Summary
Clients and agencies have many different reasons for making new work: partly it's self-interest as both can make their names from new work and partly it's a kind of restlessness - they tire of their own ads long before the public does. But mostly it is because of a genuine concern about wear-out. If people stop responding to communications, then they are a waste of money; and if ads become irritating, they can damage the brand. But this brief article argues that wear-out is not really that common as most TV ads are only seen a handful of times and prompted ad awareness scores are typically well under 40%. Research has shown that familiarity boosts ad effectiveness, so why aren't more clients and agencies looking to achieve ad wear-in?

Summary
Analysis of Millward Brown's data indicates that brands can "go dark" - i.e. stop or suspend TV advertising - for six months or so with little deleterious effect, but longer periods are likely to weaken brand health. Moreover, once a decline sets in, it may be hard to reverse. Supporting a brand in other media may provide some protection in the absence of TV but, overall, the best way to ensure long-term brand health is to maintain levels of spend.

Summary
This Knowledge Point article looks at advertising wear-out. Broadly speaking, the response generated by a TV ad doesn't change much over time. True "wearout" of a TV ad is rare, and many TV ads could have a longer useful life than advertisers realize. The one real exception to this rule has to do with ads that focus on product news. Such ads will become less effective over time, because the people who are receptive to the message will be persuaded quickly, while those who are not receptive will not be won over by repeated viewings. Saturation of media weight over a short space of time can also create the impression of ad wearout; however, in such cases it may be the media buying strategy, rather than the effectiveness of the specific execution, that needs to be reviewed.

Summary
In this article from the "Mythbuster" series in Admap, Les Binet and Sarah Carter challenge the idea that novelty and creativity are inextricably connected. They argue that once advertisers have found a successful creative formula they should stick to it since campaign wear out takes much longer than is commonly feared, and the relentless pursuit of the new can prove a waste of money. Recent research has stressed the role of emotion building in creating successful campaigns, and the authors contend this emotional impact is more likely to be created by taking a consistent, long-term approach to creativity than supporting continual change. The longevity of many successful pack designs is further evidence, they argue, that consistency and commitment can pay dividends.

Summary
This summary from the Advertising Research Foundation offers an overview of recent research and debate related to the topic of wearout.

Summary
Generally speaking, it’s true that repeated exposure to the same ad is likely to result in it becoming better established in consumers’ memories. So, in this sense, advertising does “wear in”. However, it’s very unusual for an individual ad to communicate more clearly, or to become more impactful, enjoyable or persuasive, through repeated exposures. Occasionally, though, a “breakthrough” ad in a campaign, synergistic use of media within the campaign, or a clever marketing concept, may help the creative idea become better established, making it more likely that campaigns will wear in over time.

Summary
In this paper, ZenithOptimedia's Andrew Green assesses the effectiveness of long-term advertising in the printed media. While newspapers and magazines have increased and diversified their content in an effort to increase circulation, this may have led to simply more pages for readers to skim over rather than to digest. Wearout is also a common occurrence with regard to television advertising, so much depends on securing the right contact, context and content to avoid this happening in the printed arena.

Summary
Spike Cramphorn, chairman of add+impact®, believes that pre-testing can improve campaign decisions but not in the way it has been done so far. He outlines the theory and methodology for evaluating an advertisements effect on brand-person relationships (BPR). This, he reckons, can help improve campaigns, evaluate wear-out, and go some way to predicting sales.

Summary
In the mid- to late 1980s the ARP Group uncovered evidence relating to advertising effectiveness: advertising's selling power gets used up, or wears out, in a predictable fashion. As Gross Rating Points (GRPs) are spent behind an execution, the ad's persuasive power declines consistently, and the relation between GRPs and this decline in persuasive power is very strong, indicating the speed at which advertising's power is delivered to the market. The wearout discoveries and the resulting outlook ASK wearout model have major implications for media planning and spending. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company serve as a case history.

Summary
Discusses the problem of how to measure wearout, the point when an ad ceases to be effective. Over 50 studies since the 1960s have failed to produce a consensus. Reasons for this (discussed) are: most of the research has focused on TV, which is seldom the only medium used; wearout is a complex process, involving several variables, and hard to measure in the natural environment; both frequencies and time frames have been found to vary widely. Describes work by Millward Brown to examine wearout outside the laboratory, using evidence from tracking, copy testing, sales modelling, media mix analyses, covering many different categories. Main conclusions: 1) if wearout is defined in terms of incremental changes in the short term (reducing to nil in a few weeks), longer term effects (sustaining or growing the base volume) can be missed (the campaign may appear to have worn out, but really be thriving); 2) the creative strategy may affect wearout (e.g. Immediate Challenge, or `news', advertising may peak and erode quickly, but the campaign may still be working to sustain the brand, 'building warmth and familiarity' 3) there is no evidence from M-B television ad studies that consumers show reducing ad awareness per impression or over time: where incremental gains reduce, this is the result of diminishing returns in the media plan, not weakness in the ad ; 4) limited (mostly UK) research on print ads and multimedia shows that there can be synergies between media, and that print wears out differently from (faster than) TV. Implications for advertisers are discussed: when it may be advisable to make several TV executions, depending on communication goals, creative variables, target, competitive situation and media plan; the need to consider other media in the mix; importance of tracking for spotting when wearout may be occurring.