Do you remember the instructions that were on shampoo bottles years ago that read "lather, rinse, and repeat"? While it was an instruction added to help deliver really clean hair, it was also geared so that consumers used more of their products. Today the phrase "rinse, and repeat" is used in marketing and advertising to drive the message home that you can't simply do a campaign once and expect great results. You have to do it, do it well, and repeat it to sustain market share.
If you’re a business owner or a marketing executive who puts your advertising budget into a one-time campaign with nothing left for the remainder of the year, you are putting a lot of business at stake. No matter how good the commercials or ads are, a once-and-done campaign can be almost as harmful as if you are not advertising at all.
In order to achieve optimal results, it is necessary for a business to repeat their advertising again and again on a consistent basis, inspiring consumers to buy more of their products more frequently.
Today’s consumer is hit with hundreds of commercials from media outlets online, in print, on the air, on transit, just about everywhere, and on a daily basis. Media gurus have conflicting ideas on whether or not a frequency of three is still effective or if a higher frequency is needed to have impact.
Your message needs to cut through the clutter and be seen or heard enough times so that it has a chance to be effective. But with consumers being exposed to so many ads from so many angles — promoted Tweets, branded content, auto-play ads on video, commercials — how many times will it take for consumers to absorb your message?
For a branding campaign over a longer flight, a frequency of three can be enough. To drive a call to action for an event or sale for which there isn’t much time to advertise, I often recommend a higher frequency.
Keep in mind, the frequency does not equal the number of ads in a flight — it is the number of time, over the course of a flight, your ad needs to be experienced to successfully reach a prospective customer.
Effective frequency depends on a few factors, including the media outlet’s reach and ratings as well as the demographic audience you’re targeting. So, for example, if you buy a media schedule that includes a hundred commercials per month, it still may not deliver an effective frequency of three if the audience is too fragmented.
A successful marketing and advertising campaign uses multiple media resources to deliver a memorable message on a consistent basis to the right audience. If your business utilizes advertising as a means to reach new customers as well as strengthen your share of voice in the market, make sure that your ads are seen, felt, heard and remembered enough times to make an impact.
In other words, advertise, rinse and repeat!
