When entertainment meets effectiveness | WARC | The Feed

When entertainment meets effectiveness

As media effectiveness becomes more important in driving long-term impact but harder to achieve, a new report from WARC and TikTok finds two-thirds of APAC marketers are shifting investments to target interest-based communities.

When entertainment meets effectiveness – a guide to maximising impact provides a holistic overview of what it means to deliver impact at a time of flux.

Why it matters

According to WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit survey, the cost-of-living crisis and media/audience fragmentation were the top two concerns of APAC marketers in 2023. This creates increased pressure to prioritise media investments that deliver on measures of profitability. Additionally, short-termism, the death of the cookie and the ever-changing media landscape are factors making it difficult to achieve marketing effectiveness.

Key insights

• The foundations: Measuring short and long-term impact holistically

  To deliver impact, marketers should: (1) Move away from focusing on short-term performance and account for the long term. (2) Strike a balance across time frame (long and short-term effects), messaging type (brand building and performance marketing), audience type (broad reach and active in-market buyers), and buyer journeys (upper and lower funnel). (3) Develop targeting strategies to create future demand. 

• Trends: Delivering more holistic and effective measurement

  To deliver more holistic and effective measurements, the study recommends that advertisers should: (1) Build their own first-party data for better contextual targeting. (2) Experiment with SaaS (software as a service) models to measure more efficiently its advertising impact at scale. (3) Utilise AI-powered solutions to effectively test and evaluate creative more efficiently. 

• Opportunity: Leveraging entertainment to drive impact

  To leverage entertainment to drive impact, the study recommends: (1) Utilising entertaining content to connect with audiences and bring them down the funnel. (2) Participating in the culture and communities found on entertainment platforms to generate new demand and find new customers in an authentic way. (3) Taking advantage of the infinite opportunities to convert with ‘shoppertainment’. 

• In practice: Amplifying and optimising creative impact with online video

  To amplify and optimise creative impact with online video, the study recommends: (1) Utilising the power of sound and music in ad formats. (2) Using real people, remixing trends incorporating suspense in video storytelling. (3) Harnessing social cues, using episodic storytelling to reinforce the brand. (4) Leveraging audience signals on digital platforms to optimise ad strategy and creative effectiveness.

If you're not a WARC subscriber, you can download a complimentary copy of the report here.