When it comes to advertising effectiveness, what is key?

For every ad campaign they execute, brand and agency leaders have to decide on an array of variables: how much to spend on creative development and testing; whether to seek high reach or more precise targets; the context for the message; and how to add an element of recency to deliver the ad prior to the next expected purchase. But it wasn’t too long ago that creative was the most important part of the mix by far. It was a pretty simple formula: Good creative sold products, bad creative didn’t. In 2006, Project Apollo found that 65% of a brand’s sales lift from advertising came from the creative.

With the transformation of the advertising industry over the past several years, the balance has shifted. And as a result, it’s important for advertisers to understand how the different levers of advertising affect sales so they can make better, more informed decisions about how to plan their campaigns.

While creative remains the undisputed champ in terms of sales drivers, new research from NCSolutions highlights how the other elements of factor into the overall sales picture. In addition to the five key elements, the research also notes the impact of “brand factors” related to the intrinsic characteristics, such as price and penetration, which also affect the overall result.

Creative is still king

While the equation today involves several factors…

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