New Work in the Land Where Different Wins
Listen to Author
Megan Meagher, Managing Director
Last year brought several new client relationships and campaigns to DNA. Each provided DNA with an opportunity to solve their unique challenge in a different way to win.
NIQ (formerly Nielsen IQ) is a global insights company with the most complete and clear understanding of shopper and market trends. NIQ is a crystal ball for its B2B customers–helping them understand what’s happening in their categories, what’s to come, and what to do about it.
Business decision-makers have been on a rollercoaster for the past four years between the pandemic, supply chain disruption, inflation, and fears of a recession. In 2023, NIQ hired DNA to help launch their new brand and trademarked promise, “The Full View.” Our “Different Wins” campaign strategy was to show B2B prospects that NIQ is the ONLY consumer intelligence partner that goes beyond information, providing a global full view that turns data into predictive insights to help drive their company’s growth. NIQ helps them find their exit on the enterprise Tilt-A-Whirl.
And this campaign did win. We helped NIQ achieve a 10% lift in awareness, delivering a CTR rate 31% above the benchmark and garnering 54.8M impressions, a 46% over-delivery, and proving that even in categories that have tried and true approaches, taking a different approach can win.
The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business brought DNA on board in 2023, given our experience helping organizations simultaneously build long-term brand awareness and equity while driving short-term business results.
To date, we’ve helped UW Foster drive direct applications for their MBA and Specialty Master’s programs by establishing an overarching advertising strategy, a messaging framework, and an optimized digital media program. Concurrently, we are working to raise awareness of UW Foster School of Business by developing a differentiating position and brand strategy.
Foster is a different kind of business school in a category that all looks and sounds the same. To help their brand stand out from the collegiate jargon you expect, we’re taking a more innovative, human-focused experience to life in the campaign’s voice. We’re excited to launch this work for UW Foster in 2024.
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese is most certainly different. Our mouths are watering right now just thinking about it. In 2003, Kurt Beecher Dammeier opened his first cheese store in Seattle. Today, Beecher’s is available in grocery stores, cafes, and airport cafes across the country. And they wanted to make some noise to celebrate their 20th anniversary. So, they turned to DNA to develop a different media approach.
Instead of a single, blunt effort at one target audience, we developed a strategy to test and learn based on audience mindsets across household income, age, and gender. We studied the impact of the brand lift and media channels (CTV, OLV, audio, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn) on the results.
Learnings indicated that audiences responded best to short-form video storytelling across multiple channels, with differentiated messaging based on audience. In addition to crucial learning for future campaigns, this initial work produced a 13-point increase in aided awareness, a 130% increase in effectiveness after multi-channel exposure, and a 12-point increase in positive brand sentiment. Different cheese. Different audiences. Different media channels. Different Wins!
While BECU is not a new client – in fact, we’ve been BECU’s advertising agency of record for almost 20 years – 2023 was another banner year for collaboration. Throughout our relationship, we’ve built the BECU brand together by creating value-based differentiation from banks. The result is that BECU is a “category of one” in their market. In 2023, we extended our strategy with a new multi-media, full-funnel campaign theme, “Power in People.” BECU achieved a 23% increase in consideration, an 11% increase in new members, and a 40% increase in advertising effectiveness. Proving again that doubling down on your differences is a winning approach.
