Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2020

Setting out key insights on using emotion, arguing that it helps to build a brand and business, while also giving a sense of the debate on its impact and its relationship to rational persuasion.

Lexus: Find Your Unbeaten Path

Case Study • Terence Ling, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Luxury vehicle brand Lexus ran a data-driven campaign for its UX crossover SUV that used personalised test drives to engage adventurous urbanites in Hong Kong.

Fortis Hospitals: Honor the Donor

Case Study • Lavanya MN, Shaziya Khan, Saumya Tyagi, Ankit Singh, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Fortis, the chain of hospitals, launched the first ever organ donor symbol to tackle the cultural taboo against organ donation in India.

Times of India: Out & Proud – India Comes Out of The Closet

Case Study • Saad Khan, Trinolda Colaco, Jason Samuel, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

The Times of India newspaper sparked a nationwide movement to normalise LGBTQ rights with a special Out and Proud classifieds section in India.

Pantene: Break-Up Salon

Case Study • Owen Smith, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Hair care brand Pantene leveraged China's Singles' Day shopping event to get consumers' attention with their Breakup Salon brand experience.

Shaadi.com: #WFH – (#WeddingsFromHome)

Case Study • Dheeraj Sinha, Shibani Mitra, Devika Joshi, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Matchmaking website Shaadi.com created an online wedding portal to attract earned media and build brand buzz and engagement during India's COVID-19 lockdown.

SK-II: Meet Me Halfway

Case Study • My Troedsson, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Skincare brand SK-II launched a mini-documentary on social media to boost brand awareness among its target audience in China and spark real social change.

Grab: Personalised Social Impact Reports

Case Study • Krshna Prashant, Sulin Lau, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Mobile technology brand Grab used customer data in a new way to reframe and personalise its social impact activity in Southeast Asia.

How to make effective food advertising in the COVID-19 era: insights from Ipsos

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Ipsos 2020 Food Industry Summit, August 2020

Research firm Ipsos analyzed the advertising creative that delivered the greatest impact during the COVID-19 pandemic to offer guidance for food brands.

Advertisers should use both rational and emotional appeals

News • 21/08/2020

Advertisers should consider employing “both rational and emotional appeals” in campaigns rather than using arbitrary divisions between these messages, according to a study in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Donner Sang Compter: Blood Unity

Article • AME Awards, AME Awards, Platinum, 2020

Donner Sang Compter, a brand that links potential blood donors with patients, innovated an outdated and irrelevant sect-driven ritual in Islam and made it relevant to modern day to encourage blood donations in Lebanon.

Brands need to break free from the “sameness” of COVID-19 response campaigns

Opinion • Aprajita Kalyani and Saachi Asthana, August 2020

The Dragonfly Market Research agency in India offers some guidance for how brands can lift the curse of “sameness” that has befallen brand communications since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Brand communication in the post-COVID era: The new communication playbook

Article • Aprajita Kalyani and Saachi Asthana, Research on WARC, August 2020

COVID-19 has turned the world upside down and led to fundamental shifts in the way people think and live, and these shifts have posed multiple questions before brands with respect to building a connection with the audience.

What's working in audio

Article • WARC Category Intelligence, July 2020

Global strategies, campaign updates and trends in audio.

The funnel alibi: Why brand building and activation should be undertaken simultaneously

Article • Ken Roberts, WARC Best Practice, July 2020

Examines whether upper funnel brand-building efforts, and lower level activation efforts, should be separated from one another, as is traditionally the case.

Strong insights lead to more emotional creative work

News • 24/07/2020

Strong insights generally lead to ads that are more emotional than functional in nature, according to a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Gillette: Father's Day

Case Study • SABRE Awards, In2 EMEA, Best Content Creation for Media Sites (Earned), Gold, 2020

Gillette, a shaving brand, told the stories of men who grew up without fathers in an emotional video on Father's Day to make an impact among men during this key period in the UK.

Listen up: Why attention is an unhelpful measure for audio communication

Opinion • Mark Barber, July 2020

If something is not looked at, then it cannot be seen. However, if something is not listened to, it will still be heard, writes Mark Barber, Radiocentre’s planning director.

The importance of timing in emotional messages

News • 08/07/2020

The most effective advertising is based on emotions but advertisers can also refine their efforts further to boost awareness and recall – and the peak-end rule applies not just to video ads, as a recent study shows, but to the wider consumer ...

What's working in TV

Article • WARC Category Intelligence, July 2020

Global strategies, campaign updates and trends in TV.

Political ideology shapes reaction to LGBTQ images in ads

News • 03/07/2020

Consumer responses to LGBTQ imagery in ads display a “homo-gender bias” that is heavily influenced by political ideology, according to a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Nestlé Fitness: Keep Going

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, Tala Arakji, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Cereal bar brand Nestlé Fitness partnered with the perfect candidate to relaunch in a declining category and build relevance with young Lebanese women.

Mastercard: Priceless Journeys

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Payment card brand Mastercard gave a human face to the promotions game in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to boost awareness and usage.

Ooredoo: It's up to us

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Telco Ooredoo drove brand favourability through a social-led Ramadan campaign in Oman, Kuwait, Tunisia and Palestine.

RAKBANK: She Can Play

Case Study • Mohit Lodha, Kevin Pinto, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Banking brand RAKBANK used a three-part social media strategy, She Can Play, to spark a conversation about girls playing football to build buzz and talkability and improve brand perception in the United Arab Emirates.

Emotion