You’ve seen it before…that marketing campaign that’s run a little too long and has been promoted a little too often. You’ve heard the radio spot, flipped through the print ads and scrolled past the digital ads on Facebook countless times – so much so that the ad means nothing to you now and you’ve started to tune it out. Congratulations! You’re experiencing ad fatigue.
For those unfamiliar with the term, ad fatigue occurs when an audience sees ads so often that they become bored and stop paying attention. This then causes the campaigns to become less effective as fewer consumers are willing to engage and make a next move. Simply put, they’re over it.
At MindFire, it’s our job to prevent ad fatigue by keeping campaigns fresh and exciting, evolving them as often as needed. While this can be tricky, here are a few ways we get started.
Although our team at MindFire is well-versed in refreshing a campaign, some concepts can be more difficult to come up with than others. When a project’s immediate team is looking for a fresh perspective, we often bring in Arsonists who haven’t been as involved in the campaign. Having a set of fresh eyes doesn’t just open the door for new ideas; it can help us pick up on things missed earlier in the concepting process.
Once a month, we hold an all-agency Firestarters meeting. During this meeting, we discuss upcoming projects, team shoutouts and showcase completed work from the month. Our favorite part of the meeting is what we call our Firestorming session. During this Firestorming session, we pick one upcoming client project and spend an hour as a team brainstorming ideas for it (at no cost to the client). When the hour is up, we leave feeling refreshed, inspired and full of new and original ideas. More times than not, some of the best ideas come from Arsonists who otherwise wouldn’t have worked directly on the project!
Back in 2020, John Deere reached out to our team to help name and market a new financial incentive program for specific construction equipment. After some research and concepting, the Own It Offer was born, featuring strong and bold messaging like: Want it? Own it.
In 2021, a similar program was back, with even more machines offered than before. When John Deere reached out for our help, we had to decide the best way to approach the offer. Since the program wasn’t exactly the same as the previous year, should we rename it and remarket it? Or, was there enough brand equity built up in the name of the program that we should build on it instead of replacing it?
Since the original Own It Offer was not only successful in bringing in sales and customers but also in maintaining positive name recognition, we decided to keep the name, but play up the element of more – bringing us to our final message: “The Own It Offer. Back for more. More machines, more savings and more muscle.”
The campaign was even more successful than its first year and reminded us that you don’t always need to reinvent the wheel to get great results.
Every year, APQS holds two Millie longarm quilting machine giveaways (each valued at $19,700). While these giveaways are well-known and highly anticipated by the quilting audience, we still make it a point to refresh the creative for each contest. Keeping the design updated even though the message may be like previous campaigns holds target audience interest and helps attract new customers.
When looking for inspiration for new creative, we love getting outside the box. Can we tie the design back into the current season or a major upcoming event? What if we utilized a popular trend? What are our competitors doing? Remember that no idea is a bad idea – as it may lead to the spark we’ve been looking for.
If you work with MindFire, you’re aware of the importance we place on research. I mean, come on – it’s in our name. Mind is the research- and evidence-based approach that provides sound strategy and measurability, and Fire is the creativity that allows your brand to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Before we begin our work refreshing an old campaign, we take some time to review the analytics of the last campaign. What worked? What fell short? We utilize this knowledge in our decision making so the refreshed campaign – and results – grow to their highest potential.
When we’re stuck between two creative approaches, we often test them online or on social and track their results. If one ad is outperforming the other, that may be a clear indicator of which approach resonates with our audience the best – and which approach should be used moving forward.
Still struggling to breathe life back into your outdated campaigns? Don’t hesitate to drop us a line.
Visual storytelling has been with us since the days of cave drawings, and it’s not going away. The platforms evolve over time, but the power of visuals to engage, inform and motivate remains constant. Are you using visual content in your marketing efforts? I’m talking about photos, infographics, graphs and charts, cartoons and comics, maps, videos and more. This is the content consumers are craving, consuming and sharing.
