While the various polls looking at the “Best Super Bowl Commercials” tend to vary widely in their results, advertising experts show a lot of agreement on what makes Super Bowl ads successful.
The ARF Creative Council hosted its seventh Happy Hour event on Super Bowl advertising and what to watch for in the commercial breaks during this year’s big game. Council member Belle Frank of VMLY&R moderated a discussion with four creative experts – three of them from the Creative Council -- to discuss Super Bowl ad insights and trends, giving marketers important ideas to consider and advertising fans something to look for on Sunday night.
Member Only AccessDuring this ARF Creative Council event, Council member Ann Green moderated a conversation with agency creative and strategy executives to unpack the best practices for researchers to approach creative briefs that will inspire and achieve clients’ business goals.
Member Only AccessOn October 13, 2022, industry leaders joined us for an inaugural Creative Effectiveness event on how to stimulate great creative and measure it. Panelists shared innovative and experiential formats as well as new approaches and tools in support of building and measuring campaigns. The event was followed by the ARF David Ogilvy Awards reception.
Member Only AccessPresenters in each track participated in a moderated discussion.
Member Only AccessWhat is the special sauce that elevates an advertising campaign from workmanship to artistry? Olson Zaltman researchers reviewed more than 200 of the most iconic advertising campaigns to “separate the best of the best from the rest,” then wove their findings into what they called the A-B-4C Model of Winning Advertising. Brands and agencies developing new creative can look to this model, or look at existing ideas through lens of this model, to see which elements of it are in their campaigns. “There’s no guarantee your brand will be a huge hit, you still have to pull the correct emotional levels,” James Forr asserted. However, having “one or more of these elements suggests that the odds of success for your campaign will go up significantly”:
Member Only AccessThe advertising industry needs more support in its efforts to harness creativity. Pointing to a Cannes-Lions State of Creativity report statistic—just 20% of brand leaders feel confident they can convince CFOs to invest in high-quality creative work—Adam Sheridan of Ipsos believes his research can help agencies and brand managers overcome barriers to adopting and promoting quality creative. He offered insights from his upcoming book, MISFITS: How Creativity in Advertising Sparks Brand Growth.
Member Only AccessAt the Thursday keynote address to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Masters of Marketing Conference
Marc Pritchard (Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble Co.) addressed issues with creative agencies in his talk on “Raising the Creative Bar.” But he said it’s time to lower pressure on agencies – which has included P&G cutting its agency and production fees the past two year by $570 million to $1.4 billion.
Doing good creative work requires time, he said. “And we have a problem, because we’re spending too much of our time on measurement of advertising vs. the quality. We’re fiddling with measurement debates while consumers are blocking our ads. Measurement is not going to make crappy advertising better.”
On creative measurement, while P&G certainly hasn’t abandoned copy testing, Mr. Pritchard said he favors a different test for deciding to proceed with work, which is “whether it makes my spine tingle.” If it does, it should at least get further development, he said.