Tesla vs. Ads – did we just witness a campaign budget split of 100% / 0%. Wow!
$ 10 billion in orders for Elon Musk’s new Tesla Cybertruck. $ 0 spending on ads. How?
What we are witnessing is another outstanding example of “Authority and Content Marketing”. Right now there is a lot of talk about the Tesla Cybertruck launch: Was the broken car windows just a media stunt? Because the shares did decrease by approx. $ 770 million, but does it really matter when you have a potential turn over of 10 times as much? And what would the sponsored price have been to have such a sensational press coverage? Again $ 0 expenditure on ads – $ 10 billion in potential revenue!
– And that is exactly why your brand strategy and the strategic brain work of your campaigns is so much more important than spending a huge chunk of your marketing budget on digital ads.
Take Adidas for example. The company recently announced that they have changed their advertising split from 23% brand (long term) / 77 % performance (ads / short term) to 60% brand / 40% performance. Why? Because the hunt for short term measurements like ROI and ROAS led them astray at the expense of their future brand health. Adidas did a new econometric measurement, which showed that the company should invest much more in branding and video marketing instead of ads (something I previously advised locally in another post. Check out these video statistics if you are uncertain that video is / will be the new black).
As a strategist and marketeer my goal is not to spend the most of the annual marketing budget on short term ads (well knowingly that they are so easy to measure and scale). My role is actually to make the most long term impact and profit as possible for the lowest budget possible. In my opinion this can be done by placing the customers (and the press) at the heart of your content strategy. If you are a company owner I would strongly advice you to find the courage to put yourself in the PR-spot light. You might not have the International Press showing up when you do a conference. But force yourself and your marketing division to think more like a media company. Produce “press friendly initiatives”, long term branded content, entertaining content and educational videos. Videos that has a long term aim as these will greatly improve your authority and thereby your long term growth. The next Elon Musk is out there somewhere – could it be you?
Do you want to know more about authority marketing and content marketing? Feel free to ask me anything.
