Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about the marketing applications of Big Data

Article • WARC Best Practice, May 2020

Aggregates the current thinking and writing on Big Data in a marketing context, including the insights that can be drawn from data sets that are so large, or complex, that traditional data processing applications are inadequate.

What's working in audio

Article • WARC Category Intelligence, July 2020

Global strategies, campaign updates and trends in audio.

The State of the Industry: Mobile Marketing in EMEA 2020

Data • WARC Data, July 2020

Summarises the findings of WARC's latest mobile marketing survey, conducted across EMEA on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association, to assess how advertisers and agencies are using, and planning to use, mobile in their marketing activities.

How customer insights help Walmart maintain relevance and build out e-commerce

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Digital and Social Media Conference, July 2020

Walmart, the retailer, is leveraging strategic media partnerships as it seeks to serve consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 Social Strategy Report: Insights from the WARC Awards

Article • WARC Exclusive, July 2020

Analysing what makes social media strategies effective, with lessons for marketers drawn from the 'Effective Social Strategy' category of the 2019 WARC Awards.

Book excerpt from Restoring the Soul of Business

Article • Rishad Tobaccowala, WARC Exclusive, June 2020

This is an excerpt from the opening chapter of Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Digital Age by Rishad Tobaccowala (HarperCollins Leadership, 2020), which discusses how the key to successful transformation in any organization lies between human intuition and data-driven insights.

DTC and CTV synergies come into focus as consumer habits shift

Opinion • James Young, June 2020

Telaria's James Young believes that DTC brands haven't yet unlocked the full benefits of CTV to reach audiences, and with COVID-19 changing consumer patterns, there are now even more synergies between the two.

Humanised experience: using data to create a more authentic brand engagement

Opinion • Kieron McCann, June 2020

A coronavirus-driven lurch to digital means that brands will inevitably increase their focus on data-driven personalisation.

Co-op: Optimised for attention

Article • Caroline Beesley, WARC Exclusive, June 2020

Looks at Co-op's approach of testing new innovations to better understand consumer attention.

What we know about marketing on Facebook

Article • WARC Best Practice, June 2020

Explores the current reading on the topic of marketing on Facebook – the best used social network in the world, reaching over two billion users every month.

How to prepare for playing in the Google Privacy Sandbox

Article • Jack Shearring, WARC Exclusive, May 2020

Explores the impact of Google’s decision to phase out third-party cookies from its Chrome browser.

Nissan relies on data to see it through the pandemic

News • 26 May 2020

Japanese automotive manufacturer Nissan has had to shift from its heavy reliance on brick-and-mortar to online thanks to COVID-19 lockdowns across many markets, but it expects the steps it is taking now will pay dividends offline post-pandemic.

Returning to the great outdoors: A four-step guide to OOH effectiveness after COVID-19

Article • Sophie Pemberton and Emily Alcorn, WARC COVID-19 Series, May 2020

Advice for brands on returning to outdoor media after the coronavirus lockdown.

Tobaccowala believes “human” skills are critical to COVID-19 recovery

Opinion • Geoffrey Precourt, May 2020

Marketers need to remember the human touch and not solely rely on data as they build brands and respond to COVID-19 alike, according to Rishad Tobaccowala, a senior adviser to Publicis Groupe.

Finding order in the chaos

Opinion • Jon Manning, May 2020

Misinformation is rife in the post-COVID-19 marketplace. Media planners should remember the fundamental principles of data analysis: correlation does not imply causation.

Mondelez gets to grips with dynamic OOH

Article • Alex Brownsell, WARC Exclusive, March 2020

Lessons learned by Mondelez International in its experimentation with dynamically-served digital outdoor media.

Why brands cannot afford to delay post-Coronavirus comeback plans

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, WARC COVID-19 Series, ARF Coronavirus Virtual Town Hall, March 2020

Advertising budgets will come under pressure in many industries as a result of Coronavirus, raising the pressure on brand custodians to achieve the greatest possible efficiency.

Brands can thrive in planned retail disruption and use data to survive unplanned disruption

Opinion • Andrew Hill, March 2020

According to our forecasts, over half of retail transactions in the Asia Pacific region will be transacted via online retailers by 2023.

How advertisers can tune into connected TV

Article • Elizabeth Lane and Steph Clarke, WARC Exclusive, March 2020

Advice from IAB UK on how brands can begin advertising on connected TV devices.

What media owners need to know about the WARC Media 100

Opinion • Alex Brownsell, March 2020

The most-awarded campaigns of 2019 offer plenty of lessons for media owners, not least the importance of deeper partnerships with brand advertisers, writes Alex Brownsell.

The give and take of martech pose “existential crisis” for American marketers

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Masters of Data and Technology, March 2020

The Association of National Advertisers, the industry body, is urging marketers to make responsible use of the technology now at their disposal.

Procter & Gamble keeps a human face on tech-driven “constructive disruption”

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Masters of Data and Technology, March 2020

Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods manufacturer, is seeking to ensure that a focus on the humans behind digital data is a consistent point of emphasis for its strategy.

General Motors’ CMO calls for the “return of the human beings” to marketing

Article • Reed Karaim, Event Reports, IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, February 2020

General Motors, the automaker, is aiming to blend digital data with a human-focused strategy in reaching consumers.

Data science is a long way from science, so don’t take it at face value

Article • Josie Tutty, Event Reports, Mumbrella MSIX, February 2020

Melbourne Business School’s Ujwal Kayande gives a frank assessment of the realities of data science and reveals the limits of applying machine learning and AI to marketing.

How data – not agencies – drives Wayfair’s $1-billion marketing program

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Industry Preview, January 2020

Wayfair, the online retailer, has rapidly grown into a significant marketer, both in terms of its budgets and in its approach to innovation.

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