The convention
Category messages
Similar tones, visuals and claims made it hard to stand out.
How
we do it
Most advertising gets misattributed to the market leader. Not lost. Not ignored. Misattributed — remembered, then quietly credited to somebody else. Here's how it happens, and what we do about it.
How it happens
Three steps, and none of them feel like a mistake at the time.
-
01
The advertising promotes the category, not the brand
Every sector has a shared idea of what its advertising looks like: the same imagery, the same reassurances, the same promises. Following it feels professional. But an ad built from category conventions sells the category — the product, the service, the idea — rather than the brand paying for it.
-
02
So the audience credits the biggest name in it
People don't file advertising under the brand. They file it under the category, and the category already belongs to whoever they know best. Ask someone who made the ad they just watched and, more often than not, they'll name the market leader. That's misattribution.
-
03
Which means the competitor paid for the leader's advertising
The media was bought by one brand and banked by another. Every euro spent on category-standard work grows the category, and growth in a category flows disproportionately to the brand at the top of it. The competitor funds the leader, invoice after invoice, without ever seeing it on a report.
The weakness
Weak distinctive brand assets
Nothing distinctive to own meant brands struggled to be remembered.
The outcome
Leader
capture
This means you end up paying for the leader's advertising.
The evidence
It is measured, and the numbers are worse than most marketers expect.
High attention doesn't fix it either. Kantar's work is clear that being watched is not the same as being identified — an ad can hold the room and still hand the credit away.
Brand linkage
84%
The share of ads incorrectly recognised and linked to the brand behind them, according to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
Misattribution
50% +
Kantar finds that in like-for-like category executions, misattribution can pass half of all viewers.
Wasted spend
None
Your media report will tell you how many people saw the ad. It won’t tell you how many knew it was yours. That gap is where your money goes.
How we do it
The approach
Strategy that drives brand differentiation
In a competitive market we develop a strategy that focuses on separating your brand from any sector sameness.
The execution
Creativity that cuts through
Brand building ideas that demand attention and cannot be misattributed.
The impact
Results that deliver lasting value
Work that continues to impact and deliver into the future.
In short
Find the truth only you can own.
Build it into work nobody can mistake for anyone else.
That's the whole method. Everything else is craft.
See what it produces