Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about sponsorship effectiveness

Article • WARC Best Practice, July 2019

Examines how brands can build awareness and increase loyalty through effective sponsorship.

What’s working in sponsorship

Article • WARC Category Intelligence, January 2019

Global strategies, campaign updates and trends in sponsorship.

Smirnoff x Live Nation UK: Sustainable waterfall and bar festival activations

Case Study • Beryl Crofton-Atkins, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Smirnoff, the vodka brand, promoted its Infusions drink to socially-aware consumers by partnering with Live Nation to run sustainable activations at summer music festivals across the UK.

Carlsberg Danish Quarter x Live Nation UK: Festival Programme

Case Study • Beryl Crofton-Atkins, WARC Media Awards, Silver, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Carlsberg, the beer brand, launched Danish Pilsner to music fans in the UK through a number of brand activations at six major summer music festivals.

Aquafina: International Vietnam Fashion Week

Case Study • Anh Vu, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Bottled water brand Aquafina elevated brand awareness in Vietnam through sponsorship of a leading Vietnamese fashion platform.

Co-op x Live Nation UK: Festival Partnership Programme

Case Study • Beryl Crofton-Atkins, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Co-op, the food retailer, partnered Live Nation to connect with a younger audience by creating convenient pop-up supermarkets at six leading music festivals in the UK.

Volkswagen: Bye Bye Beetle

Case Study • Eliza Poor, Jordan Heathfield, Delinda Pu, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Volkswagen announced it would be retiring its much-loved VW Beetle, so it launched a farewell event in China to give the Bug one last sales push.

New Balance: The Runaway Pub

Case Study • Jay Chiat Strategic Excellence Awards, Silver, Product/Service Creation, 2019

New Balance, a sportswear brand, created The Runaway pub, a pub specifically for runners where the only way to pay for a pint was with miles run, to connect with London Marathon runners in the UK.

Aquafina: From essential to quintessential

Case Study • Lam Ung, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Entrant, 2019

Bottled water brand Aquafina used digital and social media to amplify its strategic partnership with Fashion Week and elevate the brand in Vietnam.

Standing out from the crowd: A global study to define the perfect music festival

Research Paper • Christian Kurz, Anna Noel Taylor, Kerri Fortune, Ian Wright, Jo McIlvenna and Ben Allen, ESOMAR, Congress, 2019

Viacom, an American multinational mass media conglomerate, set out to learn the 'secret sauce' of the best festivals and to evaluate how that might be improved.

Cadillac drives social conversations, positive sentiment and digital traffic with Oscars campaign

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, IAB NextGen Marketing Summit, June 2019

Cadillac used a campaign around the 2019 Academy Awards to encourage consumers to reappraise its family of sports utility vehicles.

Bacardi taps indie music to engage Indian consumers

News • 17 May 2019

Advertising alcoholic drinks is banned in India, but that has not stopped veteran rum producer Bacardi from building its brand by engaging audiences through the medium of independent music.

Citi strikes a new note for inclusion in ads with “#SeeHerHearHer”

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, #SeeHer 2019 Creative and Media Leadership Summit, March 2019

Citi, the financial-services provider, is using its marketing muscle to boost female empowerment in the music industry.

Hotlink: PokéMobile

Case Study • Chan Su Ling, Jacinth Lum, Lau Su Lin, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2018

Telecoms company Maxis partnered with ride-hailing service Grab to piggy-back on the Pokémon trend to raise awareness of its mobile phone payment service Hotlink Cash Online (HCO) in Malaysia.

Wiko: La Notte del Maestro

Case Study • Simone Foggiato, Francesca D’Auria, Michele Ciccarese, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2018

Mobile phone brand Wiko used sponsorship of a football event to increase brand awareness in Italy.

Virgin Media: Sharing awards love with TV superfans

Case Study • Data and Marketing Association, Silver, 2018

Virgin TV, a cable television service, put UK viewers front and centre of its sponsorship of the BAFTA's treating them as a 'plus one' from the red carpet to backstage.

Akbank Sanat: The Jazz State of The City

Case Study • MMA Smarties, Silver, Turkey, 2018

Akbank, a Turkish bank, launched its Jazz Version of the City campaign to increase social media awareness of the 27th Akbank Jazz Festival in Turkey.

Dimes Breakfast Street Foursquare Campaign

Case Study • MMA Smarties, Gold, Turkey, 2018

Dimes, a restaurant chain, promoted its sponsorship of a famous street in Turkey by launching a crowd level map that showed customers when queues were long at popular breakfast clubs.

Lvivske beer: Changing beer climate

Case Study • European Association of Communications Agencies, Finalist, 2018

Lvivske, a Ukranian alcoholic beverage company, found its beer sales in Eastern Europe had decreased in a colder and rainier month of May, so it tried neutralise the weather's influence via brand communication.

Mondelez’s Swedish Fish swims in a small but relevant experiential pond

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, IEG Sponsorship Conference, April, 2018

Swedish Fish, the confectionery brand owned by Mondelez International, successfully engaged with consumers through a sponsorship tie-up with aquariums.

Cisco taps power of emotional marketing

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Cannes Lions, June 2018

Cisco, the technology enterprise, has found that business-to-business (B2B) marketing has a much stronger emotional component than is often assumed.

ANZ Bank Australia: ‘Out and Proud’ for Mardi Gras

Case Study • Cannes Creative Lions, Entrant, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2018

ANZ Bank Australia highlighted its partnership with the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras by redesigning its ATMs, banks and website to show its support.

M&M’s Caramel and 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards

Case Study • AME Awards, Bronze, 2018

M&M's Caramel, a chocolate and sweets brand, launched a campaign with the 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards in the US and Canada to raise awareness around the unveiling of M&M's Caramel.

How ING combined emotion, trust, and music

News • 21 May 2018

LONDON: When ING, the Dutch bank, decided to bring music to its fans, it leveraged one of its most important assets to tell customers about an exclusive concert: its mobile banking app.

How ING bank used its app as a media channel

Article • Sam Peña-Taylor, Event Reports, MMA Impact Forum, May 2018

ING, the dutch bank, used the trusted and empowering relationship it had built with its consumers to break into entertainment marketing in Belgium, using an innovative channel to drive a musical experience.