WARC Creative Ideas that work: Combining creativity and media

How do brands navigate a fragmenting media and content landscape, and build ideas that can work across it? This report looks at the intersection of creativity and media using three award-winning case studies.

Context 

Media is one of the main levers that marketers can pull to generate effectiveness: the more channels you use, the more effective your campaign tends to be. But the mix of those channels, and how marketers use them, has in some cases become detached from the creativity, with creative agencies and media agencies working in silos. 

When planning for reach and brand recognition, the media framework into which brands place their creative is a vital part of the effectiveness equation - this report explores how the very best have put these ideas into practice.

Takeaways

• Channel mix: Leading brands effectively maximise the number of media channels in the mix; but the magic lies in the integration of those channels: how they work together to achieve campaign objectives.
• Partnership with influential allies is an effective way to extend a campaign’s reach and strengthen its credibility, particularly when the messaging is emotional or cause-focused.
• Participation: When consumers are an active part of a campaign’s story, their attention is kept for longer and memory encoding is stronger. The campaigns highlighted in this report reveal the gains achieved from participatory elements. 
• Distinction: Re-imagine the use of media to stand out from the crowd. These campaigns took traditional channels and innovated with them. Dove turned a billboard into a live stunt and Volkswagen turned a TV spot into the start of an online, gamified customer journey.
• Use media to be unmissable. Remember that media can be used multiple times, in different ways to reach different audiences. The case studies in this report show how multifaceted approaches within the same media channel can combat audience fragmentation. 

Ideas that work is a new series of reports exclusive to WARC Creative subscribers, read the first of these here. These include an analysis of a trend or theme using three award winning campaigns from the WARC Creative platform. More information is available here.