IAB study suggests soft drinks brands aim for 'resonance' in driving engagement with consumers

The latest Internet Advertising Bureau cross-media Brand Engagement study has found that online advertising for soft drinks is nearly three times more effective than average online budget allocations would suggest.

The third study of its kind, conducted by ævolve (formerly Carat Insight), set out to quantify the impact of display internet advertising on brand engagement relative to other communication channels, such as press and TV.

This study has further underlined the role that the internet can have in driving consumers' engagement with brands. The ICE methodology enables us to isolate this impact alongside all other media and brand contacts. It has confirmed to us that the internet has a branding role way beyond click-throughs and search. - Mark Greenstreet, joint managing director, ævolve

Brand Engagement measures how different advertising channels help a brand build relationships with their consumers. By identifying an individual medium’s Brand Engagement strengths, marketers can better tailor their messages.

Researchers examined consumer response to the advertising campaigns of four brands: Coca Cola Zero, original Coca Cola, Pepsi Max and Powerade. They found that on average internet advertising contributed a quarter (24%) of total brand engagement, where TV was 43% and press was 32%. Clearly TV and press are the strongest drivers – of the display campaigns studied they jointly account for 75% of soft drink brand engagement.

The research – using a qualitative and quantitative methodology – found that Brand Engagement for soft drinks is determined by four key factors, which in order of importance are:

• Taste (43.2%) – how refreshing is a brand, does it taste great, give an energy burst
• Affinity (35.3%) – to do with trust, relevance to an individual’s lifestyle and personality
• Differentiation (9.4%) – innovation, advertising quality, distinctive taste, packaging
• Salience (2.6%) – perception of a brand’s ubiquity and availability
• Health (8.8%) – healthiness compared to others and influence on sports performance

Ad spend ROI

The average online ad spend for all four brands in the study was 8.5% of total media budget, which suggests that internet advertising – which delivered 24% of brand engagement across all communications – is almost three times more effective than the monetary investment would suggest.

The internet is not only an information medium, it can deliver brand engagement for soft drinks. Combining TV and print with online display ads is a powerful, proven method for delivering higher returns on investment. Striving for resonance is also a powerful driver of brand engagement and ultimately sales. We hope that this study will convince more FMCG marketers to allocate greater budgets to online. - Guy Phillipson, chief executive, IAB

Resonance

One of the most interesting findings was that of ‘resonance’: how a brand’s marketing resonates with a potential consumer and therefore encourages engagement with that brand. Resonance is also defined as the “peripheral processing of advertising messages”. While ‘persuasion’ (direct take-out of a communications message) is important, resonance (indirect take-out) is actually twice as effective as persuasion.

The common marketing methods for attaining resonance include those that borrow equity from other brands or properties. For example music (tie-ups with eg iTunes), sport (football-related promotions) and give aways (‘free product’ or ‘win £1,000).

• IAB members can view the full Soft Drink Brand Engagement study.

This latest IAB Brand Engagement study builds on previous research in the automotive and hair care sectors.