Ahead of Cannes Lions, Zappi, the leading consumer insights platform, released its third annual State of Creative Effectiveness report in collaboration with VaynerMedia, a global creative and media agency. This comprehensive study evaluates advertising performance using real consumer feedback, offering brands actionable insights to improve ad impact and ROI.
Findings from the 2025 Report
1. Comprehensive Industry Analysis
- Evaluated over 4,000 ads tested via Zappi’s Amplify ad system.
- Gathered feedback from more than 1.6 million U.S. consumers.
- Included a nationally representative survey of 1,000 Americans on attitudes toward AI, celebrity endorsements, humor, and branded storytelling.
2. Emotion as a Crucial Performance Driver
- Ads scoring in the top 25% for overall emotional impact are twice as likely to generate immediate sales.
- Emotional connection boosts sales impact significantly (78th percentile vs. 41st).
- Humor improves ad enjoyment but does not consistently increase purchase consideration. Funniest ads score slightly below average on sales impact.
3. Celebrity Endorsements: Visibility vs. Brand Impact
- Celebrities increase ad distinctiveness (3.5/5 vs. 3.3/5 average) and appear in 25% of ads.
- However, ads with celebrities have lower brand impact (55th percentile) compared to non-celebrity ads (63rd percentile).
- Importance of a seamless brand fit with celebrity presence is highlighted.
4. Category-Specific Performance
- Food and Beverage: Leads in short-term purchase lift (29% increase in brand consideration), followed by alcohol ads (27%).
- Pet Care: Strong purchase uplift (29%) and highest emotional score (68/100), driven by love for pets (39% vs. 28% U.S. average).
- Personal Care: Excels in relevance (3.9/5) and emotional response (61/100).
- Financial Services: Below average in emotion (47%) and distinctiveness (3.6/5), but shows improvement via humor (17%) and a 15% purchase uplift.
- Telecommunications: Lower emotion (45%) and distinctiveness (3.4/5), slightly better humor (10%) and purchase uplift (21%).
5. The Role of Consumer-Centered Creative Strategy
- Embedding consumers in strategy and real-time feedback creates meaningful connections and reduces wasted media spend.
- Consumer insights are essential, not optional, for impactful campaigns.
6. Zappi Amplify: Driving Better Advertising Outcomes
- Enables real-world creative testing and campaign performance tracking.
- Used by leading brands such as PepsiCo, which increased creative effectiveness by 30%.
- Forrester Consulting study shows brands using Zappi realize over 5% higher return on ad spend compared to traditional research methods.
The 2025 State of Creative Effectiveness report underscores that emotional resonance is a powerful driver of advertising success. While celebrities and humor have nuanced roles, consumer-centric strategies backed by iterative testing and insights deliver the most effective and efficient campaigns. Zappi and VaynerMedia’s findings offer brands a roadmap to maximize ROI and create more human, memorable advertising in an evolving marketplace.
