Challenger brands

Case Study • SABRE Awards, EMEA, Gold, 2021

Waterwipes, a brand of baby wipe, launched the Early Days Club to support new parents in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Embracing the underdog: The Australian challenger brands disrupting their categories

Article • Josie Tutty, WARC Exclusive, July 2021

Challenger brands are not necessarily small or niche but can be any brand that is ready to disrupt by bringing something new to a category.

Kit & Kin: Branding

Case Study • Design Effectiveness Awards, Design Effectiveness Awards, Silver, 2021

Kit & Kin, an eco-friendly baby care brand, launched its brand in the UK with packaging featuring fun animal visuals to promote its commitment to the environment.

Nûby UK: Packaging

Case Study • Design Effectiveness Awards, Design Effectiveness Awards, Bronze, 2021

Nûby, a baby products brand, increased sales in the UK by redesigning its packaging to feature informative speech bubbles and a colour coding system to amplify Nûby's helpful and friendly brand voice.

Fast-growing brands making fast-moving goods: Why China´s FMCG challengers are special

Article • Alexander Kremer and Cedric Jäger , WARC Exclusive, Spotlight China, June 2021

Picus Capital’s Alexander Kremer and Roland Berger’s Cedric Jäger examine what is driving the exponential growth of FMCG challenger brands.

What we know about challenger brands

Article • WARC Best Practice, June 2021

Current reading and insights on the topic of challenger thinking and how challenger brands can break through in their category.

RAKBANK: She Can Play

Case Study • MMA Smarties, Gold, MENA, 2020

RAKBANK, a banking brand, improved brand perception in the UAE with its She Can Play campaign that focused on a young girl and her love of football.

Skinny: Friend-vertising

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Shortlisted, Collaboration & Culture, 2021

Low-cost telco Skinny harnessed its customer superpowers to grow credibility and drive consideration in New Zealand.

Boost: Stamina Meter – a new currency in town

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Shortlisted, Customer Experience, 2021

Boost, the milk food drink, tangibly demonstrated its stamina proposition to connect with a previously untapped audience in India.

Maersk: Setting a new course for growth

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Grand Prix, Business-to-Business, 2021

Shipping giant Maersk used digital and TV executions to reposition itself as a complete end-to-end logistics and services provider to the C-Suite in Denmark.

Aldi Stores: 2010-2019 – How taking an alternative path took aldi from shame to pride

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Grand Prix, Sustained Growth, 2021

German discount supermarket Aldi ran a ten year, multi-channel campaign in the UK to improve perceptions, grow sales and share, and become a top-five grocery retailer.

Mantsinen x Neste: Zero Exclusion

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Bronze, Business-to-Business, 2021

Hydraulic material handling machine brand Mantsinen looked to art to frame the precision benefits of its 300 model for business decision makers in Finland.

Lexus: Small business drive

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Silver, Customer Experience, and Personalisation & Insight Award, 2021

Luxury car brand, Lexus, ran data-driven test-drives to connect adventure-seeking drivers with unexplored urban locations in Hong Kong.

Premier: Paint without the pain

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Shortlisted, Instant Impact, 2021

Canadian paint brand Premier targeted millennials with a multi-channel challenger campaign to grow market share, sales and awareness.

Head & Shoulders: Say it proud!

Case Study • WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Silver, Collaboration & Culture, 2021

Anti-dandruff shampoo Head & Shoulders celebrated Indonesians' many mispronunciations of its name to build customer confidence and boost sales.

Fernando Machado revitalized the Burger King brand, capturing share of mind – and stomach – in the process

Opinion • Kevin Rice, April 2021

Throughout his seven-year tenure at Burger King, and more broadly in his role as Global Chief Marketing Officer at its parent, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), Fernando Machado was a defibrillator that sent shockwaves through pop culture and brought the brand back to life, writes Hathway's Kevin Rice.

Lexus: Find Your Unbeaten Path

Case Study • Terrence Ling, WARC Cases, WARC Prize for Chinese Strategy, Gold for Smart Spender Award, 2020

Luxury vehicle brand Lexus ran a data-driven campaign for its UX crossover SUV that used personalised test drives to engage adventurous urbanites in Hong Kong.

Chando: Reshoot Graduation Photo Campaign

Case Study • WARC Cases, 2020

Chando, a skincare brand, broke into the Chinese beauty market by celebrating what makes a person unique.

Lexus UX: Unbeaten Paths – Small Business Drive

Case Study • Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness Awards, Gold, 2021

Lexus, the luxury vehicle division of automobile brand Toyota, promoted its first SUV designed specifically for urban exploration, the UX, in Hong Kong.

Yellowbrick: How Bospar Helped Yellowbrick Clap Back!

Case Study • SABRE Awards, IN2, North America, Best in Digital/Print Media, 2021

Yellowbrick Data, a database company, launched a comeback campaign on LinkedIn after IBM targeted them in one of its posts.

What marketers can learn from the 2020 IPA Effectiveness Awards

News • 04 February 2021

At a time when the need to justify marketing spend is more pressing than ever, an analysis of the winning case studies from the 2020 IPA Effectiveness Awards highlights how marketers can link their work to business success.

Insights from the 2020 IPA Effectiveness Awards: Analysis and lessons from the winning work

Article • WARC Exclusive, February 2021

Reveals the trends and lessons from the 2020 IPA Effectiveness Awards, analysing what differentiated the winners from the rest of the entries.

Structures, agency partnerships and talent: how challenger brands can supercharge growth

Article • Mel Arrow, WARC Exclusive, January, 2021

For high-growth challenger brands, getting the right structures in place alongside agency partnerships and a smart talent strategy will set the foundations of long-term growth.

Tommee Tippee: Nipplevision

Case Study • DMA (UK), Gold, 2020

Tommee Tippee, a feeding bottle and childcare brand, launched its campaign Nipplevision: a baby bottle campaign that showed parents what they could do rather than telling them what they should do.

No brand is too big for innovation: How big brands can compete with niche offerings

Article • Rob Sellers & Dulcie Omonubi, WARC Exclusive, January, 2021

As niche offerings and challenger brands capture emerging demographics, can the mass market brand compete with innovation?