Feel. Focus. Forge: Three moves to win Effies and grow brands
By Claudia Oberlin, Sarah Maddox, and Shelley Yang
Foreword by Lisa Zielinski, SVP, US Creative Excellence
We’re halfway through this decade and man, has the first half been a relentless roller coaster: a pandemic that rewired life and work, economic whiplash, social reckoning, political volatility, and the meteoric rise of our new pal, generative AI. Brands, and the marketers behind them, rode the same roller coaster, showing up in a divided culture while transforming at an exhausting pace. That’s why Ipsos and Effie launched Dynamic Effectiveness: to navigate shifting consumer needs and show what actually drives outcomes now.
We thought, what better way to understand how to tackle the back half of this decade than to take a look at the choices we made in the first half? We analyzed every U.S. Effie entry from 2020–2025 (objectives, plans, and budgets), hand-coded the creative tactics they used (distinctive assets, humor, music, etc.), and mapped those choices to Ipsos’ ad effectiveness database of over 10 million human responses to advertising.
What we found: Budgets feel tight, competitors feel louder, channels keep multiplying with marketers navigating all of it in real time. What stood out: the brands that won made distinctly different creative choices. They leaned into consumer empathy, broke category conventions, and built enduring ideas instead of campaign-to-campaign pivots. The gap between winners and the field wasn't about money or effort. It was about where they focused their creativity.
The back half of the decade demands bigger ideas that survive turbulence, sharper consumer tensions in the brief, and braver craft that is intentionally uncommon and unmistakably branded. And it demands practical guidance, not another chart dump on LinkedIn.
With that, over to my colleagues who turn evidence into effective work that wins in the market (and at the Effies).
Key takeaways:
1
Feel:
Deliver the feeling people want now — whether through illogical-powered humor, brand purpose, or selective indulgence.
2
Focus:
Pick one non-negotiable idea. Co-create and pressure-test it early with consumers. Protect it across every execution.
3
Forge:
Pave a unique path by fusing unconventional ideas with distinctive brand assets.
FEEL: Meet people in the moment they are in (and want to be in)
Context matters. After the COVID pandemic changed the course of everyone's lives, it’s safe to say that the world needed some laughter to counteract the gloom and doom of 2020. Humor has been a popular tactic since 2021, with nearly half of Effie’s winners and finalists using it in their campaigns.2
We are living in an “uneasy decade” marked by chronic anxiety, and people are rewarding brands that provide relief. In “The Effective Sense of Nonsense,” Ipsos found that when life feels irrational and high-stakes, playful absurdity acts like a pressure release. Unexpected, illogical humor in ads increases their memorability by 38%, helping brands stand out in media clutter1. Misdirection, twist endings, and “makes-no-sense” juxtapositions encourage viewers as co-creators of meaning.
Humour x Illogical =2.7 Multiplier Effect for Memorability
Source: n=15,000 Ipsos Creative|Spark video ad evaluations. Video ads were processed through Generative AI models to classify if creative tactics were present Yes/No. Video ads were grouped by themes of tactics they most represented. Individual tactics are represented with their proportional % variance explained in driving the effects metric. The Effective Sense of Nonsense
Humour x Illogical =2.7 Multiplier Effect for Memorability
Source: n=15,000 Ipsos Creative|Spark video ad evaluations. Video ads were processed through Generative AI models to classify if creative tactics were present Yes/No. Video ads were grouped by themes of tactics they most represented. Individual tactics are represented with their proportional % variance explained in driving the effects metric. The Effective Sense of Nonsense
But before you commission a stand-up comic to write next year's storyboards, humor isn’t the only secret to winning.
How else can brands “meet the moment”?
Looking forward, effective campaigns will give people a way to feel better in an anxious, dollar-stretched world, and embed the brand as the enabler of that feeling.
