By Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive, Advertising Association
If the advertising industry had an Olympic Games, the IPA Effectiveness Databank would be its centre stage. The campaigns recorded within it – representing roughly £7.5bn of advertising investment since 1998 – are already the elite, the meticulously measured, and the proven performers.
To put it in track-and-field terms: every campaign in this databank is an Olympic-standard sprinter. If we imagine the average, highly effective for-profit campaign running the 100-metre dash in 10 seconds flat, what happens when you inject brand trust into the athlete’s training programme?
According to the IPA’s latest analysis, advertising that significantly increases brand trust is 41% more effective at driving business growth. If our average Olympian runs the 100 metres in 10 seconds, a trust-building campaign covers that exact same distance in 7.1 seconds. Eat my dust, Usain Bolt!
This 41% performance gap underlines exactly why the absolute best advertising campaigns are the ones that help to build trust in a brand. When a campaign reports very large increases in brand trust, it has a 93% chance of reporting at least one very large business effect, compared to the 66% average across all for-profit campaigns.
What does that record-breaking 7.1 seconds sprint look like in the boardroom? It looks like sweeping the podium for every major commercial metric. Compared to their “10-second” peers, these trust-fuelled campaigns deliver:
- A 35% gain in profit (vs. the 24% average).
- A 39% gain in customer acquisition (vs. the 28% average).
- A 39% gain in sales volume (vs. the 25% average).
- An 11% reduction in price sensitivity (nearly double the 6% average), giving brands vital pricing power in tough economies.
Beyond the immediate financial finish line, these campaigns also build long-term stamina. They are more than twice as likely to report massive improvements in perceptions of brand quality (59% vs 20%) and brand loyalty (56% vs 23%).
The industry is waking up to this reality. Between 1998 and 2009, fewer than four in ten campaigns even included building brand trust as an objective; by 2020 – 2024, that figure had surged to more than two-thirds. In a highly competitive, hyper-vigilant market, trust is not a “soft” PR metric – it is the ultimate, responsible performance enhancer.
If you want your brand to simply compete, aim for the 10-second standard. But if you want to leave your competitors in your wake, you have to build public confidence. The data proves it: trust is the fastest route to responsible growth.
