The IPA has looked deep into its databank of effectiveness case studies and come up with some statistics to prove that brands who put “trust building” into the brief are more likely to drive growth.
“Trust” is a nebulous term, but the IPA’s analysis shows that 93% of ad campaigns (excluding non-profit) that report significant increases in brand trust also report at least one big effect – usually a premium of around 10% – on business outcomes. Trust had the most substantial impact on customer acquisition and sales volume at 39%, while sales value, profits, market share, customer loyalty, and a reduction in price sensitivity also got significant boosts.
Without trust-building, 66% of brands reported the same kind of increases.
The study comes ahead of the LEAD 2016 conference on February 5th, which is put on jointly by the IPA, ISBA, and the Advertising Association. Results are based on 812 awarded and non-awarded entries to the IPA Effectiveness Awards between 1998 and 2024. There’s no mention of any individual campaigns, but it’s likely that Grand Prix winners including McCain (2024), Cadbury Dairy Milk (2022) and Tesco (2020) all scored highly for trust.
Laurence Green, director of effectiveness at the IPA, said: “While there are many ways to make your advertising effective, this new research provides a strong business case for the benefits of investing in trust-building campaigns. As more advertisers set an objective of increasing trust, the long-term evidence from the IPA Effectiveness Databank makes it clear that investing in trust is not only the right thing to do for many brands, but a proven way to drive sustainable growth.”
Stephen Woodford, CEO of the Advertising Association, said: “This is a game-changing analysis from the IPA effectiveness databank that provides the most compelling evidence yet that driving greater trust through advertising delivers sustained and powerful competitive advantage, bringing significant gains to the bottom-line.”
