Case Study

Clutter has become synonymous with the advertising industry in recent times
and this extends to all realms of marketing, offline and online. There is an
increasing trend of being greeted with an explosive assortment of ads when one
logs onto a website. These ads transcend genres of -commerce, consumer goods,
tourism, hospitality, and more. While views on these ads may be relatively high,
the recall seems to be questionable in many cases. In this scenario, tracing the
consumer’s preferences for brand advertisements becomes extremely difficult.
Herein, we aim to address the simple question of how a brand must aspire to
break clutter and switch to viewability of the content rather than served
impressions, which has been the conventional way of running ads within the
industry. To transform the way ads have been programmed so far, one will need
to pay close attention to the existing metrics and re-evaluate different brand
strategies. The traditional route for marketers adopting online ads has been
banners, images, audio, and video. The measurement was based on served
impressions, i.e., the countable times that an advertisement gets fetched from
the source, irrespective of whether it was clicked or not. Viewable impressions,
on the other hand, are measurable to a more accurate degree. For an impression
to be counted as viewable, at least 50 percent of it must be visible to the user
for a minimum of one second. This provides for ‘some versus no’ value, but does
it justify the money spent behind it? According to a study conducted by
ComScore, 54 percent of the display ads that are up on the website are actually
not seen and this is despite the fact that some of them cost a lot. It is implicit
that advertisers would be interested in posts which guarantee a decidedly
higher viewability, so publishers offering such inventory will be at an advantage
too. There’s another bonus to this because measurable data of this sort will
make it easier for rate comparison of different brands among multiple
publishers. While served impressions have been working well towards adding
higher numbers to charts and creating a presumption over the total awareness
created through it, there are three primary concerns: If the targeted user leaves
the page before it loads completely, he/she will miss the ad. A lot of search and
display ads are placed at the bottom of the webpage, so if the user does not
scroll all the way down, it’s a lost cause for the advertiser. If a proxy server,
crawler or spider opens the page, there is no certain way to ascertain the
measures. In order to ensure visibility and derive the right returns on your
investments, you must plan your advertisements with the right placement and
communication. With advertisement forms rapidly evolving, your strategy is
incomplete without researching what works for your target audience and
delivering a customised plan of action. To break away for the clutter of
advertisements and to ensure you receive eyeballs and recall, the right amount
of innovation and creativity must be put in to produce content that goes a long
way in giving you the right bang for your buck.

Q1. How would you use advertising to break the clutter? What impact does
clutter-free advertising play in increasing brand acceptance?

Organizations use many ways to break through advertising clutter in the

marketplace. The main key is to use unique methods to promote the products
and services provided by the organization or companies as advertising is really
disintegrated in recent times. So to break through the clutter of advertising and
guarantee to get attention and recall, the proper amount of innovation and
originality must be put in to develop content that gives you the most income.

However, there are few ways we can use advertising to break the clutter such
as :

1. Participating in Influencers Marketing: Social media platforms have

become such an essential part of our daily lives, influencer marketing is
becoming increasingly widespread. Social media users place a high value
on the recommendations of their favorite influencers on Instagram,
YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Many viewers have purchased
something online after seeing it in the influencer's recommendations.
Depending on the one who influences their products/services, it is
important to attempt through congested online traffic areas by
collaborating with an influencer to market the goods/services uniquely.
When done well, influencer marketing feels natural to the customer. A
 large percentage of millennials dislike and don't trust the traditional way
of marketing.

2. Displaying the content appealing and creative: Capturing the consumer's

attention with a unique image, audio or video, graphics, texts, etc makes
the ads visually more meaningful and creative. The creativity asset in the
ad should show off the beauty and features of the product which can grab
the viewer's attention. It is important to make content worthy of sharing
and it can be done by engaging the consumer's senses through touch,
tasting, smell, sight, and sound. These strategies should be implemented
in high traffic areas such as malls, airports or busy markets, etc

3. Standing out & staying ahead of trends: Marketing is a very fast-paced

environment. It is important to go outside the box and attempting new
things because new marketing methods and plans will catch consumers'
attention. This danger can emphasize the need for marketers to be current
on technological advancements and marketing trends. We will be able to
tell if the creativity is successful.

4. Competitors Analysis: A competitive analysis is not a one-time exercise.

Since the B2B sector is always changing, businesses must constantly re-
evaluate their competitors. First, how do their marketing activities
appear? What are they up to? What's working now, and how can we put a
creative twist on those lessons? Making certain that we do not lose sight
of the message by saying and doing the same things as our rivals. You may
also obtain ideas from firms in other sectors.

5. Promoting engagement & Retaining customers: Consumers are far more

influenced by experiences than by a static visual or message. Engaging
material provides an excellent chance to personalize the experience and
engaging your audiences with your brand. Engage them in a dialogue by
soliciting their feedback on issues or opening the floor to inquiries. Make
interactive content like quizzes, mobile applications, checklists, and
games. Allow consumers to adjust their preferences in your re-
engagement emails, while still delivering relevant information and
 upgrading the offering. To get outstanding results in your business,
segment your audience by age, income, qualities, beliefs, or hobbies, and
then send personalized emails for each section. You may segment your
emails depending on gender, region, items purchased, and so on.

