Keeping It in the Family: Why Family-Owned Brands Over-Index on Effectiveness

At last year’s IPA Effectiveness Awards, one statistic was hard to ignore: four out of five Gold winners were family-controlled brands. In a business where effectiveness has traditionally been defined by corporate giants, that raised a provocative question: are family-run companies structurally better suited to long-term, effective advertising?

​Laurence Green, director of effectiveness at the IPA, was not surprised when he spotted this. “It’s something of a cliché that family businesses are run for the next generation rather than the next quarter, but it’s no less true for that,” he says. “Their focus, culture and even their risk aversion make them the ideal petri dish for brand building, a model for others to emulate."

The case studies certainly suggest something is going on. Take Specsavers, where Liz Baines, head of planning at Specsavers Creative points out that the company’s founding purpose has remained remarkably consistent. “Doug and Mary Perkins founded Specsavers with one aim and that was to provide really good quality value for money eye care for everyone,” she says. Crucially, they built the business around a joint venture model so that, however big it grew, “every single one of our patients gets that expert care by someone who's really got skin in the game.”

At Yorkshire Tea, consistency is also baked into the model. “As a family-owned brand, they're naturally going to gravitate towards consistency,” says Lucky Generals strategy director Myles Manyonda. “They're not pushing it for a quick buck. They have a vested interest in seeing success, it's something that they’re inherently proud of. And they want it to stand the test of time.” Head of brand marketing Ben Newbury adds that this is rooted in governance: “I think there's a stewardship and governance of a family business, which in principle is a good family business that'll manage for the long term, for generations to come.”

That long-term horizon is echoed repeatedly across my interviews. Chief strategy officer Will Grundy, reflecting on adam&eveDDB’s clients including McCain and Laithwaites, observes that what stands out in family-run organisations is “a huge sense of custodianship, not just something being a professional role. In a lot of cases, the actual family, or at least the values of that family, are still systematically and culturally built into the way that the organisation makes decisions.”

These are companies that don’t just plan for the next quarter. They carry with them the weight of generations – and that perspective may be the secret ingredient behind their effectiveness.

Not All Family Businesses Are Small – Or the Same

It would be easy to picture a family-run brand as a corner shop or local bakery – but the IPA winners show how misleading that caricature is. Family control doesn’t always mean small scale. These companies are capable of pairing deep-rooted independence with global reach.

At Yorkshire Tea, that heritage goes back to the merger of two Harrogate institutions – Bettys tearooms and coffee and tea producers Taylors. In 1962 the Taylors business went up for sale. It was supplying Bettys Cafés at that time. The Wild family, who ran Bettys, saw the opportunity to buy a business that was complementary and that's where it became the Bettys and Taylors group.

For Specsavers, the family story became the foundation of a multinational network. As Liz puts it, “Doug and Mary Perkins founded Specsavers with one aim. 40 years ago, that was at a time when prices were really high and choice was really limited. They did that partly through the joint venture partnership model where each of the stores is owned and run by its own store partners, so that, however big the company gets, you kind of ensure that every single one of our patients gets that expert care by someone who's really got skin in the game.”

Laithwaites demonstrates the same principle through reinvention across decades. “The business has had different eras. The model has been different,” explains adam&eveDDB planning director Jay Thom. “It initially started just as a direct selling business, then a mail order business, and then eventually really accelerated during the pandemic, becoming a proper online retailer. As it's grown through those different eras, you've got different skill sets, and people that have become part of the business.”

Above: Laithwaites 'We Stop at Nothing to Bring You Great Wine'

And in McCain, founded in Canada, family governance coexists with a corporate scale that spans continents. “They’re obviously family-owned, but they're global as well,” notes Roisin Mulroney, the planning director on that account at adam&eveDDB. “They've got family members on the board, but actually, in the UK, they're all employees. And I think that's quite an interesting balance and dynamic, because you have almost the best of both worlds. You have those family-led values freeing up the objectives and the long-term nature of the planning, but you also have incredibly sensitive people in the UK who consider it a real privilege. And there's a long-term nature of the careers that are supported and developed in family-led businesses.”

Above: McCain 'We Are Family'

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In other words: family ownership isn’t a single model. From Harrogate to Guernsey to Toronto, these businesses show that scale and stewardship can go hand in hand.

They Set Long-Term Objectives

If there’s a single thread running through family-controlled businesses, it’s their ability – and willingness – to play the long game. Unlike PLCs, which can be yoked to quarterly reporting, these brands often measure success in decades.

At McCain, that perspective is explicit in how the company treats both people and performance. “Fundamentally everything is thought of over the long term, whether it's from the kind of the business metrics that they're looking at, to the employees and the teams that they're building,” says Roisin.

