Does Creativity Matter? Do Bears Twix in the Woods?

This week on Ad Of The Week we’re flashing back to 2022 and a much-acclaimed modern classic from Twix and adam&eveDDB. “Camping” (also known as “Left Or Right”) does more in fifteen seconds than most ads do in a minute. It’s the one where two campers in the woods are about to share a Twix – and the two bears watching them are about to share the campers.

The ad picked up a Silver Cannes Lion on release, and a Silver Effie Award too. We’re featuring it because our new report in partnership with Effie, The Creative Dividend, has just been released, and it digs into the metrics behind the magic, exploring exactly why ads like “Camping” are so effective.

The report draws on hundreds of Effie case studies to introduce us to the “creative stack”, the layers of interlocking elements that make creativity the not-so-secret sauce of commercial success. There are five parts to the stack, each of which acts as a profit multiplier for an ad. Creativity, used well, pays back vastly more than it costs.

Twix’s “Camping” isn’t just a great ad in its own right, it’s a demonstration of all five layers of the creative stack.

It draws and keeps attention by being entertaining. It offers emotional payback by the inverted mirror of the camping scenario with the hungry bears – a darkly entertaining resolution. It is wholly centered on Twix’s existing and brand codes: the ad simply wouldn’t work without the distinctive twin biscuits.

Perhaps most importantly, the ad avoids the “cost of dull” – it is bold, it takes a risk in shocking the audience with dark humor, and it has a very low neutrality score. This matters because, as the report shows, dull ads impose a terrible opportunity cost on brands; it costs millions more for a high-neutrality ad to drive the same sales and branding benefits as one that isn’t dull.

The final part of the stack, creative consistency, is demonstrated by the afterlife of “Camping” as an ad. It’s been aired multiple times, and Twix has since created ads on similar themes. Creative consistency includes recognizing and investing in your ad’s success.

You need only look at the Test Your Ad results to show by “Camping” was so highly awarded and popular. Three years after release, the commercial still scores a strong 4.1-Star Rating, meaning it can still drive lasting brand effects for Twix. Even more impressively, it gets exceptional short-term Spike scores and a maximum 100% Brand Fluency. Everyone knows who this ad is for, so Twix can max out their effectiveness.

So let’s take time to celebrate a brilliant ad. We often talk about humor and storytelling in ads, and Twix showed with “Camping” that even a household name brand can take risks and use those things effectively.