ARS Findings for Retailers: Focus on Advertising Creative Can Yield Big Dividends

For the last thirty years, ARSgroup has conducted numerous studies into the relative role of creative strength and media quantity in generating ad campaign sales responses. I thought you might be interested in some of the insights we’ve uncovered. One of the most interesting findings from this research is that the advertising creative is four times as important in determining sales outcomes as the amount of media spent. Said another way, what we say and how we say it plays an even more critical role than how often we say it.

This four-to-one ratio highlights the great leverage to be had in optimizing the creative. Even modest improvements in persuasiveness and message communication can yield sizeable improvements in sales per media dollar spent.

So what are some of the tips and techniques we have found for optimizing creative? Here are four that are especially pertinent to the e-commerce space:

1. Quantifying benefits. When making shopping and product decisions, people can have a hard time valuing the benefits presented. Quantifying these in terms they understand can lead to significantly higher results. Two simple examples are “20% lower prices” rather than “lower prices” and “2 days faster shipping” instead of “faster shipping”. It should be noted that these quantifications don’t have to be verbal or mathematical. The telecoms, for example, have had great success in using coverage maps to help consumers quantify the benefits of their 3G networks. These types of simple changes in copy can have impacts far in excess of the effort applied in finding and executing them.
2. Take advantage of multiple executions when communicating complex or higher order messages. Sometimes a message is too complex to be captured in a single creative execution. This is especially the case of lower CPM advertising like banner ads. One way to circumvent this obstacle is to take advantage of the frequency in a media plan by using multiple executions to break the complex message into smaller chunks. In the minds of the consumers, these smaller pieces get synthesized and elevated to the desired higher message. For example, take the blinded case of one company that wanted to communicate the higher level message that it is sustainability-focused. This was accomplished through multiple ads each focusing on a different “green” initiative the company undertook; implementation of a waste reduction program, gains in manufacturing energy efficiency, and reduced plant emissions. Consumers who saw any individual ad took away that chunk of the message. But consumers who saw all three ads synthesized the message pieces and translated them into the broader sustainability concept. (See Table 1).

1. Source: Seven insights from holistic campaign testing; Frank Findley, Quirk’s Marketing Review April 2008
2. Don’t forget the emotional content! Our research shows that the advertising campaigns which work the best create both emotional and rational connections with the consumer. When using rich media and video, it is often possible to include compelling emotional and rational content in the same execution. But if this is not possible, use rich media with sound and motion to connect emotionally and lower CPM formats to reinforce the easier-to-communicate rational messages.
3. Make the brand prominent. If the creative doesn’t link back to the brand, then the impact on sales will be missed. Therefore, it is important to prominently mention the brand verbally and visually. The best outcome is if the brand is perceived to be the hero of the action.