The Atticus Awards went live on warc.com today. They are a selection of winning papers which are open exclusively to professionals working in WPP companies. They honour original marketing thinking.

I've surfaced a selection that I think deserve a special mention. Themes explored include best practices on successful brand migration across Western and Eastern markets, the cultural dynamics driving change in the global luxury market and a guide to effective mobile advertising.

West & East: A guide to migrating brands across the globe

A must-read paper for any marketer with ambitions of launching into new territories. This Young & Rubicam study found that translating an ad campaign using local models will not suffice and that the value of cultural nuancing should not be underestimated. The study also revealed that the playing field for developing brands, West to East, is different. When migrating West to East, relevance is the most important deliverable. When migrating East to West, in contrast, brands should seek to deliver differentiation. The study also found some product categories migrate better than others. Brands discussed include Land Rover, the automaker, McDonald’s, the fast food chain, GAP, the fashion retailer and Activia, the yoghurt brand.

Culture Vulture, Luxury Edition 05

This paper, from Mindshare, the media agency, is hugely interesting. It investigates how the luxury market is evolving and identifies 10 Cultural Dynamics – patterns in social behaviour and attitudes - that reveal how luxury is perceived and experienced around the globe. These Cultural Dynamics can "help inspire communication ideas to deliver a brand experience that indulges, enlightens and influences consumers at all points of the customer journey". A vast array of industry sectors are examined including fashion, jewellery, finance, automotive, beauty, travel and alcoholic beverages.

Getting mobile right

Where and how can marketers reach consumers on mobile? How can marketers engage consumers with mobile advertising? How can marketers increase their share of mobile consumer activity? This Millward Brown study attempts to answer these questions in order to help marketers understand how to utilise mobile's strengths as a marketing platform. It also contains key guidelines to keep in mind while developing creative for two important types of mobile advertising: display ads and video ads.

To innovate, or not to innovate, that is the question

According to a recent TNS assessment of over 3,000 launches, in 35% of cases the new product actually decreased its parent company’s overall market share. Further, cannibalistic launches can bite into the share of a company’s existing products. Turning the spotlight on the Asia Pacific region, the author of this paper cautions that it is essential for marketers to understand if innovation is the right approach for them, given the risks and challenges involved.

The 21st century business

Corporate behaviour towards society, including their customers and employees, is under increasing scrutiny. The Futures Company has identified three guiding principles shaping modern day business: organisational culture, intrinsic values (important for both customers and employees) and connection.

The Ape, the Adman, and the Astronaut: Rediscovering the power of storytelling

Eighty years ago David Ogilvy wrote in his sales training manual, "The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore." The authors of this paper argue that in order to "survive and flourish" brands must tell powerful and persuasive stories that capture consumers' hearts.

I believe the future of brands is Superhuman

This essay by Emily Fairhead-Keen who won a Distinction IPA Award for Outstanding Body of Work, provides a good overview of the changing landscape of marketing. Fairhead-Keen observes that today’s brands are competing against everyone and everything. "Once marketing was a skill reserved for professionals, and stages and certain signals and semiotics, reserved for brands, now everyone is a marketer and everything communicates verbally and visually in marketing terms on the same stages as brands". Further, with consumers’ expectations growing every day, Fiarhead-Keen rightly observes that "critiquing now comes from the streets, not just the boardroom".

Beating the brain game: Communications success in a new era of neuroscience learnings

This TNS paper explores communications effectiveness, putting the knowledge derived from neuroscience at the very centre of the entire measurement system, to build a balanced view of short- and long-term advertising effectiveness. Measuring responses to three TV ads for three South African mobile phone providers, the research found that applying neuro-inspired measures within a quantitative survey to assess communications effectiveness helps build a more natural bridge between pure traditional measures and new neuroscience measures which are able to diagnose advertising strength on a second-by-second basis.

First Impressions Count: The power of instant meaning for brand decisions

Want to understand how consumers make decisions? In case you've missed it (where have you been?) this paper outlines the principles of behavioural economics as well as Daniel Kahneman’s theory on Thinking, Fast and Slow.