Editor’s Note: The following are key findings from the ARF SOCIALxSCIENCE Event.
Best Creative Practices for Ads & Branded Content
How can data and research inspire more effective creative? What’s being done now, and what are new opportunities for providing a guide to best practices for creative success?
Key takeaways from presentations:
Data-Driven Mobile Creative (Lara Andrews, Facebook)
- Successful mobile advertisers use data and insights to fuel marketing strategies – they test, learn and optimize as they go.
- Facebook found that the fastest growing mobile advertisers created 11x more creative assets (45 vs. 4) with 11x average variance in ROAS between the top and bottom performing creatives; and by testing and optimizing creative, advertisers reduced cost per incremental buyer by 23%.
The Best Practice is Dead (Long Live the Best Practice) (Mike Dossett, RPA)
- There is a lot of bad social advertising due to misaligned incentives and interests, flawed data analysis and application, lack of adequate investment, misunderstanding of/disregard for platform nuances, rejection of audience behaviors, etc.
- The paradox: Creatives don’t like unnecessary constraint and strategists don’t like uninformed risk. Our job as marketers is to toe the line between the merit of these best practices. We need to understand the nuances of best practices so we can make the best decisions.
Three Takeaways for a Six-Second World (Amy Shea, Ameritest)
- We tested 15 6s ads on a mobile YouTube environment. Viewers could opt to watch a travel video, baby video, or pizza-making video. Before their chosen video would play, they first had to watch a 6s ad.
- Study results: Congruency of brand message and social content positively affects ad performance significantly. That is congruency of tone, subject, and audience.
- Six-second brand messages are seen, but measuring attention works differently in this brand message + social content world.
Key takeaways from the panel discussion:
- There is no magic number or formula for creative success.
- There is no magic number for attention.
- Real constraints can push you into great storytelling.
- It’s important to test the individual brand and campaign.
You can view each of these presentations via:
Lara Andrews – Creative Researcher, Facebook. Data-Driven Mobile Creative.
Mike Dossett – VP, Associate Director, Digital Strategy, RPA Advertising. The Best Practice Is Dead*.
Amy Shea – Brand Experience Director, Ameritest. Three Takeaways for a Six-Second World.