Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about behavioural economics

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2020

This article provides marketers with information and guidance about using behavioural economics (BE) to inform marketing strategies.

What we know about gamification as a research method

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2020

This article explores the reading around gamification as a research method, the attempt to make surveys and questionnaires more engaging, enhancing both the experience and ideally the quality of data.

What we know about consumer decision making

Article • WARC Best Practice, October 2019

Looks at the processes through which people make decisions, often sub-conscious, instinctive and driven by bias, and how to work with these processes effectively.

How to use behavioural science to build new habits

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, WARC Best Practice, June 2017

This article explains the lessons from behavioural science about the formation of habits and lists six strategies that marketers can employ to build, maintain and disrupt consumer habits.

SickKids vs. Conventional fundraising

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Silver and Best Contribution to Effectiveness through Technology, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

SickKids Foundation, a Canadian children's health research organisation, repositioned its brand as a fighting ally against disease in a series of campaigns in Canada that successfully increased donations and engagement.

Brighthouse Financial: Building a new marketing machine

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Entrant, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Brighthouse Financial, a life insurance company, built a new marketing machine to launch its brand in the US in a slow-moving category dominated by long-standing competitors.

Baileys: From forgotten icon to global treat

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Silver, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Liqueur brand Baileys reversed its decline in sales with its global campaign Don't Mind if I Baileys.

KFC: Michelin Impossible – How an Aussie underdog took on the food establishment

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Bronze and Best Small Budget, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Fast food brand Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) transformed public perceptions of its food quality and drove an incremental $91m growth in revenue in Australia with its campaign Michelin Impossible.

Central Coast: Building a big billion dollar tourism brand through 'Little Adventures'

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Silver and Best International, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Tourism Central Coast, a tourism operator for the Central Coast in New South Wales, increased visits to the Coast by launching a series of TVCs that used a snow dome device to show little adventures.

Unlocking the value of direct-to-fan for Formula 1

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Bronze, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Liberty Media, a US mass media company and owner of racing brand Formula 1 (F1), recast conventional customer relationship management (CRM) for F1 as an entertainment service and drove a significant uplift in F1 product sales.

Vitality: How we made the stagnant world of insurance get active

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Entrant, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Vitality, a health insurer, turned the world of Health and Life insurance from one that is only there for you when your health fails, to one that helps maximise health to reduce the need for insurance in the long term in the UK.

How Aldi re-energised an existing advertising concept to re-ignite growth

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Entrant, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Aldi, the low-cost supermarket in the UK and Ireland, grew revenue by addressing the problems of a perceived lack of range and the social stigma attached with shopping at Aldi.

Galaxy S9: How turning switchers into converts helped Samsung take a bite out of Apple

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Entrant, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Samsung, an electronics brand, created a brand induction programme that encouraged consumers to complete a series of actions known to help drive repeat purchase to increase customer retention in the UK.

Five work famously for Great Western Railway

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Entrant, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Great Western Railway (GWR), a train operating company, encouraged the British public to travel by train by launching animations of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five going on a Western Railway adventure.

Rescuing Tango from a Sticky Situation

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Bronze, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Tango, a soft drink brand, reversed its decline in sales and became the fastest-growing brand in its category with its Sticky Solutions campaign in the UK.

Translink Glider: Transforming Belfast

Case Study • Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Entrant, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2020

Translink, Northern Ireland's public transport provider, promoted its new Glider transport service in the city of Belfast by creating a Hollywood-style trailer to show consumers it was not just a bendy bus.

Courageous Conversation Global Foundation (CCGF): Not A Gun

Case Study • ARF Ogilvy Awards, Grand Ogilvy, 2020

Courageous Conversation Global Foundation (CCGF), a non-profit organisation, highlighted the implicit racial biases among police officers in the US by launching a series of creatives that likened an innocent candy bar to a gun.

Finding the future customer

News • 07/10/2020

Even as businesses adapt to everything that 2020 has thrown at them, they need to look further out to what the current disruption means for next-generation customer experiences and relationships, says a digital transformation expert.

Five things brands can do to anticipate future customers and build for growth

Article • Low Lai Chow, Event Reports, Adobe Experience Makers Live, July 2020

The evolution of customer experience requires a shift from personas to personalisation, functional to emotional, heuristic-based to data-based, and episodic design to continuous design.

How Dr Martens designs for shopper behaviour

Article • Sam Peña-Taylor, Event Reports, MRS Behavioural Science Summit, September 2020

The iconic British shoe brand brought behavioural principles into its store design using research from across the world.

Southeast Asian consumers reset as economics trump COVID concerns

News • 25/09/2020

The news cycle related to COVID-19 no longer influences trends on the FMCG market in Southeast Asia. Instead, new socio-economic and behavioural patterns are shaping the future state of the industry, according to a study by Nielsen.

How mobile gaming is changing brand loyalty strategies

Article • Natasha van der Pas, WARC Webinars, September 2020

Natasha van der Pas, Senior Strategist at Wunderman Thompson, discusses how brands including Starbucks, Shell and Disney have successfully tapped into the use of mobile gaming to increase customer loyalty, and outlines the mechanics that will drive success.

What Twitter tells us about gaming in Asia

News • 21/09/2020

The lockdown witnessed not just an increase in gaming as more people were playing and using games as a way to stay connected, but also the growth of Twitter conversations around this topic, creating a huge opportunity to reach fans who don’t just ...

Fevikwik: Fix it or forfeit it

Case Study • Divya Agarwal, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Silver, 2020

Adhesive brand Fevikwik used TV, digital and social media to drive behaviour change and increase brand scores on salience, likeability, and brand appeal in India.

Grab: Personalised Social Impact Reports

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

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

Behavioural insight