Proved: Creative Advertising = Business Success
A unique analysis of IPA Effectiveness Awards and Gunn Report reveals business power of creativity. High levels of creativity make advertising campaigns at least 11 times more efficient. Topline findings here. Fuller report will be published by the IPA in the summer.
A new research study from the IPA and Thinkbox, in conjunction with The Gunn Report, has revealed the direct correlation between strong advertising creativity and business success. The study shows that the most creatively awarded advertising campaigns are 11 times more efficient at delivering business success.
The study – which builds on findings from an earlier study by the IPA,Marketing in the Era of Accountability (2007) – involved analysis of a wide range of award-winning and non-winning campaigns, including campaigns by Budweiser, Volkswagen, Virgin Atlantic, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and BT. In total, 175 campaigns were analysed.
The research, commissioned by the IPA and Thinkbox and undertaken by independent marketing consultant Peter Field, analysed the correlation between campaigns’ performance across a wide range of the worlds’ most respected creative awards determined by The Gunn Report, and their performance in hard business terms recorded in the IPA Effectiveness Awards Databank between 2000 and 2008.
The Thinkbox/IPA analysis examined both the effectiveness (in terms of a campaign’s ability to drive business effects such as share, sales, profit and loyalty) and the efficiency (in terms of share growth per point of Excess Share of Voice) of creatively awarded and non- awarded campaigns. Key findings include:
- Pound for pound, creativity makes ad campaigns more efficient; on average, creatively awarded campaigns (i.e. in major awards competitions recognised by The Gunn Report) are at least 11 times more efficient.
- The vast majority of Gunn Report creative award scores (74%) are for TV commercials, showing that TV creativity is at the heart of the success of these campaigns. The remaining scores cover press and online.
- The more creatively awarded a campaign, the more effective it becomes.
- Creatively awarded campaigns are much more likely to be ‘emotional’ than ‘rational’ (44% vs. 19%). This partly explains the prevalence of TV in creatively awarded campaigns as TV creates emotion better than other media (source: Marketing in the Era of Accountability, IPA).
- Investing in creativity is a powerful way to achieve fame (i.e. buzz). The study shows that brands can buy awareness but not fame; fame is proven to be at the heart of the most effective advertising (source: Marketing in the Era of Accountability, IPA).
- Creatively awarded campaigns that invest strongly in Excess Share of Voice (ESOV) perform particularly well, suggesting that many creative campaigns could further improve ROMI by investing more in Share of Voice (SOV).
- Despite generally being disadvantaged by lower levels of ESOV, creatively awarded campaigns still generate more and greater business effects than non-awarded ones.
- With the same level of ESOV, creatively awarded campaigns would have driven twice as much market share growth as non-awarded ones.
- Creative awards strongly reflect consumer liking of ad campaigns. On average, 35% of consumers ranked Gunn awarded campaigns as ‘highly liked’ versus just 20% for non-Gunn awarded campaigns. Liking an ad is the best predictor of business success (source: Marketing in the Era of Accountability’ IPA).
Peter Field, author of the new study: “It has been fascinating to do this analysis. We’ve seen a strong link in previous studies, but since Donald Gunn’s 1996 report “Do Award Winning Commercials Sell?” we just haven’t had an update on the numbers. The takeout from this report should be that creative campaigns are more effective when they have more, rather than less, budget put behind them; and that creativity helps drives long-term business success, providing a powerful antidote to the short-term nature of so much activity today.”
Neil Simpson, Chairman of the IPA Value of Advertising Group and CEO of Publicis said: “Each IPA Effectiveness Award competition has long provided succour to the creative community and creatively-minded clients when its awards have gone to such critically acclaimed advertisers such as Stella Artois, Levis and Honda. Their multiplier effects have also been discussed and written about by a number of Convenors of Judges. What we have now is the weight of eight years of statistical evidence and an exciting, and very tangible, set of findings to provide food for thought for all advertisers.”
David Brennan, research and strategy director at Thinkbox: “It is tricky to take something intangible and subjective like creativity and show its tangible results, but by bringing these two world class award schemes together we have managed to do just that. We knew anecdotally that strong creativity leads to success, but to finally prove the link should be great news for advertisers and their agencies, and should hopefully help unlock more creativity and more success.”
These findings were shared to delegates at an event organised by Thinkbox on the morning of the 16th June 2010. The webcast from this event can be accessed through Thinkbox’s website at http://www.thinkboxlive.tv/2010/16june/
A full report is being prepared by the IPA for publication in the next few weeks.
Press contacts:
Danielle Davies, IPA PR Manager, danielle@ipa.co.uk 020 7201 8261
Or Simon Tunstill | Head of PR, Thinkbox , simon.tunstill@thinkbox.tv, 020 7630 2326
