WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — Leading out-of-home media company JCDecaux New Zealand has released the results of its latest proprietary research project, which revealed that out-of-home creative incorporating distinctive brand codes (including logo, color, shape, tone of voice, and style of imagery ) averaged 13% uplift in category mental availability versus weakly coded ads.
The study examined how using distinctive brand codes in Out-of-Home 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.
“This was our second JCDecaux Intelligence study looking at memorability. The first looked at format, and this study extends to creative,” Victoria Parsons, JCDecaux New Zealand senior insights and strategy specialist, said. “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.”
The study also found:
- Ads with strong brand codes are liked 31% more than weakly coded ads
- Liked ads drive uplifts in category mental availability by 18% because strongly coded ads are easier to cognitively process, which leads to perceived preference.
Conducted in partnership with New Zealand-based behavioral insights company, NeuroSpot, the robust study involved 1,600 participants, who were shown real campaign creative across five categories: Automotive, Banking, FMCG, Energy, and Alcoholic Beverages (Beer). Respondents either saw campaigns with strong brand codes, weak brand codes, or random creative (control group).
Cole Armstrong, NeuroSpot managing director, said, “This research shows something we all intuitively understand. There are points for showing up, but if you really want to impact your customers, it’s the way you surface your brand via out-of-home 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.”
Gary Rosewarne, JCDecaux New Zealand sales director 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”.
This study is part of the JCDecaux Intelligence program, which dedicates funds to annual local research projects to better understand how consumers connect with JCDecaux out-of-home touchpoints. It builds on the 2021 Neuroscience study looking at memorability of Large Format; and follows projects investigating attention, emotion, and effective out-of-home strategies.
The full webinar with research results can be viewed here.
