49% of incremental sales lifts from advertising are thanks to the quality of the brand’s creative. Only 39% of brand’s sales lifts come from the media used. What NCSolutions discovered with this research is that the quality of your client’s ads is WAY more important than the media types they choose. And we all know how important choosing the right types of ads is. It’s about time for your client to focus on the creative part of their brand content strategy to get the sales boost they’ve been looking for.

The Best Brand Content Strategy Includes Top-​Shelf Creative

What Makes an Effective Ad

Purchases are driven by emotion. People buy things that will make them happy, feel successful, fill a need that worries them, etc. So, it’s no wonder that NCSolutions says that, “Exceptional creative work taps into the power of emotion.” If your client’s creative can do that, their ads will leave a lasting impression on consumers. Lasting impressions lead to brand recall which leads to sales.

What makes an emotionally triggering ad?

Humor

Funny ads are usually the ones that win awards and get consumers’ attention. They’ve been proven to increase engagement and distinctiveness amongst the crowd. Yet, humor in ads has shown a steady decline over the past few decades, according to Kantar.

Only around 32% of ads contain some form of humor. Most of those are radio and TV ads. Surprisingly, digital ads tend to use less humor on average, with most funny messaging put into video ads. We see humor make an appearance even less in print and outdoor ads.

As long as the humor in your client’s ads is tasteful, it can give a huge boost to the effectiveness of their brand content strategy.

Social Messaging

NCSolutions says that advertisers can learn a lot about ad effectiveness by looking at what Gen Z looks for in ads. Like everyone else, they love funny ads. But serious ads with social messages also resonate well with them. “They’re three times more likely to engage with advertising if it includes social messaging that’s aligned with their beliefs,” says NCSolutions.

Does your client support a cause or have an annual event where a portion of sales goes to a charity? Add that in their brand content strategy! If consumers know that your client supports causes that they care about, they’ll be more likely to make purchases from them.

Would your client like to support a cause but don’t know which one would best resonate with their customers? Take a look at their target audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel to find out which types of causes they care about.

Interests and Desires

Of course, the best creative is focused on the target customers’ wants and needs. Your client’s ads can’t just show consumers what products or services are available. Put an emotional twist to it! Show them how your client’s offerings can help them fulfill their wants and meet their needs. Seeing a product in action with actors who appear to have the same lifestyle as them finding fulfillment with a product is way more effective than just a slideshow of products with prices beside them.

Conclusion

No matter how your client chooses to advertise, be it digital or traditional ads, creative is the most important aspect of any brand content strategy:

• Linear TV: 48% of incremental sales are thanks to creative
• Digital: 49%
• Social Media: 46%

Don’t let your client continue to think that just choosing the right media ad types is enough to boost sales. Their brand content strategy needs to focus on creative or it won’t work.

Photo by Surface