Five ways to make your comms budget go further

1. Choosing what not to do

First things first. Planning ahead is crucial, making sure we’re laddering up to something that’s pushing us all in the same direction and affecting the right outcomes. (Yes, the strategist said we need a strategy).

But, just as crucial is choosing what not to do. Not spreading ourselves too thin but focussing on our most powerful business KPIs and message. If we’re tight on budget, let’s do one thing well and actively choose not to do three others. That’s how we move the needle on what really matters.

2. Cut through further when you can’t shout louder (or borrow fame when you can’t buy it)

It sounds obvious, but when we can’t outspend the competition, we need to outsmart them – or better yet, out “feel” them.

Dial up emotional intensity, lean into what’s going on in the world, and build stories that feel personally and culturally relevant. When we can’t buy fame, we have to borrow it.

Lots of brands borrow fame effectively – one I worked on for over six years is Aldi. Back in the mid-2010s, we were spoofing John Lewis Christmas ads on a fraction of the budget, piggybacking on the ad event of the year. Fast forward to the 2020s, and things have gotten even more sophisticated: the social media team first capitalised on the legal spat with M&S over a caterpillar cake, and now they tap into nearly every relevant cultural moment to get eyes on the brand. The formula is simple: borrow fame, stay relevant, and when we can’t buy attention, we earn it. Watch the spoof ad here.

3. Create tension to amplify attention

BUT, when we lean into culture and relevance, we must avoid blending in. People ignore what feels too expected. There are plenty of stats that show the harsh truth: most ads are forgettable and ineffective.

Finding the tension between what people believe or what is going on in the world right now, and what the brand stands for is crucial for creating work that’s sticky, shareable, memorable and crucially that changes behaviour. This is where emotion lives. Tension multiplies attention. It makes brand much more memorable and ultimately more buyable. Playing it safe and saying what’s expected will almost certainly be ignored.

Many brands use tension well – at one end of the spectrum Dove have been doing this with their campaign for ‘real beauty’ for years. Take their recent ‘reverse selfie’ campaign, which represented how far retouching apps can distort reality and how young girls are digitally self-distorting their appearance for social media.

The tension here was powerful and created a real emotional reaction in the audience. But, this isn’t just for the sake of it; emotion and memory are strongly linked and having a campaign that is remembered is half the battle.

It doesn’t always need to be a social justice campaign either. Take Oatly’s ‘It’s like milk but made for humans’ campaign. They took a largely ignored category up until that point and reframed it, positioning dairy as the ‘weird’ choice. There’s tension here too, just in a way that suits the brand and its audience.

The key is to identify the tension and your brand’s role within that. These types of communications will always be more powerful, no matter how small your media budget.

4. Make channels and assets work harder

With limited budget, it’s crucial to amplify campaigns with joined up thinking. Not one-size fits all but efficient use of assets and production costs. Channels should have a clear role and work together in a campaign with assets designed with modularity in mind with that can be sliced, diced, remixed and reused across formats without losing power.

Our own work for Liv Golf does just this, using modularity to make comms work harder and more efficiently.

This is just the tip of the iceberg though, our Planning Director, Mark, wrote some more about this recently here.

5. Dial up the ‘you’, while acting like a challenger

Finally, be brave, test faster, push further, hustle and embrace working at speed with less bureaucracy. If you can’t spend big, there’s no room for being timid.

But, do it while leaning further into what makes your brand distinctly you. Use DBAs (distinctive brand assets) as much as possible because fame is cumulative and being consistent and remembered is what drives real growth. A brand that nails this with a long-running creative platform I love is Specsavers.

Specsavers has a consistent message that they bring to life in fresh and interesting ways each year – always instantly recognisable as the brand. And sticking to what works, rather than reinventing the wheel, can save a fair bit of budget too!

Thanks for making it this far, here’s a quick recap:

1. Choosing what not to do is just as important
2. Cut through when you can’t shout louder (or borrow fame when you can’t buy it)
3. Create tension to amplify attention
4. Make channels and assets work harder
5. Dial up the ‘you’, while acting like a challenger

So, not having huge budgets doesn’t mean you can’t turn the dial, it just means you have to think, and try, a little harder. This was just 5 of many ways you can do that.

Big impact doesn’t always need a big budget. If you want to see how far yours can go, get in touch with Nick, our Head of Strategy, and let’s make it happen.