Havas’ Meaningful Brands 2017 report says over half of content created by brands is ‘irrelevant’

Meaningful Brands is a unique global study from Havas Group that links brand performance to our quality of life and wellbeing. This year, Meaningful Brands 2017 also reveals new data that tracks the relationship between a brand’s business performance, its meaningfulness and the content it produces.

The largest global study of its kind – spanning 33 countries, 300,000 people and 1500 brands – it is also the first study to analyse and measure content effectiveness at this scale. 

60% of content created by brands is just clutter

The Meaningful Brands 2017 study, conducted by the Havas Group, measures the impact of brand benefits and impact alongside its 12 different areas of wellbeing, including: health, happiness, financial, relationships and community amongst others.

75% of us expect brands to make a contribution to our wellbeing and quality of life, yet only 40% believe brands are doing so. When advertisers get it right, Meaningful Brands proves there is a 71% correlation between content effectiveness and a brand’s impact on our personal wellbeing. The more personally meaningful a brand becomes the better business results it will achieve.

In Australia, Google came top of the list of Meaningful Brands, followed by PayPal, ABC, Coles and Australian airline, Qantas, whilst WhatsApp, YouTube and Samsung made the top five global Meaningful Brands, with the Technology and Electronics industries leading the way.

Locally the Food industry came up on top, a testament to the collective and personal benefits that food brands bring to connecting families and friends through nostalgia, heritage, health and fitness. Food was then followed by the Transport sector, Retail, Internet, Media and Travel, Tourism and Leisure in fifth.

71% correlation between content effectiveness and a brand’s impact on personal wellbeing

Says Imogen Hewitt, chief strategy officer: “Understanding the role of content in order to be a Meaningful Brand® has become more important than ever. Brands need to connect to consumers through their content by fulfilling at least one of six key consumer demands – to be inspired, entertained, educated, informed, supported or rewarded.

“These expectations from consumers change from industry to industry, but at its core is relevance and authenticity. Does your content align with your brand and is it having the desired effect for your business? That is the question brands need to answer to continue to engage consumers.”

Brands that are considered meaningful are also shown to deliver financially, outperforming the stock market by a staggering 206% – up from 133% from the 2015 study. Meaningful Brands also gain a 48% increase in consumers’ share of wallet and ensure up to 137% greater returns on KPIs for marketing activity.

However globally brand trust is very weak. With the global average at 57%, Australians’ trust of brands is the lowest worldwide- averaging at just 25%. The study also discloses that 84% of people expect brands to produce content, yet state that 60% of all content created by brands is poor, irrelevant or fails to deliver. Only 40% of the world’s leading 1,500 brands produce content that meets consumer requirements.

Says Maria Garrido, global chief insights and analytics officer, Havas Media Group: “For 2017, we’ve used the statistical might behind Meaningful Brands to gain a better understanding of the role content has for the brand and the purpose it serves for people. Surprisingly, the data demonstrates an alarming ineffectiveness of existing brand content. Our expectations for the role or the types of content are simply not being met.”

Says Yannick Bolloré, CEO, Havas Group: “These results give us the same kind of wake-up call we delivered back in 2008 when we launched Meaningful Brands and demonstrated that most people wouldn’t care if 74% of brands disappeared. For 2017, we see two new statistical facts: the critical role of content in creating brands that are meaningful to people and the underperformance in this area.

“The data is clear, brands must rapidly become better at seizing the opportunities that good content can offer – or they – and the advertising community that supports them – will struggle to survive.”