65% of Indians will buy brands that stand for something they can identify with

Great advertising is rocket-fuel for building predisposition. That is one of the top learnings from Kantar’s ‘Blueprint for Brand Growth’—an evidence-based framework that the company launched earlier this year. It is aimed at helping businesses plan their marketing strategy so they can build strong and profitable brands.

Indicating that growing meaningfully different brands in a more effective and efficient way is pertinent, the study found that creative quality, second only to brand size, greatly influences campaign profitability. It can double the impact that reach does on brand salience.

Research by the marketing data and analytics company emphasises that ads must persuade and convey messages that are novel, credible, relevant, and different to enhance short-term sales. High-quality ads, which leave a lasting impression, generally perform well in both short-term sales and long-term brand-building, thus reducing the need to spend money on performance marketing.

Another nugget that the report found was that beyond brand recognition, generating a strong emotional response is key. This is because emotion helps build strong memory structures, and most advertising effects are not immediate. Emotion plays a critical role in effective creative and not just in TV content.

Commenting on this year’s findings, Soumya Mohanty, managing director and chief client officer for south Asia at Kantar’s insights division said, “One of the growth accelerators for building strong brands is to pre-dispose more people. Great advertising builds pre-disposition and loads the dice in favour of the brands. Creative content can and should punch above its weight”.

Kantar also unveiled the ads that were most effective and creative across India in 2023, where the consumers were the jury. The company stated that as people control a brand's fortunes through their spending power, their voice decides what is effective advertising.

Close to 300 ads made to the shortlist of Kantar’s fourth edition of Creative Effectiveness Awards India across categories, markets, TGs and media channels. It tested more than 12,000 creatives for its clients around the world in 2023, of which over 11% (over 1,400) were tested in India. All the shortlisted ads exemplify essential characteristics of being creatively engaging and landing persuasive stories that enhance brand sales, the company stated.

Soumya Mohanty, managing director and chief client officer for south Asia at Kantar’s insights division.

“Truly creative ads are the ones that are effective. The journey from being just creative to being effective starts by including your key stakeholders—your target consumers, into the process by pre-testing your ads,” explained Prasanna Kumar, head of creative domain and executive vice president, South Asia, insights division, Kantar.

Television categories include food and beverage, home care, personal care, services and Unstereotype. The new categories that were introduced include ‘Original creatives for South’, ‘Adaptations for South’, Most creative and effective TV ad (overall)’ and ‘Most consistently effective advertiser’.

Creatives for digital also continued to grow this year as well, with Kantar awarding performers in four categories—three based on ‘Ad length’ format and one for the ‘Most creative and effective digital ad’, for bringing to life the exciting storytelling possibilities in the digital world.

The winners list has doubled from last year, with the Kantar awarding 10 performers in the TV ads category and four in the digital ads category. Creatives from Hindustan Unilever, Mondelez, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Fashnear Technologies, Godrej Consumer Products and Zydus Wellness won in in the TV category, while Eicher Motors, Nestle, Delightful Gourmet and Tata Group won in the digital category.