Do awarding winning advertisments increase sales and market share or are they more a showcase for the agency making them?
A study by data management group Kantar of the 2019 Cannes Lions found the award-winning advertisments lesss effective that many realise.
Analysts assessed 25 of the 2019 Cannes Lions winners for effectiveness, by comparing the ads with a database of almost 200,000.
They found ony one in four of the Cannes award winners tested likely to drive strong brand effectiveness either in the short- or long term.
Six ads scored in the top 30% of all ads in the database for power contribution, a measure for long-term impact.
"What’s more, only a quarter are strongly likely to drive short-term sales," says Kantar in its study.
Kantar says there is a difference between purely creative content and effective content. It depends on whether the objective is to win awards or win customers.
"But there is no reason why award-winning ads shouldn’t be effective," says Kantar.
A recent study by the Communications Council of 143 campaigns entered in the 2018 and 2019 Effie Awards aimed to understand the patterns and trends in advertising effectiveness in Australia.
The result is the Australian Advertising Effectiveness Rules report, co-authored by advertising effectiveness luminaries Rob Brittain and Peter Field.
However, a broader examination of Cannes award winners in the Kantar database shows a strong declining trend in the effectiveness of the awarding winning work.
"Our research shows that more than just short-term advertising focus is driving the creative effectiveness crisis," says Kantar.
Kantar says creative must be distinctive, well-branded, convey meaningful difference and trigger the right emotion.
"There is no denying that the shock factor grabs attention," says Kantar.
For example, 2019 Cannes Lion Bronze award-winning creative from Australia for female undergarment maker, Berlei, called Boob Balls.
This uses shock tactics to gain attention, by drawing a parallel between what breast tissue endures when not supported by a sports bra.
"But being distinctive and involving alone is insufficient to drive short or long-term brand impact," says Kantar.
"At a minimum, creative needs to also be clearly associated with the brand – otherwise content will serve to advertise the category or worse the competition through misattribution."
Almost half of the 2019 Cannes award winners scored in the lowest third for branding.
And very few of the Cannes award winners create meaningful and different brand associations.
"One way to deliver a meaningful proposition is through purpose, and we have seen an increase in purpose-led campaigns," Kantar.
However, analysis of nearly 200,000 ads over the past six years demonstrates that purpose alone will not drive benefits for a brand.
Environmental or social responsibility messages or corporate reputation, must be fit-for-brand -- it must make sense according
to the wider picture of how people view the brand.
"Our data shows the significant difference that purpose can make to long-term brand building, as measured by power contribution," says Kantar.
"But it is not enough to just promote a purpose – the purpose must be authentic to the brand, for it to benefit from this positioning."
A good example of advertising that demonstrates authentic brand purpose is the Dove’s Project #Showus Cannes Silver award-winner, a continuation of the long running Real Beauty campiagn.
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