Research finds emotionally resonant ads are twice as likely to drive immediate sales—underscoring the power of connected insights to help marketers create work that wins with consumers

In anticipation of Cannes Lions, where the creative industry’s best work takes center stage, Zappi, the leading consumer insights platform, released its third annual State of Creative Effectiveness report with insights from VaynerMedia, a global integrated creative and media agency. The State of Creative Effectiveness is an extensive evaluation of the advertising industry based on real consumer feedback.

As the most comprehensive assessment of advertising effectiveness in the market, the report analyzes over 4,000 ads tested through Zappi’s Amplify ad system and reflects feedback from more than 1.6 million United States consumers. It also incorporates findings from a new nationally representative survey of 1,000 Americans, exploring evolving attitudes toward AI, celebrity endorsements, humor and branded storytelling. This year’s key finding: ads that score within the top 25% on overall emotion are, on average, twice as likely to drive immediate sales—offering a powerful view into where advertising is delivering real ROI and where creative opportunity still lies for brands.

“Advertising is always evolving—and today’s consumers expect more in that they want to be informed, but also expect to be entertained,” said Nataly Kelly, chief marketing officer at Zappi. “The brands that deliver best are those that bring the consumer into the process, test iteratively and learn over time. Zappi’s third annual State of Creative Effectiveness affirms that creativity, when powered by connected insights, becomes not only more effective—but also more impactful, more memorable and more human. We’re proud to partner with VaynerMedia, one of the world’s leading creative agencies, to bring this important view of the advertising landscape to the industry.”

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Top 2025 Advertising Learnings

• Emotion continues to be a key driver of performance. Emotionally resonant ads are far more likely to succeed commercially. Ads in the top quartile for emotional connection see nearly double the sales impact (78th percentile versus 41st). However, while humor improves enjoyment, it does not always translate to purchase consideration as the funniest ads score slightly below average on sales impact.
  
  
• Celebrities enhance visibility—but at the cost of brand impact. Celebrity appearances increase distinctiveness (3.5 out of 5 versus 3.3 of 5 on average) and are used in about 1 in 4 ads, but their presence does not automatically boost effectiveness. On average, ads with celebrities rank in the 55th percentile for brand impact, compared to the 63rd percentile for non-celebrity ads—highlighting the need for seamless brand fit.
  
  
• Category performance reflects both strengths and missed opportunities.
  • Food and beverage: Food ads drive the biggest short-term purchase lift, increasing likelihood to consider the brand by 29% followed by alcohol ads, which increases consideration by 27%.
  • Pet care: Also has a strong purchase uplift at 29% as well as the highest overall emotion score (68/100), which is driven by its strong love score (39% versus the 28% U.S. average).
  • Personal care: Excels in relevance (3.9/5) and emotional response (61/100).
  • Financial services: Lags behind industry averages in emotion (47%) and distinctiveness (3.6/5), but show signs of progress through humor (17%) and modest purchase uplift (15%).
  • Telecommunications: Also lags behind industry averages in emotion (45%) and distinctiveness (3.4/5), but slightly overperforms industry averages in humor (10%) and purchase uplift (21%).

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“Putting the consumer at the center isn’t just a philosophy, it’s how we build strategies that embed brands directly into culture,” said Wanda Pogue, chief strategy officer at VaynerMedia. “Content at scale, informed by real-time consumer feedback helps us create more opportunities for meaningful connections and significantly mitigates the risk of ineffective creative wasting valuable media dollars. Consumer learning and insights cannot be afterthoughts—they are integral to creating truly impactful and efficient campaigns.”

Zappi’s Amplify advertising system enables teams to test creative in real-world conditions, track performance across campaigns and improve results over time. It powers the creative systems of the world’s most progressive brands, including PepsiCo, which achieved a 30% increase in creative effectiveness since adopting Amplify. A recent study by Forrester Consulting further validates these outcomes, finding that brands using Zappi have realized a greater than 5% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) by switching away from traditional market research methods.