The highlight for me from Cannes this year was the release of research using a combination of the Effie Global database of case studies and System1 creative effectiveness research. The Creative Dividend: How creativity multiplies profitability report is essentially a primer on effective advertising – advertising that drives business impact.
Some considerations that leap off the page for us at Mercer Island Group:
- The effectiveness multiplier that creativity represents
- The poor creative track record of many categories like retail
- The importance of creative testing with a partner that has deep norms like System1
- Diagnosis comes first – a deep understanding of your customers
- Given how important emotion is in compelling advertising, this reports also drives home the critical role of strategy and insights
And deep in Andrew Tindall’s report was a stunning analysis of the value of brand codes in creative advertising.
The analysis suggests there is truly amazing potential business impact from a deft use of brand codes in advertising. For me this research triggered a question for marketers and agencies everywhere:
Where the heck have your brand codes gone?
In days gone by advertising seemed full of brand codes.
There were great taglines like Tide’s In, Dirt’s Out and Bounty is the Quicker Picker Upper.
Amazing, consistent visuals brought brands to life like the dirty collar ring in Wisk advertising, finely partnered with the Wisk around the collar beats ring around the collar every time slogan. Arrow Shirt’s man with an eyepatch.
And those characters that we loved! Snap, Krackle & Pop. The Maytag Repairman. Toucan Sam. Tony the Tiger. More recently Chester Cheetah has been a welcome guest in our viewing.
Intel’s sonic device connected to the Intel Inside tagline.
But, Chester Cheetah and the Geico Gecko seem pretty lonely these days.
Where have the brand codes gone?
I ask because The Creative Dividend: How creativity multiplies profitability makes it clear that brands that are ignoring brand codes are creating a lower than necessary ceiling for their advertising returns.
Let’s go back to the start for a moment. The System1 folks define brand fluency as how recognizable a brand is in its advertising. Advertising simply doesn’t work well if you can’t remember the brand the advertising was associated with. Brand codes are a tool to help with brand recognizability. System1 defines brand codes as identifying features and unique elements in the representation of a brand such as a logo, color palette, typography, tone of voice, imagery and messaging. These can include:
- Logos
- Celebrities
- Brand colors
- Slogans
- Brand typefaces
- Distinct product shapes
- Jingles
- Characters
- Sonic devices
Today there is a great deal of advertising with very few brand codes. And, unfortunately, consumers often have no idea what brand many of those ads represented.
Brand codes can help! The use of a sonic device can increase the chances that an ad has high brand fluency by 2.3 times. A character like the Geico Gekko can increase the odds of high brand fluency by 2.2 times. Think about that impact… brand codes can be multipliers of effectiveness !
The slide below from System1’s The Creative Dividend: How creativity multiplies profitability report paints quite a picture of possibility:
The indicated action seems clear: let’s all be better students of our craft. Let’s make better use of brand codes in our advertising. We’ll enjoy the returns.
Steve Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Ulta Beauty, Microsoft, UScellular, Nintendo, Kaiser Permanente, Holland America Line, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Brooks Running, and numerous others. He founded MIG after serving as a division president in a Fortune 100 when he was only 32. Earlier in his career, Steve Boehler cut his teeth with a decade in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, leading brands like Tide, Pringles, and Jif.
Mercer Island Group helps marketers and agencies succeed. Company leadership is as much at home with marketers and their C-Suites as in an agency’s boardroom. With marketers, Mercer Island Group is a top 5 agency search consultancy covering all types of agency relationships (creative, media, web, PR, experiential) and assists marketers with marketing organization structure, workflow and critical skill development (briefing, creative evaluation & feedback, etc.). The company also supports leading and aspiring agencies with positioning, pitch and strategy training and pitch support.