Every marketer today can repeat in their sleep the Marshall McLuhan maxim ‘The medium is the message’. It’s widely taught to mean that the medium in which a message is delivered has as much of an impact on how the audience perceives and understands it as the content itself.
But it’s a lesson that marketing professionals have struggled to apply in a world where touchpoints and channels have multiplied over the past two decades, and where audiences’ attention is constantly pulled in many directions across many different platforms.
For many brands, an ad campaign starts with the message they want to convey and the creative they will use to bring it to life. Once they’ve decided on a big idea and the creative execution, it will often be repurposed to be distributed over print, outdoor, broadcast and digital media.
In many cases, especially in South Africa, digital is treated as an add-on and digital-first strategies are far and few between – think of the TV ad simply uploaded unchanged to YouTube or the LinkedIn post copied over to Meta platforms.
This approach isn’t optimal in an economy where audience attention is a hot commodity. It often results in deep disconnects between the message a brand wants to land and the impact it leaves on the audience. Think about the last digital media ad you saw.
You may have given the brand a web impression, but did the ad make an impression on you? If you can’t even recall, there’s a good chance the ad wasn’t created for the channel or medium.
Brands currently have more tools, platforms and channels at their disposal than ever before, but only a few are using these platforms in innovative ways.
One of the most effective ways to get the creative juices flowing is to start with the medium rather than the message.
Astute marketers will start by asking: What makes this platform different? What native formats and tech capabilities does it offer? Who are the users and how do they interact with the medium? Answer these questions and you can start to shape messages that will punch through the noise.
Here are some examples of award-winning campaigns that have used platforms for unique and creative executions where the medium itself added a magic ingredient to the message delivery:
Example 1: Fast and Furious 9 and Twitter (X)
Here, the Fast film franchise used X’s thread structure as the perfect medium to engage users in an immersive online ‘race’. Movie fans loved interacting with the promoted tweets and game, often engaging with the messaging multiple times (one user played nearly 130 times).
Instead of ignoring a generic ad or being annoyed by bombarding – and expensive – ads, users praised the experience.
Results: +17 000 followers +41 000 unique racers (retweets)
What you can do:
- Use X’s native capabilities and functions instead of repurposing content from other mediums.
- Polls, questionnaires and retweet functionality get users to interact enthusiastically with your brand.
- Consider threads for rankings, lists, informative content or fun experiences like a treasure hunt or race.
Example 2: Cheetos and Snapchat
Cheetos captured all 1 440 frames of a TV ad into the Snapchat camera’s machine-learning software for a compelling augmented reality (AR) experience. When a user pointed their smartphone camera at the TV ad, a 3D hand in the Snapchat app appeared to steal a bag of Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix right out of the screen. Users could click on the 3D bag and receive a coupon for free Crunch Pop Mix.
Results: In a 60-second window (the length of the commercial), more than 50 000 bags were ‘stolen’ out of the ad. Traffic to the Cheetos loyalty site, tastyrewards.com, increased by 2 500% and the brand saw a 567% uplift in new members registering interest in future product trials.
Although the brand incurred a higher cost per engagement (CPE), in this instance it was worthwhile as the campaign seems to have successfully created brand ambassadors for life.
What you can do:
- Create an AR lens or filter on the Snapchat platform.
- Develop a platform-native experience instead of pushing your cropped TVC.
- If you need something sophisticated, the Snap team has creatives available to help.
Example 3: Buick #SeeHerGreatness and Instagram
Targeting a primarily female audience, Buick’s #SeeHerGreatness campaign on Instagram cleverly articulated that many iconic moments in sport have been missed – as although women’s sport accounts for 40% of athletes, it only receives 10% of the media coverage.
The campaign flighted highlights from key moments in women’s sports but used only 10% of the screen real estate to emotively depict this inequality and lack of representation.
Results: 497 million impressions. 7.2 billion hashtag interactions. In the ‘real’ world, the Women’s Basketball Championship was moved to prime time on ESPN.
What you can do:
- Meta platforms have some of the most powerful algorithms among digital platforms. Use them to A/B test your audiences and draw insights about them.
- Leverage your insights to find the brand champions and let them know that they’re your people.
- Instagram works well with beautifully shot, curated content. Think about clever ways to use its space and formats.
- Take advantage of the vertical-first environment.
- Most ad placements serve between friends’ stories so it’s important to execute in a way that feels natural in this context.
Example 4: Beats + TikTok
We know that user-generated content is king on TikTok. But tying up digital media campaigns with influencer marketing isn’t good enough any more. Beats took it a step further and paid their influencers to make fun of them.
Flipping the script was a clever move because the TikTok audience knows that brands use paid influencers to reach them. Beats showed not only self-awareness, but an understanding of the audience and the medium.
Results: 89% increase in engagement rate. 298% increase in completion rate. 240% increase in average watch time. 147% increase in organic views.
What you can do:
- TikTok is about communities. Engage with them on their own terms when trying to communicate your brand message.
- Tap into trends, use transitions and language that are in keeping with the platform’s nature. Play around with speed, replays, emojis and text overlays and zooms to really lean into the creativity TikTok champions.
- Allow for the output to have a less-polished feel, as if it’s created by a user rather than a brand.
In summary
- Consider starting with the medium: The platform or channel you use affects how the audience receives and interprets the message. A brand’s tone on TikTok could be more informal and playful, while LinkedIn posts may need to be more professional.
- Let the message be informed by the medium: In the offline world, we grasp that a billboard ad demands a brief, eye-catching message, while a native print ad allows for deeper storytelling. It’s as important in digital ads to understand how formats and use behaviour affect your messaging.
- Stay curious: As new technologies and platforms emerge, they change how consumers interact with brands. Marketers need to stay updated on the latest technological trends.
Key campaign insight + medium-first execution = Cannes Lion Grand Prix
You can’t predict human behaviour, even with all the data digital marketers have at hand. That data is important for looking at trends and finetuning, but that won’t be enough for your brand to leave a long-lasting impression.
What you can do, is involve your digital media team in the ideation and campaign development process. They may provide you with a new way to take your message to market. Take risks and use each medium to its full potential.
Mateen Suliman is business development executive at midnight, the innovation agency of iqbusiness, Africa’s future-focused management and digital growth enabler, founded with over 26 years’ experience. Led by some of the continent’s best thinkers and doers, our purpose is simple: to grow people, business and Africa as one. We offer a full-service suite of digital, cloud and security services, managed services, digital and management consulting, digital media, end user computing, unified communications and software development across the continent.
