How not to plan: what matters most in 2025 - Les Binet and Sarah Carter
Jan 8, 2025
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Les Binet, a marketing effectiveness guru and author, joins forces with Sarah Carter, co-author and data analysis expert, to tackle the pressing issues for marketers in 2025. They assert that consistency in advertising is key to success, discussing how the age of purpose may be fading. The duo highlights the disconnect between marketers and their audience, emphasizing emotional connections over trends. They delve into the power of Out of Home advertising, advocating for creativity while maintaining brand integrity.
Long-term consistency in marketing campaigns significantly increases brand effectiveness and fosters customer loyalty, as evidenced by McCain's decade-long success.
Marketers must recognize they are not the typical customers, as this disconnect can lead to misguided advertising strategies and ineffective campaigns.
Effective advertising prioritizes reaching a large audience for brand recognition and sales, overshadowing the trend of focusing solely on engagement metrics.
Deep dives
The Importance of Long-Term Consistency
Long-term consistency in marketing campaigns significantly enhances brand effectiveness, as demonstrated by McCain's decade-long campaign that successfully improved pricing power and profit margins. The campaign’s consistency helped the brand maintain relevance and emotional connections with consumers over time. This stability not only fosters customer loyalty but also reduces price sensitivity, proving that brands can benefit from sustained marketing efforts rather than short-term promotions. Insights from family-run businesses emphasize this trend, showing how their generational thinking often results in campaigns that prioritize long-term objectives.
Understanding the Consumer’s Perspective
Marketers often fail to recognize that they are not the typical customers for their products, leading to misguided assumptions in advertising strategies. For example, the average new car buyer is much older than the marketing demographic, highlighting a disconnect between marketers' perspectives and actual consumer behavior. This misalignment can lead to ineffective campaigns that do not resonate with the intended audience. Focusing on genuine market orientation, as seen with brands like Specsavers, shows how aligning content with the true needs and preferences of the consumer can drive brand growth.
The Underrated Power of Pricing
Pricing remains a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of marketing strategy that can dramatically influence profitability. Evidence from recent studies indicates that effective advertising can substantially bolster a brand's pricing power, as seen in successful campaigns by brands like McCain. As companies navigate economic pressures, the ability to maintain price premiums while effectively communicating brand value becomes ever more critical. Marketers must understand that well-executed communication not only enhances brand image but also contributes to financial performance.
The Necessity of Bulk and Exposure
Reaching a large audience is paramount for successful advertising, overshadowing the trends that prioritize efficiency over sheer exposure. Effective campaigns are largely determined by the volume of views rather than the cost per impression, contradicting the notion that high engagement metrics alone signify success. Brands like John Lewis exemplify this approach, achieving vast reach through substantial paid media efforts that create memorable campaigns. Emphasizing bulk exposure helps marketers understand that broad visibility ultimately drives sales and brand recognition.
Diversifying Emotional Engagement in Advertising
Emotional engagement in advertising extends beyond just eliciting tears; it encompasses a range of feelings that can effectively capture consumer attention. Marketers need to focus on creating associations and memories that promote brand recall in relevant purchasing situations. While some advertisements succeed in generating emotional responses, the true goal is to ensure that brands remain top-of-mind without relying solely on emotional intensity. Effective emotional marketing requires a nuanced understanding of how different emotional triggers shape consumer perception and behavior.
It's our annual tradition to bring Sarah Carter and Les Binet, authors of How Not To Plan, onto the podcast to discuss the hot topics of the year and what marketers need to know in 2025. We've broken this episode into 8 key discussion points, including why consistent advertising is so effective, why the era of purpose is over and another year of the advertising industry needing to remember they are not the customer.
00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:55 - Reflecting on the agency’s year 00:05:25 - Point 1: You are not the customer 00:19:51 - Point 2: Ignore Price at your peril 00:26:13 - Point 3: Consistency but not a lack of creativity 00:42:08 - Point 4: Never forget the eyeballs 00:50:48 - Point 5: Emotions aren’t just about making people cry 00:55:08 - Point 6: Is the era of purpose over? 01:00:38 - Point 7: Don’t just be in culture, stay in culture 01:03:48 - Point 8: Don’t forget the power of Out of Home
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