Integrated campaigns boost brand effectiveness, IPA study finds

Campaigns combining audio, out-of-home (OOH) and publishing achieve stronger brand and commercial results than those using none of the three channels, according to new research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and Bauer Media.
The study, Winning The Great Brand Race, analyses 569 campaigns from the IPA Effectiveness Databank between 2010 and 2024, examining the relationship between connected media planning, brand building and business growth.
The findings identify what Bauer Media describes as the 'Bauer Effect', with campaigns using all three channels reporting 33% more brand effects, including awareness, trust and perceived quality, and 8% more business effects, such as sales, profit and market share.
The research also highlights the role of integrated campaigns in building brand trust. Campaigns combining audio, OOH and publishing were 69% more likely to report very large improvements in brand trust than those using none of these channels. They also reported 43% more gains in perceived quality and 30% more in brand commitment.
Creative strategy was another significant factor. For campaigns using all three channels, emotional creative was associated with 23% more business effects than rational creative. The equivalent difference was 8% for television campaigns and 1% for campaigns not using the three channels.
The findings also challenge the idea that brand-building channels are separate from short-term commercial activity. Some 45% of campaigns combining audio, outdoor and publishing reported large or very large activation effects, compared with 15% of campaigns using none of the three.
The benefits were particularly pronounced in fast-growing categories, where campaigns using all three channels reported 185% more very large brand effects and 44% more business effects than those without them.
Richard Bon, UK managing director and Europe commercial lead at Bauer Media Outdoor, said the research provides further evidence of how the combined strengths of audio, outdoor and publishing can support brand building and activation.
Simon Kilby, UK managing director at Bauer Media Advertising, added that the findings provide independent evidence of the effectiveness of bringing the three channels together.