Zappi challenges creator-style ad trend

The study covers advertising on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube across 21 categories. It uses Zappi's Creative Power score, a composite measure of resonance, brand connection, persuasion, distinctiveness and emotional intensity, to identify the top 20 percent of performing ads.

Zappi has found that social video ads that attract attention do not necessarily persuade consumers or strengthen brand recognition, highlighting a gap between creative visibility and advertising effectiveness.

Its fourth annual State of Creative Effectiveness report analyses more than 3,300 social video ads across the US and UK to identify the creative characteristics most closely associated with stronger consumer responses.

Creator-Style Ads Face Brand Connection Challenges

The research found that ads designed to resemble creator content were 30 percent less likely to rank among top performers and recorded the weakest brand connection of the creative characteristics examined. By contrast, brand-produced content designed to fit naturally into social feeds performed strongly.

The findings suggest that adapting to social media conventions does not necessarily require brands to imitate creators. Instead, advertisers can combine platform-native formats with creative approaches that maintain a recognisable brand identity.

Visual Hooks Attract Attention, but Product Benefits Persuade

Ads built around a strong visual hook were 2.4 times more likely to rank among top performers, making this approach particularly effective at increasing distinctiveness. However, the elements most effective at attracting attention were not always those that persuaded consumers.

Persuasion was strongest when ads communicated a clear product benefit and ended with a positive resolution. The report therefore highlights the importance of combining an immediate visual hook with a compelling product use case and a complete narrative.

Distinctive Brand Assets Strengthen Recognition

The use of three or more distinctive brand assets, including colours, slogans and recurring characters, was associated with a 30 percent greater likelihood of an ad ranking among top performers. These assets were also the strongest driver of brand connection in the study.

By comparison, pack shots appeared in roughly half of the ads analysed but delivered the weakest improvement in brand connection among the branding devices examined. Logos appeared in 97 percent of ads, while brand colours and slogans were used less frequently but played a stronger role in helping consumers identify the advertiser.

The findings underline the importance of consistent branding across platforms, particularly as campaigns increasingly combine brand-produced content, creator partnerships and multiple creative executions.

Gen Z Does Not Respond Equally Across Platforms

The study also challenges assumptions that younger audiences are automatically more receptive to social video advertising. Across the four platforms, consumers aged 25 to 34 were more likely than those aged 18 to 24 to say they loved the digital ads they saw.

More broadly, emotional response and persuasion peaked among audiences aged 25 to 44, while the youngest group scored relatively low across emotional intensity, persuasion, distinctiveness and brand connection. The findings suggest that marketers should evaluate creative performance by audience rather than assume that platform choice alone will secure engagement among younger consumers.

Zappi Calls for Continuous Creative Measurement

Nataly Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer, Zappi: "Content has scaled faster than the systems marketers use to validate it and prove its value. Brands are making thousands of smaller creative decisions across more platforms, creators and audiences, and our research shows that what stands out is not always what persuades or builds the brand. Brands need a connected and continuous insights system that can keep pace with that complexity and help marketers know what is actually delivering brand and business value."

The report comes as digital video accounts for 58 percent of US video advertising expenditure, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. As advertisers distribute budgets across more platforms and creative formats, Zappi argues that consumer testing can help marketers identify which executions contribute to brand and business outcomes rather than relying on attention alone.

The State of Creative Effectiveness 2026 report compares ads with and without specific creative characteristics while controlling for category differences. Its findings are intended to help marketers understand how creative choices influence overall effectiveness across social video advertising.

The full report can be accessed here

www.zappi.io

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