At a time when so many companies are rushing to claim sustainability, social justice and other causes as core to their brands, discussions about the effectiveness of these campaigns have been largely absent. With millions of ad dollars being spent to define and promote the ‘purposes’ of brands, what are the real outcomes?
The first findings from The Purpose Impact
Monitor
— a new, ongoing study developed by market research firm
GfK in association with the Goodvertising
Agency — show that brand purpose ads
generally underperform mainstream ads* when it comes to grabbing and holding
viewers’ attention. (See Table 1.)
While three-quarters of generic ads were able to capture attention, the
proportion dropped to two-thirds for purpose ads. And while more than half of
mainstream ads kept viewers engaged, the figure was 11 points lower for purpose
creatives.
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The study also compared two types of purpose creatives:
The latter category was identified and named by Goodvertising’s Thomas
Kolster, a leader in innovative approaches to purpose-driven marketing, in his
2020 book, The Hero Trap;
he discussed the findings in more depth earlier this month at Brand-Led Culture
Change.
“As more and more companies are joining the much-needed change, we have to ask
ourselves, how do we motivate and inspire millions of people to take part in the
change? How do we build brand long-lasting, authentic brands?” Kolster said.
“This research hints at a much-needed change in how brands communicate and
inspire people moving from a navel-gazing value crusade to inspiring people to
do their part.”
The new research showed that transformational ads performed best when it came to
delivering a clear message. Nearly half (48 percent) of transformational ad
viewers reported that the message was clear, compared to just one-third (33
percent) for mainstream ads and 43 percent for traditional purpose spots.
Using its proprietary Ad Fit Optimizer
(AFO) ad-testing
solution (similar in principal to SB Brands for
Good’s Ad Sustainability Awareness
Platform [ASAP]
— which measures an ad’s ability to drive consumer action against the Nine
Most Impactful Sustainable
Behaviors, as
well as its impact on overall brand favorability), GfK surveyed 2,408
respondents and measured 20 advertisements in March 2022, divided equally
between traditional purpose branding and transformational branding ads.
When it came to branding metrics — such as recall — the purpose ads overall were
on par with mainstream ads. (See Table 3.) But traditional purpose ads bested
transformational ones significantly in this area — most likely because the
traditional ads were more aggressive about promoting the brands themselves
within the spots. Transformational ads, by definition, downplay the brand and
make consumers the heroes, which might cause a deficit when looking at common
brand markers.
“Purpose marketing represents billion-dollar investment for brands — so these
campaigns need to meet high standards,” observed Eric Villain, Managing
Director of Marketing Effectiveness at GfK North America. “While branding cues
are somewhat more frequent in traditional purpose ads, we found that those
creatives underperform on key metrics — suggesting that new approaches may be
needed. Our hypothesis is that the very definition of a transformative approach
may take viewers more time and viewings to understand how they, along with the
brand, can be part of the story. Because viewers are more accustomed to messages
in traditional purpose ads, those are easier to grasp.”
One telling contrast can be seen in purpose spots from Dove (“Reverse
Selfie”) and Chipotle (“Can a
Burrito Change the World?”). The
former takes a transformational approach, showing what it takes to push back on
the pressure girls feel to look perfect on social media; while Chipotle’s is a
classic purpose spot focusing on the product itself. While diagnostics for the
two were similar in some ways, Dove scored significantly higher on agreement
with key attitudinal statements such as “inspires me to be part of the change.”
“I’ve been in the purpose space for more than a decade,” Kolster said, “and
there’s no doubt it is increasingly difficult to cut through with a classic
purpose angle — ‘We care!’ It’s time brands stop pitching themselves as the
heroes and instead turn people into the
heroes.
When brands help people become healthier or ‘greener,’ consumers can feel the
difference; it is not just another grandiose brand claim.”
* Mainstream ads = Top 40% of creatives in hook/hold performance
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Jun 20, 2022 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST