Havas research finds 84% of brands viewed with indifference by consumers
Being seen is not the same as being wanted.”
That is one of the conclusions of The Science of Desire research, unveiled by Havas at Cannes Lions today.
The study, conducted in partnership with Lea Karam’s behavioural science consultancy, Mindscope, spans more than 87,500 survey respondents and examines more than 2,400 brands across 10 markets.
It finds that 84% of brands are viewed with practical indifference by consumers. This is due to consumers “filtering out” said brands, failing to notice them despite potentially high visibility and strong reach.
“A lot of brands are just… there,” described Mark Sinnock, global chief strategy, data and innovation officer at Havas Creative Network.
This issue of indifference risks becoming more acute in an era marked by the growing use of agentic media planning and buying practices that could automate advertising efforts to similar outputs. This is already a problem as brand marketers tend to be naturally risk-averse, leading to homogeneity of marketing standards within brand categories.
As Havas has leaned into AI technology through its Converged model and its recent large-language model (LLM) portal Ava, Sinnock told The Media Leader he also sought to “dimensionalise how people engage with brands” to better retain a human element in media and creative planning.
‘Desire is a system’
The Science of Desire report outlines three interconnected drivers that cause consumers to desire a given brand: attraction, affinity and attachment.
Attraction is defined as “the instinctive pull that makes a brand stand out and matter”; affinity is defined as “alignment with who I am, what I value, and where I belong”, and attachment is defined as the “habit-forming experiences that turn preference into repeat behaviour.”
Havas intends to use this tripartite framework as a diagnostic tool for clients to help them understand how consumers view and understand their brand.
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“The real competition is not simply for visibility but for a place within the brain’s predictive architecture,” said Karam.
That competition hinges on whether brands can make their superiority within their category obvious, earn attention through consumer participation, foster a sense of identification with their brand, and design repeatable experiences, among other efforts to become more distinctive.
The study found these drivers of desire “power growth over time”, with the most desirable brands receiving twice as much word-of-mouth chatter and social media mentions as less desirable brands.
Desirability also creates pricing power: +87% of respondents said they were likely to pay a premium for a desirable brand compared to an indifferent one.
In addition, desirable brands are more likely to be surfaced in AI search results.
On average, however, the study found that only 61% of brands are achieving their full potential within this desirability framework.
Planning tool to come
As Sinnock explained, most brands today are suffering from “sameiness”, with marketers using the same tools and optimisations, leading to a lack of differentiation.
Joanna Lawrence, Havas Media Network’s global chief strategy officer, added that while brands may try to “push really hard into performance and quick-delivery metrics”, this type of media strategy generally fails to grow sustainable demand.
Desirability, she said, is about playing a positive role in media and other consumer touchpoints across the marketing mix, including the point of purchase.
This thinking, she acknowledged, lends itself to a more linked-up, consultative approach to agencies’ strategies that goes beyond devising a media plan.
Sinnock told The Media Leader that, using this framework, he intends to encourage clients to “be confident in what makes them different”.
“We’re de-risking bravery, de-risking what difference can deliver,” he said.
For Lawrence, the desirability framework aligns tightly with Havas’ recent embrace of attention-based media planning.
Havas, she added, will eventually look to formally integrate its desirability research into planning tools.