Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

News • 04 May 2020

Media owners are offering a range of services in an attempt to keep advertisers on board during lockdown; a common theme is help with creative, either in finding the right tone or in finding ways to develop new creative.

WARC from Home classic webinar: Rob Campbell and Martin Weigel on why your strategy needs more chaos

Opinion • WARC from Home, April 2020

WARC from Home is our series of content for those looking to skill up in the lockdown – including a weekly re-run of a classic webinar from the WARC database. Find all WARC from Home content here .

WARC from Home: Creative briefs – what they are and why they still matter

Opinion • WARC from Home, April 2020

WARC from Home is a new series to help subscribers to brush up on the essentials of marketing during the COVID-19 lockdown.

How Burger King ties buzzworthy campaigns to strategic objectives

Opinion • Stephen Whiteside, April 2020

Steve Whiteside spoke to Fernando Machado, CMO, Burger King as part of WARC’s Learn from the best report.

Four ways we make advertising harder than it already is

Opinion • Mike Teasdale, July 2019

Agencies’ process is out of balance, with too many avoiding the business problem, ignoring the science, needlessly reinventing the wheel and being chronically short term, argues Mike Teasdale.

Why Your Strategy Needs More Chaos

Article • WARC Exclusive, WARC at Cannes Lions 2019

At a talk held by WARC at Cannes Lions 2019, two speakers explain why it’s better to be interesting than to be right.

What were the strategy themes from Cannes Lions 2019?

Opinion • David Tiltman, June 2019

It’s impossible to catch everything at Cannes Lions, but WARC’s content team can point you towards the good stuff you might have missed.

When the brief gives you grief

Opinion • Mike Teasdale, May 2019

Not all briefs are created equal. Mike Teasdale explores the world of the nightmare brief, and how to make them better.

BCG’s test-yourself tips for in-housing your advertising

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA In-House Agency Conference, March 2019

The Boston Consulting Group, the management consultancy, has outlined several guidelines for marketers that are considering whether to bring agency responsibilities in-house.

Four lessons to help brands sing in other languages

Opinion • Catherine Barr, January 2019

Catherine Barr shares the four golden rules of transcreation she’s learnt setting up creative translation agency franklyfluent.

Back to the future: be constructively sceptical

Opinion • Malcolm White, August 2018

The consequence of not having sufficient perspective is that it’s easy to start believing your own publicity, therefore, Malcolm White says, an agency’s most valuable strategic service to their clients is to put the client brief through a constructively sceptical filter.

Tips for creating better briefs

News • 03 July 2018

HOLLYWOOD, FL: Marketers hoping for stronger creative work must look beyond a reliance on templates when crafting briefs, and instead make this process a truly collaborative exercise with their agencies.

Memo to marketers: How to write a great creative brief

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference, April 2018

Creating briefs is an essential component of the advertising process, but is a task that is fraught with complexity.

Five steps to a great creative brief

Article • Urey Onuoha, ANA Magazine, April 2018

Five universal steps that can help marketers and agencies get the most out of their creative briefs.

How do heuristics influence creative decisions at advertising agencies? Factors that affect managerial decision making when choosing ideas to show the client

Research Paper • Douglas C. West, George Christodoulides and Jennifer Bonhomme, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2018, pp. 189-201

This study focuses on individual choices made about what ideas to show clients in the absence of copy testing; it examines the decision-making heuristics employed by a global advertising agency.

Amazon grounds marketing courage in authenticity

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Advertising Week, September 2017

Amazon, the ecommerce giant, seeks to drive authenticity by ensuring that the customer perspective feeds directly through to its advertising and marketing.

10 ways to become the best client ever

Article • Joseph Clift, Event Reports, Brand Week, November 2017

Anselmo Ramos, co-founder of DAVID, gives his tips for clients to improve their agency relationships – and their creative work.

How to develop a creative strategy

Article • Merry Baskin, WARC Best Practice, October 2017, pp. 38-39

This paper advises on how to develop a communications strategy and outlines the skills that need to be employed in strategic thinking for anyone in an account planning role.

Burger King’s guide to “sucking less” as a client

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Cannes Lions, June 2017

This event report outlines advice from Burger King, the quick-service restaurant chain, regarding how to become a better client.

Best ways to write a creative brief

News • 03 August 2017

GLOBAL: Developing the communications strategy, defining its role in addressing the brand's problem, and transcribing it into a brief for the creative department, are key ways in which an agency adds value, two industry figures say.

How to write a creative agency brief

Article • Merry Baskin and Kate Waters, WARC Best Practice, August 2017, pp. 36-37

This article provides agencies with a best practice guide for writing an effective creative brief, which can form the foundation for the disruptive, breakthrough thinking that can really make a difference to a client's business.

Disruptive strategies work and minimise envy

Article • Rory Sutherland, Market Leader, Quarter 2, 2017, pp. 58-58

In this article, the author argues that creativity should never be killed at birth, even if it often turns out to be a bad idea.

Think creatively to develop the big idea

Article • Tom Tuke-Hastings, Admap, November 2016, pp. 37-39

This article argues that, as most in the marketing industry are looking for the next big thing, they must learn to nurture and encourage creativity and innovation by going through a few simple steps.

How to evaluate creative work

Article • Merry Baskin, WARC Best Practice, October 2016, pp. 38-39

This paper outlines a process to help avoid making costly mistakes in giving feedback on creative advertising ideas.

Point of view: It all begins with the brief

Article • Faris Yakob, Admap, October 2016, pp. 13-13

This article includes a short history of the brief and looks at how agencies can do better in the future.

Creative briefing