UM, a global media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, has launched its new ‘Full Colour Media’ proposition and philosophy.
Designed to revolutionise the way marketers build brands in the era of AI, Full Colour Media heralds a new set of behaviours, approach and products across UM’s global network – embedding a growth mindset across the organisation.
“Taking a Full Colour Media approach to planning will unlock the power of human ingenuity in a world where an over reliance on AI threatens to take brands, not on a race to the bottom, but a race to the mean,” said Anathea Ruys, CEO, UM Australia.
“By employing our omni-channel planning process that seamlessly blends the visibility of high-quality media impact with the vibrancy and variability of smaller, deeper touchpoints, we can create a spectrum of media stories that come together to drive brand growth. In a world dominated by algorithm-driven media, it challenges outdated linear models and black-and-white decision making to drive real ‘difference’ and brand growth,” Ruys explained.
Full Colour Media is underpinned by a body of custom research on brand building in the era of AI. Conducted with over 10,000 brands and with 5 million data points, the research culminated in a bespoke ‘Brand Patterns’ marketing theory and proprietary model designed to grow and differentiate brands.
UM’s new model and research builds a clear understanding of the complex pattern of a brand, with insights into how to apply ‘difference’ and the ‘variance’ of that brand successfully. This deeper understanding means that AI learns more effectively, driving increased marketing efficacy.
“Understanding exactly what differentiates a brand from its competitors will allow our teams to train AI to work effectively to help our clients make a Stand Against Bland,” continued Ruys.
“Brand patterns enable us to understand the complexity, nuances and uniqueness of every brand, allowing us to elevate and distinguish them within their category and ensuring our communications deliver a disproportionately positive effect in market.”
The Research
Working in partnership with Associate Professor of Marketing, Felipe Thomaz, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UM analysed a data set of over 10,000 brands for the last three years to identify how unique networks of brand associations and behaviours called “Brand Patterns” drive brand growth, defined as Purchase Intent and Consideration.
The research revealed that brands are not purely funnel-based but reflect complex, unique and differentiating patterns. Every brand has its own unique, nuanced pattern informed by the interdependency and synergy of metrics across three essential components, the “3-Vs”:
- Visibility: includes metrics like Attention and Ad Awareness that cultivate distinctiveness and is the main driver of brand growth (64%).
- Vibrancy: measured through metrics like Social Engagement, Buzz and Word of Mouth, delivers brand relevancy through its connection with culture, and is an important accelerator of growth (11%).
- Variability: containing metrics like Positive Impression and Quality, is key for incremental growth (25%) and differentiation by generating customer intrinsic value.
“As we studied whether brands were using suitable go-to-market strategies, we found that even though all brands have unique patterns, they are often using similar media strategies, meaning they are not making the most of their Brand Pattern,” said Thomaz.
“According to our research, Brand Patterns can provide marketers with new insights to illuminate their differentiated path to brand growth.”
Brand Pattern Growth Model & Key Insights
Observing unique patterns and driver relationships across the data set, structural modelling approaches were used to create the quantified Brand Pattern Model.
“As most marketers are aware, in the digital age traditional simplified marketing models like the funnel are becoming less relevant due to rapidly evolving consumer behaviour. The rise of digital and social media platforms has changed how consumers interact with brands creating far more complex non-linear decision-making processes,” said Raj Gupta, chief strategy & growth officer, UM Australia.
“We recognised the need for a model that embraces this complexity and working with Felipe we leveraged pattern recognition to define and quantify the nature of each brand. Our findings in Australia, demonstrate the uniqueness of each brand in each category and gives us the ability to exploit these differences as drivers of brand growth. These differences will become more important as AI become more pervasive in marketers and agencies’ decision-making toolkit,” Gupta explained.
The model defines the relationships between the 3-Vs and their subcomponents and predicts key drivers of brand growth, taking into account the multiplier effects between brand metrics. For example, when Vibrancy metrics consistently operated with positivity, Visibility metrics performed exponentially. In many cases, ‘earned’ functioned as a catalyst to drive improved ‘paid’ media effectiveness.
Brand Patterns was built across a variety of geographies, sectors and brands, the research uncovered core insights, including in Australia:
- For the alcoholic beverages sector, Visibility was crucial for beer brands, pointing to a well-supplied category. However, for other alcohol like RTDs, wine and spirits, Variability was a far more important driver of growth.
- For subscription video on demand brands, Variability was a critical driver predicting brand growth. This category clearly demarcated those brands with perceived ‘relative’ advantage in content and platform experience were growing.
- For International Airlines brands, the difference in growth drivers for premium international airlines, driven by Variability and Vibrancy, compared with low-cost international airlines, driven by Visibility, is clear.
- Larger brands showed a far greater contribution to growth from Variability and Vibrancy however the nuance between challenger brands versus follower brands needs to be factored in determining pulling the right levers for growth.
“These deep brand and category insights will allow UM to evolve the way we help clients drive growth for their brands. It provides a multi-dimensional understanding of how a brand is performing within the context of its category, its key growth drivers and its place within the wider cultural spectrum. This will enable us to build the nuanced solutions that will help to grow that brand elevating our clients’ media above the mean,” concluded Gupta.
