6 times when Brand Advertising was on Point - 2023 Edition

Brand Advertising is an art. It isn’t as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of effort and time to build a strategy to sell your brand. Before you start spending money on a campaign, you need to understand your audience and go through an ultimate guide to brand advertising. Since the time, branding has come into existence, all the brands worldwide have been fighting to gain awareness and recognition among their target audience. Over time, we have seen the most competitive AD campaigns designed by renowned brands such as McDonald’s, Apple, Samsung, Nike, and so on. Today, we are going to focus on the top 6 brand campaigns, where the brands successfully showcased they are good at what they do. Some of the brand advertising ideas are too fierce while others are smart enough to gain the rightful attention. Needless to say, while gaining awareness for their products, these brands troll their competitors brutally. The ideal example for these would be Samsung Ad campaigns vs Apple Ad campaigns. Both popular cellular companies are known to be in head-to-head competition for years. And each one of their campaigns has proven to be powerful against the other.

A Quick Intro to Brand Advertising

Before we take you on a fun ride, here is a quick intro to what is brand advertising. The textbook definition of brand promotion is to increase brand visibility, customer loyalty, and awareness of the company’s product or service. This includes creating promotional content such as advertisements, or coming up with a creative slogan that defines your product and evokes your audience’s emotions. The ideal example of a successful slogan would be “Just do it” by Nike. The famous athlete company came up with the slogan, conveying a message that athletes should have the courage to complete desired activities with positive energy. The impact of the slogan was so huge, that even decades later, Nike carries the slogan as it has become a massive part of the brand’s personality.

6 Successful Marketing Campaigns

Coke- Share a Coke Campaign

Coca-Cola doesn’t need an introduction. The worldwide popular soft drink company is known for its powerful marketing strategies. Having fierce completion with Pepsi, the brand understands the importance of brand advertising very well. Back in 2011, Coke came up with an excellent branding tactic, which involved it introducing Coke bottles with personalized names. The #ShareaCoke advertising campaign was loved by millions, as the beverage company encouraged its consumers to look for their name on the bottle, making it a fun and special experience for them. Moreover, people were motivated to share the soft drink with their friends, whose names they end up finding on the bottle. Coke turned up the game of brand promotion, by allowing people to place orders for personalized names on their website. Needless to say, the brand gained massive brand engagement, making it one of the most successful AD campaigns.

Nike – Just Do It

Nike possess the evergreen tagline for more than 20 years now. As mentioned earlier, it is associated with athletes with an aim to boost their courage for winning goals. The well-known tagline came into existence when Reebok was running ahead in the line of athlete wear. In 1988, during an intense meeting with its advertising company, the brand came across how professional athletes shared their emotions while taking part in their exercises. The brand’s AD featured Walt Stack an 80-year-old marathoner, who described how actively he runs 17 miles every morning. Such AD became the inspiration for many young sportspersons, making them believe in themselves more strongly. Needless to say, it proved to be one of the best marketing campaigns of all time.

Red Bull – Stratos

Red Bull is all about energy and being exclusively active. Their audience is youngsters who find ways to stay active to complete their boring errands of the day. Even though most of the world is familiar with its “Red Bull Give You Wings” tagline, the brand decided to do something exclusive to sell its product more widely. The campaign included showing Felix Baumgartner, making a free fall from the stratospheric to test human abilities. In 2012, the Austrian skydiver launched himself into the stratosphere via helium balloon and executed a historic freefall over New Mexico, United States. Red Bull not only gained more popularity but also, registered its brand as the drink of the ones who dare to challenge limits. It was indeed a unique way of brand advertising.

Marlboro- The Marlboro Man

Believe it or not, the most popular cigarette brand was known as the women’s cigarette brand as it not only produced filtered cigarettes. Due to this reason, the brand had less than 1% market share. To change that, the brand came up with the iconic Marlboro Man campaign. Who is he? The campaign defined a Marlboro man as someone who is macho, sturdy, and adventurous. In the 90s, they started showcasing hardworking men smoking Marlboros in the Ads, which lead it to become the 4th largest brand in America.

Always – Like a Girl

Living in a patriarchal society, most of us are familiar with the phrase “Don’t cry like a girl” that is often said to boys. Such a phrase indicated that expressing emotions is a weakness and since women tend to cry easily they are weaker than men. Bursting such stereotypes, the American personal hygiene company, Always, came up with a provocative slogan “Like a Girl”. The message behind the slogan was crystal clear. It clearly implied that girls are as strong as boys, whether it’s sports or leading a company. The campaign received applause all over the world.

Wendy’s- Where’s the Beef?

You must be familiar with groundbreaking McDonald’s strategy or Burger King’s hilarious campaigns targeting brutally at its competitors. But many are unfamiliar with one of the most savage campaigns of all time. Even though McDonald’s appeared first in the market, Wendy’s did give a challenging time to the popular fast food chain in the 1960s. The brand made a bold move in the 1980s by targeting famous burger franchises by hinting that the beef used in the popular burgers is not real. Meaning, they are full of preservatives and unhealthy. The campaign caused a roar among the competitors but received cheers from the audience.

Brand advertising vs Direct response – What is the Difference?

So, this was it for today but before we wrap up this exciting blog, here is a quick explanation of the most asked question, what is the difference between brand advertising and Direct response marketing? The answer is quite easy. Direct response marketing is a marketing technique that requires the consumer to make a decision on the spot. The ideal example would be hosting a podcast or a webinar.

Meanwhile, brand advertising takes time by investing money and building strategies. When it comes to brand marketing, conversion takes longer compared to Direct response marketing. We hope today’s blog was educational and fun at the same time. Even in 2023, brands are at war for acing the title of the world’s best brand. They might have altered the tactics but the goal remains the same, to secure sales, gain brand awareness and build a voice for who they are.