Ireland’s most effective advertising campaigns combine clear commercial objectives with emotionally engaging creative work and a connected mix of media channels, according to new research carried out by Ipsos B&A for the Creative Communications Association.
The research, “What Effectiveness Looks Like in Ireland: Learnings from the 2025 Effie Awards Ireland”, was presented at CCA’s “Future of Effectiveness” conference this week and was overseen by Ipsos B&A’s in-house advertising effectiveness experts Jimmy Larsen and Deirdre Kelly.
The research examined entries to the 2025 Effie Awards Ireland to identify the characteristics that distinguished winners from other campaigns.
It found that stronger campaigns established a link between marketing activity and business outcomes before launch, used more research throughout their development and created advertising that audiences could clearly associate with the brand.
The awards attracted 50 entries, with 33 finalists and 17 winners, including four gold, five silver and eight bronze awards. Gold winners included National Broadband (Core) which picked up two Golds; Now (Boys+Girls) and Failte Ireland (Core/Mindshare)
Silver Winners included Irish League of Credit Unions (Core); SKY Ireland (Core); Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (Publicis Dublin/Media 365); Lidl Ireland (Folk VML/EssenceMediacom, part of WPP Media) and An Post (Boys+Girls/Core).
In demonstrating the key attributes of what defines effectiveness in advertising, Ipsos B&A identified what it calls “The 3 C’s” – campaign, channel and creative
“Campaigns with a more focused number of business objectives tend to be more effective,” the research stated. “Government/non-profit winners understand the importance of prioritising more limited budgets on just a single business objective. Commercial winners have slightly greater possibilities with multiple business objectives, but less success when exceeding two business objectives,” it noted.
According to the research, commercial focus was a distinguishing feature of the strongest cases. Among commercial campaigns, 83% of winners had more defined business objectives (i.e. one or two) business objectives, compared with 73% of non-winners.
Profitability also featured as an objective in 67% of the gold-winning commercial cases, compared with 17% of winners overall and 4% of non-winners. All gold-winning commercial cases included a volume-related objective, covering measures such as growth, maintaining sales or slowing decline.
The analysis suggests that defining success in business terms at the outset helped campaigns establish a clearer route from the challenge facing a brand to the results they needed to deliver.
Larger budgets were associated with stronger awards performance, but spending alone did not determine success, according to Ipsos B&A.
Some 22% of gold and silver winners had budgets of up to €500,000, rising to a third of winners across all award levels. Ipsos B&A said strategy, execution and measurement remained important drivers of effectiveness alongside investment.
Research was another feature of stronger campaigns. Gold winners used an average of 2.3 research methods, compared with 1.4 among finalists/non-winners.
In addition, half of Gold winners used advertising copy testing, while all used tracking research. Across winners overall, 41% used copy testing, compared with 6% among the entrants and finalists used as the comparison group.
The report found that stronger cases used research to understand audiences, refine creative work and monitor the brand, as well as demonstrate results after the campaign.
“The most effective campaigns make sure they keep a continuous finger on the pulse of their brands, through Tracking research. They ensure campaign resonance and empathy significantly more through qualitative exploration and validate impact much more through creative execution copy-testing,” the research noted.
When it came to the issue campaign spend, Ipsos B&A found that while larger-budget campaigns are more likely to reach gold and silver status, almost one in four top-performing cases achieved success with budgets under €500k which underlines the importance of creativity.
“Winners are somewhat more likely to come from larger-budget campaigns – bigger budgets create more opportunities to reach audiences, generate impact and sustain activity over time, “Ipsos B&A noted.
“However, with winners across the spend levels, effectiveness is also driven by the quality of strategy, execution and measurement rather than investment alone. Creatives with emotional engagement and clear brand linkage, combined with a broad media mix, can help lower budget campaigns,” it noted.
When it came to how campaigns are deployed, the research, however, cautioned that there was no single media formula for effectiveness, with the appropriate mix depending on the audience, objective and creative idea.
However, stronger campaigns were more likely to combine digital activity with the reach and amplification of broadcast media.
Media combinations also distinguished the top performers. Two-thirds of gold and silver winners used television, radio and digital together, compared with 41% of bronze winners and non-winners.
Radio, meanwhile, featured in 89% of gold and silver campaigns, while television appeared in 78% and digital in all of them.
Campaigns that encouraged participation also stood out, according to Ipsos B&A. Events, for example, featured in 29% of winning campaigns, compared with 15% of non-winners, and were used by half of gold winners. Contests and organic social activity were also more prevalent among winners.
“Earning engagement may matter more than simply buying impressions,” the report suggests.
Cinema was another point of difference, appearing in a third of gold and silver campaigns, compared with 7% of bronze winners and non-winners. Ipsos B&A suggested its immersive setting, with fewer distractions, could help strong creative ideas achieve greater impact.
When it came to the creative analysis, the Ipsos B&A research noted that “creative quality is not a soft metric. Brands that create stronger creative consistently translate into stronger commercial outcomes, from sales lift to long-term market value.”
It also noted that effectiveness extended beyond generating an immediate response. Using its Creative Spark tool to assess television and video-on-demand advertising within winning campaigns, Ipsos B&A found that 78% met or exceeded its norms for brand attention. Some 89% met or exceeded norms for predicted long-term brand equity effects.
However, Ipsos B&A sounded a note of caution in the research as these are essentially model-based assessments of creative potential, rather than direct measurements of subsequent long-term brand growth. Nevertheless, they point towards work capable of doing more than generating an immediate response
The research also said that effective advertising helped build memories that made brands easier to recognise, recall and choose in future.
It also found that emotional impact did not depend on making audiences feel positive. Indeed winning campaigns frequently fell outside the tool’s positive sentiment norms, suggesting that tension, empathy, concern, surprise and challenge could also contribute to effectiveness.
However, emotional engagement needed a clear connection to the advertiser. Distinctive brand assets and consistent branding helped ensure that the response generated by an advertisement contributed to the brand.
Overall, the report concluded that effectiveness depended on aligning campaign strategy, channel choices and creative execution, with each supporting a clear business objective.
To download a copy of “What Effectiveness Looks Like in Ireland: Learnings from the 2025 Effie Awards Ireland” click HERE
