This post will save you $8million

Hey 👋

Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #55 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.

I hope you’ve had a good week.

It feels like there’s a lot going on at the moment. How are you doing?

In today’s newsletter - we’ll be learning from the most expensive adverts in history.

👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.

📩 And if you’ve been forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

Why you should spend millions on your brand 🤑

Every year I watch the Super Bowl with some friends.

It’s great, but often I come for the game, stay for the adverts. 👀

And I’m not alone.

They’ve become a spectacle in and of themselves, and top companies fight over the airtime, paying $8 million for a 30 second slot.

I enjoy them as a consumer, but I learn so much more as a marketer.

They often herald in new eras of messaging and approaches - foreshadowing what’s to come in the world of marketing.

And I noticed something significant:

None of them made sense. 🤪

They weren’t about benefits or details, about taste or quality, about USPs or pain points.

Case in point: Pringles talked about moustaches more than they talked about their crisps.

Why would you spend $8 million to not tell viewers why they should buy your product?

The answer: consumer behaviour is shifting.

And all marketers need to be ready.

How should you get ready?

Brand marketing.

Most marketers run a mile when we talk about brand.

It’s scary 😱

Expensive 🤑

You can’t track ROI 🤔

But we’re facing a “now or never” moment - and you don’t want to be left behind.

Not convinced? Let me tell you why…

Your audience interacts with marketing in vastly different ways compared to five years ago, driven by the dual threat of (1) passive consumption and (2) AI:

(1) I wrote about passive consumption a few weeks ago: we are in a post-engagement phase where we only want entertainment. We spot an advert a mile off, and we hate adverts pretending to be valuable. So you have to make your audience feel something.

(2) And AI is bringing a more significant challenge; people can get answers to questions without visiting your website. Organic search is dying. If people are looking for what you have to offer they aren’t using Google anymore. They’re using ChatGPT.

The big boys are noticing these trends and they’re shifting budget from rational, trackable areas (e.g. SEO, CRO) towards brand awareness channels (e.g. Social Media, Video etc.).

I can hear you shouting:

“Spending big bucks on brand is for established companies. I need every penny of budget to be accountable, trackable and effective.”

True to a point, but to succeed in 2025 you need to shift the way you see digital.

The data and feedback loop from performance marketing (e.g. digital ads) is still very helpful - but it’s a lot less helpful when your audience are looking for entertainment (not sales) and are getting what they need from AI (not Google).

How can you entertain (or inspire, if you’re a charity) your audience with the content you’re producing across social media, email, content etc.?

How can you prioritise brand related metrics like reach and awareness?

If you’re looking to get serious about brand marketing in 2025, we can help.

Reply to this email and we’ll grab a coffee.

That’s all for today.

See you next week.

✌️

What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂

📺 Indi is sobbing her way through We Were The Lucky Ones on Disney+, a WWII drama centred around a family determined to survive and reunite.

📖 Dan is making his way through Butter - a novel translated from Japanese, centred around a journalist’s encounters with a convicted serial killer - and her love for food.

Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