New Zealand – Out-of-Home (OOH) media company JCDecaux in New Zealand and behavioural insights company, NeuroSpot, have released the results of their latest proprietary research project called the ‘Distinctive Creativity’. This study is part of the JCDecaux Intelligence programme, which dedicates funds to annual local research projects to better understand how consumers connect with the company’s OOH touchpoints.
The study revealed that OOH creative incorporating distinctive brand codes – including logo, colour, shape, tone of voice and style of imagery – averaged a 13% uplift in category mental availability versus weakly coded ads.
Moreover, the study also found that ads with strong brand codes are liked 31% more than weakly coded ads, while liked ads drive uplifts in category mental availability by 18% because strongly coded ads are easier to cognitively process, which leads to perceived preference.
Victoria Parsons, senior insights and strategy specialist at JCDecaux New Zealand, noted that the first looked at format, and this study extends to creative.
“At JCDecaux, we subscribe to the view that advertising ‘works’ through building memory structures that consumers call on in a buying situation. This study puts specific numbers around our knowledge that strongly coded Out-of-Home advertising can influence decision making and drive a sales effect,” said Parsons.
The study aims to examine how using distinctive brand codes in OOH creative influences mental availability. Mental availability is one of the most important metrics for brands and is often under-measured compared with awareness or consideration. Mental availability predicts the propensity for a brand to come to mind in a buying situation versus simply being known.
Cole Armstrong, NeuroSpot’s managing director, shared that there are points for showing up, but if brands really want to impact their customers, it’s the way they surface their brand via OOH advertising that will make the difference.
“If you ensure your ads are strongly coded with distinctive brand codes, the potential for you to leave a lasting impression in the minds of consumers is significantly increased,” said Armstrong.
Meanwhile, Gary Rosewarne, sales director at JCDecaux New Zealand, said, “Our role as a leader in Out-of-Home is to help advertisers create the best Out-of-Home campaigns. We know that creativity drives effective outcomes for brands, but we can now validate that creative using strong brand codes delivers a sales effect. It is not about one or the other but ensuring Out-of-Home campaigns deliver both.”
