From Brick House to Market Share: The Role of ESOC in Commercial Advantage

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced the Creativity Stack, the components that turn creative work into long-term commercial impact and visible growth. 

That advantage is what we call the Creative Dividend. 

Now we move from theory into something more practical. How does creativity actually drive sustained growth? And what role does media play in making that growth possible? 

This is where we enter the colorful world of ESOC, Excess Share of Creativity. More on that shortly. First, we need to talk about brand building. 

Because creativity, when done properly, is basically construction. 

Creativity Stacks like Bricks in a Stable Brand House

The Creativity Stack is a stack for a reason. Each layer supports the next. 

• Emotion lays the foundations, the stuff that makes people feel. 

• Distinctiveness ensures those feelings stick to you, not the competition. 

• Showmanship adds fame, flair, and attention. 

• Consistency is what turns a good idea into a long-term asset. 

Together, these layers build the advertising equivalent of the third pig’s house. A brick house that can’t be huffed and puffed away by the next disruptor, downturn, or wolf at the door. 

Focus on just one layer in isolation, though, and you’re in dangerous territory. You might end up with something closer to a straw house. Impressive for a moment, but structurally unsound the minute the wind picks up. 

Measuring Before You Move In

But even the best brick house needs more than just bricks. 

It needs cement. 

And in creativity, that cement is research and measurement, the unglamorous bit that stops the whole thing wobbling. 

Our work with Effie found that campaigns using more research methods reported far fewer low-performing outcomes. In fact, campaigns using five research methods were three times more likely to report profit than those using none. 

In this research, two methods stood out for their direct impact on creative quality: 

• Focus groups 

• Quantitative creative measurement 

 Used well, creative measurement is your chance to inspect the build before you put it on the market, to spot the cracks, stress-test the structure, and make sure the house actually holds up once real consumers start walking through the door. 

Creativity Doesn’t Work in a Vacuum

The stack lays the foundation for Brand Effects. It is the bridge between creativity and business results. 

But even the strongest brick house won’t sell if no one ever sees it. 

Creativity needs reach. It needs scale. It needs media. 

That’s where ESOC, Excess Share of Creativity, comes in. 

So far, we’ve talked about the Creative Dividend, the advantage a campaign has versus its competitors across emotion, distinctiveness, showmanship, and consistency. 

ESOC is what happens when you take that advantage and project it into the market. Media spend becomes the multiplier. It determines how much creative advantage you actually have out there, in the heads and hearts of consumers. 

And here’s the key point. 

Not all spend is created equal. 

Most marketers know Excess Share of Voice, the idea that bigger budgets drive growth. You need to reach enough people for a campaign to work. 

But ESOV doesn’t explain why two brands with the same budget can see very different outcomes. 

That difference is often creative quality. 

Which is exactly why ESOC exists. 

Media Spend × Creative Dividend = ESOC.

More broadly, campaigns with higher ESOC are far more likely to drive the bulk of key business outcomes and can increase the odds of reporting profit by as much as 7x. 

Creative quality, when properly amplified through media, doesn’t just shift units. It transforms businesses. 

Because creativity and spend do not work in isolation. 

The brands that grow are the ones that build strong brick houses and then invest enough to make sure the market can’t miss them. 

Create with Confidence®

To explore how you can unlock the full potential of the Creativity Stack, and understand the role of ESOC across targeting, category dynamics, media channels, and both challenger and established brands, download the full book in partnership with Effie here. 

And if you’d like to go deeper, join us live on February 26th, where we’ll will walk through the findings in full and answer your questions. Register for the effectiveness masterclass here.