Zappi, a market research platform for ad and product development, has released its first annual State of Creative Effectiveness report, based on Zappi data on more than 2,300 ads from B2C brands and almost 1m US consumers between 2019 and 2023. It examines advertising’s effectiveness through the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent period of rising inflation, and offers a mid-year update for 2023. Zappi found that creative effectiveness in 2023 has rebounded from a disappointing 2022, and is set to outperform pre-pandemic advertising, according to its consumer testing. 

The State of Creative Effectiveness report seeks to understand what drives advertising effectiveness at specific moments in time. It found that empathy drove effectiveness in the ‘pandemic-era’ and marketers saw huge bottom-line gains from emotionally-charged ads. Amid the unprecedented changes to consumers’ ways of working and living during the pandemic, brands saw strong ad performance by leaning into messages of empathy. Ads during this period scored 17.5 per cent better in emotional appeal than pre-pandemic ads, which led in part to a massive 32 per cent boost to purchase uplift. Despite strong gains in emotional resonance and response, brand recall declined 5.6 per cent from pre-pandemic levels as it became harder to stand out in the crowd.

The report also found that inflation-era advertising was less effective, failing to match changing consumer behaviour. While marketers achieved strong advertising performance through the pandemic by quickly adapting, inflation impacted consumers more gradually. In July 2021, creative effectiveness declined 2 per cent, along with important indicators of high-performing advertising, such as purchase uplift (-7 per cent) and emotional intensity (-4.5 per cent). This less emotive advertising didn’t resonate with consumers who had begun burning through their pandemic savings to counter rising costs.

Creative effectiveness in 2023 is recovering and out-performing pre-pandemic averages. Almost across the board, effectiveness metrics in 2023 are outpacing averages from the previous year. Brand appeal – an assessment of how an ad made the consumer feel – increased 8 per cent from 2022, meaning that brands have identified the topics and trends that move consumer perceptions. Meanwhile, advertising in 2023 is causing consumers to feel again. Emotional intensity improved 7 per cent from 2022, although it is still slightly lower than the pandemic peak of emotionally charged messaging. Finally, the report saw a 5 per cent improvement in purchase uplift, as advertising regained some ground on the pandemic era. 

“We wanted to put the industry under the microscope to find out if advertising is getting any better,” said Zappi CEO, Steve Phillips. “The good news is that our data shows creative effectiveness is trending upward in 2023. But this positive momentum is merely offsetting what was a down year in 2022. Our data shows that while advertisers mobilized quickly to reach consumers with empathetic messages during the pandemic, they missed that same connection as inflation peaked. Effective advertising happens when advertisers understand their consumers and create work that connects the brand to their needs. Those don’t know their audience may just be wasting precious marketing budgets on ineffective advertising that misses the mark.”