Rather than debating whether creativity or media matters more, The Creative Dividend aims to unpack how the two must work together to maximise effectiveness. The research introduces two tools that aim to help marketers defend investment, improve work and make advertising a more dependable driver of business growth, says the duo.
This research aims to draw on Effie Insights, Effie's global database and content hub featuring case studies, linking reported commercial outcomes to real campaigns across markets and categories, and System1's Test Your Ad Competitive Edge database, adds the duo.
The analysis covers 1 265 campaigns (2007 to 2023) across the United Stated, Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland, representing USD$139-billion in market share, matched to consumer responses from more than 200 000 people, says the duo.
System1 and Effie's Key Findings
The Creativity Stack — Great Advertising is Built Layer by Layer
The book aims to introduce a practical framework for improving creative effectiveness across four proven dimensions — emotion, distinctiveness, showmanship and consistency — showing how each can contribute to stronger business impact when thoughtfully developed, says the duo.
Creativity and Media do not Work in Isolation
When planned together, the two account for 60.1% of campaign business results on average, and as much as 98.3% in certain categories. The book aims to show how to diagnose whether teams should focus on the work, increase support, or scale what's already winning, adds the duo.
Profit Doesn't Rise Linearly — it Accelerates
The book introduces Excess Share of Creativity (ESOC), which aims to capture how much creative advantage actually enters the market once media support is considered. As ESOC rises, the likelihood of reporting profit growth can increase exponentially, demonstrating why "good enough" creative is often the most expensive choice, says the duo.
The barrier is not belief, it is confidence. While most marketers say creativity matters, 41% say it is still seen as a risk. The Creative Dividend aims to provide case evidence, shared language and diagnostics to help teams make confident, effectiveness-led decisions, adds the duo.
"Advertising is one of the few commercial investments that compounds when it works. But compounding requires two disciplines: creative quality that changes memory, and media support that gives those memories a chance to form," says Andrew Tindall, SVP Global Partnerships at System1 and Author of The Creative Dividend.
"This book gives teams a shared language to improve the work, and the confidence to back it properly so advertising becomes an investment, not a quarterly cost," adds Tindall.
"Effie ultimately exists to help marketers create business value, and The Creative Dividend is yet another way of supporting that ambition. This is the first analysis of its kind — bringing together creative quality, media investment and commercial outcomes, delivering evidence the industry has not seen before," says Traci Alford, President and CEO at Effie.
"By showing exactly how to make creativity more effective, this research reinforces advertising as an established engine of business growth, and arms marketers with clear, actionable evidence and practical guidance to invest with confidence," concludes Alford.
For more information, visit www.system1group.com. You can also follow System1 on LinkedIn, X, or on Instagram.
*Image courtesy of contributor