How to Bring Big Brand Thinking to Smaller Budgets
A Framework for Planning Effective Media Campaigns
According to Vivvex, between October 2022 and March 2023, colleges and universities will have invested more than 1.3 billion in advertising. Outside of higher ed, budgets are projected to remain relatively stable into the end of the year. Higher ed budgets’ are still a question mark.
What this inevitably means, is that attention or eyeballs will remain competitive inside and outside our category as well as competition for ad inventory. For smaller institutions, or those with smaller budgets, remaining visible becomes difficult–aside from the fact that institutions that are already well-known — gain advertising efficiencies simply for having a higher market and mind share.
For institutions that don’t benefit from being top-of-mind, a thorough approach to campaign planning and implementation can greatly increase the chances of remaining competitive. With the right combination of production planning, budget allocation and defined campaign objectives, we can bring big brand thinking to smaller budgets.
In sum, using the budget efficiencies digital marketing can bring to a campaign and a production plan that takes into account channel objectives across the funnel, we can maximize the output of a campaign and apply big brand thinking to smaller budgets.
1–2–4 Framework
The 1–2–4 framework is a take on a planning and asset production framework that stretches the implementation of creative assets across the funnel and campaign timeline. In terms of planning, it’s the production of video assets in a way that will allow them to be edited into spots that provide the most efficient media placements (generally 30-seconds, 15-seconds and 6-seconds) as well as capitalizing on the efficiencies video now brings within ad platforms. It also provides enough assets to optimize performance across lower-funnel channels.
In terms of media strategy, it provides enough assets to take advantage of the role of each asset type, as it relates to media and campaign objectives– a more efficient method for production and media planning.
Here’s how it works.
Start with the ‘Hero’
The role of the longer spot (30-seconds) is to build fluency across all audiences using a media placement that delivers the strongest impression. It’s considered the hero spot because it’s where all other spots are derived from and, thus, it should be flighted the longest. Select a channel that allows you to reach the highest number of people possible and use a campaign objective that is reach or awareness based.
‘Build’ Extended Reach and Creative Connections
The role of the “build” spots is to pull through the narrative and/or creative devices from the Hero spot to reinforce the campaign message in a more targeted approach. Start with two assets to be flighted and optimized throughout a quarter before refreshing. Whether this supports the primary channel or used in a supporting channel, campaign objectives should be reach-based or traffic-based.
Optimize Actions with ‘Support’
The role of the ‘support’ spots is to drive action. As the ‘hero’ spot is meant to reach as many people as possible, the’ support’ seeks to capture demand as prospective students move in-market. From a production standpoint, the goal with support spots is to produce enough to routinely test and optimize to find the best combination of assets. Audio, pacing, arc, angle and visuals can be tested. Lower funnel channels and campaign objectives should be selected and optimized in a much shorter timescale.
1–2–4 Framework in Action
From 2021 through 2022 Cal Poly Humboldt developed a brand strategy that helped to translate Humboldt’s new polytechnic designation. These efforts culminated in the production of creative concepts and brand guidelines and a media campaign meant to express its ambitious, world-changing work.
To support the media campaign a suite of video assets were produced to provide the foundation for a full-funnel approach using this framework. Through a combination of spots and versions, we were able to determine the optimal combination to drive campaign objectives.
As a result, video was foundational in the support of an increase in awareness of the institution’s re-brand, a directional lift in brand favorability and a click-thru rate in the top quartile across performance placements.
