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Establishing a Culture of Creative Excellence Drives Greater Impact for Brands

  • 71% of marketers have ambitions to deliver creative excellence, yet only 37% believe their business has the right capabilities
  • Marketers that deploy three or more building blocks of the ABE (Align, Build and Embed) framework have a higher adoption of a creative effectiveness culture
  • ‘Building belief: What it takes to instill a culture of creative effectiveness,’ a new white paper from WARC and the ANA helps brands harness the benefits of creativity in advertising

London / New York, September 11, 2024 – WARC, the global authority on marketing effectiveness and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the U.S. advertising industry's leading trade association, have today released a new white paper: ‘Building belief: What it takes to instill a culture of creative effectiveness’. The study is part of an ongoing series of initiatives from WARC and the ANA to help brands harness the benefits of creativity in advertising.

Based on analysis from a global survey of 300+ brand owners worldwide conducted in January-February 2024, the research finds that while 71% of marketers agreed that their business was ambitious about delivering creative excellence, only 37% of respondents felt their business had the right capabilities to deliver ground-breaking ideas.

These findings underscore earlier research released by WARC, LIONS and the ANA in 2023 that identified organizational culture as the main blocker to creative excellence at brands.

Despite numerous research studies carried out over the past decade linking creativity to improvements in business performance, marketers still struggle to convince their C-suites of the value of creativity. To help brands address this challenge, the ground-breaking whitepaper: ‘Building a culture of creative effectiveness’ (Phase 1) was released last year. This initial study, which included in-depth interviews with a broad range of leading brands, outlined the ABE Framework - Align, Build and Embed. This framework provides six building blocks designed to help brand organizations deliver on their creative effectiveness agenda through strategies, structures and processes.

The framework is aligned with one of the core strategic pursuits of the Global CMO Growth Council (a partnership between the ANA and LIONS) and has been gaining adoption from leading brands over the past year.

A year on, the survey-led follow-up ‘Building belief: What it takes to instill a culture of creative effectiveness’ white paper (Phase 2), develops quantitative insight and validates the value of the ABE Framework. For marketers looking to benefit from the “turbo-boost” in effectiveness that creativity offers, it is clear that the ABE Framework offers a clear path forward.

Aditya Kishore, Insight Director, WARC, says: “Over the past year, we have been working to develop Phase 2 of this initiative, exploring the culture of creative effectiveness at brands. It shows that marketers largely lack belief in their ability to deliver creative excellence, despite a strong desire to do so. It demonstrates that to build belief in their creative capabilities, brands need to develop a culture of creative effectiveness. The ABE framework offers them an opportunity to shift perceptions within their brand organization and identify the required processes and structures to harness the impact of creativity.

Bob Liodice, CEO, ANA, says: “Transforming the intangible and essential idea of culture into a solid, measurable structure has consistently proven to be an enduring brand challenge. For the industry to unleash the power of advertising creativity, it is critical to have the right frameworks and the relevant metrics to prove its value. The ANA is committed to driving fundamental progress. We are pleased to partner with WARC to deliver Phase 2 on the culture of creative effectiveness.”

Introducing the 3+ marketer

The most significant finding from the Phase 2 report is that marketers who deployed three or more building blocks from the ABE framework (3+ marketers) were consistently more successful in delivering creative effectiveness. 

3+ marketers were more likely to be able to justify investment in creativity during a recession, connect campaign performance to revenue and sales, and prove the benefits of creativity as well as a host of other benefits.

Other key findings from the study include:

  • Brands are advised to start implementing the ABE Framework, as the research found that each building block adds to creative effectiveness for the brand organization. Adding more building blocks from the framework can help brands progress further along their ongoing creative effectiveness journey.
  • Brands should adopt the concept of a ‘maturity curve,’ and understand the need to progress beyond just aligning with the C-suite and speaking the language of the boardroom. These are critical, but there is much more to a brand’s creative effectiveness journey.
  • Much of the work outlined under the ‘Build’ and ‘Embed’ platform of the ABE framework can be done within the marketing department itself. Getting corporate buy-in will be necessary, but marketers don’t have to hold off on their creative effectiveness journey till they have it.
  • Being able to define what “good” looks like can catalyze the journey, and this can be initiated within the marketing department itself.

ABE Framework

WARC, LIONS and the ANA’s ABE framework (Align, Build, Embed) for creative effectiveness comprises of six key building blocks to help develop a culture of creative effectiveness (CrEff) within a brand organization.

It was developed through an extensive research and analysis process that leveraged WARC’s unique Rankings database and in-depth interviews with brands, which have successfully delivered campaigns judged to be both creatively excellent and highly effective.

Align:

  1. Vision & alignment: Gain buy-in and support from C-suite for developing a creative effectiveness agenda
  2. Metrics & evidence: Align with CEO and CFO on the key measures for creative effectiveness

Build:

  1. CrEff Ops: Build organisational structures and processes, and identify key stakeholders responsible for driving CrEff agenda
  2. Common language: Create a consistent approach, framework and terminology to evaluate creative across the organisation

Embed:

  1. Partner inclusion: Genuinely partner with agencies, involving them with the brand’s broader CrEff agenda
  2. Global diffusion: Use all available internal channels and pathways to push CrEff agenda deep into the organisation

This report is designed to work as a standalone document, but reading the Phase 1 report to better understand both the research process and the building blocks of the ABE Framework is recommended. A sample of Phase 1 report can be found here.

The full Phase 2 report, helping marketers adopt the ABE framework, is available for WARC clients and ANA members. A sample of this white paper can be read here.

For further information, please contact:

WARC
Amanda Benfell, Head of Press & PR amanda.benfell@warc.com / warc.com

About WARC – The global authority on marketing effectiveness
For over 35 years WARC has been powering the marketing segment by providing rigorous and unbiased evidence, expertise and guidance to make marketers more effective. Across four platforms - WARC Strategy, WARC Creative, WARC Media, WARC Digital Commerce - its services include 100,000+ case studies, best practice guides, research papers, special reports, advertising trend data, news & opinion articles, as well as awards, events and advisory services. WARC operates out of London, New York, Singapore and Shanghai, servicing a community of over 75,000 marketers in more than 1,300 companies across 100+ markets and collaborates with 50+ industry partners. WARC is part of Ascential plc.

About the ANA
The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.