Highly awarded creative advertising ideas are also more effective

Using the rankings results data between 2016 and 2025, around 5,600 ideas were recently analysed by WARC to establish the correlation between creativity and effectiveness. 

“Mounting evidence shows creativity is an important driver of campaign performance,” says Amy Rodgers, Head of Content. 

“Using data from the latest [rankings], we set out to see whether creatively award-winning work has maintained or enhanced its effectiveness advantage since last year’s edition of this report – and what currently are the common traits of the most creative and effective ideas.” 

The research results indicate that 21% of ideas awarded for creativity are also subsequently awarded for effectiveness. Six percent of the total are categorised as highly effective ideas. 

According to the research team, this represents a 1% increase compared with the previous report’s figures, with overall effectiveness rising from 20% and highly effective ideas from 5%. 

As creativity increases, so does effectiveness. When ideas are highly awarded for creativity – i.e. ranked in the WARC Creative 100 – the conversion to effectiveness awards doubles, rising from 21% to 44%. 

“Should the 21% conversion rate be higher?” asks Rodgers. “Perhaps not, when viewed in the context of all the advertising produced.  

“Winning both a creative and an effective award for the same campaign is hard. Factors include the current shift away from brand building to performance, the brand’s size and resources to measure effectiveness, and [the ability to] prepare strong award entries.” 

Analysis of the best creative and effective campaigns 

WARC’s analysis of 151 of the best creative and effective campaigns shows that:   

• Over a quarter (26%) lead with television in 2025. The channel has strength in its ability to exploit emotion and storytelling, key strategies for encoding marketing messages in memory. 

• However, the use of television as the lead media has been falling over time. In 2018, 43% of the best of the best campaigns led with TV. Data suggests that no single channel is taking its place – instead, the lead role is now spread across a broader mix of channels. 

• The best ideas use a balance of informative and emotive strategies. While research shows emotional strategies tend to outperform rational ones, 35% of the best ideas still include an informative message. Emotion was used by 33%. 

• Informative strategies are best when paired with other approaches, aiming to highlight the value of balancing rational and fame-building creativity. 

• Nearly three out of five (57%) highly creative and effective ideas build brand equity. These brands commit to their brand promise and deliver it via product performance, advertising and pricing strategy. 

• Sales is a key hard metric of effectiveness, and almost two-thirds (61%) of the most creative and effective ideas had a measurable impact on sales. 

• Earned media has a strong role in building fame and engagement, but can also have value in driving sales. PR value was tracked by 71% of highly creative and effective ideas. 

Creative commitment (a measure of media budget, duration and number of media channels applied) correlates very tightly with effectiveness, WARC notes. “Campaigns get more effective in terms of sales, brand building, market share and profit effects the longer their duration, the more media channels used, and the higher their overall spend.”