Using Integrated Marketing Strategies
- ShashikaJP
- May 14, 2020
- 2 min read
The term integrated marketing communications, or IMC, is something we are hearing more and more often.
Why?
Because marketing campaigns that are utilising these IMC plans are seeing better outcomes for their brands. Let's have a look at an example!
Proctor & Gamble's Always, a feminine hygiene product brand, introduced the #LIKEAGIRL campaign in 2014. Maybe you have seen or heard of it. I know I came across these ads on Youtube.
This campaign aimed at young girls and females to support and maintain their confidence and esteem during the challenging parts of growing up. The brand tackles this difficult topic and goes beyond by battling social limitation placed on females.
Have a look at one of the campaign videos:
With a range of images, as those above, a series of videos, building and spread the hashtag 'LIKE A GIRL' on all promotional material, as well as developing a selection of emojis because a picture is worth a thousand words, the brand has developed the foundations for a great campaign.
Always selected channels like social media, building a presence for the campaign that is predominantly online. Allowed the brand to be exposed directly to the target market.
Always also made creative decisions to use the term 'Like a girl', which previously held negative connotation and transformed it to a phrase that empowers and supports. Not only was this campaign consumed by the target market but also sparked conversation among society, achieving more than 85m global views on YouTube from 150+ countries. It redefined confidence and empowerment for females.
You might be wondering, did this campaign have a positive effect for the brand? The answer is YES! This campaign saw Always have a double digit increase in brand equity, while competitors saw declines.
Wouldn't it make sense that we all, as brands, adopt integrated marketing communication plans?
So, what are your thoughts? Do you know any other examples of great IMC plans used by brands? Do you know of brands that haven't been successful in using an IMC plan?
Great blog Sahshika! This is my first time to watch this video and this video is really good and interesting! Other than just promoting the brand, they are actually inspiring the viewers instead of just hard core selling their brand/products. The great IMC plan that caught my attention was Dumb ways to die, I really like this campaign and this campaign was very successful. It had been doing very well about delivering the safety message to target audiences. However, I haven't seen of any brand failure in IMC plan yet.
Those are some great campaigns you mentioned Portia! And you are definitely right, successful campaigns will not just push the product to the audience but will build a narrative to go along with it that has a greater message. Thank you for reading! :)
Really good campaign! I loved how it was a movement rather than just a promotional advertisement for the brand 'Always'. Brands with great IMC campaigns are thinking about the target audience and the bigger picture rather than just pushing their brand in consumers face. Like the Metro campaign Dumb Ways to Die, it was more about train safety rather than promotion of using public transport, or even Nivea created a campaign where they make bracelets with small tracking devices in it inside magazines so mum's could put it on their children whilst at the beach to keep them safe.
Thank you for reading Meshanah! Yes, I did hear about the Snapchat Spectacle campaign. And you are right, the idea was innovative and super exciting when first introduced. But like you said because parts of their overall plan had faults, causing interference between the product and the accessibility to the audience. I wonder if Snapchat had workshopped their procedure for production and distribution of the item, would it have been a success?
This is a great read Shashika! This campaign is an amazing example of an effective IMC plan and it is also very inspiring. An example of a campaign that didn't do very well was the Snapchats Spectacle campaign. Although it was a very innovative idea, one of the reasons that this campaign failed (and the product didn't successfully sell) was because the company generated a lot of 'hype' towards the Spectacles for a long period of time, however, they waited 5 months to openly sell them. Due to this their IMC plan wasn't effective on their consumers overall.