Looking Up

Leo Burnett’s Ahmad Abu Zannad argues that purposeful advertising can benefit the whole human race

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It has been proven by multiple sources that a brand anchored by a human purpose – one that gives it a meaningful, active role in people’s lives and stems from a strong conviction on how people ought to live their lives – does indeed deliver astonishing business results. For example, Unilever claims that ‘brands with purpose’ are growing at twice the speed of others in its portfolio. In Jim Stengel’s book Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies he analysed research conducted on 50,000 brands in 40 countries, ultimately creating a list of 50 purposeful brands. He showed how these purposeful ones not only built loyalty but also outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 400 per cent over 10 years. A 2015 Havas Media study showed that purposeful brands outperform the stock market by 133 per cent, gain 46 per cent more share of wallet and achieve marketing results that are double those of lower-rated brands.

At Leo Burnett, we conducted a global study in 11 countries, across 155 categories, including 778 Brands, with 37,900 respondents, and it revealed that on average brands with purpose had double the market share and followers across all their social media platforms.