Multi-Media Mixes and the “Halo Effect”

How Brand Equity is affected by Multi-Media Campaigns

Brand awareness is key to maintaining growth and reaching new customers for known – and unknown – brands. Using a mix of media channels is a sound strategy, extending reach and allowing different media to strengthen each other for increased effectiveness through increased holistic frequency.

This is a strategy, recommendation and practice that NDP has employed for a number of years across multiple clients including Kindred Healthcare, University Health System and the Virginia Lottery. With proven business results, we are firm believers in the “halo effect” and multi-media activation strategies.

While television and social platforms are different and individually strong media channels, a study was deployed by Effectv and MediaScience in late 2019 to examine how this pairings could influence ad effectiveness.

In the study utilizing 147 individuals representative of the US population, participants were shown ads on YouTube only, Facebook only, YouTube and TV, and Facebook and TV. All ads were 30 seconds in length and featured a mix of known and unknown brands. The social (Facebook and YouTube) ads were deployed on mobile devices only, while the television experience simulated linear TV viewing within top-rated cable programming. Participants’ responses were measured with biometrics, facial coding, eye tracking and survey questions.

When exposed to ads on both channels, brand recall more than doubled compared to social only exposures, and also showed a lift in purchase intent.

In addition, seeing ads in multiple platforms produced a “halo effect” helping brand perception to be more appealing compared to single-platform viewing. 

While this research reinforces our belief in a holistic media mix, it has also helped us better understand the correlation of the social space combined with television activation. Participants said that seeing a brand on TV “legitimized” the company for them versus only seeing the ad in the select social channels analyzed in this research.

All brands can benefit from a mixed media approach, and understanding the specific performance nuances from linear TV compared to social channels is a good place to start. 

Source: The Halo Effect Digital Loves TV – Effectv report released September 2020; “TV Builds Brand Equity” Consumer Survey fielded September 2019