For decades advertisers have been advised to find consumers at the right time and place with the right creative message. 

But according to a new meta analysis of studies about advertising as a driver of business outcomes, creative is the key ingredient. Although utilizing AI to integrate creative and media to optimize impact is probably the best strategy. 

The analysis was done by Brian Wieser-led Madison & Wall and commissioned by Adobe.  

“It appears to be universally true that in most studies on the topic, creative has a bigger effect than media in driving outcomes,” M&W’s report concluded, even though the bulk of ad budgets are earmarked for media and other activations. 

That said, “both creative and media are important everywhere.” And “At the same time, the definition of ‘creative’ is far from consistent, placing limits on direct comparisons across studies.” 

Madison and Wall’s view is “that because both functions can have a significant impact on outcomes, marketers who resource both together rather than in isolation are likely better able to optimize spending between these functions.” 

“The benefits of integration between creative and media paired with the growing availability of Gen AI-based tools highlight that there are good reasons for individual marketers to integrate these functions more than they do at present. While there are operational reasons why many marketers will not pursue this integration, opportunities should await those who are able to do so.” 

The meta analysis looked at a handful of recent major studies including a 2023 ad effectiveness study conducted by Nielsen and Catalina and a Magna Yahoo study that focused on display advertising, also from 2023, among others. 

More on the M&W analysis can be found here.