Need a place to start? Here are two other contemporary cultural avenues to inspire your next campaign:
Nouveau Nihilism
There is a widening gap between the life people expected to have and the one they’re living. Rather than wait for milestones that might not happen, they embrace a live-for-today, selectively indulgent mindset (the YOLO economy). Offer non-judgmental micro-moments of joy, relief, or agency in a way that fits your brand. Bridge the gap between aspiration and reality with empathy.
Citizenship-First Marketing
Use of purpose-driven messaging in Effie winners and finalists fell from 39% to 15% between 2020-2025 — yet Effie Gold winners are twice as likely to use it vs. non-winners.2 Purpose still matters: 75% of people in the U.S. think that businesses have a duty to contribute to society, not just to make profits.3 However, consumers need brands to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. The most effective campaigns feel credible for the brand, invite participation, and show tangible evidence of societal impact.
Before your next campaign, ground your brand in consumers’ feelings:
If leaning into the illogical, pressure-test ideas with consumers early to confirm the brand is linked at the twist and the payoff, so the feeling sticks to you.
If embracing Nouveau Nihilism, deliver immediate gratification credibly while acknowledging longer‑term concerns with empathy.
For citizenship-first commitments, clarify the one tangible behavior or outcome you’ll deliver, and line up proof points before launch.
Advertising doesn’t live in isolation of the culture that surrounds it. Stay attuned to how consumers are feeling, so your brand can authentically meet them where they are — and where they want to be.
If leaning into the illogical, pressure-test ideas with consumers early to confirm the brand is linked at the twist and the payoff, so the feeling sticks to you.
If embracing Nouveau Nihilism, deliver immediate gratification credibly while acknowledging longer‑term concerns with empathy.
For citizenship-first commitments, clarify the one tangible behavior or outcome you’ll deliver, and line up proof points before launch.
FOCUS: Build a consumer-led campaign, unified from brief to execution
If Feel is what your audience experiences, Focus is how you make it intentional. The most effective Effie campaigns start with a sharp, consumer-driven insight and protect it throughout campaign development, so that every touchpoint adds to the same resonant story.
The Focus Gap:
Single-mindedness pays: 64% of Effie Gold Winners used only one message (significantly more than non-winners, at just 49%).1
Used Only One Message
Source: Ipsos creative tagging of Effie Awards Insights database (2020-2025 US Program Years). 2,211 campaigns analyzed using 75+ meta-tags. “Non-winners” are advertisers who were not short-listed as a finalist to win an Effie award.
But briefs dilute it: Only 4% of marketers say their briefs usually contain a single mandatory message; 70% include two to three.4
Mandatory Messages in a Brand's Brief
Source: Ipsos survey conducted among 171 US based professionals in marketing, advertising, and insights conducted June 2025
Single-mindedness pays: 64% of Effie Gold Winners used only one message (significantly more than non-winners, at just 49%).1
Used Only One Message
Source: Ipsos creative tagging of Effie Awards Insights database (2020-2025 US Program Years). 2,211 campaigns analyzed using 75+ meta-tags. “Non-winners” are advertisers who were not short-listed as a finalist to win an Effie award.
But briefs dilute it: Only 4% of marketers say their briefs usually contain a single mandatory message; 70% include two to three.4
Mandatory Messages in a Brand's Brief
Source: Ipsos survey conducted among 171 US based professionals in marketing, advertising, and insights conducted June 2025
The mismatch is the silent killer: We expect singular outcomes from plural briefs.
Before your next campaign, create Focus (and speed):
Diagnose demand friction
Why don’t people buy your brand? Use primary research to map tensions at category, brand, and product levels. AI can help mine and synthesize signals to uncover a truth that can create new value for consumers.
Output: A fresh and compelling insight that sparks the brand to action.
Put the consumer at the center of the brief
Pressure test the insight before it goes into the brief. Ipsos Creative Fuel infuses the consumer voice into the brief, building stakeholders’ confidence that the insight is relevant, ownable and drives impact for the brand.
Output: A single-minded brief that inspires bolder creative strategies.
Explore territories before you commit
Test big ideas while they’re still malleable (manifestos, storyboards, mood films) to validate memorability, brand linkage, and appeal. Build internal confidence for bold bets with consumer-first evidence.
