Blog: Boring Ads Require 2x to 2.6x Greater Media Spend

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, January 27, 2025

Cumulus Media and Westwood One

A recent study involving System1, a leading firm in creative testing, along with contributions from Adam Morgan of eatbigfish, Jon Evans of System1, and marketing effectiveness expert Peter Field, has unveiled significant insights into advertising effectiveness from an analysis of The Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) data. This week's Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group blog outlines the key findings.

According to the research drawn from the IPA Effectiveness Databank-which houses thousands of marketing effectiveness case studies-Peter Field discovered that less engaging, dull ads require considerably higher media investment to yield comparable market impacts as more interesting ads. Specifically, the study finds that to achieve equivalent substantial market share growth, advertisers need to spend 2.6 times more on dull ads than on ads that capture interest. Similarly, dull ads demand double the investment to generate significant profit growth and 2.6 times the spending to secure large business effects.

The study also addresses the emotional engagement of ads, revealing that neutral responses-where viewers feel no particular emotion-are the most common. This neutrality is prevalent across both TV and AM/FM radio advertisements in the U.S., with half of all ad responses categorized as emotionally neutral. Notably, 43% of reactions to both U.S. AM/FM radio and TV ads are positively tinged with surprise or happiness.

In the realm of business-to-business (B2B) advertising, the study notes even greater challenges with dullness. B2B AM/FM radio ads slightly outperform B2B TV ads in eliciting positive emotions (43% vs. 37%), yet a significant majority of responses remain neutral.

The research underscores the dual roles marketers must play: converting existing demand and creating future demand. While the former targets the small fraction of consumers ready to make immediate purchases-often through more rational and straightforward ad copy-the latter aims at the broader audience not currently considering the product. For creating future demand, the research suggests that ads generating positive emotions, particularly happiness, are more effective and memorable, thereby building stronger brand associations.

Check out the blog post here.