​Some of the findings were predictable. For example, the brand’s strongest ads tended to have a refined setting and feature an elegant woman - ideally someone famous and renowned for their elegance. Using well-known music also helped. More interestingly, the most powerful ads celebrated the woman and the woman’s story.

The most memorable imagery captured the woman’s strength and dignity. These characteristics were much more important than the fame of the actress. Featuring a strong male character, on the other hand, invariably detracted from an ad’s effectiveness. The analysis showed that subtle sensuality was far more effective than overt sexuality. It also became clear that using a specific colour/visual tone and featuring one of the brand’s symbols in a clever way helped people connect the advertising with the right brand.

Learning from competitors’ advertising was equally useful. The advertising from the brand’s two closest competitors proved to be far more memorable. Each had their own, distinctive tone and style, visual effects, music, sound effects, story structure and symbolism which they had used consistently, for more than ten years. These observations encouraged the brand owner to define a set of memorable elements from the brand’s previous advertising that should be leveraged and evolved in future campaigns. 





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