Agencies should create campaigns for clients that drive consumer communication to increase brand awareness, said Carla Serrano, partner at consulting company Naked Communications, during the Mirren New Business Conference’s April 13 keynote.
Serrano said brands have long created campaigns to drive brand awareness, which would, in turn, lead to action by the consumer. However, that approach should be inverted because “modern psychology suggests [the opposite approach] works better,” she said. Agencies should move the marketing conversation with clients “from ‘What’s my Twitter strategy?’ to ‘What is the right action for my brand and to what end?’” she added.
Serrano acknowledged that action-driving marketing is not new, citing the Pepsi Challenge campaign that launched in 1975, but she said these types of communications are now more relevant to raising brand awareness.
“Due to the rise of technology and social media, action-driving communications [such as liking or tweeting] are fast becoming the rule,” said Serrano. “When you look at the landscape out there, this notion that communications are asking people to participate and do something is fast becoming more prevalent than they ever have been.”
She referenced Kraft Foods’ recent campaign that turned consumers’ tweets into TV ads and the mobile marketing campaign Old Navy launched with Shazam in March as examples of how brands can use social media and technology to drive consumer action and increase engagement.
