#150.2×lift
Built together 50.2× more often than chance would predict.
Ingredients
Hook Tactic
Question
Messaging Angle
Educational
Visual Format
Talking Head
Lasts 56d typical
- 56% alive at 30 days
- 9 creatives (3.5%)
Creative Genome · Q2 2026
Energy Utilities creative genome
What energy utilities ads are made of: the formats, hooks, angles and tactics that define the category, ranked by how long they survive in market.
Over-indexes onBrand Mission22.6×Employee14.6×Motion Graphics13.4×Statistic7.3×Illustration5.5×
1.3K
Ads analyzed
18d
Median lifespan
30%
30-day survival
Energy Utilities · double helix
Hover a base to see what it's built with
Summary
The Energy Utilities Creative Genome decodes how 1.3K ads (257 unique creatives) from 1 brands are actually built, tagging every creative across 14 AI-detected dimensions: asset type, visual format, hook, angle, talent, tone and more.
The default build pairs "Branded Production" (45% of creatives) with a "Single Image" format (55%).
The median creative stays live 18 days and 30% are still running after 30.
But frequency is not effectiveness: "Throughout" creatives last longest at 28 days median.
The strongest winning recipe, "Excitement" + "Bold Claim" + "Cost Savings", appears 4.9× more often than chance.
Hover the map above to explore it, then read on for which attributes last, which combinations win, and where the white space is.
What winning ads are made of
The default ingredient in every creative dimension
Asset Type
Branded Production44.7%
21d median · 30% @30d
Illustration22.6%
9d median · 22% @30d
Motion Graphics14.8%
27d median · 47% @30d
Visual Format
Single Image55.3%
16d median · 28% @30d
Text Overlay on Footage23.7%
27d median · 39% @30d
Talking Head9.3%
24d median · 33% @30d
Hook Tactic
Bold Claim29.2%
21d median · 36% @30d
Statistic16.0%
9d median · 32% @30d
Relatable Situation12.1%
19d median · 29% @30d
Messaging Angle
Cost Savings29.2%
23d median · 43% @30d
Benefit-Led11.7%
11d median · 23% @30d
Brand Mission11.3%
3d median · 21% @30d
Branding
Moderate71.2%
24d median · 36% @30d
Light26.8%
10d median · 13% @30d
Talent
Model16.0%
27d median · 44% @30d
Real Customer11.7%
26d median · 30% @30d
Employee11.7%
21d median · 30% @30d
Emotional Tone
Excitement34.6%
24d median · 32% @30d
Inspirational23.7%
3d median · 25% @30d
Educational10.5%
15d median · 26% @30d
Audio
On-Camera Speech10.5%
24d median · 33% @30d
Professional Voiceover3.5%
20d median · 44% @30d
Sound Effects2.7%
27d median · 43% @30d
Pacing
Medium Pace23.7%
27d median · 41% @30d
Dynamic Mixed5.8%
19d median · 27% @30d
Fast Cuts3.5%
44d median · 56% @30d
Product Visibility
Logo Only57.2%
24d median · 33% @30d
Throughout12.1%
28d median · 42% @30d
Hero Shot4.3%
9d median · 18% @30d
Text Overlay
Headline Subheadline75.1%
18d median · 29% @30d
Bold Captions11.3%
24d median · 45% @30d
Kinetic Typography4.3%
27d median · 46% @30d
Color Palette
Bright Vibrant27.2%
20d median · 29% @30d
Cool Tones23.0%
12d median · 24% @30d
Brand Colors13.6%
24d median · 46% @30d
Social Proof
Press Mention1.6%
3d median · 0% @30d
Certification1.6%
20d median · 25% @30d
Star Rating1.2%
38d median · 67% @30d
Setting
Abstract Background30.4%
20d median · 36% @30d
Outdoor22.6%
12d median · 5% @30d
Home18.3%
26d median · 43% @30d
These are the raw ingredients energy utilities advertisers reach for, ranked by share of creatives within each dimension. Read them as the default. The further your own creative drifts from these, the more differentiated, or risky, it is. The opportunity usually sits in the long tail, where under-used attributes quietly out-survive the popular ones.
Proven combinations
Winning recipes
Attribute stacks that appear together far more than chance — and last. The lift on each card is how many times more often the combo is built than random pairing would predict; ranked highest first. Swipe or drag to explore.
#150.2×lift
Built together 50.2× more often than chance would predict.
Ingredients
Hook Tactic
Question
Messaging Angle
Educational
Visual Format
Talking Head
Lasts 56d typical
- 56% alive at 30 days
- 9 creatives (3.5%)
Recipe 1 of 12: Question × Educational × Talking Head
Winning ads are combinations, not single ingredients. These are the attribute stacks that appear together far more often than chance would predict (high lift) and that produce the longest-lived creatives. Treat the top recipes as proven energy utilities formulas to brief against, and the rare ones as tests worth running.
Format mix & longevity by format
34%
67%
Video34%
Image67%
Video
Count
86
Share
34%
Avg lifespan
33d
Median lifespan
27d
Image
Count
171
Share
67%
Avg lifespan
17d
Median lifespan
12d
Energy Utilities brands split their creative mix at 34% video / 67% image. Video creatives average 33 days of active runtime compared to 17 days for the other format — a longer lifespan typically signals better advertiser ROI. If you're underweight on video relative to this benchmark, testing a higher ratio could improve your creative longevity.
Key Takeaways
Scale
1.3K ads (257 unique creatives) from 1 brands, decoded into 14 creative dimensions.
The default build
"Branded Production" is the dominant asset type (45%) and "Single Image" the most common visual format (55%) — the baseline most ads start from.
Frequency isn't effectiveness
"Throughout" creatives last longest at 28d median — above the 18d norm, despite appearing in just 12% of ads.
