Agency Urges Brands to ‘Stand Against Bland’ in Favour of a Full Colour Approach to Media
UM, a global media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, launched its new ‘Full Colour Media’ proposition and philosophy.
Designed to revolutionise the way marketers build brands in the era of AI, Full Colour Media heralds a new set of behaviours, approach and products across UM’s global network – embedding a growth mindset across the organisation.
“Full Colour Media is an omni-channel planning proposition designed to combat the existential threat of brands becoming bland. It unlocks the power of human ingenuity in a world where AI’s normative mechanic threatens not just a race to the bottom, but a race to the mean. To win the growth race for our valued clients, we need strategies that ‘Stand Against Bland”, said Susan Kingston-Brown, Global Brand President, UM.
“This new approach seamlessly blends the visibility of high-quality media impact with the vibrancy and variability of smaller, deeper touchpoints, creating a spectrum of media stories that come together to drive brand growth,” she continues. “In a world dominated by algorithm-driven media, it challenges outdated linear models and black-and-white decision making to drive real ‘difference’ and brand growth.”
Full Colour Media is underpinned by a groundbreaking body of custom research on brand building in the era of AI. Conducted with over 10,000 brands and with 5 million data points, the research culminated in a bespoke ‘Brand Patterns’ marketing theory and proprietary model designed to grow and differentiate brands.
UM’s new model and research builds a clear understanding of the complex pattern of a brand, with insights into how to apply ‘difference’ and the ‘variance’ of that brand successfully. This deeper understanding means that AI learns more effectively, driving increased marketing efficacy.
“Before we push the AI button, we must understand exactly what differentiates a brand so that we can train that AI to work effectively for us and make a Stand Against Bland,” continued Kingston-Brown. “Brand patterns enable us to understand the complexity, nuances and uniqueness of every brand – allowing us to elevate and distinguish them within their category – ensuring our communications deliver a disproportionately positive effect in market.”
Highlighting Full Colour Media’s strategic importance in dynamic markets, Joe Nicolas, CEO UM MENAT said, “In a region as unique as MENAT, where cultural heritage and digital acceleration seamlessly blend, brands can no longer afford to simply be visible—they must be distinctive, relevant, and culturally resonant. Full Colour Media is not just a framework; it’s a transformative approach that empowers brands to break through the noise, harness AI intelligently, and drive meaningful growth.”
“By combining data, human insight, and our proprietary 3V model, we are equipping our teams and clients with a powerful blueprint for differentiation in an increasingly homogenised media landscape. This is a pivotal moment for the industry, and at UM MENAT, we are committed to leading the charge in redefining brand-building for the AI era,” said Nicolas.
The Research
Working in partnership with Associate Professor of Marketing, Felipe Thomaz, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UM analysed a data set of over 10,000 brands for the last three years to identify how unique networks of brand associations and behaviours called “Brand Patterns” drive brand growth, defined as Purchase Intent and Consideration.
The research revealed that brands are not purely funnel-based but reflect complex, unique and differentiating patterns. Every brand has its own unique, nuanced pattern informed by the interdependency and synergy of metrics across three essential components, the “3-Vs”:
• Visibility: includes metrics like Attention and Ad Awareness that cultivate distinctiveness and is the main driver of brand growth (64%).
• Vibrancy: measured through metrics like Social Engagement, Buzz and Word of Mouth, delivers brand relevancy through its connection with culture, and is an important accelerator of growth (11%).
• Variability: containing metrics like Positive Impression and Quality, is key for incremental growth (25%) and differentiation by generating customer intrinsic value.
“As we studied whether brands were using suitable go-to-market strategies, we found that even though all brands have unique patterns, they are often using similar media strategies, meaning they are not making the most of their Brand Pattern,” said Thomaz. “According to our research, Brand Patterns can provide marketers with new insights to illuminate their differentiated path to brand growth.”
Brand Pattern Growth Model & Key Insights
Observing unique patterns and driver relationships across the data set, structural modeling approaches were used to create the quantified Brand Pattern Model.
“With the level of computational power and data at our fingertips today, there is a huge opportunity to go beyond simplified marketing models like the funnel,” said Dan Chapman, Global Chief Strategy Officer, UM. “We need a model that embraces complexity and leverages pattern recognition to define and quantify the unique nature of each brand. Our findings demonstrate that understanding and exploiting what makes a brand different is the number one driver of brand growth. This will only become more important as AI become more pervasive.”
The model defines the relationships between the 3-Vs and their subcomponents and predicts key drivers of brand growth, taking into account the multiplier effects between brand metrics. For example, when Vibrancy metrics consistently operated with positivity, Visibility metrics performed exponentially. In many cases, ‘earned’ functioned as a catalyst to drive improved ‘paid’ media effectiveness.
Looking across a variety of geographies, sectors and brands, the research uncovered core insights, including:
• In the US, Visibility is an important driver in the Payments Services and Credit Cards category, but brand growth was more likely to be driven by Variability than the category average. Despite this, most brands in the category use Visibility-led strategies with video being the #1 choice in the media mix.
• In the financial sector in MENA, Variability significantly stood out for major banking brands. This indicates a strong customer grasp of the unique propositions of these individual brands in the region. This is especially striking compared to lower global levels which suggests a more homogenous and bland view of available banking services.
• In Mexico, the Cereals, Chocolate and Biscuits category, key drivers of incremental growth are Vibrancy and Variability. Larger brands showed a far greater contribution to growth from these factors
• For British Health and Beauty brands, Variability drove around 30% of brand growth.
“These deep category insights will allow us to look at any brand in and assess not only its key growth drivers, but also how it interacts within its category and within the wider cultural spectrum. We can then build nuanced solutions to grow that brand and give it more powerful resonance in the world,” says Chapman.
“What I love most about Full Colour Media is that it’s all fueled by our people; their deep understanding of human behaviour and exceptional ability to uncover insights from the data and the world around them. It’s this combination of human intelligence and data that brightens our approach, transforming ordinary interactions into memorable, full-colour experiences,” concludes Kingston-Brown.
Research Methodology
The research consisted of an analysis of over 3 years of data across 17 countries from May 2021 through to April 2024, including YouGov brand tracking, social listening data, Google trends data and media spend across a total of 10,000 brands. The time series data was analyzed through structural modeling approaches in order to capture the complex network effects across metrics and quantify their ultimate contribution to brand growth, defined as the outcome of Purchase Intent and Consideration.