Output: A campaign territory big enough to flex across formats and moments.
Early alignment elevates effectiveness. About two-thirds of Effie winners and finalists conduct primary research, often focusing on early-stage strategic segmentations, market structures, U&As, and focus groups. Ipsos’ experience aligns with this approach: Across 500+ pre-tested cases, engaging Ipsos at the insight/strategy phase delivered a 48% lift in predicted creative effectiveness versus processes without early consumer input.5
Focus fuels bravery: Tighter strategy, bolder ads, better results.
FORGE: Fuse uncommon ideas with Distinctive Brand Assets
Divergence and distinctiveness are two sides of the same coin: Ads must be fresh and surprising enough to break through, but familiar enough to refresh your brand’s memories (and not your competitors’).
The market (and Effie jurors) reward brands that strike that balance.
It pays to break clichés: Over the last six years, 78% of Effie Gold Winners were “uncommon for their category” vs. 58% of Effie non-winners.2 In Ipsos’ advertising database, we also find non-conforming ads drive stronger brand attention.6
Ads Breaking Category Conventions
Source: Ipsos creative tagging of Effie Awards Insights database (2020-2025 US Program Years). 2,211 campaigns analyzed using 75+ meta-tags. “Non-winners” are advertisers who were not short-listed as a finalist to win an Effie award.
Non-Conforming Ads Drive Stronger Brand Attention
+21%
Ipsos Meta-Analysis of 2,015 ads from 2015-2020; Note: The likelihood of being in the top quintile of the database for Brand Attention (branded breakthrough)
Truly distinct assets are rare: In testing 5,000+ assets for 500+ brands, Ipsos found only 15% were instantly and exclusively linked to the correct brand.7
Only 15% of Brand Assets are Truly Distinct
Source: Ipsos DBA Database of 5,000+ brand assets from 2016 – July 2025; spans 500+ brands across 33 categories from all over the world. Note: Hero assets immediately and uniquely identify the brand and stand alone, Amplify assets show promise but need consistent use to strengthen, and Assess/Avoid assets have weak associations unlikely to signify the brand in isolation.
It pays to break clichés: Over the last six years, 78% of Effie Gold Winners were “uncommon for their category” vs. 58% of Effie non-winners.1 In Ipsos’ advertising database, we also find non-conforming ads drive stronger brand attention.6
Ads Breaking Category Conventions
Source: Ipsos creative tagging of Effie Awards Insights database (2020-2025 US Program Years). 2,211 campaigns analyzed using 75+ meta-tags. “Non-winners” are advertisers who were not short-listed as a finalist to win an Effie award.
Non-Conforming Ads Drive Sronger Brand Attention
+21%
Ipsos Meta-Analysis of 2,015 ads from 2015-2020; Note: The likelihood of being in the top quintile of the database for Brand Attention (branded breakthrough)
Truly distinct assets are rare: In testing 5,000+ assets for 500+ brands, Ipsos found only 15% were instantly and exclusively linked to the correct brand.7
Only 15% of Brand Assets are Truly Distinct
Source: Ipsos DBA Database of 5,000+ brand assets from 2016 – July 2025; spans 500+ brands across 33 categories from all over the world. Note: Hero assets immediately and uniquely identify the brand and stand alone, Amplify assets show promise but need consistent use to strengthen, and Assess/Avoid assets have weak associations unlikely to signify the brand in isolation.
Of course, it’s not easy figuring out the perfect recipe of how much should be new vs. how much should be familiar. But advertisers who have the right Feel and Focus can inspire agencies to Forge the right path. For example, take the 2025 Effie winning campaign “MiraLAX Tackles "The Gut Gap" by MiraLAX and Bayer Consumer Health:
MiraLAX and Bayer Consumer Health: “The Gut Gap” (2025)
Bronze in Brand Integration & Entertainment Partnerships, Bronze in OTC/Health & Wellness, Finalist in Brand Content & Entertainment — Products
Lead Agency: Energy BBDO
MiraLAX saw a prime opportunity to grow with Millennial women (ages 28-43), who are the most constipated people in America (2x more than men) and the most adverse to taking laxatives. Rather than rely on category tropes (pharma-like ads featuring older people celebrating when they can finally poop again), MiraLAX chose to disarm Millennial women with humor, helping to lighten their load physically and mentally. They reunited comedians Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer from the sitcom “Broad City” for a 3-minute mini-episode illuminating “The Gut Gap” and how MiraLAX solves it. The result? Sales of MiraLAX increased by 10.1%, and they took home two Bronze Effie awards.
Because of Millennial women’s misconceptions about laxatives, we wanted our campaign to feel nothing like category ads. Instead, we wanted to create branded content that felt like a peek into a real conversation only two best girlfriends could have about poop and stress. So, we created a mini episode where Abbi admits she’s constipated, and Ilana enlightens her backed-up friend about ‘The Gut Gap.
Jaclyn Casavant
Senior Brand Manager at Bayer
MiraLAX and Bayer Consumer Health: “The Gut Gap” (2025)
Bronze in Brand Integration & Entertainment Partnerships, Bronze in OTC/Health & Wellness, Finalist in Brand Content & Entertainment — Products
Lead Agency: Energy BBDO
MiraLAX saw a prime opportunity to grow with Millennial women (ages 28-43), who are the most constipated people in America (2x more than men) and the most adverse to taking laxatives. Rather than rely on category tropes (pharma-like ads featuring older people celebrating when they can finally poop again), MiraLAX chose to disarm Millennial women with humor, helping to lighten their load physically and mentally. They reunited comedians Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer from the sitcom “Broad City” for a 3-minute mini-episode illuminating “The Gut Gap” and how MiraLAX solves it. The result? Sales of MiraLAX increased by 10.1%, and they took home two Bronze Effie awards.
Because of Millennial women’s misconceptions about laxatives, we wanted our campaign to feel nothing like category ads. Instead, we wanted to create branded content that felt like a peek into a real conversation only two best girlfriends could have about poop and stress. So, we created a mini episode where Abbi admits she’s constipated, and Ilana enlightens her backed-up friend about ‘The Gut Gap.
Jaclyn Casavant
Senior Brand Manager at Bayer
Here’s how to Forge your own path to divergent distinctiveness:
Break the right codes
Map all the conventions in your category, from common consumer beliefs to packaging to advertising styles (Ipsos Creative|Spark AI can audit years of category ads). Which convention could you subvert to bring your brand’s unique value to life in a new and intriguing way? Which ones must you keep so consumers retain a foot in the familiar?
Make it unmistakably yours
Interrogate your Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs): Logos, colors, taglines, characters, sonic cues. Are they truly distinct, and if not, how might you make them more unique and memorable for your brand? How might they be leveraged in new or surprising ways to capture attention?
Advertising is both art and science. Observing the patterns in your category and intentionally breaking one, while keeping your Distinctive Brand Assets front and center, creates a compelling one-two punch that captures attention and drives business results.
What’s next/now: The AI Revolution
In the years to come, it’s clear that AI will be a major force that shapes the craft of creating effective campaigns. As the technology evolves, it’s important to keep its limitations in mind.
Pattern-recognition engines only surface what worked before. Left unchecked, they can smooth away the edges that make ads surprising and memorable. In fact, Ipsos and Syracuse University found that AI-made ads are less unique and entertaining than human-made ads, causing them to be 14% weaker on short-term effectiveness and 17% weaker on long-term effectiveness.8
And yet, AI can also be a springboard that fuels human creativity. Used early in campaign development, it can:
Mine and synthesize signals, map category conventions, find whitespace.
Produce fast, iterative stimulus (mood boards, storyboard frames) for early exploration with consumers to expand and refine creative ideas.
Future Effie winners won’t win because they use more AI. They will win because they will have figured out how to strategically integrate AI in the campaign journey to amplify human creativity, without sanding down the edges. In the back half of the decade, the most effective advertising will still spring from human craft: Deep consumer empathy, unexpected storytelling, and creative courage.
The final word
Effie winners and finalists make effective campaigns look easy with three decisive moves:
1
Feel:
Craft emotional connections that dovetail with consumers’ feelings and desires
2
Focus:
Keep messaging laser-focused and grounded in a powerful insight
3
Forge:
Subvert category norms and reinforce distinctive assets, using AI strategically to boost creativity without sacrificing originality
Ready to make your move? Ipsos helps you find the feeling, lock in focus, and forge distinctly different campaigns. Let’s build the work that effectively grows your brand and wins an Effie.
Sources
2. Ipsos creative tagging of Effie Awards Insights database (2020-2025 US Program Years). 2,211 campaigns analyzed using 75+ meta-tags. “Entrants” are advertisers who submitted their campaigns to the Effie’s for consideration. “Winners” are advertisers who received a Grand, Gold, Silver or Bronze Effie Award. “Finalists” are advertisers who were short-listed as potential award winners by the Effie’s judges, but did not ultimately win a Grand, Gold, Silver or Bronze Effie Award. “Non-winners” are advertisers who were not short-listed as a finalist to win an Effie award.
4. Ipsos survey conducted among 171 U.S. based professionals in marketing, advertising, and insights conducted June 2025
5. Difference in Creative Effect Index of +500 cases pre-tested with Ipsos. Based on cases benefitting from early creative research compared to pre-tested cases without any Ipsos early research.
6. Ipsos Meta-Analysis of 2,015 ads from 2015-2020; Note: The likelihood of being in the top quintile of the database for Brand Attention (branded breakthrough)
7. Ipsos DBA Database of 5,000+ brand assets from 2016 – July 2025; spans 500+ brands across 33 categories from all over the world.
About Ipsos
Ipsos is one of the largest market research and polling companies globally, operating in 90 markets and employing nearly 20,000 people. Our Ipsos Creative Excellence team expertly partners with our clients through the creative development journey – from upstream insight generation that fuels creative briefs to optimization and post-launch learnings that drive future impact.
Our focus is on guidance that nurtures and optimizes the creativity that is essential to success. We work with 75% of the top 200 national advertisers and we are proud to closely partner with Effie in our shared commitment to drive marketing effectiveness through insights. For more details, visit Ipsos.com
About Effie
Effie leads, inspires and champions the practice and practitioners of marketing effectiveness globally. We work across 125 markets to deliver smart leadership, applicable insights, and the largest, most prestigious marketing effectiveness awards in the world. Winning an Effie has been a globally recognized symbol of outstanding achievement for over 50 years.
We recognize the most effective brands, marketers, and agencies globally, regionally, and locally through our coveted effectiveness rankings, the Effie Index. Our ambition is to equip marketers everywhere with the tools, knowledge, and inspiration they need to succeed. For more details, visit Effie.org
Get in Touch
Claudia Oberlin
SVP, US Creative Excellence Claudia.Oberlin@ipsos.com
Dynamic Effectiveness series
Navigating Nouveau Nihilism: How Brands Can Thrive in the YOLO Economy
Diagnose demand friction
Why don’t people buy your brand? Use primary research to map tensions at category, brand, and product levels. AI can help mine and synthesize signals to uncover a truth that can create new value for consumers.
Output: A fresh and compelling insight that sparks the brand to action.
Put the consumer at the center of the brief
Pressure test the insight before it goes into the brief. Ipsos Creative Fuel infuses the consumer voice into the brief, building stakeholders’ confidence that the insight is relevant, ownable and drives impact for the brand.
Output: A single-minded brief that inspires bolder creative strategies
Explore territories before you commit
Test big ideas while they’re still malleable (manifestos, storyboards, mood films) to validate memorability, brand linkage, and appeal. Build internal confidence for bold bets with consumer-first evidence.
Output: A campaign territory big enough to flex across formats and moments.