Having rejoined WARC at the beginning of the year as MD, I’ve been catching up with our very talented group of experts in our content team and diving into the treasure trove that is WARC, to share five things that I’ve learned this past month, which I hope you will find equally interesting and valuable! Here goes:
- Looking at the correlation between creativity and effectiveness, we found that 42% of highly awarded creative is effective, up from 39% in 2021 and all creative ideas have upped their effectiveness from 18% to 20%.
- Latino fandom for the Super Bowl is growing and projected to reach 53 million by 2050. For the first time this year, the game was also broadcast in Spanish, leading some brands to take a more focused approach to connect with Spanish-speaking audiences. The no. 1 ad, according to System1’s ranking, was for Michelob ULTRA featuring Argentinian soccer superstar Lionel Messi. The WARC podcast looks at whether the 2024 Super Bowl ads reflected US diversity.
- 2024 will be a bumper year for live sport – Olympics and Paralympics, UEFA European Football Championships, and T20 Cricket World Cup - providing marketers with unrivaled opportunities to achieve mass reach. Global spend on sports media rights is forecast to reach $61bn this year, but a fragmented media landscape is causing a dilemma for brand advertisers and linear TV remains in decline. Tune in to the podcast.
- At $15.9 billion, political ad spend in the US is forecast to reach a new high this year. Whilst television remains the lead media channel for political advertising, with connected TV being an area of growth, local advertising will be vital to many political campaigns.
- Amazon’s advertising revenue grew 26% to $14.7bn in Q4 2023. This is more than double the growth of Google parent company Alphabet, which reported 11% ad revenue growth to $53.5bn.
