Every good brand journey starts with building awareness and interest while solving a problem and prompting action. For TV ads, you only have 30 seconds to do this. With display ads, it’s more like 2 seconds.
Not only that, but your audience targeting has to be spot-on to meet these objectives.
We’re all bombarded by thousands of advertising messages daily. People’s attention spans are getting even shorter. How can you break through all the noise and connect with customers?
There is a different kind of ad creative that very few are using right now with video spots. How can you use this method to open the “front door” for consumers?
Which Strategy Best Helps a Company Reach Consumers?
You might think of the first seconds of a video ad as a “front door.” Reworking this section of a video ad can give viewers a reason to walk through the door. To do this, give them a very specific “ask.” Once again, your audience targeting is crucial here.
Do this right and people will take their first step to build a personal connection with your brand. But how do you get this right? There’s a secret ingredient: the humble quick response (QR) code.
These codes have been around for almost 30 years now. Yet only a few marketers are now combining these QR codes with a video front door.
Before the pandemic, almost no one was using QR codes. However, in the last couple years, it seems QR codes are becoming more popular and useful than ever before. Perhaps you’ve seen them in ads on Hulu, Max, or another streaming service.
Viewers are responding to these QR codes in videos when they’re paired with a good call to action.
One pet food brand recently wanted to target pet owners in their 30-second video ad. How did they get viewers to start discovering the company’s extensive online content?
They simply invited viewers to “learn how to keep your pet’s health safe,” followed by a QR code.
Without a QR code, their 30-second connected TV commercial was very limited in its ability. Sure, they could get people started thinking about healthy pet food. However, with the QR code, people began raising their hands to learn more about keeping their furry friends healthy.
Does this simple, unique engagement technique truly deepen brand experiences and drive profits? Companies that have used it say yes.
QR Codes To The Rescue
Linear TV (such as cable TV) advertisers are wringing their hands as their ads become less and less effective. Connected TV (CTV) ads – the ones you can watch on your devices and smart TVs – are often ignored by content viewers.
Imagine adding QR codes and getting people to raise their phone cameras to follow your story further. When they visit your website, you can easily reach them with all the elements of good marketing and advertising – including the ones you didn’t have time for in your video ad. This is what makes people buy.
Remember back in the old days, when you’d hear an 800 number repeated over and over with direct response TV advertising? Asking millennials to visit a website without a QR code gets the same dismal response. Make it as simple as possible for people to enter your funnel.
What This Means For You and Your Brand Journey
QR codes make it easy for people to start their customer journey with you.
What’s Your Customer Journey? Find out here.
https://firstdirectmarketing.com/whats-your-customer-journey/
Not only that, you get first-party data. This means that QR codes give you the ability to collect your own data about the people interested in your products and services. Buying customer data is still a great idea, but when you can capture your own, this is far more powerful.
You might just find that QR codes give you an entirely new business model.
