01
A lot of ads, but a narrow emotional range
We wanted more people to click through to the landing pages. Looking at individual ads was not enough to tell us what to make next. I wanted to understand the recurring ideas behind the work.
I went back through months of creative and assigned each ad an emotion and a key benefit, alongside its performance. I first brainstormed the emotions, then combined overlapping ideas so the categories would stay usable. The point was to give us a clearer view of the work, not create a taxonomy nobody would use.
02
Make the gaps visible
Cross-referencing emotion and benefit showed that we were relying heavily on a particular emotional territory. It also exposed themes we had barely explored.
Trust was one of those opportunities. It appeared only occasionally, but the work in that category had shown strong results. That gave us a reason to pursue it more deliberately. We also identified an emotional territory missing from the communication entirely.
This brought a concrete structure to creative discussions. We could discuss what an ad was asking someone to feel, what it promised, and whether that combination had earned more exploration.
03
Turn analysis into a creative brief
The output was a direction for new creative. We used the findings to decide which emotional themes deserved more attention, then developed executions that could test those ideas.
Leading a design team means making room for interpretation while keeping the purpose of the work clear. My broader role at hear.com includes hiring, mentorship, and guiding the design process from research through execution. This framework gives that process a shared language.
I would still be careful about treating category performance as a universal rule. Placement, audience, copy, and the landing-page experience can change the result. The useful question is what to test next, not which emotion always wins.
The newer images below show two distinct starting points for a brief: make the device’s small size immediately legible, or put the listening benefit in a recognizable social moment. These supplied examples illustrate the creative range; they are not tied to the historical CTR figure.
- 01ObserveEmotion + benefit + performance
- 02BriefChoose an opportunity to explore
- 03Make & testRead the result in its context
04
The reported result
The original project notes report a 15% increase in click-through rate after the strategy informed the creative direction. They also describe a clearer understanding of strong themes and gaps in the work.
The notes do not preserve the test window or sample size. I present the uplift as a historical project result, not a current benchmark or a claim that the same treatment will work for every audience.
- Reported click-through rate
- +15%
05
The practice continues in new formats
The more recent work includes pause-ad treatments and AI-generated display imagery. They extend the visual exploration into different placements and production methods.
The pause-ad executions make device scale, a product benefit, and a next step visible in a single frame. The AI-generated explorations place the product in social situations. These are supplied work samples, shown separately from the older CTR result. No performance outcome is attached to them here.
06
What I would measure next
A click is only the start. I would carry the creative theme into the downstream analysis to see whether an attention-grabbing execution also produces useful conversations and qualified interest.
The strongest version of this system connects the creative brief, the test result, and the customer journey. That same idea shows up in my more recent work on Motherbrain.