At Kantar, we love great creative content, and we love it even more when that creativity is harnessed to deliver against brand and marketing objectives. Each year, we test over 10,000 ads for our clients around the world with Link, an independently validated solution. Each year, we learn more about winning ads and the ingredients for success.
Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards recognise the best TV and digital ads from around the world – as judged by consumers. They celebrate great advertising that drives sales in the short term and equity in the long term. While we recognise that not all ads seek to do both, our approach provides a framework for assessment and recognises the power of creativity to build brands, not just activate sales.
2020 was a year like no other, and our work showed that people wanted advertising to continue, as it provided a sense of normality at a time of 24-hour Covid-19 news cycles. For the most part, consumers were processing content in the same way during the pandemic as they did before. Advertisers that held their resolve and invested in their brand during the downturn saw their bravery rewarded.
This year, we saw some amazing ads that are both creative and effective. Our winners come from a diverse range of brands, categories and countries, and use many different tactics in their creativity. What they share in common is a commitment to creative excellence and a focus on ensuring their work performs exactly as intended.
Consumers rated Heineken’s ‘Cheers to all’, the world’s most creatively effective ad for 2020. In this ad, Heineken addresses gender-related drinks stereotypes in a way that is light-hearted rather than preachy or self-righteous and for that reason is loved by viewers.
Have a look at the great ads that consumers ranked in our top 20 from around the world in 2020. Congratulations to all our winners.
| Brand | Country | Ad | Agency | |
| 1 | Heineken | USA | Cheers to all | Publicis |
| 2 | Bosch | Germany | Atino | C3 Creative Code and Content (Stuttgart ) |
3 | Burger King | France | Consignes 2 Sécurity - The Retour | Buzzman |
4 | SheaMoisture | USA | It Comes Naturally | BBDO New York and JOY Collective |
5 | Samsung | USA | Make their year, with Galaxy Buds Live | R/GA |
6 | Milka | France | And a lot of Milka | DAVID Madrid |
7 | USA | Find your Scene | Google Brand Studio | |
8 | TENA | UK | TENA Silhouette Washable Underwear (I will wear what I want) | AMV BBDO, London |
9 | TD | Canada | Keeping your business moving forward | Leo Burnett |
10 | Adrenaline Rush | Russia | More | KAPIBARA |
11 | YouTube Kids | USA | YouTube Kids Brand Anthem Film | Droga5 |
12 | Avocados from Mexico | USA | Avocados From Mexico Shopping Network* | Energy BBDO Chicago |
13 | Gatorade | Chile | Gatorade GOAT CAMP | TBWA / Chiat de Los Ángeles |
14 | Toyota Corolla | Canada | Vente Étiquettes Rouges | The Showroom |
15 | Kozel | Slovakia | Pimp my goat | Armada |
16 | Nissan Sentra | USA | Joy Ride | NissanUnited |
17 | Panadol Actifast | Malaysia | Delivery Rider Malaysia | Grey Group Singapore |
18 | EBay Australia | Australia | The Fast and the Furious | Che Proximity Australia |
19 | Siemens Home Appliances | Turkey | Ankastre | MullenLowe Istanbul |
20 | Hershey's Kisses | USA | Bells to Blossoms | mcgarrybowen |
*Not currently available online
Mark Molenaar, Kantar 4 Mar 2021
The five habits of highly effective advertisers
While there is no one size fits all solution to creative and effective advertising – we observed five habits from our winners that ensure their advertising will deliver for their brand - in both the short and long term. These can act as guidelines for all advertisers.
Create the ability to be noticed and remembered in a world where there’s a profusion of ads. Your ad is not just competing in its category. It is competing for attention against the world. Stand out from the category as a minimum, and ideally from any other advertising.
Make sure that the attention won by the ad is in the service of the brand. Ensure the brand is at the heart of your creative or get your branding cues right. A surprising number of brands forget this.
To grow market share or defend premium pricing you need to show how your brand fulfils consumers’ functional, emotional and social needs in the category and illustrates your uniqueness compared to the competition.
Making the viewer feel something wins engagement for the ad, bypassing the natural tendency to screen out advertising. It also has positive effects on the brand’s emotional associations.
Successful marketers know they can get ‘too close’ to their brand and lose perspective, so they listen to viewer feedback throughout the creative development process and refine their ads accordingly.
As well as great habits, we noted many creative devices or ingredients used effectively by our 2020 winners. Some of our winning ads tackle diversity or challenge gender stereotypes (and we know progressive ads drive greater ROI), others use celebrity creatively, some nailed humour during challenging times – and much more.
Find out more about the winning ads, and download our booklet, ‘The five habits of highly effective advertisers’, to discover more about the winning tactics and habits.
Kantar’s Link solution is the world’s most trusted ad testing solution, having been independently validated and used over 215,000 times. It offers predictive and diagnostic measures to guide ad optimisation to maximise that ROI. It is available on Kantar Marketplace so ads can be tested with confidence in as few as six hours. Questions? Reach out to us at moc.ratnak@scitanafdnarb
Daren Poole is the global head of creative at Kantar
