Institutional advertising is an essential part of any company’s marketing strategy. But how can it help businesses in this digital world?
Institutional advertising has the potential to create a powerful brand image, differentiate from competitors, and help companies reach their target audience.
From elevating brand reputation to increasing market awareness and expanding a company’s reach, institutional advertising can get the word out about a particular brand and its offerings. With the right creative and strategic elements, institutional advertising can be a powerful tool for any business.
Nowadays, over 70% of brand managers prioritize building an audience over traditional advertising methods.
Though it’s not a direct sales tool, it establishes a firm’s credibility and visibility among potential consumers. By creating powerful visuals and stories that the target audience can relate to, institutional advertising can make a strong connection between the company and its customers.
This guide will provide an overview of institutional advertising and discuss the different elements that make it successful. From understanding the difference between product advertising and institutional advertising to giving examples of successful campaigns, this article will provide the tips and tricks needed to create a successful institutional advertising campaign.
So, let’s dive in and explore the world of institutional advertising.
What Is Institutional Advertising?
Institutional advertising is an advertising strategy designed to create a positive image of a company or product in the minds of consumers. It’s not intended to make an immediate sale but to create an overall impression of the company and its offerings. The goal is to build brand recognition amongst the target audience, position a product in the market, and create a positive attitude toward the company.
Institutional advertising can create a strong connection between the brand and its customers by focusing on the company’s core values and mission. Advertisers can use this to their advantage by leveraging visual storytelling and persuasion techniques to create an emotional bond between the company and its viewers.
Rather than engaging in direct sales, institutional advertising generates an emotional bond between the brand and its viewers. With the help of powerful visuals and stories, it has the potential to reach a wide range of people and impact their lives.
Through institutional advertising, companies have the power to establish a meaningful connection with their customers and form trust to create an enduring positive image of their brand.
Institutional Advertising vs. Product Advertising
Institutional advertising differs greatly from its counterpart, often confused with product advertising. Product advertising concentrates on showcasing the characteristics of a particular product or service, while institutional advertising highlights your brand or product collection. For example, product advertising would feature a single car from a company, while institutional advertising would focus on the entire line of cars from that company.
Product advertising is more direct in its approach and typically involves a call-to-action, while institutional advertising focuses on brand building and creating an overall impression of the company. In product advertising, the goal is to make a sale, while in institutional advertising, the goal is to create an emotional connection with the brand and its customers.
Institutional Advertising Examples
Institutional advertising can take many forms, from television and radio ads to outdoor billboards and print adverts. Here are some examples of successful institutional advertising campaigns:
Coca-Cola’s “Share A Coke” Campaign
Launched in 2011, Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign was a huge success and one of the most widely recognized institutional advertising campaigns. The campaign featured custom bottles of Coke with people’s names on them, encouraging them to share the product with their friends and family. The campaign highlighted the power of sharing, community, and the brand’s core values of connection, friendship, and unity.
With this campaign, Coca-Cola created an engagement with 70% of public relations-driven social posts, including the campaign’s #ShareaCoke hashtag.
Adidas’s “There Aren’t Plenty Of Fish In The Sea Anymore” Campaign
In 2018, Adidas collaborated with Parley, a non-profit organization, to create an environmental awareness campaign to help reduce single-use plastic waste from the ocean. This campaign aimed to raise awareness about plastic ocean pollution and the decline of marine life.
Adidas created an emotional connection with its viewers and showed that the company cares about the environment. It also successfully highlighted the brand’s core values of sustainability and responsibility.
Apple’s “Think Different” Campaign
Launched in 1997, Apple’s “Think Different” campaign was one of the most successful campaigns of its time. It featured iconic figures such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lennon, among others, to illustrate Apple’s commitment to challenging the status quo. The campaign highlighted Apple’s core values of creativity and innovation, which resonated with their customers.
With its powerful visual storytelling, the campaign created a strong impression on the viewers, which connected them with the company’s core values. It also successfully differentiated Apple from its competitors and established the brand as a leader in innovation.
5 Tips For Creating Successful Institutional Advertising Campaigns
As institutional advertising can be an effective way to build brand awareness, there are a few key tips for creating successful campaigns:
Tell A Story
Storytelling is vital to creating a compelling institutional advertising campaign. That’s why around 55% of customers are more likely to purchase from a company if they enjoy its brand’s story. Stories are a great way to engage your audience and help them emotionally connect with the brand. For example, a car manufacturer can use stories to emphasize their commitment to safety and innovation.
So, make sure to create a story that resonates with your target audience and reflects your brand’s core values.
Opt For A Customer-Centric Approach
By recognizing and responding to your customer’s needs, you can build a strong connection with them. Customer-centric campaigns focus on the customer experience and emphasize how your brand is helping them. For instance, a technology company can focus on how their products are making life easier and helping people be more productive.
Using a customer-centric approach can help you build trust and credibility with your target audience, so keep their needs in mind when crafting your campaign.
Add Branding Elements
When creating an institutional advertising campaign, use branding elements that will help you stand out from the competition, building recognition and familiarity in the minds of your customers. For example, add a memorable slogan or jingle to your campaign, or use distinctive visuals that reflect your brand’s unique personality.
According to Renderforest, 75% of people recognize a brand by its logo, 60% by its visual style, 45% by the brand’s signature color, and 25% by its unique voice.
Incorporating your brand’s logo or name into the advertisements makes it easier for customers to recognize your brand, so be sure to use these elements where appropriate.
Mention Benefits
Use your institutional advertising campaign to showcase the benefits of your brand. This way, you can highlight why customers should choose your brand over the competition and make them more likely to purchase from you. For example, if you have a more environmentally friendly product than others in the market, use your campaign to emphasize its benefits.
By emphasizing your core values and the benefits that come along with them, you can create an effective institutional advertising campaign that resonates with your target audience and drives customers to buy from you.
Teach And Inspire
Besides telling a story and using branding elements, teaching and inspiring your audience can be a powerful way to engage them. Institutional advertising can educate people about your brand, products, and services. It can also encourage people to think in new ways and help them reach their goals. For example, a skincare company can use institutional advertising to teach people the importance of caring for their skin and how their products can help them achieve that.
By educating customers about your brand and inspiring them to take action, you can create a successful institutional advertising campaign that resonates with your target audience.
Final Thoughts
Institutional advertising is a powerful tool for building brand awareness and emotional customer connections. Customers are more accepting of brands and advertisers who don’t want to make a quick sale.
For new businesses trying to establish trust among customers—even established ones looking to reach a wider audience—institutional advertising is an effective way to build credibility with your customers. To ensure your campaigns touch your customers’ nerve and drive conversions, turn to Mediatool.
Mediatool is a b2b SaaS platform that provides an intuitive dashboard and powerful tools to manage your media. Plan, measure and report on all of your marketing campaigns, all from a single platform. Take a tour of Mediatool today to see how to get lightyears ahead of managing your campaigns from spreadsheets.
