A small creative adjustment, a measurable improvement

HigherDOSE — a wellness brand known for their infrared and red light products — wanted an easy, data-informed way to improve creative performance on CTV without relying on subjective feedback.

The team needed a measurable outcome that could reliably register within an attribution window, so the test was designed around site visits, rather than purchases.

In streaming environments, viewers move quickly and attention is fragmented. If brand identity is subtle or delayed, an ad may generate interest in the category without actually driving viewers to seek out the specific brand.

HigherDOSE’s original creative was branded, but the logo was small and didn’t appear early enough in the ad — both factors that made it hard to ensure viewers associated the product advertised with the brand.

HigherDOSE used Creative Advisor to analyze their creative and provide recommendations to improve its performance. The tool scores different ad elements to identify opportunities for improvement, and in their case, it indicated that strengthening branding by bringing the name and logo in earlier and keeping it visible for the entirety of the ad would be an impactful change.

The team ran a creative experiment with multiple variants, including:

• A control creative with subtle branding that appeared late;
• A challenger creative where the logo was introduced within the first 5 seconds remained on screen throughout the run time;
  
• Additional variants that tested changes to the end card and voiceover.
  

The challenger creative, which followed Creative Advisor’s recommendation for bolder branding earlier and throughout the ad, delivered a statistically significant improvement in site visits versus the control. It achieved 14% lift in site visits against the control within the attribution window.¹

Viewers did not have to wait until the end of the ad to learn who the product was from.

A consistent brand presence anchored the viewer as scenes changed.

Strong branding reduced the potential for generating basic category interest and made it easier for viewers to take the next step: visiting HigherDose's website.

• Challenger brands may benefit from treating branding as a performance lever, rather than a design preference. Logos should be displayed early and often.
• Use site visits as a practical KPI for creative learnings.
• Test one creative change at a time, then scale what works in your next iteration.