Due to the rapidly expanding multichannel environment new opportunities have been created for brands to engage with consumers. Creativity feeds the motivation for consumers to share campaigns amongst their social networks, and drives much greater buzz effects, with buzz being the key driver in effectiveness.
This is according to the latest IPA/Gunn Report published today (Thursday 16th June 2011)
The link between creativity and effectiveness. The growing imperative to embrace creativity. Fusing the Gunn Report database of creatively awarded campaigns with the IPA Databank of Effectiveness, it is an update on the findings of the 2010 study that revealed that the greater the level of creativity the greater the level of effectiveness.
The 2010 report analysed 257 campaigns over a ten year period (1998-2008). The new 2011 analysis has been expanded to examine 435 campaigns over a sixteen year period (1994-2010).
Undertaken by independent marketing consultant Peter Field, both reports build on the findings from an earlier study by the IPA Marketing in The Era of Accountability (2007). The analysis examines both effectiveness (a campaign’s ability to drive business effects such as share, sales, profit and loyalty) and the efficiency (share growth per point of Extra Share of Voice) of creatively awarded and non-awarded campaigns.
New findings include:• Over the 16 years of campaigns examined in this study creatively-awarded campaigns were seven times more efficient than non-awarded ones.
Between 2003 and 2010 creatively-awarded campaigns were 12 times more efficient. (This compares to the 2010 report which showed that between 1998-2008 campaigns were 11 times more efficient).
• Yet there is a pronounced time trend - creatively awarded campaigns are becoming more efficient over time, whilst non-awarded campaigns are becoming less so. Over the second half of the period creatively awarded campaigns were 12 times as efficient compared to only three times during the first half.
• The much greater ‘buzz’ effects of creatively-awarded campaigns appears to be why they are becoming more effective: in the multichannel world creativity is becoming more closely associated with buzz leaving non-awarded campaigns struggling, (buzz is strongly linked to effectiveness).
This was powerfully exemplified by:
i) The 2007 Cadbury Dairy Milk's ‘Gorilla’ TV ad that went viral, and subsequently ‘Eyebrows’ which entered the top 20 US viral chart for 20 weeks despite never being aired in the US, helping to achieve a ROMI of 159%.
ii) Or T-mobile's 2009 Liverpool Street station dance event – by utilising social networks and YouTube, 20 million views were added to paid for exposure, and the TV audience grew during the ad break in which the commercial debuted by half a million, generating £15m in increased sales.
The proportion of creatively-awarded campaigns achieving top box 'fame' (i.e buzz scores) scores has risen dramatically over time from 28% pre-2004 to 70% subsequently. Meanwhile non-awarded campaigns have only increased from 18% to 29%. (See fig 18 on the fame gap).
• The efficiency gap between creatively awarded and non awarded campaigns appears to widen in the FMCG sector compared to other sectors, suggesting creativity may be more valuable for packaged goods brands.
General findings include:• Creatively-awarded campaigns are more effective than non-awarded ones despite lower levels of Extra Share of Voice (ESOV). When ESOV levels are taken into account there is a very strong link between creativity and effectiveness.
• The case for investing - the benefit of creativity increases dramatically as the budget rises. With the same level of ESOV creatively awarded campaigns would have driven twice as much market share growth as non-awarded ones.
• Highly creative campaigns are more reliable investments.
• TV constitutes the largest element of Gunn Report scores used in this analysis (77%), followed by press and online. Internet creative awards are taking a rapidly growing proportion (8% over the 2008-2010 period).
• Creatively-awarded campaigns achieve broader levels of success across greater numbers of business metrics beyond share growth, strong on both volume and value.
• The more creatively awarded a campaign the more effective it becomes. The new study shows that campaigns picking up five or more major creative awards were around three times as efficient as campaigns picking up 1-4 ma-jor awards.
• The new study continues to demonstrate the preponderance of emotional communications models amongst creatively awarded campaigns (47% vs 35% for non-awarded campaigns). This also partly explains their superior business performance as emotional campaigns are strongly linked to effectiveness) For example Virgin Atlantic's 2009 campaign was an emotional reinstatement of everything it had stood for over the last 25 years, and delivered a ROMI of 1000% in the midst of the recession.
Says Donald Gunn, Founder, The Gunn Report, “The Gunn Report combines the winners' lists from the top advertising awards contests in the world in order to establish the annual worldwide league tables for the advertising industry. This has a serious underpinning - we firmly believe in the power of creativity to produce sales for the immediate present at one and the same time as it builds reputation for the long haul. Merging these with the IPA's Effectiveness Awards, which are hugely trusted and respected, demonstrates and reinforces this link between high creativity and strong business effects.”
Says Peter Field, author of the study, "This expanded analysis to cover a longer time period going both forwards to newly available 2010 case studies and backwards to 1996 has permitted us to look at more detailed levels of cause and effects with greater certainty, as well as for the first time to identify that there is a time trend to the link between creativity and effectiveness. Creativity is not the risky adventure that many in general management would appear to believe, it is becoming even safer over time. Without a doubt it is becoming increasingly essential in ensuring a brand is successful across a wide range of business metrics from penetration to share and profit growth, and for the long term.”
Says Janet Hull, IPA Director of Marketing & Reputation Management, "The efficiency of highly creative campaigns is growing - the more creative you are the more you get for your money. And the effectiveness of these campaigns is growing, greater creativity enables greater consumer engagement so the importance of generating surprising or inspiring content should not be overlooked."
The publication costs £10 for IPA members, £25 for non-members.
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