Consumers want variety as well as relevance

A survey conducted by market research firm Dynata, on behalf of creative automation platform Celtra, showed consumers wearying of over-familiar creative assets in messaging by brands.

The survey targeted 1,000 adult U.S. consumers. Here are some highlights:

• 66% of consumers find ads and social media messaging from brands to be repetitive. Reflecting that figure, 67% want to see greater variety;
• Relevance and irrelevance run almost neck and neck, with 56% finding messaging to be relevant to their interests;
• Surprisingly, only 51% find relevant messages more memorable; and
• Although they ask for variety, 60% also expect brand messaging to remain consistent.

Although the main message of the findings is clear—consumers don’t want brands to bore them—the fact that around half of those surveyed didn’t find even relevant messages memorable is harder to interpret. It might mean that relevance doesn’t much matter; but it might also mean that they’re not seeing much memorably relevant messaging in the first place.

Why we care. Clearly, a creative automation platform like Celtra thrives on the demand for volume and variety in creative assets. Nevertheless, the results show the challenge of catering to consumer expectations: surprise us, but be consistent; about relevance, we’re not sure.