Throughout 2020, Kantar tested more than 10,000 creatives for clients around the world. 1000+ of those creatives were tested in India alone. Kantar unveiled the ads that were most effective and creative in India across 2020.

At Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards, consumers are the jury, making it unique and different from all other awards in the advertising world. The India report includes over 150 ads tested across categories, markets, TG’s and media channels which were potential contenders.

Across the television ads that were tested in India, Kantar has called out the standout performers/ winners in four key categories. These ads exemplify essential characteristics of being creatively engaging and landing persuasive brand stories. There is also a special award for ads tested in the digital space for bringing to life the exciting storytelling possibilities in the digital world.

Here are the Kantar Creative Effectiveness Awards 2021 India Winners:

The study that led to the selection of winners captured a plethora of consumer insights:

• During 2020’s COVID crisis, ads started following a templated communication. Most focussed on being ‘together’ in ‘unprecedented’ times and showcased brands as ‘Corona Warriors’ in different ways. Whether this connected with consumers or not is arguable, but they all definitely looked quite similar.

• The winning ads had certain winning ingredients like storytelling, consistency, localisation and well-integrated brand role.

• Winning ads offer a practical solution & embed themselves into a category moment of truth.

• This is in line with what other Kantar data sources indicate consumers want brands to be a part of their lives. 56% feel that brands should be a trusted source of accurate information.

• 44% consumers pinned their choice on brands that can reduce their anxiety and understand consumers concerns.

• Another 56% feel that brands need to be practical and realistic and help consumers in their everyday life.

• Response to advertising continues to be led by individual executions. Enjoyment levels of ads remain similar between pre-COVID (41%) and during COVID times (43%).

• Finally, creativity in advertising still is the key indicator of brand building. Kantar BrandZ™ data for 94 brands from 2006 to 2018 shows that brands with creative communication grew a whopping 271% over 12 years.

Soumya Mohanty, Managing Director- Client and Quantitative, Insights Division at Kantar, said, “We are happy to extend this global property to India. The winners are from a diverse range of industries and products.

“Like our global report, in India too brands that have won have a penchant for achieving creative excellence and their brand promise is delivered through performance, consistently,” Mohanty said.

Across the year, and the 10,000+ adverts analysed globally using Link™, Kantar’s validated ad testing solution, five habits from the most effective advertisers were identified as:

• Be distinctive: Create the ability to be noticed and remembered in a world where there’s a profusion of ads. Your ad is not just competing in its category. It is competing for attention against the world. Stand out from the category as a minimum, and ideally from any other advertising.

• Brand intrinsically: Make sure that the attention won by the ad is at the service of the brand. Get your branding cues right. A surprising number of companies forget this basic rule.

• Be meaningfully different: To grow market share or defend premium pricing you need to fulfil consumers’ functional, emotional and social needs in the category AND illustrate your uniqueness compared to the competition.

• Trigger an emotional response: Making the viewer feel something wins engagement for the ad, bypassing the natural tendency to screen out advertising. It also has positive effects on the brand’s emotional associations.

• Talk with your consumer: Successful marketers know they can get ‘too close’ to their creative journey and lose perspective, so they listen to viewer feedback during creative development.