“…sitting on the good old couch after a long day of work, almost sort of watching season 3 of a popular web series on the TV screen, with a remote in one hand and the other scrolling through endless Instagram Reels on mute. The eyes also flicker towards some notifications pending on the status bar of the phone, begging for attention. Thoughts remain busy as well, with half-formed plans to order a snack in some time. Attention is everywhere, yet nowhere…. But exactly at that moment, that one Reel caught attention and the phone was unmuted for a gander. It was that one disruptive piece of content that made an impact… and now, the attention was NOT everywhere…”

The above scenario is just one example of “who” is consuming content and “how”. It is a fact that “Content creation and consumption” continues to evolve. If you are a BRAND or even a PERSONAL BRAND – you unquestionably know the importance of “understanding the audience” to figure out the “content” you need to produce. 

The Unchanging Truth

Despite the many upheavals and evolutions in marketing, one thing has remained constant across time zones – “Understanding the pulse of your audience” – or in other words, understanding who they are, what they like to consume, and how they go about it.

But what then? Even after you have recognised the pain points and issues you are setting out to solve, you need to realise that – so have many other people and brands!

Currently, both content creation and consumption are cluttered landscapes and whether your content resonates with the audience or not, it is almost impossible to grab attention amidst the masses.

This is where the need arises for content that creates “IMPACT” or for “Impact properties”.

Remember those talks when someone goes like “hey, haven’t we seen XYZ brand create this kind of content?!” – be it a brand or content creators, this recall is indeed the best reward in today’s age or time.

Understanding Impact Properties

There are not many limitations on this front as an ‘Impact Property’ can be any brand asset, like a slogan, the colours, music, character(s), etc., as long as they can play these two key roles: -

• Making your brand distinctive, making it easy for people to remember and like it.
• Providing coherent continuity across various marketing strategies and over time as well.

The concept behind this is pretty straightforward and works on ‘brand associations’.

Brand associations are neither benefits nor reasons-to-buy, but images, symbols, tones, sounds, and colours that provide a certain acquaintance and differentiation to brands that is not replicable; be it the two hands of Nokia (plus the Nokia sound), the swoosh sign of Nike, the La-ira-ila of Liril, or the four ladies of Nirma. Impact Properties have been around for quite a while now, and some of them have become such a major part of our lives that our brain knows what to think about even without us thinking about it.

Rethink Your Content Pillars to Create Impact Properties

Now is the time to rethink the content pillars of your brand and introduce IMPACT Properties in your content strategy while communicating to our audience cohorts. That being said, let us help you get started with our top tips for impact property creation:

• Build on Existing Associations: Your brand obviously already stands for something and in order to benefit from the ‘fluency’ of associations, the best linkage is always the most obvious linkage that people can glam on to instantly.
• Integrate the Product Experience: It is not about capturing a trend or short-lived challenges. You need to think about your long-term product and brand positioning and base your promotions towards that same endgame.
• Look for Uncrowded Areas: Position your product and branding in an advertising space that is relatively less crowded and thereby less noisy. It’s easier to be noticed as a big fish in a small pond rather than as a small fish in a big pond.
• Employee Engagement is Important: You already have an audience base, brand ambassadors, and a sales team in your employees, and with the right incentive programmes, you can significantly improve engagement for impact properties.
• Look Beyond High-Profile Sponsorship: You can always go for the biggest sponsorships but instead building numerous touchpoints where your target audience interacts with your brand and builds associations all along, can also work wonders for your returns.
• Stay True to It: The next new thing to invest in will show up every other day in marketing however, building a property into an impact property takes years and you need to stick with it for years to ensure it can build distinctive memory recalls for your audience. If you start getting bored even before your consumers are starting to take note, please feel free to freshen it up. But do not forget -you need ‘fresh consistency’. Do not dump a great property just because you needed some new news!

Most importantly – have some fun with it!

Brand recall increase manifold when you give a direction, a face, and distinct tonality to it. Case in point, these relevant and relatable comic strips below which we worked on for a reputed pre-owned car brand: -

To conclude, “always-on content” accomplishes the objective of “consistency.” But “Impact Properties” build that instant connect and strong community of audience. Eventually, it creates brand advocacy/love, but initially, it’s going to take some work.

Want to get started with your creating your own IMPACT? We’ve got all the arsenal you need!

Creative, content-first leader with experience across advertising, media, and entertainment sectors. With expertise in crafting strategies for creative briefs, Sahil specialises in the creation and delivery of pitch presentations that weave the most interesting stories. A solution provider with the habit of thinking out-of-the-box!