“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” — John Wanamaker.
Fiona van Iersel
MSc Marketing — King's College London
Module: Marketing Communications (7QQMO520X)
Date: 13 April 2026
https://keats.kcl.ac.uk/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=830952

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” — John Wanamaker.
Submitted: 13 April 2026 10:39 PM

In my Tok Karin campaign, I divided the budget mainly across mobile advertising, social media and keyword search because I thought those channels made the most sense for an app-based food and grocery delivery brand and because thats how I operate as a consumer. My logic was that mobile advertising would help drive app downloads and sales, while social media and search would increase visibility and capture consumers already looking for convenience-led services online. I also included some supporting creative spend because I wanted the campaign to feel joined up rather than relying on one channel in isolation.

Even though that looked sensible, it did not fully work as a successful campaign because too much of the budget was doing the job of generating attention, without enough of it building stronger brand meaning or converting that attention into action. Which is frankly nonsense in this simulation as we didn't even see the messages sent to the public but ok. In that sense, it is similar to real campaigns where visibility alone was not enough. Peloton pissed everyone off me included in 2019 holiday advert generating huge attention (now we praise rage bating but ok), but the reaction was negative, which shows that reach and talk value can still fail if the message does not land properly with consumers (Reuters, 2019). By contrast, Just Eat’s “Did Somebody Say Just Eat” campaign worked because it linked channels more clearly across TV, radio and social, while keeping a strong creative platform and distinctive brand assets, helping it generate positive sentiment and stronger growth (Marketing Week, 2019; Marketing Week, 2021).

What this taught me is that marketing communications is not just about putting money into digital channels. It is about making each channel do a hierarchy of effects model, where awareness alone is not enough to drive purchase (Lavidge & Steiner, 1961), and also IMC theory, which argues that communication tools are most effective when coordinated rather than treated separately (Kitchen & Burgmann, 2015; Batra & Keller, 2016). It also supports the broader point from Binet and Field that effective campaigns need a balance between brand-building and sales activation, not just one or the other (Binet & Field, 2013).

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” — John Wanamaker.



References

Batra, R., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Integrating marketing communications: New findings, new lessons, and new ideas. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 122–145.

Binet, L., & Field, P. (2013). The long and the short of it: Balancing short and long-term marketing strategies. IPA.

Kitchen, P. J., & Burgmann, I. (2015). Integrated marketing communication: Making it work at a strategic level. Journal of Business Strategy, 36(4), 34–39.

Lavidge, R. J., & Steiner, G. A. (1961). A model for predictive measurements of advertising effectiveness. Journal of Marketing, 25(6), 59–62.

Marketing Week. (2019). Just Eat launches first global brand campaign.

Marketing Week. (2021). This much I learned: Just Eat’s Matt Bushby on going with your gut.

Reuters. (2019). Peloton says encouraged by some support despite Christmas ad criticism.