Winning recipe
"Excitement" + "Bold Claim" + "Cost Savings" appear together 4.9× more than chance, and stay live 20d.
White space
"Fast Cuts" appears in just 4% of creatives yet its ads last 44d — a rare, durable attribute worth testing.
Same engine as the product
every attribute here is detected by the AI tagger that powers Benly's in-product Creative DNA, refreshed each quarter.
Which attributes actually last
Ranked by how long the creatives that use them survive in market
Choose a creative dimension
Within Asset Type, effectiveness scores cluster close together — so the bars are scaled between this dimension's weakest and strongest attribute to reveal which actually pull ahead. Every score is weighted by how many ads use the attribute, so a lucky streak from a handful of creatives can't outrank a proven, widely-used build.
| Attribute⇅ | Median lifespan⇅ | 30-day survival⇅ | Effectiveness▼ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motion Graphics | 27d | 47% | |
| Studio Shot | 75d | 50% | |
| AI-Generated | 42d | 100% | |
| Lifestyle Photography | 16d | 35% | |
| Product Photography | 16d | 0% | |
| Animation | 15d | 0% | |
| User Screenshot | 4d | 0% | |
| Illustration | 9d | 22% |
Motion Graphics
Median
27d
30d survival
47%
Effectiveness
Studio Shot
Median
75d
30d survival
50%
Effectiveness
AI-Generated
Median
42d
30d survival
100%
Effectiveness
Lifestyle Photography
Median
16d
30d survival
35%
Effectiveness
Product Photography
Median
16d
30d survival
0%
Effectiveness
Animation
Median
15d
30d survival
0%
Effectiveness
User Screenshot
Median
4d
30d survival
0%
Effectiveness
Illustration
Median
9d
30d survival
22%
Effectiveness
Showing 8 of 14 attributes
Frequency is not effectiveness. This table ranks individual attributes by how long the creatives that use them actually survive in market, a strong proxy for real performance since advertisers pause what doesn't work. Sort by 30-day survival or the effectiveness index to surface energy utilities attributes that punch above their popularity.
Creative intelligence on your account
Run this analysis on your own ads
Benly tags every one of your creatives across the same 14 dimensions — so you can see what's working, what lasts in market, and exactly what to build next.
How builds compose
Asset type → visual format → hook, traced across every creative
Asset Type→Visual Format→Hook Tactic
How energy utilities builds compose, left to right: each asset type flows into the visual formats it's shot in, which flow into the hooks that open them. Thick ribbons are the well-worn paths; thin ones are the unusual combinations. Hover any band to trace a single recipe through the funnel.
Survival by attribute
How long creatives last, broken down by their leading attributes
Single Image
Text Overlay on Footage
Talking Head
Quote Card
Montage
Survival curves for the leading asset type options in energy utilities. A curve that stays high means advertisers keep those creatives running, the clearest signal that the attribute keeps performing. Where curves cross, the popular choice is being out-lasted by an alternative.
Popularity vs longevity
Find the white space: rare attributes that produce durable ads
Hidden gems · rare + durableProven & popularNiche · short-livedSaturated default
Hidden gems · rare + durableProven & popularNiche · short-livedSaturated default
Every attribute plotted by how common it is (x) against how long its creatives last (y). The top-left quadrant is the prize: attributes few energy utilities brands use that still produce durable, long-running ads, your clearest white space. The bottom-right is the saturated, fast-fatiguing default everyone is already crowding into.
A glimpse into the creatives we analyze
Some of the longest-running energy utilities video ads in our dataset over the period
27d
EDF
These energy utilities video ads from the Meta Ad Library each stayed live far beyond the median — the badge on every card shows how many days it ran. Advertisers don't pay to keep underperforming ads active, so longevity is a strong proxy for sustained results. Study the visual style, build and messaging across these top performers to inform your own creative strategy.
Asset type × performance
Top performance
Medium
Low
Performance mixTop
Motion Design / Animation
53.1%
Lifestyle / Editorial
33%
Graphic Design
30.9%
Branded / Studio
18.5%
Motion Design / Animation creatives have the highest top-performance rate at 53.1%.
Each bar represents a creative style — green segments indicate top performers, yellow is medium, and red is low. A longer green segment means that style produces winning ads more consistently. Look for asset types with strong green ratios but low volume in your competitor set — these may be underexploited opportunities for energy utilities advertisers. Performance levels are estimated based on ad longevity and creative quality signals.
Landing page patterns
Homepage (67%)
Product Page (28%)
Other (5%)
Analysis
Energy utilities advertisers overwhelmingly direct their traffic to their homepage (67%), suggesting a brand-awareness-first approach where advertisers prioritize general brand discovery over direct conversion. The second most common destination is product page at 28%. This distribution reveals the dominant conversion funnel in energy utilities — where brands choose to send paid traffic is a strong signal of their overall marketing strategy and purchase cycle length.
Top destination
Homepage · 67%
Promotional intent trends
Discount (68.8%)
Fixed Amount Off (20.3%)
Loyalty (4.7%)
Free Offer (3.1%)
Urgency (3.1%)
Monthly shift
| Intent | Apr 2026 | May 2026 | Jun 2026 | Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discount | 44% | 86% | 77% | +33pp |
| Fixed Amount Off | 30% | 14% | 15% | -15pp |
| Loyalty | 13% | — | — | -13pp |
| Free Offer | 9% | — | — | -9pp |
| Urgency | 4% | — | 8% | +4pp |
The donut breaks down why energy utilities brands are advertising — new launches, discounts, seasonal pushes, or other intents. The monthly shift table tracks how each category moved over the quarter. Significant shifts may reflect seasonal campaigns, competitive responses, or strategic pivots across the industry.
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