DJ Sprague

The Motel 6 branding campaign with the legendary Tom Bodett ran for at least 14 years on radio, and became the most successful and memorable Hotel or Motel campaign in history. And it established the brand as the category leader, and a household name. http://www.bodett.com/motel_6.htm

Roto-Rooter owns the plumbing category with their radio branding campaign and jingle that ran for 30 years.

Motel 6 did all the right things with their campaign. They concentrated their buy and owned one medium to create frequency. They used the power of sound and echoic impact to create permanent brand recall, and they used creative and production consistency to establish a solid brand image and message.

A true branding campaign provides the listener with a positive mental image of the product, the experience, and the company.

In the case of Motel 6, the positive brand image was the down home feeling of honesty, friendliness, and cleanliness.

The branding campaign may also provide a mental escape using humor, theatre of the mind stories or jingles.

Typical ads that sound like ads get subconsciously tuned-out, because people are bombarded and overloaded by thousands of ads every day, from every direction. They?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re tired of ads. They hate ads. Ads that answer the question nobody is asking (who, what, when, where, why). These are ads that speak to them, but not about them.

Ads that talk about the company, and the sale price, but never stir the soul, speak to the heart, fire the imagination, solve the yearning, or create a desire for the experience that the product can deliver.

Motion requires emotion. If you want to move the market, charge your advertising with a real brand. A brand that is alive, tangible, identifiable and distinguishable. A brand that fills the mind and stirs the soul with at least one emotion or hot button.

Think desire, fun, adventure, honesty, solutions to problems, passion, freedom, happiness, achievement, success, power, sex-appeal. Think Harley-Davidson, Apple, Disney, Victoria?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Secret, Sandals Resorts, Ritz-Carlton, Rolex and BMW. These are powerful brands that stir the emotions and create a cult-like following. They stand for something. They are unwavering. They are dependable in their brand experience.

Advertising is not about screaming, it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s about seducing. The screamers are amateurs, the seducers are masters. Masters use powerful words with emotional impact. They use verbs, and they place the listener inside of their story, their temporary escape from all that is dreaded in the toil of daily life.

A branding campaign pulls the listener in, and ever closer in heart and mind to the seducer who knows their plight, and understands their needs and desires.

In order to make a branding campaign work, you need a 3 frequency per week, 52 weeks per year, on as many radio or TV stations as you can afford. It will take 3 months to see the beginning of the benefits of the campaign. Within one year, your business volume will increase by 50%. After two years, it will increase by 100%.

A branding campaign builds ?¢‚Ǩ?ìequity?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and creates a ?¢‚Ǩ?ìposition?¢‚Ǩ¬ù in the mind of the audience. A strong equity and positioning message creates a positive mental image, which is essential to product category dominance in the mind of the consumer. When you have an equity position, the consumer thinks of you first in that category, and tends to shop you first, and refer other people to you.