Why wearout in advertising basically doesn’t exists

The concept of ad wearout – the idea that a campaign initially works and then loses its impact – is not new. But perhaps this theory has less to do with consumer behavior and more to do with billing models in the advertising industry. Or are you surprised that you see around this time each year the famous Coca Cola truck coming around in the all year Coke christmas ad?

It is rather more in favour of the ad agencies to push for a effect like ad wearout because with increasing hourly billing, wearout seems like a practical reason to be able to bill for new projects on a regular basis.

In recent years, studies have shown that the wearout effect often does not exist.

In summary, repeated exposure doesn’t necessarily lead to Wear Out or Wear In. Rather, the chief benefit of repeated exposure (within reasonable bounds) is to create long-term advertising memories that build the brand and heightens brand impact in market. 

Strong arguments against ad wearout

And even without studies, there are a few reasons to question the “wearout effect”:

1. does someone “boycott” a brand because they have seen the ad many times?
   Advertising is often less memorable than advertisers believe. Nobody ignores a brand because they have seen an ad several times. The argument that frequently seen advertising generates negative reactions is not supported by actual purchasing behavior.
2. wearout reduces advertising to a short-term persuasion trick.
   But advertising is not a one-off “persuasion trick”. Its real power is the continuous building of brand associations in the minds of many potential consumers. Consumers remember a brand because they are repeatedly made aware of it over time – not because every ad convinces them anew.

3. only a few consumers are “in-market” at the moment of advertising contact.
   At any given time, only a small proportion of buyers in a category are actively searching. Today’s sales and those in three months’ time therefore affect different consumers. Advertising therefore remains relevant because it reaches different parts of the target group over time.
4. the majority are “super-light” buyers.
   In categories such as consumer goods, more than half of all purchases are made by people who have bought a brand no more than five times in five years. These “super-light” buyers generally have little contact with the brand, making overexposure almost impossible.
5. super-light shoppers are less likely to notice advertising.
   Those who have little contact with a category are also less likely to notice advertising for brands in that category. Even if the same campaign runs for months, it remains new and relevant for these shoppers.

Conclusion

So: The true effect of advertising unfolds in the long term and through continuity.

Wearout is often used to justify new campaigns and budgets. But when advertising is seen as a long-term means of building and refreshing brand associations, it becomes clear that the impact of a campaign unfolds over years by creating brand familiarity. And campaign wearout is therefore very probably a myth.