• by January 11, 2001

According to the latest data from Dynamic Logic, online advertising significantly lifts message association for traditional brands. That's the degree to which people associate a particular message with a specific brand - "Just For The Taste Of It" and Diet Coke, for example.

Based on answers given by 13,633 respondents, the impact of online ads is generally stronger in the area of message association: for traditional brands, message association is lifted by 16% on average whereas brand awareness is lifted by only 5% on average.

Researchers say an important reason for the difference in the lift levels can be attributed to the fact that many traditional brands have high levels of brand awareness before they start a given online advertising campaign (measured around 77% on average for the brands Dynamic Logic measured).

Dynamic Logic says messages for brands change more often than brand names themselves, so these baseline levels are generally lower (measured around 24% on average for the brands we researched). It is generally harder to lift a level that is already high than to lift a number that is low.

The lesson is that traditional brands should use online advertising to increase message association with their brand, thereby extending the knowledge of the new tagline or brand positioning. While brand awareness for traditional brands is increased through online advertising, the effect on message association is even more significant.