Three reasons why advertising planners must collaborate with research and insights teams

Powerful brands are the ones that win in the long run, stay resilient in trying times and bounce back faster. But how do we, as an agency, help our clients become powerful brands? As Don Larotonda, Head of Strategy for Truant, shared in his talk ‘Thinking like an Ad Planner’, powerful brands need powerful insights.

1. Powerful brand positioning strategies are built upon foundational insights

The strongest brands are built on a core insight that defines them. For example, Nike’s foundation is the belief that ‘there is an athlete in everyone,’ while Apple’s mission is to ‘empower creative exploration and self-expression’.

From this foundational insight, these brands have built their positioning strategies. Our role is to help our clients find that unique position which meets a consumer need, fits with their product, and can differentiate them from competitors. As we learned from Harvey Lee’s keynote speech at our Brand Growth Accelerator event, your brand positioning is the most important thing consumers remember about your business.If you don’t actively position your brand, consumers will do it for you!

Therefore, it is vital for a brand to be clear on who they are and establish this identity with consumers. Mark Ritson in his webinar ‘Creativity is not enough’ showcased Kit Kat’s mastery of this by uncovering the simple insight of ‘Breaks are good for you’ and cultivating a small selection of DBAs to be used across everything they do to own this positioning and make it unmistakably Kit Kat.

When working with our clients we need to be clear from the get-go on who they are trying to be as a brand and evaluate everything through that lens.

2. The power of emotional branding

Don also reminded us that 95% of decision-making is System 1 – consumers make their decisions to buy or not to buy based on brand salience; the brands which come to mind first, and they have a positive gut reaction to.

Brands and researchers often focus too heavily on trying to understand consumers’ rational responses to brand and advertising and how these impact short-term sales. However, they miss the bigger picture: the real key to unlocking long-term sales growth is building a stronger brand by creating a deeper and powerful emotional connection with their customer and target audience.

The challenge for ad planners isn’t just to encourage brands to be creatively bold, but to educate them on the importance of long-term brand building strategies while balancing this with the need for short-term results.

As researchers and insight experts, we must strive to be the voice of the brand for our clients. It’s our job to identify the underlying drivers of consumer behaviour and what truly matters to them in their category. By doing this, we can ensure the brand’s core identity continues to resonate with consumers, helping to forge stronger and more impactful relationships.

3. Measure and optimise your brand equity flows

Powerful brands strengthen their identity and positioning through great advertising. As Don pointed out, attention is king. We must guide our clients away from drowning in the sea of same and help them stand out by exploring new approaches.

Don highlighted that too many brands simply copy a competitor’s successful creative style, or repeat the same approach that worked for them in the past. Instead, we need to help clients look ahead,focus on standing out from competitors and communicate the essence and core of their brand through emotive storytelling.

As researchers we must support advertising planners in the education of organisations as to where brand creativity matters and can be most impactful. We should strive to provide guidance so that brands do not stray from their core identity.

Planners can create the most effective advertising strategies when a brand clearly understands its identity and goals. As researchers, we must always evaluate a brand’s advertising based on its specific objectives, rather than generic black box benchmarks. By doing this, we can provide our clients with truly powerful insights into the effectiveness of their advertising.

Planners understand that successful advertising campaigns are a core pillar of establishing a brand’s positioning. To truly understand the extent to which a brand is achieving this, research should always seek actionable insights and think holistically about how brands can further improve campaign effectiveness by moving beyond a metric-led approach. We need to assess whether their core brand identity is consistently reflected in all of their communications and actions, leaving a lasting impression on consumers.

Hall & Partners was born from ad land, and the principles it was founded on remain relevant today. We understand through our Shared Beliefs work with the IPA that the most effective advertising strategies start with the end in mind.

As researchers, our role goes beyond uncovering core insights for brands to build their positioning. We also help brands stay in tune with consumer trends , so that brands and ad planners clearly understand the human behavioural changes they aim to influence from the start.

While the fundamental truths of H&P’s Shared Beliefs remain strong, the challenge for ad planners has evolved.Today, the focus has shifted from simply inspiring creative bravery in brands to educating clients on the importance of emotional marketing in building powerful brands. It’s about helping them understand that long-term brand building leads to greater success, even in a world increasingly focused on short-term sales and growth.

As researchers we should be allies to ad planners, and the power of insights in this education process cannot be underestimated. Insights are crucial for inspiring long-term brand strategy and growth while ensuring that brands stay true to their core identity.

It’s tempting to think of emotion in isolation, but in reality, it should be the foundation of everything we do. Advertising is designed to create behavioural change, and emotional marketing remains the most effective way to achieve this. Ultimately, if you want people to act, they need to feel something.