Challenging times can be great for Challenger brands.
After a great summer and a strong start to the year, it feels like we’ve been hit in the face one more time. Between global headlines and local shifts, the "unprecedented" moments continue to roll in. And while we’re all getting pretty good at dealing with these pivots, they still smart.
Personally, I see this as a short-term blip. In fact, if you look past the news cycle, there is a surprising amount of confidence on the ground. However, I know that when the news gets challenging in boardrooms across the country the natural instinct is to hunker down, cut costs, and wait for the storm to pass.
For challenger brands we believe that is the exact moment you should be looking at your Media Leverage and your Creative Dividend. Because the brands that win this year are the ones making the hard, counter-intuitive decisions today.
Is Your Media Plan Dialing it In or Catapulting Your Idea?
Most clients, and far too many agencies, separate creative and media. They treat them as two distinct, separate transactions: create a campaign, then negotiate the best deal to get the most reach at the lowest price.
For a challenger brand, this division is a disaster. It’s like trying to sprint from the sand, you might have the power, but you have no stable foundation to push off from.
We do it differently. For us, an Integrated Campaign Plan isn’t just a spreadsheet of channels, formats, and impressions. It is an opportunity to amplify a bold idea that engages and wins hearts.
Strategy is the permission to be bold. And integration starts there. We begin by considering the audience and indicative media channels, but we intentionally leave creative freedom for bold approaches to be developed during concepting. We only finalise the detailed media strategy after the Creative Concept is approved.
Why? Because we use media not just to distribute content, but to amplify the tension in the idea.
The Boring Tax vs. The Creative Dividend
In today's fragmented market, "reach" is a commodity. Real engagement is the currency. We believe that finding the channels and formats that command Effective Attention is the key to driving genuine behaviour change.
A bold, unignorable creative idea is a 12x multiplier on your profit. This is the Creative Dividend. But there is a catch: if no one sees the work, that multiplier is exactly zero. You can be making the most provocative Strategic Stand in the country, but if you don’t put enough weight behind it, you’re just wasting your money. You've built something great, then hidden it away in the attic.
So with a strong bold idea driving Effective Attention is key. To do this we talk about being in the right places to ensure you are being noticed. This typically is two places - firstly big bold media placements that have stature. Being in strong brand led media environments
The other mistake is when you pay the Boring Tax. If your creative is safe, predictable, and "middle-of-the-road," you have to spend significantly more on media just to get noticed. You are effectively paying a fine for being forgettable.
The Efficiency Trap: Brand and Performance as One Engine
One of the biggest mistakes we see is treating "Brand" and "Performance" as two different departments with two different bank accounts. One is for "pretty pictures," and the other is for "clicks".
If you want to earn the Creative Dividend, you have to stop thinking about these as separate transactions and start thinking about them as a single, high-impact ecosystem.
The 60/40 Rule of Impact
The data from Binet & Field is clear: the most effective brands spend roughly 60% of their budget on long-term brand building and 40% on short-term sales activation.
- Bold Brand Work Builds "Future Demand": It ensures that when someone is eventually in the market for your service, you are already their first choice. The fame, the emotion, and the distinctiveness creates a lasting impression that pays off.
- Precision Performance Harvests "Current Demand": This bold work also makes the path to purchase frictionless. It captures the people ready to buy now.
When your brand work is bold, it makes your performance marketing (the 40%) infinitely cheaper. People are far more likely to click on a brand that has already made them feel something.
The Flick Proof: Brand Creates the Demand
The campaign we did for Flick Electric Co. is the ultimate case study for this engine. Our lead brand ad didn’t have an offer, a URL, or even a phone number in it.
The results? Record sales in the first week the ad ran and hitting full-year acquisition targets within just six months.
Because the brand work was so distinctive and bold, it created a massive surge in "mental availability." People didn't need a Call to Action (CTA) in the ad; they just searched for Flick when they were ready to switch. The brand work did the heavy lifting, making the performance spend work effortlessly.
Managing the "Blip": The ESOV Opportunity
When the economy feels unsettled, the pressure to cut the "brand" 60% and move everything into "performance" 40% becomes immense. This is a trap.
1. The ESOV Opportunity
When your competitors drop their spend and you simply hold yours, your Excess Share of Voice (ESOV) actually increases. You are effectively buying a larger slice of the market’s attention for the same price. Silence from your competitors is a strategic opening.
2. Don't Chase a Shrinking Market
When the number of active buyers in a category drops, brands often double down on performance media, trying to "convert every sale that’s left”. But if the total pool of buyers has temporarily shrunk, fighting 10x harder for that smaller group just drives your costs up and your margins down.
Instead, hold your Brand spend. Remind people why you’re the right choice. For those who have pulled out of the market for a month or two, you want to be the first name they think of the second they are back.
The Challenger Approach: What to Do Right Now
So, if you’re feeling the pinch, what can you actually do to ensure you’re catapulting your idea rather than just "dialing it in"?
Audit the 'Boring Tax': Watch your numbers. If your performance CPA is rising, it might be because you’re fighting for a shrinking pool of buyers. Pivot some of that "inefficient" spend back into Brand - now!
Double down on Distinctiveness: When the market is quiet, bold creative stands out 10x more. Now is the time to be unignorable, not safe. Think of our work with Blind Low Vision NZ and their "Poop Bags" - using a mundane, "wallpaper" item to make an unmistakable, bold point.
Keep your 'Springboard' Ready: Don’t dismantle your strategy just because the news is noisy. Hold your ground so that when the blip ends, you aren't starting from a standing start.
At YS, we don’t just plan media; we plan for Effective Attention. We want to make sure the boldest ideas get the loudest voices, ensuring that your investment isn't just "efficient," but genuinely unignorable.
Is your budget a tug-of-war between brand and performance, or is it one engine driving towards a single goal?