GOOD ADS DON’T WEAR OUT. CONSISTENCY IS A GOOD ALLY FOR BRANDS

Marketers’ biggest vice is their impatience and need for change. But sometimes it’s better to leave things as they are. Why? System1’s research shows that advertising consistency is a major contributor to brand growth.

Resisting the temptation to change the advertising once we get bored is not easy for marketers, but it’s worth it. Consistency of creative brings a whole host of benefits to brands. Provided, of course, that the creative is good from the start and works.

System1 research confirms the power of brand consistency

According to research carried out by System1 using data from the IPA Effectiveness Databank and YouGov, consistency of creative drives brand growth.

“Fusing data from System1 and the IPA Effectiveness Databank has provided us with an insightful piece of research to add to our toolkit,” said Pretty Nimoh, Project Lead, IPA Databank. “Agencies and brands can now be more confident that maintaining consistency in brand positioning and creative style can compound the effects of their campaigns.“

Compound Creativity, a first-of-its-kind study, analysed brands across channels for 13 creative consistency features, looking at 4,000+ ads from 56 brands across 44 categories, spanning 5 years and representing £3.5 billion in digital and classical TV ad spend. Each brand was assigned a creative consistency score (CCS). Subsequently, this metric was used to divide the brands into one of three groups: most consistent, somewhat consistent, and least consistent.

For the purposes of the research, System1 used its Test Your Ad platform, which tests consumers’ emotional responses to advertising to predict short- and long-term brand-building potential. System1 focuses on three basic measurements when evaluating ads:

• Star rating: Star rating measures people’s emotional response to advertising.


• Spike rating: The short-term impact forecast tells you how likely it is that a given ad will increase sales.


• Fluency rating: This rating shows the extent to which the public was able to identify who the advertiser was.

The results of a new Compound Creativity study on brand consistency suggest that the most consistent brands not only create stronger ads, but their ads are stronger year over year.

Consistent brands produce higher creative quality

The most creatively consistent brands in the study average a Star Rating of 3.3, predicting ‘Good’ long-term brand-building potential, compared to 2.8-Stars for somewhat consistent brands and 2.6-Stars for the least consistent brands.

Advertising from consistent brands improves in creative quality year on year

The most consistent brands see their average Star Rating increase annually (+0.2 Star Rating), which has a compound effect. The least consistent brands see no growth in their creative quality. After 5 years, advertising from the most consistent brands is expected to grow market share more than twice as effectively than the least consistent brands (given the same media spend).

Consistent brands are stronger

Campaigns from the most consistent brands create +27% more effects, generating more brand awareness, differentiation, brand values and salience. In addition, they are more likely to change consumer behaviour. The more consistent brands are more popular and famous according to YouGov’s brand tracking.

The most consistent brands generate more business effects

In linking the IPA Effectiveness Databank metrics against the brands’ creative the most consistent brands (top 20%) achieve +28% more business effects, including sales value gain, profit gain, market share gain and more.

What consistency doesn’t do?

The benefits of consistency have their limits, according to the study. The results showed that creative consistency cannot help brands defend market share or arrest decline, nor can it revive existing markets. Consistency has been shown to be a factor that reinforces good creative rather than a standalone marketing weapon.

Creative inconsistency is costly

Brands that are somewhat consistent or the least consistent have to spend more to achieve the same level of growth as the most consistent brands. The cost of change is estimated at £3.47 billion over the next 5 years.

Consistency pays off for brands

This study challenged the idea that advertisements become less effective over time because they “wear out”. Brands should be wary of abandoning a successful brand platform if the only concern is that people will become bored watching the same ad creative on TV.

Research shows that the most consistent brands generate a significantly higher brand and business impact through their marketing campaigns, including twice as much profit. Creatives and marketers should therefore develop long-term positioning and quality creative and then apply it across media channels over a number of years, allowing the full positive impact to be manifested.

About System1

System1 is a creative effectiveness platform that rapidly harnesses the power of emotion to drive profitable growth for the world’s leading brands. Its solutions Test Your Ad (TYA) and Test Your Innovation (TYI) quickly predict the short- and long-term commercial potential of ads and ideas, giving marketers confidence that their creative concepts will delight consumers and drive profitable growth. Complementing the TYA and TYI solutions is Test Your Brand (TYB), which measures the impact of ads and ideas on brand health. System1 also offers expert advice to help its clients improve the effectiveness of their ads and ideas.

The Compound Creativity study is available here.