Creativity: The Most Undervalued Growth Strategy in Business

Picture this: two estate agents, side by side on the high street. One spends their marketing budget on targeted ads promising “Free Valuations – Book Today.” The other runs an innovative campaign with a purple cow in the window and a video series that makes homeowners laugh, cry, and, crucially, remember them.

Guess which one makes more money in the long run?

Why creativity is worth more than targeting

Research from Accelero’s Drivers of Profitability study found that creative quality multiplies profit by a factor of 12, while targeting barely scrapes a multiplier of 1.1. Yet most marketers – and plenty of estate agents – continue to undervalue creativity and overvalue targeting.

Why? Because we long to live in the safety of formulas and algorithms, in which £10 a day on Facebook ads guarantees leads. Creativity feels unquantifiable, risky, fluffy. 

A 2024 global survey by System1 & Effie revealed that many marketers see it as a gamble, preferring to stick with “safe” but forgettable ads. But dull campaigns pay back 40% less than entertaining ones. Playing it safe, it turns out, is the riskiest move of all.

The compounding power of creativity

The best creative work doesn’t just deliver a short-term spike. It compounds over time. Creative campaigns that ran for 3+ years achieved nearly triple the business results of those that fizzled out in under a year.

Think of creativity like compound interest. Each memorable ad, every emotional story, every playful campaign adds another layer of brand equity. Over time, those layers turn into stronger trust, higher loyalty, and the ability to charge (and hold) premium fees.

Emotion beats logic every time

Emotional advertising consistently outperforms rational, functional messaging. In fact, System1’s testing of over 200,000 ads showed that emotionally powerful campaigns were 50–60% more likely to deliver business growth across the UK, Europe, and the US.

For challenger brands – the smaller, ambitious agents fighting the big corporates – emotion is your secret weapon. It lets you grow like the leaders, but without needing their media spend.

Consistency makes creativity work harder

Consistency is the unsung hero of creative effectiveness. Brands that committed to a clear creative identity and kept it consistent across years saw a 2.9x profit multiplier. Those that chopped and changed? Zero distinctiveness growth.

This doesn’t mean doing the same ad forever. It means finding your brand codes (your colours, characters, slogans, or logo) and sticking with them long enough that the public instantly links them to you.

Why this matters for estate agents

Estate agency is one of the most lookalike industries out there. Everyone’s promising “personal service” and “local expertise.” But consumers don’t remember sameness; they remember difference.

Creativity is how you stop being beige. It’s how you make your brand remarkable in a crowded market. It’s how you turn marketing from an expense into an investment.

At Unchained, we believe creativity isn’t decoration – it’s the engine of growth. The numbers back it up, the stories prove it, and the high street shows it every day.

Final thought

If targeting is your sat-nav, creativity is the fuel. You can know exactly where you’re going, but without creativity, you won’t get off the driveway.

So here’s the question to chew on: What’s the bold, emotional, memorable idea your business is brave enough to commit to – not just for the next campaign, but for the next three years?