How to Build Brand Fame 

TLDR: Want to build brand fame? Combine broadcast and streaming TV advertising to increase brand awareness and ad recall to make your brand the go-to brand in consumers’ minds.  

Commercials can be so much more than just advertising – they can make a difference in someone’s life. Just ask Dot Jefferson from Humble, Texas. In February 2021, her home was affected by the Texas power crisis that left hundreds of thousands of residents without heat, power, or water as pipes froze and burst. 

“A pipe burst and flooded my entire house. It damaged all my floors and some of my furniture. We did a little redecorating since we had to replace some items,” Jefferson recalled. “Then, at 11 o’clock at night, a commercial for Texas Mattress Makers came on, and I got so excited. I told my husband that when we are ready to look for a new den set, I want to come to Texas Mattress Makers and check it out.”    

Soon after seeing the commercial, Jefferson and her husband drove from Humble to Houston and, surprisingly, were greeted by the owner of Texas Mattress Makers, Youval Meicler. Jefferson recognized Meicler from his commercials and was eager to tell him why she was in his store.  

“I’m here because I have seen the honest commercials that this gentleman makes, and I believe what he’s saying,” Jefferson said. “His commercials don’t seem scripted, but they seem very honest about the quality of the work done locally in Houston. Everything he said made me want to check it out, and I couldn’t leave here without buying furniture today.”   

Achieving brand awareness is the main goal of most advertising campaigns, and achieving brand fame in the local community serves as a cornerstone for building trust, fostering customer loyalty, and driving business growth for advertisers. This strategy worked for Meicler and Texas Mattress Makers, and as we can clearly see, it’s why Jefferson bought her den set there.  

However, achieving brand fame doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a strategic marketing approach that puts a brand in front of a wide audience with the right message(s) and frequency. When successfully crafted, viewers (and future customers) will recognize the brand’s face, develop trust, and ultimately drive sales.  

What is Brand Fame? 

How many famous brands come to mind thanks to creative marketing and advertising campaigns? Nike’s “Just Do It,” Giecko’s Gecko and Jake from State Farm are just a few that instantly come to mind.   

These national brands have achieved brand fame not just because they offer great products and services but because their marketing campaigns have generated a level of recognition, visibility, and positive brand reputation in the eyes of consumers. This level of brand fame signifies the extent to which a brand is well-known, respected, and trusted within its target market or industry.  

But brand fame isn’t just for national brands. Mom-and-pop shops and small businesses can also achieve it at the local level. That’s because brand fame isn’t just about being well-known; it’s about being authentic, celebrated, revered, and deeply ingrained in consumers’ collective consciousness — and that’s exactly what Texas Mattress makers have achieved — becoming synonymous with their product or service category.  

Why is Brand Fame Important? 

Brand fame is akin to the “Hollywood Effect” in the entertainment industry. Just as actors gain fame through mass exposure and public adoration, brands achieve fame through widespread recognition and positive sentiment, much like we see with the halo effect.  

Overall, brand fame can transform a company’s success by driving higher sales, increasing brand equity, building trust, developing loyal customers who give referrals, and providing word-of-mouth marketing, all leading to a greater market share.  

The Hollywood Effect is also something TEGNA partner Kirk Kupsky, Owner of iRestore in St. Louis, can also attest to. Kupsky and his company partnered with their local broadcast TV station, KDSK 5 on Your Side, for traditional 30-second commercials, weather sponsorships, and appearances on its lifestyle show, Show Me St. Louis.  

“Since partnering with KSDK, we’ve seen tremendous success. We’ve seen our stock rise in the local community as far as recognition, and customers feeling a little more at ease when dealing with somebody they’ve recognized and seen on TV,” he says. 

But brand fame is not merely a vanity metric; it’s a strategic asset and competitive advantage that can help drive a brand’s business growth, profitability, and resilience. It can also help with: 

• Price Premiums: Consumers will pay a premium for brands they see as trustworthy, credible, or prestigious, which translates into increased profit margins and revenue. 
• Increased Purchase Frequency: Familiarity breeds purchase intent. Consumers are more likely to choose a familiar brand over others, driving consistent revenue. 
• Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Satisfied customers become brand advocates with organic word-of-mouth promotion, which amplifies brand visibility and credibility without budget.  

Building Brand Fame 

Building brand fame is a long-term endeavor that requires patience, consistency, and dedication. Before developing a media plan, you’ll want to evaluate your brand and ensure it’s ready for the spotlight. Here’s a quick checklist of questions to ask:  

Brand Identity: Brands must cultivate a unique and consistent identity, voice, and visual aesthetic to leave a lasting impression. What are the brand’s values, personality, and unique selling propositions? What makes it different from competitors?  

Mass Appeal & Mass Audiences: Mass appeal enables a brand to reach a larger audience, including diverse demographics and market segments, which increases visibility to become more widely recognized. Will your product or service benefit a large audience?

Compelling & Memorable Experiences: Humans are hardwired to connect with storytelling.  Can the brand craft narratives or host events that resonate with your target audience’s aspirations, values, and challenges?  

Apply Brand Fame to Your Media Strategy 

Visual mediums, like TV, are best for creating brand fame, as they allow the viewer to see and hear the brand in a way that print alone can’t. Visual mediums to consider adding to your marketing mix and media plan include:  

Broadcast TV Advertising 

Surely, you’ve heard the saying “as seen on TV.” It’s a popular phrase that’s made its way into the collective consciousness of Americans because a good portion (?) of our culture is communicated through TV. We watch live events and sports to share exciting cultural moments, tune into our favorite shows and talk about them with friends and family, and even watch TV to get the latest news and current events.  

