New data from Global Media & Entertainment and Kantar shows that creative quality is one of the strongest multipliers of (Digital) Out-of-Home effectiveness. By connecting AI-powered creative intelligence with real human behaviour, the study shows how brands can turn outdoor media into measurable brand growth. Across 484 campaigns, 156,000 consumers and 4.8 billion advertising contacts, the analysis reveals that strong creative can perform up to fourteen times better than weak creative - and identifies four lessons every marketer and creative team should act on.
AI Connected to real human behaviour
What makes this analysis different is the connection between two data sources that are often treated separately: AI-powered creative scoring from Kantar LINK AI and real campaign outcomes from more than 7 years of joint effectiveness research by Global and Kantar (Kantar LIFT powered by THX.).
This means the findings are not based on assumptions, claimed recall or modelled exposure alone. They are grounded in how people actually move, see advertising and respond to brands in the real world.
- Creative quality, including dimensions such as Impact, Involvement, Branding, Persuasion, Brand Difference, Demand Power and Short Term Sales Likelihood;
- Real outdoor reach and contact frequency, based on consumer mobility data;
- Measurable brand impact among consumers.
By connecting AI-powered creative evaluation directly to proven campaign effects, the analysis makes visible which creative characteristics actually help brands grow in (D)OOH.
“Too many approaches still treat reach and recognition as proxies for effectiveness. They assume brand outcomes can be bought with more media volume, a joke, or a bigger logo on a poster. They can’t. What this analysis shows is that reach and creative are not separate controls. They are multipliers. By linking AI-powered creative intelligence directly to proven campaign outcomes, we can see what really works - and why.” - Coen Kempen, Global Head of Strategy at Kantar
“We still see many outdoor ads every day that do not meet the basic requirements for impact. That is a missed opportunity, especially because we have known for years how important creative is to campaign results. Being able to systematically analyse our joint database for creative patterns gives us a new opportunity to help the market improve.” - Siebe-Geert de Boer, Research Manager at Global
Four insights every advertiser should know
1. Top-tier (D)OOH ads deliver 14x stronger results
Creative executions that score highly on warmth - meaning they are likeable, enjoyable and distinctive - generate an average increase of 2.23 percentage points in spontaneous brand awareness. Executions that score low on warmth achieve only 0.16 percentage points. That is fourteen times the impact. Creative quality is therefore one of the biggest growth levers available to brands in outdoor advertising. The practical implication is clear: test creative before investing heavily behind it.
2. A dull ad leaves 89% of its growth potential on the table
Brands that run generic, non-distinctive creative leave most of their potential brand growth unused. Statistically, an average or weak execution captures only 11% of what a strong execution could have delivered. More media spend does not solve this. It simply means paying more for an underperforming result. To create growth, outdoor creative must be clear, distinctive and surprising enough to be noticed.
3. The frequency sweet spot exists - but only for strong creative
Twenty to thirty passers-by over two weeks is the real (D)OOH frequency sweet spot. But the nuance matters: this effect holds most clearly for creative executions that score highly on creative quality in LINK AI. When creative is strong, brand lift rises by 5.2 percentage points. Without likeable, enjoyable and distinctive creative, additional frequency adds limited value. More media cannot rescue weak creative; it only increases the cost of the same limited outcome.
4. Persuasive creative plus high reach creates a multiplier effect
Creative and reach reinforce each other when persuasive creative is seen by enough people. It is not enough for an ad simply to create a good feeling; it must also move people towards the brand. When an execution scores highly on persuasion and is combined with high reach of more than 77%, brand lift can increase by more than 8 percentage points. This is where (D)OOH becomes a growth engine: creative intelligence and media intelligence working together.
What this means for your next campaign
Global Media & Entertainment and Kantar help marketers validate and optimise creative before it goes live. By uploading an ad, marketers can quickly understand how it performs across the most important creative dimensions, where its strengths lie, and what can be improved before media investment is committed.
This allows creative and media decisions to be connected earlier, so reach and creative quality reinforce each other rather than operate in isolation. In Kantar’s Intelligence for Brand Growth, this is the connection that matters: signals from real people and real behaviour, translated into better decisions, and ultimately into brand growth.
Interested in the full whitepaper? Contact us to receive it after publication.