Creativity sells 6 % market share increase at same media weight 5 4 3 2 1 0 Not creatively awarded Creatively awarded Source: Peter Field, The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness, IPA, 2010. The best way to get effective campaigns is to run highly creative work. Creativity makes 6 the single biggest known difference to sales. More recent analysis suggests that the more creative awards a campaign wins, the more it 7 sells, and that creativity is becoming even more sales effective than it was a few years ago. Of course, consumers do not know or care whether the work won an award. Highly creative work sells more because (a) it is more likely to appeal to the emotions than to reason, and (b) it is more likely to achieve higher coverage and frequency after being passed on via social media and PR. The result is greater exposure of a more powerful appeal. Creativity, then, leads to more exposure than the client paid for. More exposure more = sales. We review other ways of generating more exposure below, but creativity works best. 2. Set hard objectives While creativity makes the biggest difference to sales, the campaign objective is the next most important. Hard objectives sell best. Campaigns are five times more likely to sell when the objectives are set in terms of sales, profit or market share than when they are set in terms of soft objectives (such as awareness, image, conversion, etc.). 6. McKinsey reached the same conclusion after analyzing campaigns entered for German effectiveness awards. It concluded, “The more creative a campaign, the higher the likelihood that the featured product will sell… Other things being equal, creativity is the advertiser’s best bet.” McKinsey, 2006. 7. Peter Field, The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness, 2011 Update, IPA, 2011. 9