Big Brand Campaigns Are Back—Here's Why

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Proclaiming the end of the big brand campaign is an all-too-common narrative in the advertising press.

Influential industry voices consistently point to the shrinking importance of broadcast TV and conclude big-budget, extravagant ads are a thing of the past. Then add in the demand for more accountability for marketing budgets, and we get a seeming diminishment of all above-the-line advertising in favor of more measurable below-the-line efforts.

While some might argue this competition for the customer's attention requires a complete focus on smaller, more personalized efforts, I'd argue it intensifies the need for broader branding solutions, as well.

Combatting digital's lower bar-to-entry and keeping smaller competitors from chipping away at your leadership requires a prominent, ubiquitous and singular brand voice. And the best way I've found to achieve this is through investing in a scalable campaign, anchored by memorable brand ads, with connected brand messaging interwoven throughout the rest of the program.

This is not to say that TV ads are always the answer, nor that we don't need more diversified experiences within a campaign. But differentiation is still the name of the game in marketing, and big brand campaign tactics are uniquely equipped to cut through the added noise of today's media landscape to create greater impact and improve message recall.

With that established, we now need to look closer at how we execute an effective strategy in such a crowded media space. And that often begins with reimagining the role of each type of ad media.

The days of always starting with the TV ad and then having everything else "kinda-sorta" build off of that are over. TV is still valuable, mind you, but it no longer needs to be point A in a campaign strategy.

It's essential to electrify consumers, wherever they choose to enter, with a brand experience that is both memorable and desirable. So if the audience is best reached with TikTok, awareness ideation should start there. Then a splashy TV ad could be created for YouTube and broadcast channels to anchor the campaign and aid recall of the TikTok brand encounter.