Should i stop advertising

Most of the research into marketing blackouts conducted so far has been limited to TV advertising and only measured short-term effects. The authors of the study note that they were not able to control for many potential confounding variables, like changes to price and distribution.

You can read the report for free here , or you can buy the academic paper here. Subscribe to the Contagious newsletter to receive a weekly dispatch of campaigns, opinions and research, curated for strategists, creatives and marketers. Subscribe to the Contagious weekly newsletter and stay up to date with creative news, marketing trends and cutting-edge research.

Contagious uses cookies to ensure that you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to browse you are confirming that you are OK with this. Contagious Take me home. Log in Become a member. What happens when brands stop advertising?

Give it to me in one sentence. Give me a little more detail. Why is this interesting? Advertising is art, and art is many things. Art is squishy. Art is subjective. And good art is undoubtedly difficult to make. From a wide angle lens perspective, expectations and inertia are two of the most lethal villains in modern-day business.

So consider the contrary for a second: What if you stopped advertising altogether? What would happen? Are you spending enough for it to matter and would you even know? Are you saying something interesting enough and to the right people to really move the needle?

Or ask yourself the inverse: What if you tried something more ambitious with your advertising? Advertising spend is like its engines: while the engines are running, everything is fine, but, when the engines stop, the descent eventually starts. To answer this question, they impressively managed to get the sales data on 57 Australian brands of varying sizes, sales trajectories and categories over a year period, each one of which had stopped advertising at some point during that timeframe.

Quite a spread! So, basically anything can happen. You get the problem. Our consulting experience tells us that, overwhelmingly, it is the small brands that are cut first, while the Crown Jewels are protected for as long as possible.

There can be some good reasons behind this, but — and it is a big but — if you have a one-year financial hole to fill, you are better able to fill it while minimizing adverse consequences for the future by taking the money from your biggest, healthiest brands.