Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about qualitative theories & methods

Article • WARC Best Practice, April 2019

The most current thinking and writing on qualitative theories and methods, the broad approach of seeking to understand the attitudes, motivations, and behaviours of consumers: the why and how of decision making.

What we know about focus groups and workshops

Article • WARC Best Practice, December 2019

This article collects current thinking and reading on focus groups and workshops as a method for gathering insights: a highly effective and in-depth approach, focus groups can reveal emotional, implicit and non-verbal thought processes.

GSK: Where do cultural insights come from?

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insights, 2019

GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company, combined anthropological thinking and ethnography to reveal a different slant on cultural insight, which has had a dramatic impact on GSK healthcare brands in India and China.

Bayer: The Patient Empathy Workshop

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, MRS Award for Healthcare Research, 2019

Bayer, a pharmaceutical company, increased understanding of chronic pain sufferers in the UK by launching a Virtual Reality study and a Patient Empathy Workshop.

Understanding patients’ needs with chatbot methodology

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, MRS Award for Healthcare Research, 2019

Examines the need for pharmaceutical companies to move to a more patient-centric approach to fully grasp patient needs through detailing a research project in the UK that used chatbots to better grasp such needs.

The Power of Pledging: Helping Cancer Research unlock the potential of legacies

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2019

Cancer Research UK, a charity, researched the complex and sensitive topic of wills and put supporters' voices at the core of CRUK's Legacy communication strategy.

BBC World Service: Fake News – Addressing the global disinformation problem

Case Study • MRS Awards, Winner, MRS Award for International Research, 2019

BBC World Service, an international broadcaster, delivered ground-breaking research that continues to play a key role in addressing the global disinformation problem of fake news.

How Aldi made saving feel amazing

Case Study • Case Studies on WARC, 2019

Aldi, the budget supermarket, grew its penetration in the face of resurgent price cutting from its competitors in the UK.

Nike: Joyride

Case Study • Matthew Nolan, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Tech, 2019

Nike successfully launched a new innovation in running shoes aimed at China's Reluctant Runners.

Tourism Central Coast: From Couch to Coast

Case Study • Luke Brown, Angela Smith, WARC Media Awards, Silver, Best Use of Data, 2019

Tourism board Tourism Central Coast created an integrated campaign driven by data-insights, to change traveller perceptions of the Central Coast, in New South Wales, Australia.

The United Nations: The People's Seat

Case Study • Emma Bowers, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Tech, 2019

The United Nations launched The People's Seat campaign as a way to shift perceptions of the UN, deliver broad awareness of important issues such as climate change, and, importantly, inspire direct action from the global population.

Paneton D'Onofrio: Spreading the Christmas spirit

Case Study • WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Peruvian fruitcake brand Paneton D'Onofrio took a multi-platform approach to transform its Christmas relationship with Peruvians and secure sales growth.

Colors: Salim Anarkali – The Epitomy of True Love

Case Study • Brian Sequeira, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

India's leading television entertainment channel, Colors, generated buzz for a new-launch show in the Hindi general entertainment space by tapping into the youth market's romantic ideals about true, unconditional love.

CIMB FastSaver: Singaporeans adopt digital banking with CIMB Bank

Case Study • Aashay Shah, Sarah McCarrol, Rachel Tay, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

CIMB Bank Berhad adopted a multichannel strategy in Singapore to seize consumers' attention and make it easy for them to sign up for its services.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center: Adult Congenital Heart Disease campaign

Case Study • Lynde Wilking, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) increased awareness of congenital heart defects (CHD) in adults and positioned itself as the best option for delivering CHD care in the US.

The Movember Foundation: Men, you're not talking, so try ticking

Case Study • Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness Awards, Bronze, 2019

The Movember Foundation, a charity that aims to tackle the biggest health issues faced by men, got men in New Zealand to talk about their mental health by creating an online survey, the Mensus, which gave them tailored messages to send to friends based on their answers.

The alchemical marriage of big data and qual

Research Paper • Victor Ikawa and Sergey Sheykhetov, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Safaricom, the telco, effectively used AI algorithms in tandem with classic qual and quant surveys to study its customer base in Kenya.

Tale of two countries – UK and Singapore: Interlacing Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensional theory with advanced data mining

Research Paper • Daksha Desai and Preriit Souda, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Uses a cultural lens to analyse digital discourse in a country and synthesises qualitive interpretation with data analytics, looking at Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Vento: Can human intelligence networks evolve the way we research?

Research Paper • Caio Meinschmiedt Casseb and Fernanda Politanski, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Discusses how new social technology Vento enables brands to build and develop their own intelligent networks with engaged participants who are truly willing to collaborate and co-create with brands.

I don’t know if I am allowed to say this but…': Accessing genuine feelings and opinions in the age of political correctness

Research Paper • Peter Totman, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

This paper explores the degree to which political correctness may affect the authenticity of responses in qualitative research, in particular among a working-class audience who voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum in the UK.

A ton of data and an ounce of emotion: Customer-centered CRM communication optimisation process

Research Paper • Leszek Haba and Piotr Idzik, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Looks at optimising customer relationship management (CRM) communications with a focus on the bookmaking industry in Poland.

Brands in the age of anger: The use and power of qualitative research

Research Paper • Graeme Trayner, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Looks at how brands can use qualitative research to navigate the current age, defined by populism and rage.

Quick qual manifesto: How to conduct quick qualitative research without compromising deep insights and losing the essence of research for design

Research Paper • Nasly Liliana Galindo Quiroga and Gabriel Escalante Sobrino, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Proposes ten principles to help a design researcher to keep up with a rapidly changing marketplace, adapt and deliver relevant findings and insights quickly.

Metaphors we remember by: A look at decoding early-life memories to better understand the present

Research Paper • Oana Popa Rengle, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Proposes that brands should move away from the current market research narrative that views human memory as overly limited and embrace the value of the memory metaphor.

Qualitative fast track: A new rapid-response business model allows completion of the full investigation journey for an internal client in just four days

Research Paper • José Antonio Noriega and Mark Montgomery-Reid, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Introduces the Fast Track Model, a qualitative research model of rapid response, developed for Citibanamex in Mexico, which allows the completion of the full investigative journey for any existing client within four days.

Qualitative research