Can brand ads for apps drive installs better than traditional direct response ads? That’s what Lyft discovered working with Google’s Art, Copy & Code project.

In a case study published today, Google shares some surprising findings from their analysis of thousands of YouTube videos running TrueView app install ads for Lyft.

The case study takes two popular Lyft ads designed to raise brand awareness: Shaq disguised as a driver, and Seattle Seahawk star Richard Sherman undercover and trash talking himself and members of the Golden State Warriors pranking a teammate.

They A/B tested these branding ads against Lyft’s direct response ads to gauge if videos meant to drive awareness could also drive consumers to install mobile apps.

The Shaq ad had some impressive stats vs the direct response ads: 2x the branding lift , 8% higher click rate and a similar conversion rate.

Small tweaks to the Shaq ad, like adding music on top of the brand overlay, had some powerful results.

Unexpectedly, ads tested without a promotional offer lead to more people installing the app than ones with a promo.

It is unsurprising that ads featuring Shaq will outperform ones that don’t. The important takeaway from this study is that your best branding creative may be your best direct response creative and that you should test and tweak to optimize.