Mumbai:  Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company tested more than 13,000 creatives for its clients around the world in 2022. Over 10% (1,400+) of those creatives were tested in India alone.

Kantar unveiled the ads that were most effective and creative across India in 2022. What makes these awards unique is that consumers are the jury. As people control a brand's fortunes through their spending power, their voice decides what is effective advertising. The India report shortlisted close to 400 ads, tested across categories, markets, TG’s and media channels.

Across television ads tested in India, Kantar has awarded standout performers across 7 categories- Food & Beverage, Personal Care, Technology, OTC, Home Care, Services and Short Format (under 15 seconds). Kantar had also introduced an ‘Un-stereotype’ category last year, which focuses on celebrating gender progressive advertising. This category has been included this year as well.

Creatives for the digital medium are also a growth area for brands and will continue to be so in the future as well. For bringing to life the exciting storytelling possibilities in the digital world, Kantar has awarded a standout performer for digital this year as well.

All ads exemplify essential characteristics of being creatively engaging and landing persuasive stories that enhance brand sales.

Here are the Kantar Creative Effectiveness Awards 2023 India Winners:

Commenting on this year’s findings, Kantar managing director & chief client officer- South Asia insights division Soumya Mohanty said, “Our research has found that the most creative and effective ads generate more than four times as much profit as those which score low on effectiveness measures. So cost effective ad testing is possibly a much better option that a costly mistake of airing a wrong ad. Our winners exemplify how testing can progressively refine the ad ultimately leading to better brand results.

Kantar head of creative domain & executive vice president- South Asia, insights division Prasanna Kumar added, “With short-form advertising on the rise in India, brands face the task of adapting to newer advertising structures and storytelling styles. Short ads, designed for 15 seconds or less, now require meticulous scripting and visualization to captivate audiences and meet higher standards for entertainment and engagement set by rampant popularity of short-form video content on social media platforms. To cut through content clutter and grab consumer attention in this rapidly changing landscape, pre-testing plays a crucial role for brands. It enables them to develop ads that have a strong impact and are memorable, while also providing valuable insights and learnings along the way.”  

Key highlights from this year’s report:

1  Creativity needs to connect intuitively to the brand:

The Brand Magnifier ensures meaningfully different cues & story for advertisements. Brand cues established through consistent use, over time and across multiple channels:

• Distinct styles or visuals
• Music or Sound
• Slogans or Jingles
• Brand icons, spokespeople, celebrities

2  Creativity needs to connect natively in each environment:

The best context is not always the one you’d expect. It is important to stand out among the other content. Customising creative as per platform makes a massive difference to viewing and impact

3  Creativity needs to connect each experience coherently:

Coherence is key to creative performance-

When the creative is customized to platform and integrated cross platform, it gives far better results-

4  What Bharat wants: a higher relevance to their context:

Product first, entertainment next.
Payoffs to be anchored to category needs.
Avoid complexities and deliver clarity.
Signal cultural familiarity and affiliation.
Challenging loyalty harder than breaking clutter.

5  Creativity needs to impact in 15 seconds: Key themes across Impactful 15 secs:

Sharp: Focus on key moment of truth. 

Singular: One key reason to consider or reason to believe.

Vivid dramatization: Brings in both engagement & memorability of the message.

Creative visualizations of the product: Distinctive, dramatic (retained from longer edits), how it works, ingredients etc.

Humour: Highly prized viewer reward.

Summary:

The recipe of successful advertising applies to all media and cohorts:

1  Imprinting meaningfully different associations:

• What does the ad say about the brand? Is it on strategy?
• Is it meaningful and differentiated?

2  Driving branded engagement

• Will the ad be noticed and remembered?

3  And will the brand play a role?

• Creating short and long-term predisposition
• Will the ad drive brand predisposition now and into the future?