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The Case for Creativity

This document presents findings from fifteen studies over two decades indicating that more creative advertising significantly enhances effectiveness, with creatively awarded campaigns outperforming standard advertising in business impact and market share growth. The analysis shows that creative advertising makes brands more memorable and persuasive, leading to better consumer perceptions and increased attention. Overall, the evidence supports the notion that creativity in advertising correlates with greater commercial success for agencies and companies.

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Two decades’ evidence of the link between imaginative marketing and commercial success December 2012
Is more creative advertising more e!ective advertising? This presentation is a summary of the "ndings of "fteen studies comparing the e!ectiveness of more creative and less creative advertising, agencies and companies The studies were conducted in North America, UK, Europe, Asia & Australasia, and span two decades from 1990 to 2010 They were conducted by university academics, industry researchers, the IPA and McKinsey & Company They all reach the same conclusion, and there are no known studies that con#ict with that conclusion The studies are discussed in more detail in the book ‘The Case for Creativity’ by James Hurman
More creative advertising is more e!ective advertising In 1996 and 2002, while at Leo Burnett, Donald Gunn twice produced his ‘Do Award Winning Commercials Percentage of advertising campaigns shown to Sell?’ study. produce a business result In both cases he collected the case histories of the 400 most awarded recent campaigns in the world, along with quanti"ed evidence of their business results. He found that 86.5% and 82% of those awarded campaigns, respectively, had met or exceeded their clients objectives. This is an improvement on advertising in general, which is 84%! 70%! shown to generate a sales result around 70% of the time. Proving not only that creatively awarded advertising tends to be e!ective, but also that it tends to be more e!ective Creatively awarded Advertising in than advertising in general. advertising general SOURCE: Gunn, ‘Do Award Winning Commercials Sell?’ 1996, 2002; Jones, ‘When Ads Work’, 1995; McDonald, 'How frequently should you advertise?', 1996; Brandes, 'How advertising works in Germany', 1996!
More creative advertising is more e!ective advertising In 2010, Peter Field, an independent contractor to the UK’s IPA, studied the 257 IPA E!ectiveness Award Average points of market share growth per 10 points winning campaigns since 2000. of excess share of voice He contrasted the campaigns that had won a major creative award against those that hadn’t, and measured their relative e!ectiveness. His "rst "nding was that the creatively awarded campaigns were eleven times more e$cient at generating a market share increase. 5.7! 0.5! Creatively awarded Non-creatively awarded advertising advertising SOURCE: Field, ‘The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness’, 2010  
More creative advertising is more e!ective advertising Peter’s second "nding was that the creatively awarded E$ciency of creatively awarded campaigns vs non-awarded campaigns campaigns were much more certain to achieve that result. The less creative campaigns were not only less e$cient, but also less predictable than the creatively awarded ones. This suggests a departure from the conventional wisdom that a more creative approach is a ‘riskier’ one. SOURCE: Field, ‘The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness’, 2010  
More creative advertising is more e!ective advertising Peter’s third "nding was that Advertising E!ectiveness Success Rate: creatively- vs non-creatively awarded the creatively awarded campaigns achieved a higher ‘E!ectiveness Success Rate’ than the non-awarded campaigns. This is a measure of achieving ‘very large business e!ects’, ie, signi"cant improvements in market share, penetration, pro"tability, etc. 75%! 59%! 88%! 80%! The creatively awarded campaigns were shown to be 10% more e!ective on a high spend, and 27% more e!ective Awarded Non-awarded Awarded Non-awarded on a low spend. LOW ESOV SPEND <6% HIGH ESOV SPEND >6% SOURCE: Field, ‘The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness’, 2010  
More creative advertising is more effective advertising Peter’s fourth finding was that as the campaigns got more creatively awarded (i.e. achieved a higher Gunn The most creatively-awarded campaigns are also Report score for achieving greater quality and the most e!ective quantity of awards) they got more effective. Campaigns that produced a higher number of very large business effects (i.e., significant improvements in market share, penetration, profitability, etc) also had a higher Gunn Report score. AVERAGE
 AVERAGE
 GUNN
 GUNN
 REPORT
 REPORT
 SCORE! SCORE! 2.0! 3.1! Low ( 0-1) High (2+) Number of Very Large Business E!ects SOURCE: Field, ‘The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness’, 2010  
