In business, everyone is trying to get someone else's attention.
Going from Awareness to Action is both an art and science. Here's a deeper look.
For the clients we serve, it goes like this:
Cities need to get the attention of CEOs who are re-locating their businesses.
Civic leaders need the attention of their elected officials.
Non profits need the attention of philanthropists and donors.
Real estate brokers need the attention of potential tenants.
And of course, there's us -- we need yours.
But getting people's attention is hard. The old estimate says we see over 3,000 marketing messages daily. Today, with the ubiquity of social media, this number has skyrocketed, making the competition for people's attention fiercer than ever. As a defense mechanism, our brains must filter out everything that's irrelevant.
Regardless who you want to reach, nearly all communications flow through this funnel:
At the top of the funnel, the first 5 seconds is critical.
You don't get to move to intent and action without succeeding at creating awareness and driving interest. It must be both true to your brand promise AND sensitive to the desires of your audience.
This is what most people think is the creative part. It can be clever, funny, smart, interesting, surprising, but most of all it can't be boring or obvious, trite or copycat.
The visual is the most important element.
Bold and colorful images are potential solutions -- but they can also become overwhelming. Times Square is so bold it's overwhelming -- and therefore not really effective. Or here in Tokyo, when everyone is trying to be louder than everyone else, your message is just more noise.
You can use text as a graphic as in this example where the goal was to get the attention of business leaders in New York City:
Or like this full page ad we created for Crossroads Real Estate:
To succeed, you must get your target audience's attention in a way that delivers a relevant message. If you do, you've earned the opportunity to capture INTENT and eventually drive ACTION.
B2B isn't different than B2C
There are some who argue that marketing to businesses (or people in their professional roles) is completely different than marketing to consumers and it must be rational, not emotional.
This may come as a surprise but business people are people.
We argue that the majority of all decisions we make are driven by emotions first and logic second. "Not getting fired" is an emotional driver. "Looking smart" is emotional. "Being a good/wise/respected/successful leader" is emotional. As such, branding and marketing flows through an emotional to logical funnel.
If you want to learn more, argue why we're wrong, or just want a free drink, let's get together and hash it out. Click here to send us an email.