Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Three SXSW disruption trends that brands can act on

Article • Low Lai Chow, WARC Exclusive, May 2019

A major theme at SXSW was disruption – here’s what marketers can do to counter disruption among people, brand experiences and business.

How to shoot yourself in the foot

Opinion • Mike Teasdale, March 2019

There are lots of ways a brand can shoot itself in the foot. Mike Teasdale analyses the brands that did it so you don’t have to.

What we know about brand loyalty

Article • WARC Best Practice, January 2019

This article explores the current reading and thinking on the subject of Brand Loyalty, a topic spanning behaviour and attitude.

Radical Mutations for the 21st Century Brands

Article • Ajinkya Pawar, WPP Atticus Awards, Merit, 2018

Analyses the two trends that are fundamentally changing the role of brands in the lives of consumers: rise of nativism and domination by platforms, and provides insights to help brands grow.

Brands should balance 'warmth' and 'competence'

News • 21 December 2018

Brands should try to strike a balance in displaying “warmth” and “competence” to consumers, according to a paper in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

The risk of omitting warmth or competence information in ads: Advertising strategies for hedonic and utilitarian brand types

Article • Christina Peter and Milan Ponzi, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2018, pp. 423-432

Researchers have shown that consumers perceive brands, as they do people, on the basis of two dimensions: warmth and competence.

What we know about brand architecture

Article • WARC Best Practice, December 2018

Explores key insights on brand architecture, or the organisation of a brand portfolio, highlighting methods and techniques to maximise the value of a portfolio while keeping clarity for consumers and employees.

What we know about brand characters

Article • WARC Best Practice, November 2018

Provides guidance and reading on brand characters, a non-celebrity animate being that can perform a multitude of roles from the perspective of brand or user.

Brand Rot

Opinion • Gareth Kay_, November 2018

Brands are rarely made better when we add to them. The more we add stuff - be it for the sake of 'the new' or to fend off what we see as competitive threat - the greater the risk that we dilute and obfuscate what we really are, says Gareth Kay.

Brand values need a rethink

News • 01 November 2018

Building ‘operating principles’ for brand strategy over ‘brand values’ can offer more flexibility to marketers and offer measurable and actionable goals rather than vague value statements, according to a leading planner.

Rethinking brand strategy: operating principles vs values

Article • Tom Donald, WARC Exclusive, October 2018

Building ‘operating principles’ for brand strategy over specific ‘brand values’ can offer more flexibility to marketers.

The “seven costly sins” when crafting and deploying brand assets

Article • Stephen Whiteside, WARC Exclusive, July 2018

Brand assets such as logos, slogans and jingles can be extremely powerful, but are often misused or neglected by marketers.

Transformation strategy for the age of technology

Article • Tom Morton and Jess Greenwood, Admap, July/August 2018, pp. 42-43

Outlines the importance of brand story and explains why a planning discipline that defines a brand in order to guide what it makes, beyond what it says, is increasingly valuable.

The meaningless community

Opinion • Gareth Kay_, July 2018

The notion of the importance of “community” in building powerful brands has been around for a long time but, asks Gareth Kay, has the term now become so overused that it has been rendered meaningless?...

Investigating Brand Verbal Fluency: When known brands do not come to mind

Research Paper • Raphaëlle Lambert-Pandraud, Gilles Laurent and Bernard Gourvennec, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2018, pp. 304-315

We define Brand Verbal Fluency as the ability of a consumer, when cued with a product category, to name the brands he or she knows in that category.

Why do brands matter?

Article • Jerry W. Thomas, Admap, June 2018, pp. 41-43

Examines how to achieve two of the main measures of brand strength – aided and unaided brand awareness – and expands on how to get the most out of commercial and other advertising as a result.

Marketing v machines: it's time for disruption

Opinion • Brian Carruthers, May 2018

The Ehrenberg Bass Institute stresses the need for the mental and physical availability of brands, but the coming age of marketing to machines will require mental and physical disruption, according to Phil Sutcliffe of Kantar TNS.

Brands need distinctive assets

News • 22 May 2018

LONDON/ADELAIDE: Brands relying on the quality of their content to get noticed may be neglecting the significant marketing opportunities offered by having a set of distinctive assets, according to Jenni Romaniuk.

Building and employing distinctive brand assets

Article • Jenni Romaniuk, Admap, May 2018, pp. 10-12

Outlines each brand asset type and when they should be used to be most effective, as well as explaining how to build a distinctive asset palette.

Back to the future

Opinion • Malcolm White, March 2018

In the creative communications industry, it feels vital to find exactly the right words but, Malcolm White asks, why not use malapropisms as a resource to define a brand’s essence and values? Close to...

The year of fear: Latin brands in 2018

Opinion • Juan Isaza, March 2018

Latin America is in a complicated moment as it heads toward a brace of elections in its three most populous countries; at a time like this the opportunity for brands lies in reconciling polarized peoples, argues DDB Latina’s Juan Isaza.

More rituals, less routine

Opinion • Gareth Kay_, February 2018

Brands have successfully utilised rituals for their symbolic and emotional power for some time, but how will new rituals be built when AI and voice assistants become our most common interface, asks Gareth Kay.

Why don't you love me?

Opinion • Mike Teasdale, February 2018

For Mike Teasdale, the notion of brand love is a flawed one, believing it to be nothing more than a habit with some emotion or nostalgia thrown in.

Don't let your brand get squeezed in the middle

Article • Johan Ekelin and Emma Barrebo, Admap, February 2018, pp. 17-19

Reveals four actions brands can take to remain relevant, using examples from the likes of Nike and Whole Foods.

Trust in us: Can relationships between businesses and individuals be improved by new technology?

Article • Tim Phillips, Market Research Society, Impact, January 2018

This article explores how the balance of trust between businesses and individuals might be changing with digital innovation.

Brand theories & ideas