Award-winning creative ideas are more than twice as likely to deliver effectiveness when they achieve high levels of creative recognition, according to new analysis by global marketing intelligence organisation WARC.
The fifth edition of WARC’s The Health of Creativity 2026 report found that 21% of ideas recognised for creativity in award shows tracked by the WARC Rankings were subsequently awarded for effectiveness.
However, among highly awarded creative ideas that made it into the WARC Creative 100, the conversion rate to effectiveness more than doubled to 45%, up from 44% last year.
The latest findings are based on 11 years of WARC Rankings data covering award show results between 2015 and 2025. A total of 6,360 ideas were analysed to examine the relationship between creativity and effectiveness, as well as the characteristics of high-performing campaigns and creative conversion across sectors, brands and agency networks.
Amy Rodgers, Head of Content, WARC Creative, says: “Mounting evidence demonstrates how creativity plays a crucial role in driving campaign success. Drawing on findings from 11 years' worth of WARC Rankings data, we examined whether campaigns recognised for creative excellence have sustained or strengthened their performance edge compared to last year's findings and what are the current shared characteristics that define the most creative and effective ideas.”
Creativity and effectiveness remain closely linked
More than one in five (21%) ideas awarded for creativity in shows tracked by the WARC Rankings were subsequently recognised for effectiveness, maintaining the same conversion rate as last year.
For ideas achieving the highest levels of creative recognition, however, the conversion rate more than doubled, reaching 45%.
“Should the 21% conversion rate be higher?” asks Rodgers. “Perhaps not, when viewed in the context of all the advertising produced. Winning both a creative and an effective award for the same campaign is hard. Factors include the current shift away from brand building to performance, brand size, and resources to measure effectiveness and prepare for strong award entries.”
WARC’s analysis of 167 best-of-the-best ideas, which ranked in both the WARC Creative 100 and Effective 100 between 2016 and 2026, identified several common characteristics among highly creative and highly effective campaigns.
TV's role declines as brands use wider channel mixes
Television remains a powerful medium for emotional storytelling and reaching large, engaged audiences, but its role as the lead channel among top-performing campaigns is declining.
In 2025, 25% of best-in-class ideas led with television, compared with 44% in 2018.
WARC said television continues to play an important role in strategies built around emotion and storytelling, which can help encode marketing messages in memory.
However, the data suggests that no single channel has replaced television as the dominant lead medium. Instead, the lead role is increasingly distributed across a broader mix of channels.
Brand building remains a key objective
Brand building continues to dominate among highly creative and effective campaigns.
Overall, 85% of campaigns analysed aimed to build brands, rising slightly to 88% among highly creative and effective ideas.
WARC said strong brands can support growth and premium pricing through sustained investment in long-term brand equity. This requires consistent delivery of the brand promise across product performance, advertising and pricing, alongside efforts to strengthen awareness and equity.
Social justice, partnerships and emotion feature strongly
The analysis found that the best-performing creative ideas often extend beyond conventional customer-focused marketing.
Nearly half (49%) of highly creative and highly effective ideas significantly over-indexed in their use of social justice issues, including corporate social responsibility, advocacy and brand activism.
Customer experience featured in 42% of top ideas, while strategic partnerships were used by 40%.
According to WARC, the findings indicate that some of the strongest campaigns engage with wider societal issues and audiences rather than focusing solely on traditional customer-facing tactics.
Top creative ideas drive sales and customer growth
Creative effectiveness also translated into measurable commercial outcomes.
Almost two-thirds (61%) of the best-performing ideas had a measurable impact on sales, while almost half affected market penetration.
ROI and revenue also significantly over-indexed in award-winning work, while behavioural change emerged as a distinctive metric among top-performing campaigns.
The findings suggest that leading campaigns combine long-term brand-building objectives with efforts to influence consumer behaviour and generate wider commercial impact.
PR value and fame matter for top campaigns
PR value was measured by 70% of highly creative and highly effective ideas, more than double the 27% recorded across all cases.
The finding highlights the role of fame and earned attention in successful campaigns. Best-of-the-best ideas also over-indexed on other soft metrics, including social media buzz, brand health and search.
Highly creative campaigns tend to run for longer
The strongest creative and effective campaigns also tend to have longer durations.
More than a third (37%) of award-winning campaigns ran for at least a year, compared with 15% of typical cases.
WARC said the finding aligns with research suggesting that highly creative campaigns can build emotional resonance and generate lasting impact, while less creative campaigns are more likely to focus on short-term results.
Retail leads creative effectiveness
Retail accounted for 20% of the 167 most creative and effective ideas, despite representing only 13% of all cases analysed.
Food followed with 10%, while technology and electronics, toiletries and cosmetics, and financial services each accounted for 8%.
Higher creative commitment linked to effectiveness
The report also found a strong relationship between creative commitment and campaign effectiveness.
Creative commitment is a composite measure covering media budget, campaign duration and the number of media channels used for a creative campaign or initiative.
As creative commitment increases, so does effectiveness across measures including sales, brand building, market share and profit.
Ideas ranked in both the WARC Creative 100 and Effective 100 recorded an average creative commitment score of 7.0, compared with 6.0 across the full WARC Rankings dataset. WARC noted that the figures are not a reflection of brand size.
Agency networks show differing creative conversion rates
Among creatively awarded ideas, Ogilvy leads with a total tally of 575, adding 84 this year.
BBDO has the highest number of creatively awarded ideas that converted to effectiveness, with 137, while VML recorded the strongest growth, adding 27 converted ideas.
By conversion rate, Saatchi & Saatchi leads agency networks with 32% of its creatively awarded ideas also receiving an effectiveness award. The rate rises to 44% among its highly creative ideas.
The data reflects agency networks as credited at the time of award, including agencies that have since been acquired, merged or rebranded.
Now in its fifth year, The Health of Creativity 2026 also examines creative conversion by category, brand and agency network, alongside the full list of 167 best-of-the-best ideas.
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