ATL marketing is the visible part of the iceberg – marketing aiming mass reach and awareness. On the other hand, BTL marketing is the sunken part of the iceberg that makes use of personalized and targeted experience.
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Above the line (ATL) and Below the line (BTL)
What does ATL and BTL stand for?
ATL stands for “Above the Line” marketing. It refers to a form of marketing that reaches a large audience through mass media. For example : print, out of home (billboards), television and radio. Above The Line (ATL) advertising is where mass media is used to promote brands to a wider spread of audience, and is not targeting individual consumers. That said, ATL actions are designed to increase brand awareness and visibility.
Disavantage: This approach can be quite expensive for startups or SMB companies. Moreover, it can be challenging to measure the effective reach of the campaign.
BTL stands for “Below the Line” marketing. It’s a personalized way to advertise a brand to its consumers and easier way to quantify the audience reach. Those activities include promotional events, PR, sales promotions, direct mail campaigns or roadshows. Furthermore, it also involves product demos and samplings at defined strategic touch points. Companies rather adopt BTL as a mean when their product is something tangible but also to provide an overall brand experience. That said, BTL builds up brand consistency and encourages an immediate sale.
Disadvantage: Below the line advertising campaigns have a defined reach compared to ATL campaigns since they target a specific audience. That said, BTL marketing campaigns could become tedious to set up and execute. Indeed, they often require a more detailed and customized concept. Thus, BTL marketing undoubtedly limits a broad brand visibility and recognition, which may result in long-term marketing objectives deterioration. Here under, you will find three BTL examples:
The Disney company advocated a new “#DisneySide” BTL promotional activation “#DisneySide” campaign in Disney World Resort theme parks. Thousands of people in a shopping center watched as their shadows were transformed into charismatic characters like Mickey, Donald and other cartoons.
National Geographic used Augmented Reality as a technological resource, in an amazing and creative BTL Marketing campaign in the UK. Hence, thousands of people “virutally touched” wild animals, dinosaurs and even walk alongside an astronaut. This activation shows that technology helps to generate memorable experiences, leading visitors to be protagonists of unthoughtful scenarios.
“Dollar Drinks day” – McDonalds removes the ice from its soft drinks to give them a new use. That said, they use the ice to create an ice sculpture with the emblematic “M” of its logo but with coins inside. The campaign took place in Canada and was based on having passersby destroy the sculpture to obtain the coins.
What is the “Through the Line” marketing tactic?
“Through the line” (TTL) is a term often used in marketing and advertising. It refers to a hybrid approach that combines both above-the-line (ATL) and below-the-line (BTL) marketing strategies to create a more comprehensive and integrated marketing campaign.
The “TTL” marketing tactic involves using both ATL and BTL marketing strategies to create a global and exclusive campaign. It targets a wide range of consumers across multiple channels. Hence, the approach is designed to create a cohesive marketing campaign that covers all aspects of the customer journey. It starts with the fundamental brand awareness aiming to customer retention. Here under, I present two TTL examples:
Apple’s iPhone: they use mass media to promote the event and reach a wider audience. They invite specific individuals and groups to attend the event and engage with the product on a more personal level.
Damac (Real Estate properties) : they created landing pages or directed the online traffic to their website. Moreover, by using Google PPC, one can reach to the masses with specific persona with the objective of lead generation. Finally, in retargeting, once you click an ad, the browser saves your cookie. That same cookie will then follow you throughout the internet.
Through the Line (TTL) is the latest and harmonious approach to move towards a more comprehensive but integrated type of marketing.
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