Brand Advocacy, PESO. What it is and what it isn't.
The above graph outlines the Omnichannel potential of the PESO approach to media. Brand Advocacy helps you exploit this model by giving you Campaign-driven content in the Earned, Shared and Owned categories of this model. And it works.
$ 2.384 Milllion in Earned media from one $690 Ad.
This work to launch tourism for the quaint lakeside destination of Excelsior, MN was our first ever brand advocacy campaign. Instead of positioning the spot as bucolic and idyllic we targeted the growing zeitgeist at the time that Starbucks and chains were making everywhere seem like everywhere else.
Resultant earned media extended into the $ millions with coverage on ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, Newsweek and a documentary on the town that aired on Canadian Public Television. The campaign was voted “Business Story of the Year” by The Business Journals and took the lead in a round up in TIME-magazine which mentioned our practically free campaign in the same breath as a new $25 million campaign for the City of Las Vegas.
Above: Speed of return on PESO and Brand Advocacy.
Brand advocacy is different than “word-of-mouth” because it requires you to build a stable of content that is brand driven. This may include, but is not limited to, a branded ID, 30 second video spots, short films, a soundtrack, banner ads, text only ads, whitepapers and an avalanche of pictures, memes and posts.
Brand advocacy is also focused on leveraging “words” that already exist—or what we call leveraging other people’s audiences (LOPA).
What Brand Advocacy is Not
Brand advocacy is different than “word-of-mouth” because it requires you to build a stable of content that is brand driven. This may include, but is not limited to, a branded ID, 30 second video spots, short films, a soundtrack, banner ads, text only ads, whitepapers and an avalanche of pictures, memes and posts.
Brand advocacy is also focused on leveraging “words” that already exist—or what we call leveraging other people’s audiences (LOPA).
Signs of A Brand Advocacy Impostor:
1. They tell you it is purely word-of-mouth
2. They tell you it is all digitally driven—or the glorified intersection of influencers and advocates that you cultivate and pay to say nice things about you online.
3. They sell you on advocates instead of advocacy.
4. They sell you on advertising like PPC (and that is just for starters).
5. Their whole spiel just feels inauthentic.
Brand advocacy differs from purely digitally driven advocacy in its assumption that content creates its own awareness. It is closest in practice to the way a novelist develops a “readership.”
We’ve already pointed out the promise and pitfalls of paid advocates a.k.a. “influencers.” We will always look upon them skeptically along with many of our peers in the advertising, public relations and publicity profession.
Pundits are already questioning the staying power of these self-made celebrities. While they have followers galore everyone knows the deal is quid pro quo. If everyone is doing it, soon no one will be getting anywhere.