That philosophy extends directly into creative consistency. McCain showed a willingness to hold course, even in crisis. “They bought into the principles and then allowed us to do it despite whatever had hit them in terms of economic problems,” says Roisin. “They didn’t switch off brand building when covid-19 hit, when the economic crisis [hit], and then that is actually the period where we saw, from all the results, we had the disproportionate shift to really, really powerful impact.”

For Yorkshire Tea, sticking with the brand’s long-running celebrity campaign has become a backbone of growth. “Our TV campaign is what people see year in, year out. We're really proud of it,” reflects Myles. “It's driven huge success for the brand. We're eight years deep now with so many different iterations of it. If we were to move away from that, we'd be undoing all of the hard work that got us from being number three to number one in the category.”

Above: Yorkshire Tea 'Where Everything's Done Proper'

Specsavers has an equally expansive horizon. “We're in it for the long game,” explains Liz. “We're in it for what [business leadership leader] Simon Sinek would call the ‘infinite game’. There are no winners or losers in the infinite game. There's just your purpose, and there's a never-ending pursuit to fulfil your purpose.”

For Laithwaites, the challenge has been shifting a business built on mail-order wine towards investing in brand building, while keeping the faith of colleagues more used to immediate returns. “We really had to dip a toe into the water and then just try to drag them a little deeper in,” says Jay. “Because you've got people in the business that were really built there in the direct era, or the mail order era, who can point to the penny how much they got back from what they’ve invested. What we do in big brand building stuff doesn’t work as simply as that. So there’s a lot of belief building we’ve had to do.”

As CSO Will notes, this is where family ownership gives brands structural advantage: “You are afforded more of an ability to make long term decisions, and you’re afforded an ability to balance that in the short-term necessities of kind of whatever the business space is day to day.”

They Test Ideas Carefully – Then Commit Boldly

One of the subtler strengths of family-led companies is how they balance caution with conviction. They don’t leap blindly into new strategies, but once persuaded, they commit in ways that can make the work disproportionately effective.

At Specsavers, the bold inversion of its iconic line for the 'I Don’t Go’ home visits campaign was preceded by careful, inclusive testing. “We wanted to show the work to Doug and Mary, and they were kind of a bit shocked that we were recommending that this would be the right way of acting,” recalls Liz. “But actually, we worked as a great team to accept this feels uncomfortable. What do we need to do to make sure this is definitely the right thing for us to be doing? We spoke to loads of our lovely home visits customers to make sure that we were all 100% confident that all of our customers would feel empowered and in on the joke.”

Above: Specsavers 'I Don't Go'

And at Yorkshire Tea, commitment means more than the broad strategy – it means authenticity down to the last detail. “As businesses who like to be involved and also passionate about it, we’ve made it a bit hard for Lucky Generals most of the time, because we’ve got some things that we just want. Like it has to be filmed in our offices, or a factory that’s running,” admits Ben. “And I know we’ve curated a lovely cast of actors, but we’ve got 10 or 15 people from work who actually have to be in it too. I think there are really interesting elements that come from that family-based process. We want it to represent us meaningfully.”

They Know What They Are and What They Aren’t

If family ownership helps brands think longer term and act with conviction, it also gives them licence to stay the course creatively. Where other marketers might chase novelty, these companies understand that familiarity breeds favourability. Distinctiveness comes from knowing exactly what they stand for.

At Yorkshire Tea, that principle is almost a mantra. Myles of Lucky Generals describes its litmus test: “A good way of approaching all the creative work and saying, does this feel like everyone else, or does it feel distinctively Yorkshire Tea?” That lens has helped the brand build one of the UK’s longest-running celebrity campaigns, rooted in a sense of place and personality.

At Specsavers, that personality is underpinned by the fact of having had an in-house creative agency for longer than most. That closeness to the business means the brand can evolve without losing its voice. “Being in that in-house creative team, again, you’re really embedded in the business, so you have much more opportunity to get a really in-depth understanding of your customers,” explains Liz. “You’re not driven by the latest trend or what’s going to win you the next piece of new business or the next pool of awards. It’s all about just getting deeper into that relationship with the business and supporting the business.”

For McCain, staying true to values has meant making creative choices that break new ground without breaking trust. Roisin points to their portrayal of disability in advertising: “They did that in the work that they did with families living with disability as well, and children. One of the only major organisations to have put out an ad with children living with disability, again front and centre in the story, not in a pitying way, in a progressive ‘this-is-my-life’ way. And they had that at their heart.”

