Why Advertising Must Become More 'Open Source' To Combat Effectiveness Decline

Despite the increased attention being paid towards entering effectiveness awards in the last year, the growing value of brands - and therefore the real effectiveness of their marketing - has not been guaranteed in recent years. Indeed it was in sharp decline just 12 months ago. This was the sobering message delivered by Nationwide Building Society’s marketing chief, Catherine Kehoe.

As the chair of the jury for this year’s IPA Effectiveness Awards, Kehoe addressed the industry at the beginning of the ceremony to vocalise the importance of learning from the entries to improve the impact of future campaigns.

“The IPA Effectiveness Awards continue to be the world’s leading databank of marketing learning, and this year I know we will be adding to that significantly. I therefore urge everyone to read the winning papers, because you will be stunned at what you learn. I know I was,” she said..

Kehoe lauded the IPA’s Advertising Works initiative but caveated that since its launch in 1981 a lot has changed in the industry, including indications that advertising doesn’t work as well as it did 40 years ago.

“Real effectiveness is in long-term decline as marketing is delivering ever lower ROIs, whilst media fragmentation and addressable buying is leading to brand awareness falling in many categories and geographies. Sadly, we appear to be getting less good at doing what we are meant to be doing, and that’s building the strong brands that drive outsized commercial returns,” she said, citing Kantar’s 2023 study that discovered that the top 100 brands were 20 per cent less valuable compared to the previous year.

“That’s a big drop. A multi-trillion dollar drop in fact,” she added, before pointing out that industry events largely ignored that statistic, choosing instead to celebrate soft metrics such as likes and clicks.

“Sadly, in a world where 90 per cent of clicks to most forms of mobile display advertising are accidental, everyone here knows the reality is very different,” she continued.

Kehoe said she believed that advertising was entering a new era of marketing effectiveness, which was powered by targeting and machine learning in media buying. She also highlighted that TV was growing weaker as a mass audience reach medium as another example of decline, alongside the walled gardens of tech companies negatively impacting the development of a more personalised ad approach by brands.

“We are increasingly entering in a world of brands being built on the ground, by armies of influencers, by brand partnerships and collaborations, and by in-feed and in-game activations. Hand-to-hand marketing is replacing fire-and-forget. And that means we are all learning new lessons every day in so many ways,” she explained.

Returning directly to effectiveness, she expressed a need for the industry to be more “open source” to help educate and learn from one another. And Kehoe also welcomed the evidence from across the award papers that showcased how the power of the big and simple idea, alongside emotionally engaging creativity, executed consistently over a sustained period was still the key to successful marketing communications.

Winners at this year’s awards included agencies adam&eveDDB, AMV BBDO and TBWA\Worldwide which won for their work with brands such as McCain and Guinness among others.

Read Kehoe’s full speech through the IPA website and find out more about this year’s winners elsewhere on Creative Salon.