In one of my previous blogs I discussed the difference between Above the Line, Below the Line and Through the Line Marketing. Marketing is not a piece of cake. Not everyone can do it. And certainly, not every marketing campaign can leave a positive impact.
As a business owner, you need to work astutely. The Line distinction was created in the late 20th century by Procter and Gamble. The result combining the two approaches: above the line, and below the line is called a Through the Line Marketing.
Above the Line and Below the Line advertising and marketing makes perfect sense for many brands. The former has mass reach, while the latter targets individuals with unique tactics.
Through the Line marketing brings the better of the two approaches. It offers more value as compared to ATL and BTL.
Example of TTL Marketing
Many brands have started to opt for TTL marketing, owing to the increasing number of communication channels. Brands can use any platform to push their campaign.
Nike’s campaign on Women Empowerment.
Nike’s campaign that focused on empowering women included traditional ATL ads. They made video ads where various female sport players showed how they changed history by doing something that was dominated by men, such as tennis. The ad was then followed by Nike’s hashtag #justdoit on social media where targeting is more achievable.
Gillette: The Best a Man Can Get
Similarly, the renowned razor brand Gillette launched a campaign where the video adcomprised showcasing the problems faced by men. The campaign was also launched on Twitter. Gillette used its motto: the best a man can get to promote a new image of men which was free of toxic masculinity.
Understanding Through the Line Marketing
At its core, TTL consists of both ATL and BTL communications strategies. It is marketing on a mass scale which increases brand awareness and also brings you leads to feed to the CRM. In the simplest terms, TTL marketing and advertising gives you access to a huge market, but comes with a discount.
Many advertising agencies believe it is not a sophisticated approach, because for them TTL is quite complex. It is far from the truth. TTL campaigns make use of dynamic imagery, audio and video to help you insert personalized and unique elements into your broad reaching campaign. These elements can include the name of your city, the weather, or even the name of the road your shop is located.
Advantages of using Through the Line Marketing
You get a wide array of benefits through ATL marketing. These include:
- TTL marketing combines ATL and BTL marketing
- TTL marketing allows you to engage with customers
- You keep a track of your highs and lows with TTL marketing
- TTL marketing saves you from suffering from a massive loss.
TTL Marketing Combines ATL and BTL Marketing
TTL advertising brings together the best ingredients of BTL and ATL. It is not just merging and integrating of two opposing techniques to create a new one. TTL is a calculated technique which feeds ATL awareness by using BTL channels.
Thu, the awareness is personalized, and nurtured towards a successful sale.
TTL Marketing allows you to Engage with Customers
The TTL strategy provides you with a distinctive ability to engage with clients and prospects at various touch points. Within the same campaign, brands can use different ways to appeal to the audience and get more leads.
TTL marketing keeps you updated on a customer’s journey from the start till the end, from awareness to the conversions, you will get an accurate idea about the customer’s perception.
You Keep a Track of Your Highs and Lows with TTL Marketing
The ATL channels are aimed at growing brand awareness, and spread the word. ATL ads want to improve your reputation. To track the success of the ATL campaign you need comprehensive surveys which are tedious to quantify.
On the other hand, digital channels contribute to the Below the Line side of a brand’s campaign. Therefore, the results are easy to measure. Hence, you get to push out your message through ATL techniques, and measure quantifiable results through BTL tactics.
TTL Marketing saves you From Massive Losses
Dove came under extreme scrutiny for it’s campaign related to body wash. The three second long video was enough to cause a commotion and forced Dove to apologize. However, it still saved the company from accruing a massive loss. They initially posted the Gif on their Facebook page, as a preview. Before they could air it on TV, the negative reviews forced Dove to take down the ad, and skip it altogether. This is what TTL does for a brand,
A three second gif caused an uproar. One can only imagine what damage an entire 15 to 20 seconds ad could have done
Conclusion
Below the Line advertising and Above the Line marketing can be brought together to create a single, cohesive and impactful campaign. You can use the most suitable elements of each type to get the maximum output for your course of action.
TTL marketing offers a wide array of benefits. You might suspicious of its success, since all big brands use ATL marketing to get the most out of their campaign. However, for a small scale brand, or a newbie, TTL marketing gives you ATL and more.
Nike’s campaign on Women Empowerment and Gillette’s campaign on changing the dynamics surrounding real men show what effect a TTL advertising campaign can have on its audience.
You are not only able to keep a track of the reach, but get to exploit only the useful elements of ATL and BTL, without having to spend extra.
