Marketers often silo brand-building and sales-driving objectives, but they are intrinsically linked. If a creative fails to generate a short-term sales lift, it's a strong signal that it's also failing to build long-term brand equity. An ad that sells inherently delivers an equity benefit.

The perceived success of the emotional John Lewis ad is backed by data from Zappi. Viewers reported the emotion "love" at 44%, double the 22% norm for UK ads. This demonstrates that subjective emotional impact can be quantified and benchmarked against a large dataset.

A study showed a purely emotional bank ad drove higher scores on rational attributes like "good customer service" than an ad that explicitly stated those facts. Making consumers feel good about a brand leads them to assume the rational proof points are also true.

The most effective long-term campaigns use "disguised repetition"—keeping core brand assets consistent while introducing fresh creative elements, like Aldi's Kevin the Carrot—to build memory structures without causing audience fatigue.

Contrary to the belief that ads quickly wear out, strong creative often performs better with repeated exposure. This concept of "wear in" justifies patience, allowing a new campaign to build familiarity and emotional connection with the audience, as stories grow resonance over time.

By re-running a successful past Christmas ad, Amazon guaranteed an emotional hit, avoided creative fatigue, and reallocated the entire production budget to media spend for a bigger share of voice. This "bake your cakes longer" strategy challenges the industry's obsession with newness.

The common marketing belief in ad "wear out" is wrong, as familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt. Consequently, marketers often pull their advertising campaigns right at the point where repetition is making them most effective.

Familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt. The 'Mere Exposure Effect' shows that repeated exposure to a stimulus makes us feel more positive towards it. This explains why consistent campaigns outperform those that frequently change creative. The performance gap between effective, consistent campaigns and inconsistent ones widens dramatically over time, creating a compounding advantage.

A key insight from analysis of Effie and System1 data is that brands get bored of their creative work long before audiences do. As strategist Mark Ritson highlighted, pulling successful campaigns prematurely forfeits the significant long-term value of "compound creativity."