Meaningful Brands outperform the stock market by a staggering 206%. This is just one of the key findings from the 2017 Meaningful Brands®, a unique global study from Havas Group that links brand performance to our quality of life and wellbeing. This year, Meaningful Brands® also reveals new data that tracks the relationship between a brand’s performance, its meaningfulness and the content it produces. The largest global study of its kind (spanning 33 countries, 300,000 people and 1,500 brands), it is the first analysis to measure content effectiveness at this scale.

This year Meaningful Brands® outperform the stock market by a staggering 206%

Brands that are considered meaningful also deliver in business terms, outperforming the stock market by 206% over a ten-year period. Meaningful Brands® also gain increases to their share of wallet by up to x9 and ensure up to 137% greater returns on KPIs.

2017 Meaningful Brands® results

People remain optimistic but also sceptical. 75% of us expect brands to make more of a contribution to our wellbeing and quality of life, yet only 40% believe brands are doing so. Furthermore Meaningful Brands® continues to demonstrate that most of us would not care if 74% of brands disappeared.

This year’s top ten performing Meaningful Brands® are Google, PayPal, WhatsApp, YouTube, Samsung, Mercedes Benz, Nivea, Microsoft, Ikea and Lego. Over the past ten years the highest performing brands have been dominated by the tech sector. This year the most meaningful brands ranking is dominated by the top Internet brands – pushing brands like Samsung off the top spot from the 2015 ranking.

60% of content created by brands is just clutter

Content delivered by brands is underperforming to such an extent that it’s having little impact on business results or people’s lives. This year’s Meaningful Brands® study reveals that the vast majority of people (84%) expect brands to produce content. Yet they also state that 60% of all content created by brands is poor, irrelevant or fails to deliver. Only 40% of the world’s leading 1,500 brands produce content that meets requirements.

When advertisers get it right, Meaningful Brands® proves there’s a 71% correlation between content effectiveness and a brand’s impact on our personal wellbeing. The greater the impact on our personal wellbeing, the more meaningful a brand becomes and the better business results it achieves.

Content effectiveness varies widely between sectors

Certain industries have a better understanding of the role of content and what kinds of content drive meaning. Travel was more highly ranked for content effectiveness with 47% of us associating the travel industry with effective content such as customer support and social media sharing. Conversely, 71% of all content produced by retail is considered to be poor, irrelevant or failing to deliver. The research also demonstrates that, although seen as a minor content provider, people want Healthcare brands to create more inspiration and entertainment led content.

Maria Garrido, Havas Media Group’s Global Chief Insights and Analytics Officer says: “For 2017, we’ve used the statistical might behind Meaningful Brands® to gain a better understanding of the role content has for the brand and the purpose it serves for people. Surprisingly, the data demonstrates an alarming ineffectiveness of existing brand content. Our expectations for the role or the types of content are simply not being met.”

Yannick Bolloré, CEO Havas Group, “These results give us the same kind of wake-up call we delivered back in 2008 when we demonstrated that most people wouldn’t care if 74% of brands disappeared. For 2017 we see two new statistical facts: content’s critical role in creating brands which are meaningful to people and the underperformance in this area.

The data is clear, brands must rapidly become better at seizing the opportunities that good content can offer – or they – and the advertising community that supports them – will struggle to survive. At Havas Group we are already using these valuable insights to better serve our clients.”