Brands must eradicate the 'insight famine' to find success: Cannes Lions

Just weeks ahead of the world’s foremost celebration of commercial creativity, Cannes Lions says that some businesses are being held back by their aversion to stepping outside traditional creative boundaries and a willingness to surpass category conventions.

The fifth annual “State of Creativity” survey found that only 13% of respondents regard their companies as risk-friendly, with 29% of brands admitting to being highly risk-averse. The results are based on a survey of 1,000 marketers and creatives conducted between November and January.

This unwillingness to take risks can also have significant business implications, with research from WARC and Kantar finding that brands open to risk typically generate profit margins four times higher than competitors that are reluctant to take risks.

Deloitte, meanwhile, says that brands with a high appetite for creative risk are 33% more likely to enjoy long-term revenue growth.

The report says that aversion to risk can be attributed to “insight famine,” with 51% of brands describing their ability to develop high-quality insights as poor or very poor, compared to just 13% citing it as excellent or very good.

It cited a Gallup finding stating that brands leveraging customer behaviour insights outperform their peers by 85% in sales growth, and by more than 25% in gross margin.

The report says there are key challenges to developing high-quality insights:

• Lack of understanding and clarity of what makes a good quality insight
• Not enough priority placed on insight development
• Insufficient time allocated for deep insight exploration

Strong client-agency relationships can be a key factor in developing the kind of strong insights that yield business results. 

The majority of brands (57%) said that they struggle to quickly react to the cultural moments so important in today’s marketing, with only 12% characterizing their ability to do so as “excellent.” The report said that the inability to respond quickly is hampered by factors including too many layers in the approval process, limited resources and investment, and difficulty in aligning brand insights with cultural trends.

“Taking creative risks is always a mix of art and science,” said Wendy’s CMO Lindsay Radkoski. “When the creative idea begins with a consumer insight or cultural trend, is rooted in our brand ethos and drives a craving for our fresh, famous food, it’s a no-brainer.”