Fortune 500 advice on advertising has almost nothing to offer you; I'm glad you've been able to find a better way for yourself.
Fortune 500 Marketing 101 breaks your activities out into the AIDA funnel - Attention -> Interest -> Desire -> Action. [1]
I can't think of any reason a startup would focus on any part of that funnel before "action" unless they needed to achieve some bizarro network effect for their idea to work (in which case they better have a couple million bucks to drop, and will still probably fail).
The sort of advertising before "action" presumes you're talking to someone who doesn't already know they need something like your product, and doesn't already desire something like it. The only reason to communicate to someone like that is if you've already maxed out your market share amongst people who give a hoot.
AIDA doesn't mean separate campaigns for each. It's a guide for each ad to follow so that it achieves results.
Brand awareness campaigns mostly just lack the Action portion (At least directly).
I think startups trying to create effective ads can greatly improve their campaigns by thinking about AIDA. I have transformed the marketing campaigns and ads of small companies I have worked for and create all of my own ads for my company while thinking about AIDA principles.
Brand awareness/institutional advertising is largely useless for startups but I think they can benefit a lot from learning a little bit about AIDA. It helps cut through the clutter.
Fortune 500 Marketing 101 breaks your activities out into the AIDA funnel - Attention -> Interest -> Desire -> Action. [1]
I can't think of any reason a startup would focus on any part of that funnel before "action" unless they needed to achieve some bizarro network effect for their idea to work (in which case they better have a couple million bucks to drop, and will still probably fail).
The sort of advertising before "action" presumes you're talking to someone who doesn't already know they need something like your product, and doesn't already desire something like it. The only reason to communicate to someone like that is if you've already maxed out your market share amongst people who give a hoot.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_(marketing)