What does an award-winning marketing campaign look like? Sometimes it’s stunning imagery. Other times, it’s the application of a specific technique. Most often, however, it’s not one thing or the other. It’s how the company understands its audience and creates innovative, captivating content that is specific to that audience in a truly memorable way. Let’s look at four components of such campaigns.
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1. An innovative strategy that breaks away from the traditional marketing approach. Award-winning campaigns use the “same old, same old” techniques to engage viewers in surprising ways. Think unusual folds, die-cuts, and dimensional inks and coatings. One award winner used a vertical gatefold tipped onto the cover of a magazine to catch attention. Imagine using personalized teasers in your marketing to get recipients to open a tip-on, then exposing them to a customized message underneath!
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2. Captivating content that engages readers and leaves a lasting impression. Award-winning campaigns leave you thinking about them long after exposing you to the initial message.  It’s a headline you can’t stop thinking about or an image you can’t get out of your mind. For example, one award-winning book cover, Lyrics for Rock Stars, features a picture of a guitar spread out like a highway leading toward a city skyline. It tells a powerful story without a single word.
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3. Knowing your audience. Award-winning marketers know their audiences. Award winners know precisely who their audiences are and how they behave—and why. An image that captivates and enthralls one audience may not captivate another. A combination of marketing channels that breaks through for one demographic may be ignored by another. Truly and profoundly knowing your audience requires more than demographics. It requires behavioral and psychographic data, as well.
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4. Tracking and measuring goals and results. Award winners carefully track and monitor their results. That’s how they know what works! When you see what works, you can build on what’s effective and ditch what isn’t. This gives you the freedom to innovate and maximize your profits . . . and maybe even win an award or two along the way.
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Need help designing a marketing campaign worthy of attention that gets results? Let us help!

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