Principles go beyond the marketing at Laithwaites. Jay recalls: “One of the principles they’re really proud of is, you listen to your heart, not just your head. Which means that the top line is just as important as the bottom line, because we’re talking about people’s jobs, people that you’ve had around for 20 years. There’s far more complicated decision-making taking place. Rather than just how much money do we need to make and how much do we need to invest in brand building?”

In each case, creative effectiveness is not about chasing fashion. It’s about protecting a truth – and returning to it time and again until it becomes second nature for both brand and audience.

Beyond the Structure: Cultural Nuance

Consulting firm BCG has long noted common traits of successful family firms, including frugality, selective investment, organic growth, and talent retention. What makes them distinctive here is how deeply they’re embedded. With the family name on the line, prudence and patience become cultural defaults rather than management fads.

Frugality: Family businesses keep costs lean and often build capabilities in-house. As Liz recalls of Specsavers’ co-founder Mary Perkins: “She needed a leaflet. So she got someone to design a leaflet. And then actually, we kept growing, and we needed some posters. And then we went to telly, and we needed something they could do for telly.” Before they knew it, Specsavers had a fully integrated in-house agency.

Selective Investment: They rarely scatter resources, preferring to test before scaling up. At Laithwaites, says Jay: “In this business, you’ve got everybody growing with the business. So a lot of it’s been, for us, a case of how we compete for really limited resources. Because there’s loads of people who’ve got really valid views on what to do with it. And I think family-owned, -operated, and -argued over really rings true with Laithwaites.”

Organic Growth: Expansion tends to be steady, rooted in long-term stewardship rather than acquisition. McCain exemplifies this approach. As Roisin explains: “They subscribed to some growth principles very early on in the working relationship together – core beliefs about how marketing was going to work for their organisation. And no one would be beaten with a rod if they weren’t met exactly. There was expectation management about how fast things would change. And those principles formed the heart of it. Everything was put into place without necessarily these quarterly check-ins and changes of plan.”

Talent Retention: Longevity sustains culture across generations. Ben Newbury at Yorkshire Tea notes: “We’ve got a senior leadership team whose average tenure is seven to eight years as directors.” In an age where the average tenure of a marketer is around four years, that’s impressive. “What it brings is an improved connection across the business and an ongoing desire to keep hold of that heritage in a positive way.” Meanwhile, Myles highlights creative continuity: “Even our team is very much the same, from the start. When I came into Lucky’s five years ago, that was my first brand I worked into, and it’s stayed with me. I understand our tone. I understand our personality. I understand what provenance is all about.”

A Tangent: Columbia and the Power of Founder Stewardship

While this story centres on family-owned IPA Gold winners like McCain, Laithwaites, Specsavers and Yorkshire Tea, there’s value in taking a brief detour. Will Grundy, just off the back of a major launch for Columbia, points out how founder-led cultures can echo many of the same advantages as family ownership.

Columbia isn’t family-controlled in the same way as these other brands. Yet the DNA of founder Gert Boyle – who famously built the outdoor brand’s irreverent spirit over decades – still runs through its advertising. As Will recalls: “Everything that we’re doing there is about… really living up to the original intention and spirit of the brand that Gert Boyle built, and reinventing that. It just allows us to be much sharper, much quicker.”

The work emerged directly from the family’s hand. Will describes how their pitch was sparked by a handwritten letter from Joe Boyle, Gert’s grandson – a major shareholder in the business – urging a return to the brand’s distinctive edge. That sense of custodianship shaped both the vision and the platform that adam&eveDDB has now brought to market.

What Columbia shows is that the principles we see in family-owned Gold winners don’t have to end with a change in shareholding. They can persist through culture, stewardship and continuity. Founder values, when carried forward by long-tenured leaders or descendants, can serve as the same kind of north star that Yorkshire Tea calls “done proper” or Specsavers calls “purpose.” It feels likely that the Guinness family has something to do with the values that have propelled the Irish stout brand to also win an IPA Effectiveness Gold last year.

What Other Brands Can Learn

The lessons of family stewardship don’t vanish when family control does. Myles used to work on the Guinness account in an old job. “There’s a long-term leadership team. That’s going to feed into the next generation, and they’re going to have those family values which they’ll always refer back to. Which therefore then leads to consistent work – and leads you to work that you can count on, and know that it’ll be true to Guinness and how it shows up, and what people know and love about it.

“And also, once it’s an established brand, you’ve been doing things for so long, and that comes from a family-owned business – you’re not going to deviate from what’s worked in the past. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And it sounds like a cliché, but it pays back dividends.”

Together, these reflections hint at a future of effectiveness shaped less by quarterly hustle and more by what family brands model so well: longevity, humanity, and humility.