How do you immerse your prospects and customers with messaging that forges unbreakable connections with them? An integrated marketing campaign does exactly that, providing them with stellar experiences and cohesive messaging again and again until they become brand advocates.
Hubspot’s Allie Decker experienced that transformation herself during her own customer journey. As a frequent Southwest flier, she observed the airline’s consistency in branding – from the signage at the airport to a cheery flight attendant serving her ginger ale with a cup in Southwest’s signature colors.
Her experience never wavered from flight to flight — impressing her so much that she showcased the brand in a recent HubSpot piece.
But Southwest isn’t the only brand that gets integrated marketing communications right. Other leading brands have provided their prospects with equally unforgettable brand messaging over the years. Here are some of those at the head of the pack, starting with Southwest.
Campaigns That Got Integrated Marketing Right
Southwest Airlines’ Transfarency
Since the campaign’s start in 2015, Southwest Airlines has maintained its promise to provide its customers with low fares and no hidden fees. Transparent fares — what’s not to love. Combined with its superb customer service and wall-to-wall branding, its commitment to honesty and fairness has helped it weather all of the pandemic’s challenges and emerge with a bevy of loyal customers willing to sing its praises.
Vintage Volkswagen’s “Think Small”
Talk about going brand-forward. Back in the day, Volkswagens were all about the tiny. But until this campaign, the brand faced several significant challenges. First, many postwar Americans still thought of Germany as “the enemy.” Secondly, Americans loved their massive muscle cars. In the Sixties, size mattered. Volkswagen took a different tack. Instead of apologizing for their cars’ size, they leaned into it. Hence, they forged a viral campaign that drove sales to the moon and back.
Old Spice Rebrands with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”
You probably remember seeing Old Spice in your dad’s medicine cabinet. Adorned with an old-school schooner, it was the perfect brand for the over-40 crowd. As an Ad Age video description put it, Old Spice was a “dusty brand.”
A game-changing insight changed all that. Research showed that women bought 60% of their significant others’ body washes. Enter drop-dead manly Isaiah Mustafa, who wooed women over to Old Spice’s Red Zone body wash by convincing them that their man could smell as good as he did (and with it, the implication that their man could look and perform like him).
With the commercial’s 2010 Super Bowl debut and an omnichannel campaign from the Wieden+Kennedy agency, sales shot up by 60%, earning it Advertising Age’s praises as “one of the top campaigns of the 21st century.” It still runs on YouTube — fresh as ever, even after 12 years.
Hyundai 2021 Elantra’s “Unlock Better” Campaign
Aiming to reach the coveted millennial and Gen Z demographics, Hyundai reached out to these socially active young adults with an innovative partnership with Spotify and emerging music artists to create an “insider’s guide” to three American cities: Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City.
Hyundai created Spotify podcasts to guide audiences to some of each city’s hotspots, as well as video guides and a microsite with descriptions of each attraction — to “unlock” these cities’ treasures.
Along with these guides, Hyundai used the musicians’ work as soundtracks for its ads showcasing some of the redesigned car’s features that would likely appeal to those demographics.
Additionally, the auto brand partnered with Mobcrush, a live stream gaming platform, to increase brand awareness among its target demographics.
Not surprisingly, the campaign netted substantial bottom-line results. According to Hyundai’s 2021 4th quarter business report, the auto brand increased its revenue by 13.1%. Even more importantly, it broke through its “family car” image to build brand awareness among younger customers whose incomes were likely to grow throughout the years.
How to Build Your Own Integrated Marketing Campaign
Now that you’ve seen how other corporations have implemented integrated marketing to reap unparalleled success, it’s time to give it a try yourself.
Start with Your Target Audience
Like any marketing endeavor, integrated marketing needs to begin at the foundation — those specific demographics you want to reach. Identify that audience, study their data, and create buyer personas around their unique characteristics.
Single Out the Problems That Your Product Can Solve
If you look carefully at the examples we’ve provided, each campaign singled out the various issues each target market faced.
- For Southwest Airlines, it was customers’ need for a seamless, no-BS pricing model and a superb flying experience.
- For Volkswagen, it was overcoming small-car and ethnic prejudice to entice families on a budget to give their car a try.
- For Old Spice, it was upgrading the brand to appeal to the actual buyers of their product — not just their users.
- For Hyundai, it was providing — and showcasing — their car’s features that would appeal to a younger demographic.
When you start with your audience’s needs and build out your campaign from there, it’s easier to uncover the goal you want to reach.
Align Your Campaign Goals with Your Company’s Business Goals
In all the cases we’ve cited above, these leading corporations had business goals that needed to align with the campaign to make it a success. Boosting corporate revenue, building brand awareness in new customer segments, and overcoming emotional blocks that stood in the way of attracting new customers were top-of-mind in the C-suite as well as the marketing department.
Meet with your top executives to identify the numbers they want to hit. Then, create a goal aligned with those metrics.
Brainstorm a Brand Message That Resonates with Your Audience
Here’s where content collaboration is essential to integrated marketing success. It’s all about creating a message that both reaches your audience and entices them to become customers.
Your sales teams know what questions and objections your audience has about your product. And your customer support teams hear feedback about issues all day long. Knowing that information can help you construct messaging that reaches your audience’s heartstrings while nipping any objections in the bud.
Align Your Message Across All Your Channels and Departments
To realize success in integrated marketing, your message must be consistent throughout every channel you communicate on — online and off. Collaboration with teams throughout your company will ensure that “everyone gets the memo.”
From your entry-level employees to your top-tier executives, your company needs to speak in one voice throughout your campaign.
Create Content Assets That Support Your Campaign
After you have everyone on the same page, it’s time to begin the content planning process. Select titles and topics that support your overall initiative, and then task your teams to flesh out content in a variety of formats that convey that message.
Then, launch your campaign on all channels, building buzz among your brand advocates and the media your target customers use most often.
Finally, Measure the Results as They Pour In
With a custom content analytics solution that can integrate with other platforms to sync data in real time, you can measure the results as they come in, allowing you to tweak your messaging to better reach your goals.
DivvyHQ’s content marketing platform has exactly that — a robust content measurement solution. But it has so much more to offer. With its ability to integrate marketing operations technology and campaigns enterprise-wide, you can make decisions on the fly, giving you the best shot at hitting your campaign goals.
It’s free to try for 14 days with no obligation — so what better way to discover how it can make your first integrated marketing campaign a breeze to run. Start your free DivvyHQ trial today!