‘What is NEOM – Hero video’ amongst the top 15 digital/social ads in the world 

Hot off the press, Kantar’s 2024 Creative Effectiveness Awards celebrate the winners of the best TV, Digital/Social, Print/Outdoor and AI-tested ads from around the world. These are the only awards built on the opinions of real consumers, with 1.97m consumers participating in Kantar ad testing globally in 2023. The award winners showcase the ads that consumers found the most impactful among the thousands that Kantar tested in 2023. The results provide insights into what drives advertising effectiveness and the creative techniques used by the world’s best advertisers to forge powerful connections with consumers. 

To celebrate the fifth year of the awards, Kantar has expanded its Digital/Social and TV categories to include 15 winners each, and, for the first time, are awarding creative quality evaluated by its AI-based ad testing. LINK AI is a powerful, AI-based solution for testing digital and TV advertising, trained with consumer insight, and backed by Kantar’s LINK+ database of over 260,000 ads.

Commenting on the awards, Manaswita Singh, Chief Growth Officer, Middle East for Kantar said, “We’re so excited to see a brand from Middle East featuring as one of the most creative and effective ads in the global rankings. The ‘What is NEOM’ ad is a testament of building a campaign on insights directly coming in from the digital world. Using Google search, through Kantar’s Dx analysis, we uncovered the questions that people were asking about NEOM in various contexts. This helped in developing the creative idea – instead of just giving the answer to the question, people from all over the world were actively encouraged to ask more questions in the film, making them curious to find more about it. The campaign was a huge success. NEOM brand searches increased by over 3X year-over-year and by 40% month-over-month. On top of that, understanding of ‘what is NEOM’ increased by 4X and positive sentiment rose by 26 percentage points, which is 3X the industry benchmark”.

The most creative and effective ads of 2023

The best creative across Digital/Social, TV and Print/Outdoor comes from a diverse range of brands, categories and markets – highlighting the universal power of harnessing creativity to build meaningful connections with consumers: 

Digital/Social 

Print/Outdoor

TV

Tested by LINK AI

Download the report to view the full list of winning and shortlisted ads 

Winning ads reveal five ways to create consumer connections

Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards 2024 winners illustrate the ways that brands can forge a close connection with their audience. In the report, Kantar’s creative experts present five key themes that encapsulate the differing ways the winning ads have successfully achieved this: 

Courage: Showing creative bravery to connect with customers

With a new launch, creative campaigns often focus on what the new product looks like or what it does. Our #14 digital/social winner is a hero creative asset for the smart city NEOM being built in Saudi Arabia. Aptly named “What is NEOM?”, the ad shows people around the world, in visually catchy settings – from a school, all the way into space – asking what NEOM is, but not showing any of it, creating a sense of curiosity for the brand.

Catastrophising: Grabbing attention and connecting emotionally through drama

The #1 Digital/Social winner, a Facebook ad for the Mexican coffee liqueur brand Kahlúa, is a great example of this trend, immersing viewers in telenovela-inspired melodrama.

Candid: Down to earth advertising that connects with real life.
Rådet for Sikker Trafik’s (The Danish Road Safety Council) public information ad ‘Dit svar er bedre sent end aldrig (Your reply is better late than never)’ is a great example of the trend for ads which reject perfection to connect with viewers.

Consistent: Know when you have a good thing – connecting over time.
Heineken developed award-winning creatives across all three media categories for its superb ‘H150 Whateverken’ campaign, showcasing the power of a good idea, consistently applied.

Comical: Make them laugh and connect through humour.
#12 in the Digital/Social category is an ad for TENA Men which uses humour to address the sensitive issue of male incontinence and convey a serious message in an informative yet humorous way.

Commenting on the award winners, Jane Ostler, EVP, Global Thought Leadership, Kantar, said: “Advertising has the power to drive brand growth if it’s creative and effective. One of the top priorities for CMOs is to predispose more people to their brand. When people are predisposed, they are clear on what a brand means to them and how it stands out from the others. Our award-winning ads are a real showcase of creativity harnessed in support of commercial goals, and demonstrate what it looks like when marketers take digital advertising seriously and optimise their creative at scale.”  

To see the full list of award winners in each category, visit www.kantar.com