Simply adding a celebrity to an ad provides no average lift in effectiveness. Instead, marketers should treat the brand’s own distinctive assets—like logos, sounds, or product truths—as the true 'celebrities' of the campaign. This builds stronger, more memorable brand linkage and long-term equity.
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To truly change a brand's narrative, marketing's 'talking the talk' is insufficient. The product experience itself must embody the desired story. This 'walking the walk' through the product is the most powerful way to shape core brand perception and make the narrative shareable.
Marketers often silo brand-building and sales-driving objectives, but they are intrinsically linked. If a creative fails to generate a short-term sales lift, it's a strong signal that it's also failing to build long-term brand equity. An ad that sells inherently delivers an equity benefit.
While product differentiation is beneficial, it's not always possible. A brand's most critical job is to be distinctive and instantly recognizable. This mental availability, achieved through consistent creative, logo, and tone, is more crucial for cutting through market noise than having a marginally different feature set.
Instead of ads, create physical objects or experiences that embody a brand's story. These "narrative objects," like The Ordinary's "Periodic Fable," generate more lasting impact and conversation because the object becomes the story, not just a vehicle for it.
Before scaling paid acquisition, invest in a robust brand system. A well-defined brand DNA (art direction, voice, tone) is not a vanity project; it's the necessary infrastructure to efficiently generate the thousands of cohesive creative assets required to test and scale performance marketing campaigns successfully.
AI in creative doesn't have to dilute a brand. Coca-Cola's successful holiday ad used AI, but its high brand recall (83%) was driven by focusing on iconic assets like Santa. The AI execution was effective because it was largely invisible, proving the creative idea still drives the ad, not the tech.
The ROI of a viral moment is difficult to link to direct sales. Instead, its value lies in increasing 'share of voice' and creating positive brand associations. This influences future purchasing decisions, making the brand top-of-mind when a customer is ready to buy.
Don't dismiss the success of celebrity brands as unattainable. Instead, analyze the core mechanism: massive 'free reach' and 'memory generation.' The takeaway isn't to hire a celebrity, but to find your own creative ways to generate a similar level of organic attention and build a tribe around your brand.
In a crowded market, brand is defined by the product experience, not marketing campaigns. Every interaction must evoke the intended brand feeling (e.g., "lovable"). This transforms brand into a core product responsibility and creates a powerful, defensible moat that activates word-of-mouth and differentiates you from competitors.
John Morgan deliberately chose 'forthepeople.com' because it also perfectly encapsulated his firm's mission and brand slogan. This strategy ensures every ad reinforces the core brand message, consolidating the URL, brand, and mission into a single, powerful, and easily remembered concept that never needs to be said twice.