Clutter-free advertising impacts in increasing brand acceptance in few ways such

as:

· Clutter-free advertising helps in having a strong brand which enhances

customer recognition.

· It impacts in giving customer retention and shared values. A successful

brand contributes to increased consumer loyalty.

· Clutter-free advertising may give you a competitive advantage. Your brand

is what sets you out in the marketplace. When people identify and
support your brand, it gives your brand a competitive advantage. The
more awareness you acquire and the more you grow your brand, the
higher your brand will rise and become competitive with other well-
known businesses.

· A competitive edge in the market will make the brand distinguish in the
marketplace. When people recognize and support your brand, it becomes
a competitive edge. The more your brand's exposure and growth, the
higher your brand will rise and become competitive with other well-
known firms.

Q2. What does the author mean by "to transform the way ads have been
programmed so far, one will need to pay close attention to the existing metrics
and re-evaluate different brand strategies"?

"To transform the way ads have been programmed so far, one will need to pay
close attention to the existing metrics and re-evaluate different brand
strategies" simply means that we must give attention to how to re-evaluate
certain brand strategies and giving focus on measures that will transform how
ads are programmed.

Businesses work in a changing environment where customer behavior shifts,

technology improves, and business objectives shift. Regardless of the changes
occurring in the market, if the business does not stay relevant to these changes
it can cause certain issues such as:

· Customer losing interest in the brand or the company

· Employees are demotivated and start to disengage

· The organization begins to lose its sense of direction.

· Corporate and brand strategies get out of sync.

· The downfall of the product

· Poor customer feedback

To avoid these issues, we must re-evaluate and stay relevant to the external and
internal environment changes.

· The significance of having a clear vision in your marketing strategy: This

vision will point you in the right way in terms of what you should be
assessed to determine how you should define success in your strategy.
Evaluate by asking
- Are the aims of my strategy consistent with the vision?
- Do they immediately trickle down, or do they serve a different purpose?

· Ensure that your objectives are both clear and measurable: Make your
vision's goals quantifiable by measuring them.
-Have I made the objectives quantifiable
-Are they imprecise or perplexing to workers or stakeholders?
- If so, how is progress being made - am I reaching my marketing
objectives?
-Is my existing measuring system working properly?
 · It is important to Formalize the Qualitative Assessment: Although
quantitative evaluation is required to keep you and your team objective
about your outcomes, qualitative assessments may also be highly useful
for general understanding.
- What are the several innovative methods that can evaluate the
marketing plan's activities concerning the vision?

· Setting milestones where the need for re-evaluating might trigger: A

marketing strategy should be a road map that leads to the plan's vision.
Laying out opportunities for "little wins" and celebrating them as you
would any milestone along the way to your ultimate goal, but make sure
to include "trigger" milestones that dictate what the next step, phase, or
milestone will be, or else you'll feel like you're doing the same thing over
and over again with no progression.

· Defining market priorities: Your marketing plan should also clearly identify
your marketing priorities; this will assist you in determining the budgets
that require more attention

Q3. Can you use clutter to your advantage? If yes, how? If no, why not? Support
your answer with relevant examples.

In my opinion, Cluttering cannot be used to my advantage because Advertising

generates money for the media; yet advertising clutter is commonly thought to
reduce the media's advertising efficiency. Advertising clutter is increasingly being
viewed as an issue that decreases the medium effectiveness by media strategists.

Consumers may always escape mass media advertising. During commercials,

viewers could make snacks or use the restroom, while magazine readers could
change the page, and newspaper readers could toss entire sections away.
Televisions have remote controls, and many people watch only programs that
have already been recorded so that advertisements may be bypassed, or many
broadcast services are now available for a fee and are commercial-free. Because
television commercial breaks are longer and advertisements are shorter, more
spots appear per break.

The collapse of traditional mass media into more segmented and targeted choices
has resulted in a significant reduction in the total audience size of even the largest
vehicles. When the audience is less, the vehicles must sell more time or space to
generate the same amount of money. However, if there was less clutter, each
message would have a greater impact, and advertisers would be willing to pay
more per audience member reached.

According to recent research, the average consumer is exposed to almost 1,500

advertisements each day. This overwhelming volume of information frequently
causes the user to unintentionally filter out major sections of advertisements,
making the advertising message less effective. According to recent research, the
average consumer is exposed to almost 1,500 advertisements each day. This
overwhelming volume of information frequently causes the user to
unintentionally filter out major sections of advertisements, making the advertising
message less effective. When a customer is overloaded with information, they
may feel agitated, causing them to make illogical actions such as flipping pages,
closing the television, shutting off the radio, etc, to deal with their irritation.
People also discard direct mail communications because they are not related.
Spam is an abundance of emails that you would never want to read.

Clutter is assessed on three levels: quantity, competitiveness, and intrusiveness.

The number of commercials and the amount of advertising space in the
advertising medium are referred to as quantity. Competitiveness is defined as the
resemblance of promoted items and the closeness of rival brand advertising in the
media vehicle. The degree to which ads break the flow of an editorial unit is
referred to as intrusiveness. The findings demonstrate that when the amount and
intrusiveness of clutter are minimal, consumer's views toward advertising are
high. Thus, the competitiveness of clutter has little effect on advertising views and
does not attract the consumer as they might little to zero interest.