Leisure & entertainment

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, MRS Award for Innovation in Data Analytics, 2019

Looks at how an artistic and cultural venue moved beyond its current customer base and tapped into new audiences to understand and engage potential audiences in the UK.

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.

Tencent Music's WeSing looks to Southeast Asia for growth

News • 15 August 2019

WeSing, Tencent Music Entertainment Group’s free karaoke application, is pursuing expansion in Southeast Asian markets as growth in its home market of China slows.

Akbank Jazz Festival: Adaptive Jazz Radio Campaign

Case Study • MIXX Awards, Silver, Native Advertising, 2019

Akbank, a bank, created a location-based experience for jazz lovers to celebrate the 28th anniversary of its jazz festival in Turkey.

Comparing conspicuous consumption across different experiential products: Culture and leisure

Research Paper • Fred Bronner and Robert de Hoog, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 61, No. 4, 2019, pp. 430-446

Consumer behavior recently underwent three main developments: a shift from material purchases to immaterial experiences, a shift from signaling status and wealth by means of consumer behavior to signaling identity, and increased social visibility due to the growing importance of social media.

Is Product Innovation Better than Advertising?

Article • WARC Exclusive, WARC at Cannes Lions 2019

In this talk, hosted by WARC at Cannes Lions 2019, Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja discuss how innovation helped them create an award-winning product and campaign that transcended modern trends.

GRAMMY Awards: Compton

Case Study • Cannes Creative Lions, Entrant, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2019

The Recording Academy, a music recording company, promoted the GRAMMYs in the US by launching a film that showed the roots of 7-time GRAMMY award winner Kendrick Lamar, with the message that greatness can come from anywhere.

The Royal Danish Theatre: Balletfestival

Case Study • SABRE Awards, EMEA, Institutional Image, Gold, 2019

The Royal Danish Theatre used former Dancing with the Stars judge Nikolaj Hübbe to spearhead a campaign raising public appreciation of its Royal Ballet company in Denmark.

Mashrou' Leila: Roman – An Ode to Arab Feminism

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, WARC Awards, Entrant, Effective Content Strategy, 2019

Independent band Mashrou' Leila used a social media-driven campaign to launch its new album in Lebanon and gain more international exposure.

Behind the Effective 100 Rankings: Saregama’s Sweet Sound of Success in India

Rankings • Kawal Shoor, Rankings Articles, March 2019

India’s oldest music label Saregama ranks at number one on the Effective 100 rankings with its retro music box aimed at an older generation of music fans.

Carvaan: Let's make viral products instead!

Rankings • WARC Effective 100, 2019

Saregama, an Indian music company, reaped the rewards of targeting over-50s by launching a new radio product that rediscovered treasured hits and increased revenue from its back catalogue of music.

Joburg Ballet: Breaking Ballet

Rankings • WARC Creative 100, 2019

Joburg Ballet, a professional ballet company, increased ticket sales in South Africa by transforming consumer trends into new ballet performances.

The Grammy Awards: Play the City

Rankings • WARC Creative 100, 2019

In the US, an AI- and AR-powered campaign marked the return of the Grammys to New York, the awards event recognising the music industry’s best achievements.

Downtown Records: Live Looper

Rankings • WARC Creative 100, 2019

Downtown Records, a record company for Irish band The Academic, promoted the group’s new single by taking advantage of the delay that occurs when users stream Facebook Live.

Asian youth in 2019: K-Pop, wellness, sustainability and Bollywood goes to China

Article • Kunal Sinha, Admap, December 2018

Explores some of the manifestations of Asian millennials' influence and what they could mean for marketers in 2019.

Island Records: Fall Out Boy Story Mode

Case Study • MMA Smarties, Silver, North America, 2018

Fall Out Boy, an American rock band, partnered with video game Asphalt 8 to extend their audiences via an immersive branded story mobile game.

Carvaan: Why not an innovation for the old?

Case Study • Kawal Shoor, Navin Talreja, Heval Patel, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Grand Prix and Category Disruptor Special Award, 2018

Saregama, a music company in India, created a new product to monetise its music archive and appeal to older people.

AuktYon Band: AuktYon On The Sun

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

AuktYon, a Russian rock band, attracted new fans in Russia by releasing a mobile app before its album release that offered a unique album preview and concert dates.

Sony underlines new direction with EMI purchase

News • 23 May 2018

TOKYO: Following Sony’s seven-fold increase in profits year on year, the Japanese consumer electronics giant has signalled a new direction with its acquisition of EMI Music Publishing.

Lithuanian Festivals Association: A public initiative 'Freedom to Rock'n'Roll'

Case Study • SABRE Awards, Gold Sabre Award For The Baltic, EMEA, 2018

Lithuanian Festivals Association, a group representing festival-goers and organisers, launched the Freedom to Rock'n'Roll initiative in Lithuania to counter new legislation forbidding alcohol sale at mass events.

Vanilla Skype: The first theatre play with an audience casting

Case Study • MIXX Awards, Bronze, Social Media, 2018

Vanilla Skype, a Romanian experimentalist play, held an online casting call for its audience in order to encourage ticket purchases for its ten performances in Romania.

Sony Music Entertainment: Carlos Vives - Call me campaign

Case Study • AME Awards, Bronze, 2018

Sony Music Latin, a Latin music record label, launched the Carlos Vives Call me campaign in the US to bring Carlos Vives to fans and promote his new single.

Electric Castle: Unofficial Partners

Case Study • MIXX Awards, Gold, Social Media, 2018

Electric Castle, a music festival in Europe, launched Unofficial Partners, a guerrilla campaign in Romania to encourage companies to allow employees the Monday off work following the weekend festival.

Rouge: New Era Sessions

Case Study • SABRE Awards, Gold, Southern Africa, Africa, 2018

Instinctif Partners, an international business communications consultancy, launched a campaign in South Africa to shape a new narrative around female MCs.

A brief history of selling guitars

Opinion • Tom Dougherty, May 2018

Iconic guitar maker Gibson went bust last week. Here, Tom Dougherty of S tealing Share looks at the science of guitar branding.