Broadcast TV provides a highly effective medium for advertisers to help shape culture, too. After all, how many times have you had a commercial jingle stuck in your head or found yourself repeating an ad’s catchphrase in your day-to-day?  

It shows that brands prominently featured on TV can become part of the cultural zeitgeist, sparking conversations and driving social engagement. By weaving a brand story into the fabric of popular TV content, brands can engage viewers on a deeper level and establish a cohesive brand narrative that contributes to brand fame. Other factors include: 

• Mass Reach and Exposure: Broadcast’s unparalleled reach allows brands to connect with vast audiences across demographics and geographic regions. By airing commercials during popular programs or events, brands can achieve massive exposure and capture the attention of millions of viewers simultaneously.
   
• Credibility and Authority: Broadcasting on established TV networks lends credibility and authority to a brand. Viewers often perceive brands featured on reputable TV channels as trustworthy and reputable, associating them with the prestige and quality of the content they consume. This halo effect can enhance brand perception and help establish a positive reputation among consumers.
   
• Targeted Advertising: Through audience segmentation and demographic profiling, brands can strategically place commercials during specific programs or time slots to reach their target audience more effectively. Whether targeting a niche demographic or a broad consumer base, broadcast TV allows brands to tailor their message to resonate with the right audience segments.
   
• More Than Commercials: Broadcast TV advertising offers more options than standard 15- or 30-second commercial spots to showcase a brand’s identity, story, and messaging. Many local channels will offer content sponsorships, community events, and cause marketing efforts to participate in, as well as Lifestyle programming, which allows advertisers to take more air time to educate the public about your brand, its offerings, and community activations. 

Streaming/OTT TV Advertising 

Like broadcast TV, streaming TV advertising offers brands a powerful platform to reach and engage consumers. By building a cross-platform campaign and adding streaming TV, brands can expand reach, increase engagement, add new targeting capabilities, and measure results to know what resonates best with the audience to achieve brand fame. 

• Targeted Reach: Reach highly specific audience segments based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and viewing habits. With advanced targeting, brands can ensure that ads are delivered to the most relevant viewers, maximizing a campaign’s impact.
• Engagement and Attention: Streaming TV ads are often served in an on-demand, ad-supported environment, where viewers actively engage with content on their preferred devices. This results in higher levels of attention and engagement.
• Personalization and Customization: By leveraging data insights and machine learning algorithms, brands can adjust their ad creatives and add personalization to campaigns to create stronger viewer connections.
• Innovative Ad Formats: Streaming TV platforms support a variety of innovative ad formats, including interactive ads, shoppable ads, and immersive ad experiences, that enable brands to captivate audiences in new and creative ways to break through the clutter, capture attention, and differentiate themselves from competitors.
• Alignment with Premium Content: Associating with high-quality content helps brands command attention and respect from viewers, contributing to brand fame and prestige through the halo effect. 

Online & Digital Platforms 

With the rise of digital video, brands can create compelling content that entertains, educates, and inspires, fostering deeper connections with consumers. There are several options to consider for an online marketing strategy that can help complement a broadcast and streaming TV strategy to reinforce messaging.  By teaming up with the right local media partner, your brand can: 

• Create clickable display ads, which is essential to any online campaign.  
• Leverage geofencing and geotargeting to ensure you reach the right audiences in the right areas. 
• Deploy native advertising for better engagement and ad recall. According to Sharethrough, consumers are 53% more likely to look at native ads than display ads, have an 18% lift in purchase intent, and, according to AppNexus, have an 8.8x higher click-through rate.  
• Use contextual targeting to reach the right audience in a cookieless world by leveraging a page’s content to determine the most appropriate placement of an advertisement. This form of advertising can also help brands improve what they are associated with (for example, if a beer company wants to be associated with sports). 

A Cross-Platform Campaign with Broadcast, Streaming, & Digital 

Building a cross-platform marketing campaign is the way to go, especially if the name of the brand fame game is increasing reach and visibility. In fact, this was the secret to Kupsky & iRestore’s success in St. Louis.  

“Some of the great things we’ve done together have gotten me a lot of good feedback from the community. All in all, Show Me St. Louis has generated a lot of quality leads, but more importantly, we got to help many people,” says Kupsky.  

“It wasn’t just a one-off situation where we just put out a commercial and hoped for the best,” says Kupsky. “It was a multi-headed hydra of marketing campaigns everywhere. It was a great success and a job well done.” 

Good Work: Building Great Results with iRestore & KSDK from TEGNA on Vimeo.

Making Your Way to Brand Fame with TEGNA 

Not only are TEGNA’s journalists and news anchors local celebrities, but brands of all shapes and sizes can also benefit from TEGNA’s halo effect in where and how they advertise.  

That’s because TEGNA’s people, including news anchors, sports reporters, meteorologists, and Lifestyle show hosts, are some of the most trusted in the media today. TVB found that local broadcast news is the most trusted platform among viewers, and studies show that consumers are more likely to trust – and buy from – brands that advertise alongside sources of information they trust, such as local TV news stations.  

It’s a perfect mix of visibility, credibility, and personality that brands need to create brand fame and bring customers into a storefront, much like we saw with Merclier and Texas Mattress Makers’ partnership with TEGNA’s KHOU.   

If you’re ready to start building brand awareness and fame, let’s get in touch.  

About TEGNA

TEGNA delivers proven results through simplified multi-platform advertising solutions that connect your business to the audiences that matter most via Broadcast TV, OTT/CTV Streaming Advertising, and Digital Solutions, including Targeted Display and retargeting, as well as campaign measurement ​and optimization with ​TEGNA Attribution.