Why Marketers Who Think Long-term Win Big
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2 min read
Which marketer wouldn’t kill for a campaign that delivered £8 profit for every £1 invested?
That’s what John Lewis’ annual Christmas advert was bringing home by 2014, five years after the first one launched in 2009.
The ads still air each December, of course. You know that because everybody knows. Even the cord-cutters who rarely watch broadcast TV see the new one each year, without fail.
Still, many of today’s marketers are under pressure to provide more bang for their employers’ buck and find it almost unthinkable to create a campaign that lasts for this long.
But when long-term campaigns are three times more effective than short-term campaigns, we need to rethink our approach. Let’s look past quick wins to something more sustainable.
Five things I’ve learnt about long-term campaigns
Working on MOI’s longer campaigns, I’ve discovered a reason or two why they can be so effective. They let you:
Find your feet
We’re used to the idea of brand equity, where the power of a brand’s reputation is grown over time. The same can also apply to a campaign that’s given time to find its feet.
Build economies of scale
The more campaign equity you build, the more effective your earned media will be, which saves you money by reducing your reliance on paid media to engage audiences.
Build strong foundations
You can analyse your results over time and respond by adjusting your current strategy, rather than spending time to create a new one every time.
Think slow, win fast
While it’s tempting to meet targets with quick wins, you can still make a big impact, and fast, with long-term campaigns. They can make a far more sustainable impact.
Better understand your audience
You’ll have more time to get to understand your customers. Deeper insights let you produce content that has a stronger basis in what they really want and need.
Does it really work?
Damn right it does. Oracle’s Digital Bank of the Future campaign, for example, went live in 2016 and is showing no signs of slowing down.
It’s reached five million readers across various publications and media, achieved a $28 million pipeline from a target of $16 million, and won awards in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Most impressive of all is the mock experience that was created for the campaign. Designed to show the audience how Oracle’s products could help them build a ‘bank of the future’, it generated 500 leads in the first week of launch.
But how?
Well, that’s the $28 million question, isn’t it?
To help you further understand how you can implement effective long-term campaigns as part of your marketing strategy, I’ve put together an in-depth eBook that drills deeper on our experiences and the results our customers have enjoyed.
It’s all based on our execution of the Digital Bank of the Future campaign, which to this day continues to be an enormous success for Oracle. I hope you find it useful, and please get in touch if you have any questions.
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