Every Impression Counts: Counting Brand Impressions Over the Course of a Day

I consider myself “hard to get” for marketers. I don’t watch live television very often. I don’t listen to much terrestrial radio. I don’t click online ads or open emails that appear to be purely marketing (unless I've opted in intentionally). In light of yesterday’s post about brand impressions and customer engagement, I decided to conduct an experiment.

In my mind, I figure I’m exposed to 100 brands a day, tops.

So I gave myself a challenge one day last week: when a brand consciously enters my brain, write it down.

Turns out I see close to 100 brands before I even leave the house in the morning.

The Takeaway

I noted 504 brands, many of whom I encountered multiple times over the course of a day. I was exposed to thousands more that I didn't consciously note. 10,000 in my atmosphere probably isn't too far off.

Before I get to the list, here's what I learned: There's a LOT of clutter. Even people who go out of their way to avoid marketing are going to see thousands of brand impressions. If your eyes are open, or you can hear, you're being exposed to competing messages.

As a marketer, understand that not every one of these is a true competitor to your brand - a person seeing a shoe commercial during an NBA game isn't going to interfere with their awareness (or lack thereof) of your insurance company, contractor business, or membership association.

Instead, think of it as a whole. From the moment we wake up until we close our eyes for sleep, we're inundated with an avalanche of brands. Thousands upon thousands, some we seek out, some we're not even consciously aware of. But they're all in the mix, and most of them get at least a tiny fraction of the real estate in our minds. These matter, and the sum of all these parts is a thick cloud to cut through. It's a tough crowd to mix your brand up with.

But it's possible. As mentioned in the previous post, in consumer engagement value is king and context is god.

Each of us has a select few brands that we reach for. These are the ones that pop up consistently, multiple times a day or multiple times over the course of a few days.

The brands we're loyal to are the ones who provide some sort of value that's easily accessible when we need it. Every other message is noise.

The Method & Rules

When compiling my list, I made a few rules to maintain my sanity:

1. If it entered my mind, it's included. It might be a full article I read, or it could be a bumper sticker I passed. If I consciously saw it, I wrote it in my notebook.
2. Each brand is included only once. Otherwise every other entry would be "Apple iPhone" or "Spotify."
3. What qualifies as a brand? If it's trying to sell me something, I've included it. Chris Paul is as much a brand as the Los Angeles Clippers (while his teammate JJ Redick isn't).

The List

My routine in the morning is almost always the same: wake up, grab iPhone, Google News (which gives me an overview of the news of the day, with multiple news sources for me to choose from and topics of my choosing), Salt Lake Tribune, then Reddit over breakfast while the kids watch PBS cartoons. Sounds simple, but there's a lot of brands crammed in there.

1. Apple iPhone
2. Google News
3. CNN
4. Oklahoma City Thunder (big win over Memphis)
5. Fox 13
6. Sporting News
7. Sooner Sports
8. Salt Lake Tribune
9. Daily Oklahoman
10. Michael Jackson
11. BBC
12. The Amazing Spider Man 2
13. NASA
14. Safari
15. Chevron
16. Herbalife
17. Snapchat
18. Reddit
19. Los Angeles Clippers
20. Memphis Grizzlies
21. Gawker
22. Denver Post
23. University of Utah
24. Kansas City Chiefs
25. NAACP
26. Obamacare
27. Hogle Zoo
28. Utah Jazz
29. Real Salt Lake
30. Stanford
31. BYU
32. SEC
33. NFL
34. Craig Ferguson
35. Free Comic Book Day
36. Fox TV
37. 24
38. LDS Church
39. CNN
40. Fox News
41. MSNBC
42. Stephen Colbert
43. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
44. KUED
45. Peg + Cat
46. Olivia
47. Colbert Report
48. David Letterman
49. John Stewart
50. The Daily Show
51. Suave
52. Head & Shoulders
53. Dove
54. Jergens
55. Gillette
56. SLC Twilight Concert series
57. SLC Living Traditions Festival
58. Gordon Monson
59. Tulsa Golden Hurricane
60. PBS
61. Dr Seuss
62. The Cat in the Hat
63. Atta Cat Cat Food
64. Curious George
65. Granny's Delight Old Fashioned Bread
66. Cascadian Farms
67. Cocoa Puffs
68. Archer Farms
69. Simply Balanced
70. Kroger Private Selection
71. Quaker Oats
72. Cars (Pixar Movie)
73. National Geographic

Next I went to my kid's school event where, thankfully, most of the marketing messages were primarily on the shirts and hats of the adults:
School event:

1. My kid's elementary school
2. TrueMoo choclate milk
3. Local coffee brewer
4. Lego
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
6. University of Oklahoma
7. Notre Dame
8. Crayola
9. LuluLemon
10. Sweet N Low
11. Splenda
12. Equal
13. Coffee-Mate
14. Spiderman
15. The Avengers
16. Spongebob Squarepants
17. Nike
18. Adidas
19. Seattle Seahawks

I'm over 100 and my day is just beginning. Next my commute, where I focus intensely on the road, because Salt Lake drivers are fairly adventurous. Part of it I stream sports radio from my home state of Oklahoma, then I switch to streaming music.

