What makes a great brand campaign in 2023?

When it comes to brand campaigns in 2023, what are the key components that separate the mediocre from the great?

We spent 10 minutes with our Strategy Director, Caroline Whittaker, to get her take on the topic.

Here are Caroline’s five key components of what makes a great brand campaign.  

01. Memorability 

With brand, you see the benefits in the long-term, not necessarily the short-term. 

So, when creating a great brand campaign, it has to be memorable. 

It’s got to generate and lodge the positive associations with the brand inside the minds of the consumers. 

Not a direct shout-out to go and do something immediately, but it has to give the consumer that mental availability and that sense of recall.

It’s about building memorable associations to create the ‘brain worm’ so when someone says ‘Coca Cola’ for example, you immediately think ‘refreshing’, or ‘freedom’, or ‘happiness’. 

‍02. Evoking emotion

But to be a memorable brand campaign, it has to be emotional. 

It’s got to provoke quite a strong emotional reaction with the consumer because of the system 1 system 2 elements of the brain. 

Harnessing emotion in your campaign will solidify that longer-term connection with your consumer helping with the recall of the brand beyond the duration of the campaign. 

It’s not about being controversial or making a big splash, it’s about clearly communicating what your brand is really about and what your brand stands for in a way that builds a memorable, emotional connection. 

03. Sharing values 

It’s important that you strive to be memorable and evoke emotion in your campaign in a way that feels truly authentic to your brand. 

It’s not about being controversial or making a big splash, it’s about clearly communicating what your brand is really about and what your brand stands for in a way that builds a memorable, emotional connection. 

It’s about sharing your brand values – not explicitly but with implications that, again, goes back to the positive associations you want people to take away. 

Especially with younger generations like Gen-Z, we’re seeing that need for value share between them and the brand whereas with previous generations it’s been more of a transactional relationship. 

Previously, potential consumers may question what the brand can do for them or what buying into the brand says about them on a more superficial level. 

Whereas now, there’s a much deeper connection when it comes to that sharing of value – whether that’s environmental, ethical, political, or other. 

With campaigns, there’s no point in creating something that doesn’t align with the values of your potential customers in a rich and authentic way. 

It has to be a real value share and your consumers will immediately see through the entire campaign – if not the entire brand – if it lacks authenticity. 

04.  Scalability

On a commercial level, you also need to think about how scalable your campaign is. 

Traditionally, in the past, we’ve always seen brand campaigns as having a lot of money behind them and using high cost channels like TV or big sponsorships at events. 

But now, it’s more about how you scale it to the specific audience you’re targeting. 

It’s not necessarily that you need to solely use those traditional channels, it’s more of a mix. 

It’s about being clever with how you choose to target. 

‍05. Customer Experience 

Another really important element to think about when it comes to creating a great brand campaign is understanding what the customer experience is and how they use media. 

What’s that journey point – that’s the key element. 

Do you have a real understanding of how your customers are experiencing and interacting with your brand? Do you understand that journey? 

If you’re not as strong as you’d like to be in this area, that’s a great place to start.

‍If you’d like to speak to Caroline about any points raised in this article, your brand strategy, or the thinking behind your next campaign, email enquiries@wearecontinuous.net‍