2016: The Year of the Big Three...

As 2015 rounds the last lap, it's time to start building your branding plan for 2016. Here are three prompts to get you started:

1. The Presidential Election: What is its impact on branding? Money and media congestion. If trends hold up, candidate and Super PAC advertising will drive media prices up 7 to 15% this year as well as filling up the airways. This applies to digital and social media as well. Some ways to maneuver your advertising plan during an election year:

• Avoid booking during surge times such as two-weeks around both the primary and presidential elections. 

• Plan ahead and buy early and be flexible and ready for changes.

• Don't rely on just one medium, especially TV. 

2. Foundations: What do I do and why should my customer care? Launch the new year by getting back to these basics, then make a plan to build on them.

• Connect your brand with your customer: What is the relevance of your product or service to a customer's lifestyle? Connect your brand to the prospect's daily activities by selling the benefits instead of the features.

• Review and support your brand promise: Springboard off your company's benefits to develop its brand promises. Then develop sound reasons why your customer should believe them. Then implement a plan on how you are going to follow-through.

• Develop a clear and focused brand message: Strategy requires focus, clarity, and detail. Are your messages in line with what you want to convey about your company, products, and services? In what ways are your products and services more "genuine" than your competitors'? Emphasize those aspects of your brand to leverage your competitive edge.

3. Customer Consent: How can I get my customer to want to interact with me? With ad blocking, digital clutter, increased spamming, and broadcast avoidance (read our article on iTV), brands need to aggressively find ways to cut through to reach their customer. 

• Listen to your customer: Cultivate a dialog with your customer before, during and AFTER the sale. 

• Ad-blocking (see our article on ad-blocking): The invasion of pop-ups, particularly on mobile devices, has invited a deluge of ad-blocking software. Gain permission to advertise and then use the opportunity to give your potential customers something of value. 

• Build trust: "It takes 10 good deeds to undo one bad one." That's how fragile trust is. Be authentic and transparent in all your dealings with your customer; be clear about any changes impacting your product line or service offerings; be prompt, responsive, and thorough. 

The "Rule of Three" states that "Good things come in threes." Implement these points and watch your business grow.

Being Human is a Beautiful Thing: Three Brands that Connect

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg takes on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

The right digital branding campaign has the power to extend your reach and engage your customer on a deeper level than traditional advertising outlets. Below are three examples that are doing it right.

The ALS Association: The Ice Bucket Challenge 

www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html
An extraordinarily successful social campaign gone viral, individuals across the U.S. are dumping buckets of ice on their heads in support of ALS. Participants range from those in grass roots America to top celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Taylor Swift, and Oprah Winfrey. The ALS Association, a national non-profit organization fighting Lou Gehrig’s disease, received $31.5 million in donations between July 29 and August 20 compared to $1.9 million during the same period last year!

TD Canada Trust Bank: “TD Thanks You” Campaign 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUkN7g_bEAI
In July, TD Canada Trust Bank surprised more than 20,000 customers as they distributed envelopes containing a $20 bill to every customer in more than 1,100 bank branches. They also surprised some account holders with a twist to a traditional ATM machine by changing it into an Automated “Thanking” Machine. Whether the gift was plane tickets to Trinidad to visit a cancer-stricken daughter, college fund for a young widowed mother’s two sons, or a trip to Disney World, the ATM delivered real dreams to its customers. Captured on video, this campaign has accumulated more than 10 million video views!

Always: "Like A Girl" Campaign 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
The Always brand launched this campaign to reclaim and redefine what it means to be a girl and do things such as “run like a girl”, “throw like a girl”, or “fight like a girl.” Their goal is to dispel disparaging stereotypes and increase confidence in girls everywhere going through the difficult teenage years. This campaign has had more than 47 million views!

How can you connect? By providing “fans” with genuine, direct, and authentic tokens of appreciation and entertaining engagement, these three brands promote goodwill and positive feelings and mindsets throughout their respective communities. Surprising active and loyal customers with a sign of gratitude when they least expect it will go a long way to securing their loyalty. Get creative. Try direct links to special content, special advertising and PR, access to VIP events, or rewards that cater to specific needs. Even better: mix this all together for a killer campaign.