The creation of a truly memorable campaign has a lot of benefits associated with it but the real upside isn’t always so obvious. Short-term results (awareness, demand, and increased sales) are great but there’s a positive effect on the long game that can’t be overlooked.
A well-planned campaign motivates and drives your sales and distribution strategy forward.
Short-term results are created within a larger context. For example, at Frito Lay we would create campaigns around brands or events that we knew our sales team would love such as the Olympics or the World Cup of Hockey (remember that?). We would then use tickets, prizes, and giveaways to motivate retailers, and the sales team, to build more displays in-store. We knew that if we could build more grocery store displays we would sell more chips.
The Olympics presented an opportunity for us to give the sales team some campaign courage. It gave them a new and exciting reason to engage with the retailers.
Here are three (3) other uses for campaign courage to help you drive results.
- Demands Better Execution. The best campaigns are time-based. They occur at a specific moment and then are gone—such as concerts, sporting events, the Survivor finale etc. This creates a sense of urgency and forces people to execute in a timely manner. Marketing is more about great execution than it is about the best idea and using a campaign to drive better execution is just good leadership.
- Drives Extra-Effort. It’s always best to have a campaign that the sales team likes and has bought into. It’s amazing how people will welcome the extra stress a campaign creates just because they align with the brand or event. Staying out late building a Team Canada display for the Olympics will most likely be done faster, better, and with more engagement verses just building an everyday display. A memorable and exciting campaign drives extra-effort and it increases closing rates thus producing momentum (a benefit you can’t buy).
- Builds Passion. The best sales people have passion and confidence in the products and companies they represent. However, every brand or company needs a boost once in a while. Whether it is a charitable campaign, a Hawaiian adventure or going big with a Super Bowl sponsorship, campaigns give your team something to be proud of and something exciting to get behind. This is why it’s important that you spend money where its impact will have the greatest effect. I would rather do less activity with higher impact than more activity with lower impact even if the short-term result is the same. The long term effects on brand loyalty will outweigh the short-term effects any day.
What campaign can you create in 2015 that will give your sales and distribution channels some added courage?
Don’t let budget, expertise or red tape get in the way of driving results. There are thousands of great campaigns that can be created on a lower budget – you just need a solid idea and the willingness to go the extra mile.
Have a great day!
– Braden