Anatomy of effectiveness: A white paper by WARC

Summarises current thinking about how to advertise effectively, given the current sense that advertising is not driving the growth it should be.
  • Brands should invest in excess share of voice, but the biggest driver of results is brand and market size.
  • The general optimum split of marketing investment is 60% for long-term brand building and 40% for short-term activation.
  • Creative emotional campaigns drive long-term effectiveness but even short ads can drive certain emotions.
  • Reach is still the foundation of media effectiveness, multi-channel integrated campaigns are more effective than single-channel campaigns, and the frequency capping techniques online are a growing trend.
  • All researchers emphasise simplicity, distinctiveness and uniqueness to improve brand recognition; fluent devices and distinctive brand...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands