Which principles are most valuable for marketers looking to maximise effectiveness at a time of ongoing uncertainty, unpredictability and economic turmoil?
The first six months of 2026 have been tumultuous geopolitically and economically. Despite indicators of UK growth, consumer confidence is fragile, and pressure on marketers to prove the business value and impact of what they do is ever more acute.
To help, Effie UK and Ipsos have reviewed and updated the work behind their Dynamic Effectiveness thought leadership series. It spans three years of analysis across an array of Ipsos ad effectiveness and global trends research, and Effie UK award-winning cases.
The review highlighted four evidence-based effectiveness principles that marketers can prioritise with confidence, to sharpen their saws, over the rest of 2026 and beyond.
Key takeaways
Applied well, these four principles can help marketers refine their brand strategies in ways that will deliver tangible and meaningful competitive edge – powering up their ability to defy the chaos, clutter and controversy of the current age.
1
Living the value of respect
The most successful brands work hard to truly see and commit to the people they serve. They know where they stand and have a genuine regard for people’s goals, values and daily routines.
2
Challenge your own map
The most successful brands actively evaluate information to make reasoned judgements. The brand owners step out of their bubble to apply critical thinking to their brands, what their brands stand for, and therefore how they should act.
3
Defined value exchange
The most successful brands define value exchange for their category by understanding category codes and performance, and creating new standards for aspiration and desire, which often leads to above-category growth.
4
Forever stories
Leveraging the power of stories to encode meaning and create action is another success driver. The most successful brands - those most adept at finding their forever story - build and evolve it over time.
Introduction
The Dynamic Effectiveness series was launched in 2023, when the term ‘polycrisis’ was coming into its own. In 2026, the ratio of signal to noise is looking even less favourable as the world renegotiates several longstanding social, political and personal contracts. Fragmentation of attention, channels and audiences has made it more challenging to start, scale, build and reinforce iconic brands. Becoming sharper, more relevant and creative is important, as is building resilience and investing for the long term.
This is where this report comes in, powered by Ipsos ad effectiveness, societal & behavioural evidence, and Effie UK award-winning case studies.
What we did and what we found
Ipsos re-analysed their ad effectiveness, brand and global trends work then applied the findings to three years of Effie UK award-winning case studies.
This exercise surfaced four evidence-based principles that marketers can prioritise with confidence and build into more concrete steps by applying their brand and category lens. These principles, unpacked in greater depth, are as follows:
1. Living the value of respect
The most successful brands work hard to truly see and commit to the people they serve. They know where they stand and have a genuine regard for their goals, values and daily routines.
‘Seeing’ people better can manifest in a variety of ways.
It might mean not bombarding them with too much communication. It might mean guarding against misrepresenting them. It might mean prioritising finding ways to delight, entertain, and be useful to them.
The perception that a brand understands and helps its customers is consistently observed as a driver of choice in the Ipsos brand health tracking database.
Advertising that demonstrates ‘Creative Experiences and Ideas’ in combination with ‘Empathy and Fitting In’ has a 20% stronger performance than average. In comparison, campaigns that are strong on one or the other tend to regress to the mean - mediocrity.1
‘Empathy & Fitting in’ also proved to be a key ingredient for effectiveness at the highest level of marketing excellence. Ipsos reviewed 94 case studies of Effie UK and US finalists - this showed that the most successful campaigns scored higher on ‘Empathy and Fitting in’ than the less successful campaigns.
Case studies
Two recent Effie UK award winners benefitting from an empathetic connection with their audiences are Yorkshire Tea by Lucky Generals, winner of the Grand Effie 2023, and Very by The Gate London, a silver Effie winner in 2024 – both are summarised below:
"Yorkshire Tea's 'Where Everything's Done Proper' campaign"
It would have been easy to dismiss Yorkshire Tea’s target audience as a bit dull: mainstream aging tea drinkers, set in their ways. Instead, the team invested time in truly understanding them, recognising that they didn't want to be lectured about tea quality. The resulting 'Where Everything's Done Proper' campaign struck the perfect balance: accessible, entertaining and populist while treating the audience with respect. This approach paid off: Yorkshire Tea grew from the UK’s 3rd to 1st biggest-selling tea brand.
"Very's Christmas, 'Let's make it sparkle' campaign"
Very’s audience of mid-low income families were reframed as ‘Fun, fabulous life maximisers’ in a Christmas campaign that outperformed the market and grew sales 3.4% YOY. Authentically tapping into Hun Culture built genuine emotional connection between the Very brand and its audience, while also creating a distinctive long-term creative platform for the retailer.
Respecting people also means demonstrating this through a brand’s actions.
Living the value of respect also means reviewing how you address your customers, in terms of their identity and aspirations. Ipsos Creative | Spark ad testing data, cut by gender or ethnicity, consistently shows that inclusive portrayal creates strong sales and equity effects2.
Quality of portrayal, Ipsos analysis shows, is enhanced by being appropriate, respectful, avoiding stereotypes, and reflecting a positive role model. Further, when this is done in a joyful or entertaining way, potential effectiveness is enhanced. Ad enjoyment is the number one trust driver in ads (and bombardment is the number one driver of distrust), according to the Advertising Association Credos 2025 full year Trust Tracker3.
Impact on sales lift effects based on inclusive portrayal of different groups
Women and Girls
In Europe, ads with high GEM© index scores are more likely to have a high Creative Effect Index (CEI)
Men and Boys
Globally, ads with high GEM© Index scores are more likely to have a high Creative Effect Index (CEI)
People of colour
In Western Europe, ads with high DEI© Index scores are more likely to have a high Creative Effect Index (CEI)
Impact on Short-term sales lift effect (CEI) in the Ipsos Creative Spark Ad testing database
Another important aspect of respect is respect for people’s time.
If brand content does not deliver value exchange or fit, it is more likely to be perceived by the audience as unwelcome and thus ineffective.
The optimal creative experience for getting noticed will vary across media environments, as evidenced by Ipsos ad testing which uses a realistic context to measure attention (e.g. TV ad break, live TikTok/Meta/YouTube, OOH, Point of sale etc). This makes how a brand uses each medium a key part of the respect equation.
TV and linear video are often experienced in a more passive viewing context, for example, so engaging and entertaining creative content should be prioritised. In a social in-feed context that’s more text heavy and slower to scroll, however, making a connection and proving utility are more important.
For short-form video, which uses a quick swipe, full-bleed video environment, a balance of relevance and entertainment is preferable. Aptly referred to as ‘joyful utility’ in the Ipsos/TikTok paper4‘ re-energising the mid-funnel.’
Case study Aldi's social strategy
For years TV had been the bedrock of Aldi’s advertising but this had failed to engage pre-family shoppers: light TV Viewers, but a key penetration-driving audience. A social strategy provided the solution, which obviously warranted a different approach. Aldi adapted its ATL persona to adopt a more reactive, combative and irreverent tone of voice to become a recognised cultural force on social media, whether starting caterpillar cake wars or convincing people that Kate Moss shops at Aldi.
The brand’s often hilarious ongoing social media activity by McCann has cemented its appeal to a younger demographic, delivering proven returns on marketing investment each year, and picking up an Effie UK bronze award in 2024.
2. Challenge your own map
The most successful brands actively evaluate information to make reasoned judgements. These marketing teams step out of their bubble to apply critical thinking to their brands, what their brands stand for, and therefore how they should act.
‘Stepping out of their bubble’ requires a brand to balance experience with evidence, and actively evaluate information to make reasoned judgements.
It means not making automatic assumptions – questioning planning biases, for example, to know where incremental reach and engagement is truly coming from.
As an example of planning bias, there is significant disparity in the media habits and perceptions of members of the public and industry professionals. Ad people have a much higher use of social media, as evidenced in the Ipsos & Thinkbox ‘Adnormal Behaviour’ report5.
Another example of advertising bias is age-related. Over 60s feature in a primary role in just 8% of ads6, under half of the proportion of the UK population this group represents. Older gamers’ behaviour, meanwhile, is most like 15-24-year-old gamers’ behaviour, according to Ipsos Gametrack7. Challenging assumptions such as these will unlock brand opportunities and growth.
‘Stepping out of their bubble’ also means considering the wider context in which a brand does business.
While values-based shopping is growing, so too is the influence of price, according to Ipsos’ People and Climate Change 2026 report8. Although 37% of Britons don’t care if brands are ‘ethical or socially responsible’, they do care deeply about causes that matter to them.
In this context, conveying a sense of what good a brand does has value, because it impacts the overall summary sense of closeness that people feel to it. When aligned with what a brand stands for, and when applied consistently, this delivers competitive edge. The marketing challenge is how to innovate in aspirational, commercially savvy and conscious ways to stay ahead of the curve on consumer and regulatory pressures.
A brand can only contribute meaningfully when it acts from what it truly stands for - not from whatever cause is trending. We believe that brands win when they show up with clarity, humility, and a human point of view that amplifies what people are already feeling. When you commit to meaning - not marketing - you deepen relevance, spark resonance, and create the conditions for cultural change. In short: don’t chase the conversation but earn your place in it.
Saffron Inkster
Masterbrand Director at Dirt is Good, Unilever
Case study "ITV’s ‘Britain Get Talking' mental health campaign"
ITV’s ‘Britain Get Talking' mental health campaign, by Uncommon Creative Studio, showcased how a brand can credibly support a social cause if there’s a natural link between them. ITV recognised that it wasn’t just a broadcaster, it was a facilitator of national conversations. Beamed directly into the UK's front rooms every day, ITV is in the perfect position to encourage Britain to “get talking”. Originally launched in 2019 by pausing Britain's Got Talent, ITV's Britain Get Talking campaign has since inspired over 100 million new or meaningful conversations, most recently focusing on mental health support for school children. It was a silver Effie winner in 2024.
3. Defined value exchange
The most successful brands define or redefine value to drive above-category growth.
One route to unlocking value is to tap into cultural tensions.
Consider the notion of affluence and how people’s perception of it has shifted, away from codes of ‘perfection, heritage and hierarchy’ and towards ‘action and authenticity’. Luxury brands that are opulent-coded can find this problematic as the market orientation shifts. Some have expertly moved into more modern cultural spaces by borrowing value through collaborations, like Gucci and Palace Skateboards9, or Balenciaga and Fortnite10.
Case study "TUI's 'Live Happy' campaign"
TUI faced a tough business challenge post COVID-19, shifting perceptions of the brand to a life-enhancing travel provider in a declining package holiday market. With more and more tools in place for holiday makers to self-book, there was a steady increase in the number of people who said they would never think to book a package holiday. To future-proof the business, its agency, Leo Burnett UK, took inspiration from the changing aspirations around holidays. TUI broadened its model to include more unique, personalised travel experiences under the idea that ‘travel is the only money you will spend that makes you richer’. The Live Happy campaign was a fresh and modern view of the aspirational which spoke to the UK’s view of affluence. The campaign results were exceptional, with passenger volumes rising by 30% at 18% lower costs after one year of activity, earning it a gold trophy in 2023.
Another cultural tension is how success is viewed very differently offline vs. online. Success factors in our offline lives, as measured in a survey, rank treating other people well (82%) and working hard (77%) as top factors. On the other hand, a topic analysis of online conversations on the theme of success or ‘making it’ show ‘having a hatedom’ as the biggest contributor to success. Tapping into online/offline tensions the Danish fashion brand, SAMSØE SAMSØE, launched a "Pay with screen time" activation to reward rebalancing perspectives in line with their brand ethos. Those who could show they have reduced their screen time were offered discounts.
There are plenty of these cultural tensions at play that sit at the intersection of our needs vs. desires that, when understood, can be sources of genuine value.
Breaking category conventions can also be a powerful way to build mental friction and memorability. For some, it means leveraging an issue directly connected to a brand’s core product and or area of expertise.
Understanding your category, its codes, and how it is depicted by you and your competitors is a useful strategic base to plan how to deliver a fresh experience. It’s a case of knowing the rules so you can break them in the right way to engage people. Applying a Misfits Mindset, by being strategically unconventional to achieve measurable end results, can deliver a 20% uplift in short-term sales impact, by combining creative experiences and ideas with empathy and fitting in.
As an example, Pathanjali toothpaste in India had the main character systematically lampoon generic toothpaste ad codes, like the white lab coat, calling it out as a fake way to gain credibility before recommending the audience look to nature for the truth.
Case studies
Two examples of recent Effie UK winners breaking the codes of their category to engage specific audiences are Nurofen by McCann, winner of the Grand Effie 2025, and AJ Bell by Pablo, a silver Effie winner in 2024. These are summarised below:
"Nurofen's ‘See My Pain’ campaign"
Nurofen had built its business through decades of functional claims about product efficacy and speed. But with all painkiller brands – including cheaper rivals – making the same claims, Nurofen needed to do something different to maintain its position as market leader. The brand team identified that consumers’ purchasing decisions were driven by emotional drivers, not functional ones. Its ‘See My Pain’ campaign, about the medical reality that women’s pain is often underrated, re-engaged people looking for pain relief – women especially. In 3 years, they transformed brand measures, reversed the long-term drift to own-brand generics, and increased sales value by £14M.
"AJ Bell's 'Feel Good Investing' platform"
The investment platform, AJ Bell, was plagued by low awareness and risked falling behind new competitors and deeper-pocketed rivals. To survive, the brand needed a shake-up. The 'Feel Good Investing' platform transformed investing from fear-laden and logic-driven into something genuinely joyful and impactful. Making investing feel good drove extraordinary business transformation: awareness tripled, its customer base grew by 32.7% and, critically, the campaign delivered an ROI of £4.50 for every £1 spent.
Sephora breaking customer service convention
Consider another case, where in a world racing for efficiency in tech-enabled customer service, Ipsos global trends data shows 75% say customer service is getting too automated and impersonal. Brands like Sephora are breaking this convention with strategic initiatives to ‘unshittify’ their customer experience. They actively introduce vs. remove certain customer friction points and treat them as brand building opportunities.
4. Forever stories
The most successful brands know stories encode meaning and create action, then act on this. They find their forever story, fix onto it and nurture and grow it over time.
Too few ads in brand marketing campaigns tell a relatable story - just 49%, according to an evaluation of 15,000 ads in the Ipsos Misfits Stories report11. Yet, brands that tap into the power of storytelling can benefit from nearly 3x more creative effectiveness. Brand storytelling can be optimised in a variety of ways to enhance audience participation, escapism, and connection.
A brand seeking to change an audience’s behaviour is twice as likely to do so when it combines its brand value within a powerful and engaging story than it is simply telling an audience what to do11.
Ads that talk about the value their brand can deliver can change behaviour but foiling it in a relatable story is x2 effective
+% Likelihood to be a Top Third Performer on Behaviour Change
Brand Value
X2 effect
Brand Value x Narrative
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.
Telling a relatable story does not mean being safe.
Risk-taking in storytelling can be a good thing, as indifference is the weakest predictor of long-term brand growth12. Given attention scarcity, taking calculated risks by breaking taboos can also help set you up for success. While there are risks, telling a more unconventional story gets you noticed and harnessing empathy, surprise and positivity can help grow your brand long-term. Brands that break taboos go against the category norm. Ipsos ad testing data shows that defying category conventions gives advertisers a +21% bump in ad attention.
Case study "Anusol's ‘Bum's the Word’ campaign"
Often the best way to broach a delicate subject is to do it with humour. Anusol smashed taboos and unlocked record growth with their ‘Bum’s the Word’ campaign by The Gate London. Haemorrhoids were so shrouded in shame that sufferers would rather not be able to sit down than engage with the problem. Rather than shy away and take the softly-softly approach, Anusol went bold and funny on TV. The ‘Cheeky Diagnosis’ campaign repositioned Anusol from clinical brand to taboo-smasher, driving positive brand perceptions. This bold and humourous approach grew category sales +64% with the product launch winning 77% market share in two years. It picked up a gold Effie in 2022.
Making characters more interesting and believable also helps.
These are two important by-products of cultivating a more sensitive and representative approach to depicting people in a brand’s marketing content. Audiences pay close attention to such detail and considered casting can strengthen audience interest.
Women shown as multi-dimensional characters or younger men shown in more nurturing and expressive roles both generated significant positive impact, according to Ipsos research on portrayal.13
Case study "IKEA's ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ campaign"
IKEA rejuvenated its business by blending its brand philosophy with celebrating the home as a joyful retreat and an understanding that a home is as diverse as the people who inhabit it. ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ by Mother London was a multi-executional campaign with joy and diversity at its heart. Men, to take just one example, were portrayed as engaged homemakers and carers – directly challenging masculine stereotypes. The approach grew sales, arrested penetration decline and increased ROI by 47%. This long-term campaign was the Effie UK Grand award winner in 2024.
Storytelling dimensions that matter most to accurate portrayals of women14
Self-Agency
Financial independence, decision-making power, balance across roles.
Goals & Success
Advancement in career, education, and passions.
Physical Strength
Athleticism and capability across diverse bodies and expressions.
Economic Power
Women influencing purchases, making transactions, and shaping brand purpose.
Localising a story can achieve a powerful effect.
Successful brands tap into universal and positive national characteristics to make ads feel more ‘of this place’.
‘Brand closeness’ is a cornerstone of long-term brand health in Ipsos brand tracking and has been growing in importance as a driver of equity over time. A brand can enjoy a +43% boost in ‘brand closeness’ from assimilating into national culture without losing its identity, the Effie UK and Ipsos report Banter Like a Brit shows.
While the key characteristics of Britishness are ‘enduring’, ‘wit’ and ‘tradition’, such qualities can be mixed in different measures for global or local brands feel closer to home.
Personality clusters based on common personality traits
Do British Brands share the attributes of Brand Britain, and are some leveraging different aspects beyond its traditional core?
Source: Ipsos, Be Distinctive Britain Brand Survey Base: Respondents aware of brand and asked about brand (n=429-501), GB adults aged 18-65, interviewed online 30 July – 5 Aug 2024 Method: Cluster analysis using agglomerative clustering with aggregated scores for 60 brands, 24 personality attributes, amongst 3000 respondents
Case study "McVitie’s ‘True Originals’ campaign"
McVitie’s reasserted the unmatchable position in British life it has, thanks to its cultural heritage and enduring legacy, by leaning into down-to-earth modern Britishness in its ‘True Originals’ campaign by TBWA/LDN. A mix of wry observation and a quintessentially British tone of voice reconnected the brand with its audience. This distanced it from its competitors and turned penetration from year-on-year decline to growth, picking up a silver Effie award in 2024.
There is often a tension between efficient production of ads at a global/regional level vs. more effective localisation by making them in the market. Use of audio, brand assets and increasingly sophisticated post-production techniques are useful tools to bring local flavour to life.
Case study "McDonald’s ‘Raise Your Arches’ campaign"
A brand that’s successfully balanced local relevance with global reach is McDonald’s. To return to growth after Covid, they reconnected with consumers by embracing the brand's role in people’s lives: McDonald’s isn’t a restaurant, it’s a pressure release valve. They resuscitated the emotion in the brand by celebrating the universally recognised ‘unspoken invitation’ for this release. The acclaimed ‘Raise Your Arches’ campaign by Leo Burnett UK created a global visual language that worked across markets, delivering £1.2bn in incremental sales. McDonald’s was an Effie UK gold winner in 2024.
Conclusion
In Ipsos and Effie UK’s view, each of these four principles – Living the value of respect, Challenge your own map, Defined value exchange, and Forever stories – are especially valuable for marketers looking to maximise effectiveness in coming months.
Why?
Because, when applied well, they already help the most successful marketers sharpen their brand strategies in ways that deliver a tangible and meaningful competitive edge. In turn, this is powering up their ability to defy the chaos, clutter, and controversy of the current age.
In the light of this, every marketer can and should prioritise these with confidence despite the ongoing uncertainty, unpredictability, and economic turmoil over the rest of 2026 and beyond.
Get in Touch
Samira Brophy
Senior Director, Ipsos samira.brophy@ipsos.com
Samira is an Ipsos expert on brand and communication work, with 20 years of experience spanning creative and research roles. She leads Ipsos’ earlystage campaign development offer, is a thought leader on ad effectiveness, and works with clients to adopt a misfit mindset and make bolder, highly creative campaigns that audiences value.
Sources
1. Ipsos, Misfits: How Creativity in Advertising Sparks Brand Growth, https://www.ipsos.com/en/misfits
2. Ipsos Creative | Spark ad testing database analysis. Drivers of the Creative Effect Index
3. Advertising Association/Credos 2025 full year Trust Tracker
4. Ipsos/TikTok ‘Re-energising the mid funnel’ https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/tiktoks-role-re-energising-mid-funnel
5. Ipsos/Thinkbox Adnormal Behaviour 2022 https://www.thinkbox.tv/research/thinkbox-research/adnormal-behaviour
6. Ipsos Creative | Spark ad testing database analysis. Proportion of ads featuring an older person in a primary role.
7. Ipsos Gametrack: https://www.videogameseurope.eu/data-key-facts/gametrack-info/
9. Gucci X Palace Skateboards 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awdE7dF672I
10. Balenciaga X Fortnite 2021 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gKiVi3tmqI
11. Ipsos Misfits Stories: The Power of Storytelling in Creative Effectiveness: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/misfits-stories
12. Ipsos & Google: Long term impact of creative effectiveness on YouTube
13. Ipsos X See Her ‘Strive for More 2.0’ https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/strive-more-20-female-portrayal-guide-growth-obsessed-marketers
14. Strive For More 2.0: GEM® Industry Insights https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/strive-more-gem-industry-insights
About The Dynamic Effectiveness Series
The Dynamic Effectiveness Series, launched in 2023, is a series of practical, actionable guides for marketers based on three years of analysis across an array of Ipsos global trends and ad effectiveness research and Effie UK award-winning case studies.
About Ipsos
Ipsos is one of the largest market research companies in the world, present in 90 markets and employing 18,000+ researchers. 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
Dynamic Effectiveness series
Sharpening Your Saw
Causes & Effectiveness
Breaking Taboos
Evolving Aspirations: Navigating Status
Why Nostalgia is So 'Fetch' Right Now