying about finding media agencies or production companies – we provide a full end-to-end service to get your brand in front of the right audience.

Don’t forget Radio and Out Of Home

You might be surprised to know that Radio has maintained consistent performance metrics before and during the pandemic, which are predicted to continue afterwards as well. The introduction of Smart speakers, digital radios and everyone being glued to laptops and needing background ‘noise’ has worked well for the medium, not forgetting the increased popularity of podcasts over recent years.

As for Out of Home, you won’t be surprised to learn that this has suffered more heavily due to, well, everyone being stuck at home. After recovering well last year (albeit not to 2019 levels), it has taken a further dip since the latest work from home guidance. However, as we do transition back to a return to the office, we believe this will become another important medium for advertisers to throw into the mix.

How to drive maximum ROI

When it comes to the age-old question of what channels or platforms deliver the best ROI, it’s never a straightforward question to answer. The reason being that what might perform well for some brands, might not perform so well for others. The key is in getting the right mix and testing until you get the right formula. However, we do have a few tricks up our sleeves at FKC that can help you get the best ROI when it comes to clever creative for big results.

Whether it’s traditional or digital, the art is in understanding your audience and how best to connect with them, which is where the creativity comes in. From there, it’s all about consistent messaging and telling your story in the right way across your ecosystem.

If you’re looking to get the most from your marketing budget in 2022 and you want to understand how to get the right mix of channels to deliver maximum ROI, speak to us about how we can help create a winning strategy for your business.

Some of our clients