Showing the impact of long-term creative work was cited as extremely or very challenging by 61 percent of brand leader respondents

LIONS STATE OF CREATIVITY SURVEY, 2021

28 percent of brand leaders claim there is greater focus on proving the effectiveness of their creativity, with 31 percent stating that there is still willingness to invest, but it’s become more short-term focused

LIONS STATE OF CREATIVITY SURVEY, 2021

If we’ve learnt anything from history, it’s that crises require creativity. While some have mourned what they see as a creative retreat, others see 2021 as the world’s great creative reckoning. Respondents to our survey mused a lot around the role and value of creativity - with the unanimous verdict that creativity does indeed drive growth.

Yet there’s still the requirement to see the evidence for creativity as an economic multiplier: the research, the work, the proof. We asked senior leaders what is the most challenging aspect of providing creativity’s effectiveness - and there was resounding agreement from all parties: showing the impact of long-term creative work is most difficult. 61 percent of brand leaders, and 64 percent of agency leaders found this very or extremely challenging.

“Short-termism and the consequential questioning about the inherent value of investing in brand and creativity vs tactical price or offer advertising is a major challenge.”

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

GLOBAL NETWORK

As ever, LIONS will unearth the most recent, compelling evidence that creativity drives effectiveness and business outcomes. The best place to see this is of course in the work itself: this June, there will be two years of short-listed and award-winning work to immerse yourselves in. 2020 and 2021 Lion winners - brands and their partners - will share how creative work led to brand and business growth and the short and long-term impacts of creativity. We’ll also ask: what defines modern creativity? How can we achieve the best conditions for creative effectiveness? How can you demonstrate the long and short-term ROI of the sort of work that cuts through? Long-term brand-building may have taken a back-seat of late to give way to performance-based marketing, but at what cost? Marketers, creatives and effectiveness experts will share their views. But we all know that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an economic fall-out, nor will it be the last. We’ll look at what we can learn from other crises in history - our data tracks back to 1954 - about what might work best in a post-COVID world.