More creative agencies are more e!ective agencies In 2011, the 16 UK and US agencies that had featured in the Gunn Report top 50 more than twice between 2006 and 2010 E!ectiveness awards won per $US1B billed were compared with the 16 largest and most successful, but less creatively awarded agencies, from the same markets. The ‘most creative’ group included the likes of BBDO, DDB, TBWA, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Wieden+Kennedy. The ‘less creative’ group included JWT, Ogilvy, Grey, Y&R and Publicis. The study found that the ‘most creative’ agencies won, on 13.7! 5.4! average, many more e!ectiveness awards, despite being smaller than the ‘less creative’ agencies. Most Creative Less Creative The ‘most creative’ agencies were shown to be over two and a Agencies Agencies half times more e!ective than the ‘less creative’ agencies. SOURCE: Hurman, ‘The Case for Creativity’, 2011  
More creative companies are more successful companies An analysis of the Cannes Advertisers of the Year of the 2000’s reveals that each had experienced a record Annual stock value growth of Cannes Advertisers of period of stock market growth at the time of receiving the Year 2000-2009 vs S&P500 annual average that award. While the Cannes Advertisers of the Year experienced, on average, 41% stock value growth in the year they won the award, the S&P500 experienced a fraction of that growth at 0.5%. Further analysis reveals that in each case, the companies had been going through a period of greater focus on creativity and innovation throughout their business, of which award winning advertising and 41%! 0.5%! stock market success were symptomatic. Cannes Advertisers S&P500 of the Year SOURCE: Hurman, ‘The Case for Creativity’, 2011  
How does creativity work? The many academic and industry studies of creativity in advertising not only prove a more creative approach to be a more e!ective one. They also give us insight into how creativity works – how creativity increases the e!ectiveness of advertising…
How does creativity work? Creativity’s "rst e!ect is that it makes advertising more likely to stand out and be noticed. Five academic studies between 1991 and 2005 show that increased levels of creativity promote increased and more intense attention to advertising. SOURCE: Pick, Sweeney & Clay, 1991; McQuarrie & Mick, 1992; Stewart & Furse, 2000; Pieters, Warlop & Wedel, 2002; Till & Baack, 2005.  
How does creativity work? Creativity’s second e!ect is that it makes advertising more likely to be remembered and recalled. In 2005, researchers at the University of South Carolina showed that creative advertising was signi"cantly (2 to 9 times) more likely to be recalled unprompted than advertising in general. SOURCE: Till & Baack, ‘Recall & Persuasion: Does Creative Advertising Matter?’, 2005  
How does creativity work? Creativity’s third e!ect is that it makes advertising more likely to generate ‘fame’ and conversation. In 2010, researchers at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising showed that creatively awarded advertising was twice as likely to generate strong ‘fame’ e!ects, i.e. online and o%ine conversation. In 2007 the same researchers had shown campaigns generating strong ‘fame’ e!ects to be the most e!ective of all campaigns. SOURCE: Field, ‘The link between creativity and effectiveness’, 2010  
How does creativity work? Creativity’s fourth e!ect is that it makes advertising more persuasive. In 2009, researchers at the Universities of Indiana and Wisconsin-Milwaukee showed that creatively-awarded advertising triggers greater purchase intent, and that this was because it measurably increases open- mindedness and curiosity. Consumers let their defences down more for creative advertising, allowing themselves to be sold to more readily. SOURCE: Yang & Smith, ‘Beyond Attention Effects: Modeling the Persuasive and Emotional Effects of Advertising Creativity’, 2009  
Advertising creativity makes people think better of companies In 2008, researchers at the E!ects of advertising creativity on broad company perceptions Stockholm School of Economics discovered that more creative advertising had a far greater impact than less creative advertising on consumers’ positive perceptions of the company being advertised. Respondents shown creative advertising felt better about a company and its product than 57%! 34%! 78%! 57%! 68%! 39%! those shown less creative advertising for the same company. More Less More Less More Less creative creative creative creative creative creative “Smart Company” “High Quality” “Worth Purchasing” SOURCE: Dahlén, Rosengren and Törn, ‘Advertising Creativity Matters’, 2008  
Summary: “Creativity is an advertiser’s best bet.” - McKinsey & Company, 2006 Two decades of international research measurably demonstrate that: More creative advertising is more e!ective advertising More creative agencies are more e!ective agencies More creative companies are more successful companies Creativity works by making advertising more likely to stand out, more likely to be recalled, more likely to be talked about and more likely to persuade consumers Consumers think better of companies and the products they produce when those companies use more creative advertising For more, visit www.caseforcreativity.com