Brand Advertising Is Alive And Well
This Nike Ad Proves It.
We spend a lot of our time listening to people talk about the future of advertising. While we focus mostly on digital, the industry as a whole is in a liminal state. The transformative power of technology has had a direct influence on advertising in all of its forms, and not just the digital space.
There’s no denying the transition we find ourselves in; we hear weekly about companies tweaking their advertising strategies. This week, news of P&G rethinking part of their ad strategy at Facebook spread like wildfire. The world’s largest advertiser has decided that highly targeted advertisements may not be what they’re looking for as a company.
The way we define advertising is constantly in flux. On the one hand, brands are pushing customer targeting to new levels and on the other, brands are returning to their advertising roots and focusing on branding and awareness.
Take this fantastic advertisement from Nike as an example. The “Unlimited You” campaign has already been watched by 26.2-million people online. The video was published six days ago. It’s an obvious example of how embracing a multi-faceted advertising strategy can pay enormous dividends. In this case, Nike took its campaign to both YouTube and Facebook. The numbers also tell an interesting story, 21-million people watched the video on YouTube, while 5.2-million watched the video on Facebook.
If you’re looking to find people who want to buy something immediately, targeting is something you should be embracing, but if you hope to increase awareness and purchasing desire for your target market, there are other avenues to build momentum. A multi-touchpoint approach to advertising will always return better results than relying on one platform.
I didn’t click through on the Nike campaign and immediately buy a pair of shoes, but my goodness, do I find myself _wanting_ to purchase a bunch of stuff from Nike. I also found myself sharing that advertisement with my colleagues at BuySellAds. I’m not sure of the last time I did that with an in-feed direct response ad on Facebook.
Well done, Nike. My goodness.
