The Kantar Media Reactions 2021 survey of global marketers reveals that over 70% of advertisers are growing their investment in digital platforms in 2022.
Marketers across Southeast Asia increased advertising and media investment last year as more media channels became digitised with spend in the sector, globally growing by 31% compared with 19% overall.
Kantar Singapore’s Head of Creative and Media Solutions Pablo Gomez says that “this is no surprise with all the new platforms and formats in digital to explore such as Metaverse. Some brands are already blazing a trail to find the role that they can play in these new virtual worlds.”
Channel fragmentation requires a greater need to understand ad effectiveness and the integration of advanced analytics and automation into the creative effectiveness process. “And it brings a new level of speed and more granular insights to the development cycle,” adds Gomez.
“Regardless of the sheer breadth and scale of the multitude of different ways to reach and connect with consumers again, brands must step back and ensure there is a cumulative connection and consistency in the message and brand in every format.
“From establishing your strategy and kicking off ideation through to executing your campaign and optimising in-flight; getting creative right is a journey. Testing and learning must be involved at every stage.
“The fundamentals of great advertising still hold true; and whatever the journey, technique or device, all our winning ads engage and entertain.”
Kantar data also shows that creative quality is the second most important factor in profitable advertising, whereas marketers rank that fourth. Great creative drives both brand equity and sales; balancing the right creative approach with getting the executional details right ensures the memorable X-factor of winning campaigns.
“Great creative is more than just connection. It transcends ROI too. Creative quality is the single largest driver of advertising profitability that a marketer can influence. Our global CrossMedia studies find creative quality and consistency of use across channel accounts for 50 per cent of campaign effectiveness.”
Gomez says that there were five ‘digital sparks’ that set apart the winning ads of their Digital Creative Awards in 2021:
- Fluid content signatures – creating unique brand content that transcends screens and can be used across platforms.
- Demo 2.0 – using inventive ways to make the demo fun and real at the same time because there is more than one way to deliver product news and not follow the prevalent trend on the platform.
- Reframing perspectives – cleverly using behaviour to break category tropes and connect with empathy – all at the same time.
- Connecting cultures – recognising, appreciating and embracing local nuances while adhering to brand DNA.
- Ad length advantage – communicating the brand and message in a clever, effective and succinct way using ad length to their advantage.
“A big outtake from our winners is that brands can earn attention by entertaining and making people feel with and for the brand,” says Gomez. “Achieving this does not require full fat measurements.”
“All you need to get right is measuring the capacity of your creative to hold attention and land the brand message.”
