Categories: Strategy|By |4 min read|

Institutional Advertising

There are several types of ads, each with its own purpose and target audience. Have you been advertising a specific product or service, but have not seen much success? Do you believe your business or organization’s mission isn’t translating well into your ad campaigns?

If either of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may want to invest some time and money into institutional advertising. This form of advertising can be incredibly beneficial to organizations that want their mission to be heard and to create a sense of respect, trust, and brand awareness.

But what exactly is institutional advertising? How can one make the most of it? Let’s take a look.

What is Institutional Advertising?

Institutional advertising can be described as promotional activities that are used to improve a brand’s reputation, build a positive image of a brand, or encourage the support of a specific brand or organization. This form of advertising is different from other common advertising techniques because it is not used to sell a specific product or service, rather, it’s used to promote the brand or organization itself in order to create a sense of trust or respect. The goal of institutional advertising is to get viewers to think about the brand in a positive way and to incite high consumer preference.

Although disruptive advertising is frequently linked to consumer advertising, it can also be effective in institutional advertising. The primary purpose of disruptive advertising (Ads) meaning is to evoke an emotional response in the viewers that will last long after the commercial has been seen. This sort of advertising is often used by businesses wishing to launch a new product or service to the market or to raise brand awareness.

When implementing institutional advertising, a target group must be determined, as it is with other common forms of advertising. A message and a method to communicate that message is also required.

Tips and Tricks for Institutional Advertising

Taking advantage of institutional advertising requires some tips, tricks, and best practices to follow:

When launching an institutional advertising campaign, it’s important to use the same methods that you would use for a product or service. The main ideas you have behind advertising a specific product and your brand are virtually the same. The execution is all that will be different, but you should ensure your image and branding techniques remain the same. Here are some essential native ad specs in institutional advertising.

Go big. For institutional advertising to work well on a digital level, you’ll need to go big. Make video ads, banner ads, blog editorials, and native ads for your campaign. Really put a lot of work into these ads. For example, these native advertising examples are showing how you can use native advertising ads for institutional advertising. Also, remember that a handful of well-positioned and well-targeted banner ads are better than dozens of them. The utilization of vibrant and alluring food imagery is one of the food advertising tricks utilized most frequently by institutional food companies. For example, if you’re doing food blog advertising then you should not only see the quality of food but also how it is looking in the ad. There are several aspects that you must consider while doing institutional advertising.

Don’t pander. It’s important to have an element of nuance to your institutional advertising campaign. You will want to establish your brand as an authority in your field, niche, or industry. Gaining trust from consumers is no easy task, but you will not find much success by being aggressive with how well you paint your company. Get on the consumer’s level. Figure out what they want, and make that your goal. Make sure that your mission reflects the needs and wants of your target audience.

Utilize passive advertising. A call to action doesn’t always need to be stated bluntly. Your ads should be designed to look more like informative content, rather than persuasive content. When you’re able to write your content this way, this invitation to act will be implied and subtle. It should look like an advertising ad. Readers should not get confused between marketing vs advertising after reading it.

Consider using long copy blog posts or articles. While your banner ads can have an element of “less is more,” your blog content should not. This is an opportunity to convey your brand’s mission in great detail.

Always be honest in your institutional advertising. The goal is to be a trustworthy organization. It’s up to you to remind your investors and customers that your business is on their side.

If you can implement some or all of these institutional advertising tactics, you can definitely find some success in running a campaign with this form of advertising.