1. Toyota
2. Saturn
3. WWLS The Sports Animal (Okie sports talk that I stream from my iPhone)
4. Dr. Sanjay Gupta
5. Fowler Dodge
6. The Law Offices of Rod Poulston
7. American Red Cross
8. Oklahoma Lottery
9. ABB Storm Shelters
10. Kevin Durant
11. Russell Westbrook
12. Chris Paul
13. Blake Griffin
14. Real Estate (the band, I turned off the sports talk)
15. Girls in Hawaii
16. William Fitzsimmons
17. Black Sabbath
18. Queens of the Stone Age
19. The Black Keys
20. Rollins Band
21. CR England
22. KSL TV
23. Mini Cooper
24. BMW
25. Honda
26. Skechers
27. Cole Haan
28. Mazda

At my desk, where I consume a ton of media and never stop streaming music:

1. Access Development
2. Samsung
3. Microsoft Windows
4. Oklahoma Sooners Football
5. Baylor Bears Football
6. Fellowes
7. Adobe
8. Adobe Reader
9. HP
10. HubSpot
11. Shoretel
12. Salt Lake County
13. Smith's Grocery Store
14. Wise Marketer
15. Utah Business Magazine
16. Marketo
17. Klear
18. Utah Pulse
19. Facebook
20. Google Music
21. Spotify
22. Google Analytics
23. Wunderlist
24. Google Chrome
25. Microsoft Outlook
26. Microsoft Word
27. Spark
28. Firefox
29. Salesforce.com
30. Diet Coke
31. Google Docs
32. Google+
33. Sanford
34. Dr. Scholls
35. Wordpress
36. Johnny Cash
37. Mobile Commerce & Payment Innovations
38. PRNewswire
39. Howlin' Rain
40. PRDaily
41. YouTube
42. DMA
43. Aquaphor
44. ERA
45. Reebok
46. Microsoft Word
47. Pinterest
48. PRWeb
49. Disqus
50. Gmail
51. Moleskine
52. Digg
53. Overstock.com
54. Kleenex
55. TalkWalker
56. Goodreads
57. Best Buy
58. Amazon
59. Woot
60. Arcade Fire
61. Silicon Slopes
62. Microsoft Excel
63. LinkedIn
64. Goal Zero
65. Hootsuite
66. AT&T
67. From You Flowers
68. Aveeno
69. 1-800-Flowers
70. Thomson Reuters
71. Sam's Club
72. Coca Cola
73. Dupont
74. Rubbermaid
75. Vocus
76. Armitron
77. AspenPress
78. Money2020
79. MarketingSherpa
80. Tumblr
81. Jim Rome
82. IBM
83. Santana
84. The Horrors
85. Sams Club
86. Smith's Marketplace
87. Soundgarden
88. Microsoft PowerPoint
89. Runkeeper
90. Under Armour
91. Billy Joel
92. Elton John
93. Instagram
94. Keith Urban
95. Sara Bareilles
96. Blake Shelton
97. Luke Bryan
98. Keifer Sutherland
99. 24
100. CHVRCHES
101. Bing
102. Ellen
103. Willie Watson
104. HARO
105. Ebony
106. Examiner

This will represent the dozens of clients & prospects I encounter during the day at work. As much as I'd love to share out our client list to the general public, I'm kind of a fan of being employed. Therefore, enjoy this representation of 150 names:
*

Commute home:

1. COEXIST (Is this is a company or just bumper stickers inspired by U2?)
2. ESPN
3. Fox Sports
4. NPR
5. Trax (Utah light rail)
6. Front Runner
7. Beats by Dre
8. Kindle
9. Chevrolet
10. First Option Mortgage
11. Salt Lake County Library System
12. Harry Potter
13. Rdio
14. McDonalds
15. Wendys
16. Burger King
17. Golden Corral
18. Pep Boys
19. O'Reilly Auto Parts
20. Ford
21. Mitsubishi
22. Chili's
23. Red Lobster
24. Red Robin
25. Olive Garden
26. Lone Star Taqueria
27. Maverick
28. 7-11
29. Sinclair
30. Toys R Us

During the evening at Home:

1. HBO
2. Bose
3. Maytag
4. Target
5. Smuckers
6. The Lego Movie
7. Star Wars Episode VII
8. LucasFilms
9. Wal-Mart
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (my son's current obsession)
11. Kingsoft
12. Sony
13. Toshiba
14. Wired
15. Rolling Stone
16. FIFA
17. NBA
18. TNT
19. Netflix
20. Cartoon Network
21. Tweetdeck
22. Meadow Gold
23. Carnation
24. Wikipedia
25. NCAA
26. Sportscenter
27. Game of Thrones
28. Silicon Valley
29. Veep
30. The Goonies
31. Cracked.com
32. Buzzfeed
33. NBC News
34. Calvin Klein
35. Lorde
36. Vampire Weekend
37. Monsanto
38. Van Halen
39. Lou Reed
40. Ray Lamontagne
41. Will Ferrell
42. Shaquille O'Neal
43. Charmin
44. Crest
45. Sonicare
46. CBS
47. Johnson & Johnson
48. Brooklyn Nets
49. Miami Heat
50. Indiana Pacers
51. Burt's Bees
52. Community
53. Parks & Recreation
54. Kevin Durant
55. Adam Silver
56. Toronto Blue Jays
57. Cosmos
58. Neil Degrasse Tyson
59. Beavis & Butthead
60. Miley Cyrus
61. Office Space
62. IMDB
63. Daft Punk
64. James Blake
65. Wikileaks
66. Canva
67. Kanye West
68. Kim Kardashian
69. David Bowie
70. Haim
71. Beck
72. Arctic Monkeys
73. John Fogerty
74. Calvin Klein
75. Hanes
76. Eminem
77. Home Depot
78. Salt Lake Running Company
79. Taco Bell
80. Sprint
81. AT&T
82. T-Mobile
83. Jay Z
84. State Farm Insurance
85. Kia
86. Neighbors
87. Samsung Galaxy
88. AAA
89. Chesapeake Energy
90. Spalding (Can you tell I was watching the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Clippers?)
91. Mountain Dew
92. Dr Pepper
93. Universal Orlando
94. Harry Potter
95. Corona
96. Hornitos
97. Patron
98. Anonymous
99. Hugo Boss

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