New research from WARC, in collaboration with Aletheia Marketing and Media and presented by LIONS Advisory, has revealed that campaigns rooted in Values-Driven Marketing (VDM) significantly increase ad preference, likability, relevance, and overall performance.
The landmark study, Unlocking the Value of Values-Driven Marketing, shows how aligning advertising with consumers’ core values – such as achievement, purpose, and tradition – can deliver measurable improvements in engagement and conversion.
Imaad Ahmed, Principal Strategist at LIONS Advisory and Head of Advisory at WARC, said, “Understanding the motivation behind audience behaviour and finding ways to inspire action is critical. Alongside our partners at Aletheia, we have the evidence to show what a Values-driven approach can offer and how to apply it in the real world across audiences, media, messaging and measurement. The opportunity is compelling.”
Alisa Miller, Chief AI Officer at Aletheia and Co-Founder of Pluralytics, added, “The most effective marketing is built on deep human understanding. This research proves that when audiences are defined by their values and messaging is precisely aligned, ads perform significantly better. Values-Driven Marketing is emerging as a scalable, repeatable and performance-proven discipline for modern marketers in an era of Agentic AI.”
Chris Schembri, Founder and CEO of Aletheia, said: “We’ve spent years exploring how values shape marketing performance, and this research confirms what we’ve seen with our clients time and again: when brands connect with people around what truly matters to them, engagement deepens and conversions follow.”
The study surveyed 5,016 US adults across multiple demographics, testing 27 unbranded AI-generated ads across consumer goods, quick-service restaurants, and financial services. Findings revealed that ads aligned with an individual’s dominant values were consistently preferred, often delivering 1.8x to 2x performance uplifts.
By integrating values into targeting and messaging, marketers can significantly improve media effectiveness and brand resonance. Achievement-oriented consumers, for instance, were 17 percentage points more likely to prefer achievement-aligned ads, while purpose-driven and tradition-oriented audiences also responded positively to values-matched campaigns.
The report introduces a new behavioural science and AI-powered model for optimising ad relevance and impact, helping brands overcome attention scarcity and connect more authentically with audiences.
Jennifer Posnikoff, SVP of Global Brand Growth and Experience at Virgin, said, “If you get Values right, you build long-term brand equity while still delivering short-term performance.”
According to the research, Values-Driven Marketing not only enhances brand trust but also enables marketers to make more accurate media choices and adapt to changing consumer behaviours. As consumer expectations evolve, brands that reflect personal values are seeing rising loyalty with Ipsos reporting that 69% of people now prefer brands that align with their beliefs, up from 53% in 2023.
The findings underline that Values-Driven Marketing is no longer a niche approach but a powerful, scalable strategy for building meaningful connections and sustainable brand growth in a performance-driven world.
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