Findings | Be Distinctive. Everywhere

Distinctiveness is an art — and a science. This report is a celebration of that fact.

We knew from experience that distinctiveness was rare and difficult to achieve. But the findings of this report revealed just how incredibly uncommon it is:

Only 15% of all brand assets tested were truly distinctive.

of all brand assets tested were Bronze standard.

of all brand assets tested were Silver standard.

of all brand assets tested were Gold standard.

What does this mean?

Based on the Ipsos data, we estimate that of the $4.7 trillion spent every year on marketing...

is being spent on brand assets that aren’t truly distinctive. Yikes.

Showing up as your unique and unmistakable self isn’t just a matter of creative strategy.  
It’s vital to your commercial survival.

YouGov. (2021, July 7). Focus on measuring brand salience.

Studies show presenting brands consistently across all platforms can increase revenues by up to 23%.”

Billions are spent on measuring and perfecting performance at the lower-end of the funnel. Trying to extract an extra 0.01% from your conversion metrics; or shifting click-through rates from 1.7% to 2%.

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But the first principle of branding should always be recognition — the simple fact of knowing who is talking to you. That’s what drives the top-end of the funnel and where more of our attention should be spent.

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The presence of distinctive brand assets is strongly linked to positive branded attention effects, more so than just directly showing or talking about the brand.”

Ipsos, (The Power of You, 2020) — A study of the 2000+ most effective pieces of video content in the US.

A distinctive identity always gets you noticed, creating new opportunities to be chosen over your competitors. It transforms a product from a commodity into something more. In fact, as Ipsos’ study shows, the right assets in the right combination can make you not only stand out, they can make you truly unforgettable.

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Let’s not let them go to waste.

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Oscar Wilde

Be yourself, everybody else is taken.”