Many advertisers are concerned about ‘copy wear-out’ when reusing advertising copy across multiple campaigns. This may not be as big an issue as brand marketers may fear.
These two communications phenomena are related but different
- Exposure saturation refers to delivering high exposure frequency over a defined period. This drives diminishing returns in that period and adds little further impact.
- True wear-out in copy effectiveness happens when a piece of communication simply ceases to be relevant and fails to resonate with the target audience any longer – independent of the weight of the advertising.
There is a strong argument that due to misunderstanding these two issues, many brands change and renew their creative more often than is necessary or optimal.
Given how little attention consumers are willing to devote to advertising across media and platforms, it has become clear that consistency of messaging, ease of understanding, and familiarity help ads work well. Therefore, using the same copy over repeat campaigns may often work better than reinventing the brand/message each time. This, of course, only holds true if the existing ad copy has not suffered from true wear-out.
This is not an argument against developing new creative ideas. All ads will eventually fall prey to true wear-out, simply because they will begin to seem outdated and stale. However, we may not need to change things up quite as much or as often as we think.
Exposure saturation and diminishing returns
There is a limit to the impact advertising can have in a given period. There will be a point where further exposure to advertising can deliver no greater impact than that which prior exposures in that timeframe have achieved. Once that limit is reached, further exposure to the ad copy offers no additional benefit at that time.
The influence of ad exposures decays over time. However, while extra exposures to that copy today may have little impact on the brand’s performance, further exposure to that same message may indeed leave an impact if it happens later. This potentially allows brands to effectively extend their campaigns to cover longer timeframes.
Many ads can and do remain relevant long term, sparking emotional, attitudinal, and behavioural responses in consumers over an extended period.
It is caused by the sheer weight of the media applied behind the ad copy. The copy content hasn’t actually “worn out.” It has just been overused in that period. Even if we were to swap out the ad copy for a new one at that time, the second one may also underperform. This is because the consumer’s brand awareness, attachment, and consideration as well as their purchasing patterns and usage of the brand have already been heavily stimulated. Even a new message may struggle to add impact, then. Therefore, this pattern of performance is not related to copy “wear out”, but rather to oversaturating consumers with advertising exposure in a defined period.
True wear-out of ad copy
Despite the above, there are situations where copy simply does stop performing, irrespective of media weight. In such cases, the message no longer stimulates, or resonates with, consumers.
This, however, is a rarer phenomenon in brand ads than people often think. Many ads have remained relevant in the long term, sparking emotional, attitudinal, and behavioural responses over an extended period.
The types of advertising that are more vulnerable to true wear-out include:
- Ad copy built around specific events: If a brand has a World Cup campaign, for example, it is unlikely that the campaign will continue to resonate once the World Cup is over and done.
- Time-delineated offers: “Half price until the end of July” is unlikely to have much impact in August.
- New news claims: Campaigns announcing the launch of new products, and the like are not as compelling once the novelty wears off.
- Seasonal messaging: A Christmas ad is not likely to hit the mark in June.
- Celebrity/influencer endorsement: Their impact may decline if the celebrity or influencer involved loses fame or popularity for whatever reason.
Ultimately, all ads are likely to suffer from true wear out, simply because like most things, they eventually lose their shine. That’s when it’s really time to head back to the drawing board.
