The Many ‘Effects’ of “Effectiveness”

What are the different ~effects~ that make up total ~effectiveness~?

Effectiveness isn't binary. Campaigns can be effective in different ways, we don't need to just ask if a campaign IS effective, we also need language to describe HOW it became effective.

Understanding which 'Effects' were activated to achieve effectiveness also helps identify what else could be strengthened to take the brand further?

The way I see it, there's a flywheel of three types of effects:

Direct Effects
Ability to uncover and capture current demand - these are actions/tactics that if not taken, would otherwise result in a missed sale (going to a competitor or someone's need going unfulfilled).

Often this would be considered the bare fundamentals of marketing - understanding distribution, product-market fit, pricing; advertising's evolution in the fragmented and automation-intermediated landscape means that more of these factors need to be accounted for within advertising strategy.

Mis-planning for Direct Effects can be a compounding error as mistakes in approach (poor choices in in-platform campaign setup, for example), or over-investing in capturing them, prevent brands from securing any of the additional effects (stifling their overall effectiveness).

Network Effects
The indirect, but planned, effects of advertising campaigns spreading beyond their first touchpoints. Harder to engineer, and dramatically more valuable for driving effectiveness of an overall campaign: they create incremental attention with significantly lower cost, create more engagement with the campaign, which then activates endorsement/social signaling, all of which work together to exponentially strengthen memory creation. Any campaign built purely for direct effects is failing to reach it's full value, in both the short- and long-term.

Memory Effects (delayed effects)
The real prize. Investing for Memory Effects is how these Effects become a virtuous cycle - the stronger the memory for your brand is in the market (at specific CEPs, and overall), make your ability to capture Direct Effects and ignite Network Effects dramatically easier, which in turn fuels future delayed Memory Effects on a broader scale. Spiraling outward, creating incremental value on and on. Setting the stage for Memory Effects requires specific choices in audience, message, emotionally resonance creative vehicle, high attention environment...memories are hard to build from scratch.

Memory effects also compound other advantages - they are the starting point for increasing pricing advantages: sales without discounting or maintaining profit margins. Memory Effects act as a booster shot during brand crises, they make it easier to acquire top talent, or increase financial leverage for vendors, investors, mergers, or other transactions.

These effects, taken together, articulate the spectrum of Effectiveness. Activating them individually increases effectiveness. Activating them in concert multiplies it.