Behavioural insight

What we know about consumer decision making

Article • WARC Best Practice, October 2019

Looks at the processes through which people make decisions, often sub-conscious, instinctive and driven by bias, and how to work with these processes effectively.

What we know about behavioural economics

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2019

This article provides marketers with information and guidance about using behavioural economics (BE) to inform marketing strategies.

What we know about gamification as a research method

Article • WARC Best Practice, May 2019

This article explores the reading around gamification as a research method, the attempt to make surveys and questionnaires more engaging, enhancing both the experience and ideally the quality of data.

How to use behavioural science to build new habits

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, WARC Best Practice, June 2017

This article explains the lessons from behavioural science about the formation of habits and lists six strategies that marketers can employ to build, maintain and disrupt consumer habits.

The difference two weeks make: McCann tracks COVID-19 attitudes around the world

Article • Sam Peña-Taylor, WARC Exclusive, April 2020

McCann Worldgroup, the agency network, is interviewing over 14,000 people across 14 markets on a weekly basis to track the human experience of the COVID-19 situation.

WARC from Home classic webinar: Rory Sutherland on the effectiveness of the irrational

Opinion • WARC from Home, April 2020

WARC from Home is our series of content for those looking to skill up in the lockdown – including a weekly re-run of a classic webinar from the WARC database.

The long-term impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour

Article • William Hanmer-Lloyd and Stephanie Watson, WARC Exclusive, April 2020

COVID-19 has the potential to disrupt consumer purchase behaviour, and to drive the uptake of new brands across all categories over the long-term.

Behavioural economics: Habits, experiments and advertising creative

Article • Kate Waters, Richard Chataway and Owain Service, WARC Webinars, April 2020

Looks at how businesses and brands can become part of consumer habits or shift them from default biases or status quo decisions in their creative and content output.

Brands’ behaviour now will affect future consumer buying decisions

News • 01 April 2020

Consumers have made it clear they will judge brands on how appropriately they respond to the COVID-19 crisis, by looking after their staff and help society meet the challenge, according to a special Edelman Trust Barometer report.

Which new behaviors will stick after the COVID-19 crisis ends?

Article • Stephen Whiteside, WARC Exclusive, April 2020

Kantar, the research firm, conducted in-depth analysis of how consumer habits are evolving due to COVID-19, and suggested some of these behaviors will remain in place.

Effectiveness in uncertain times

Article • Ed Pank, WARC Webinars, March 2020

Shares evidence and insights on how brands can respond and rebound from the COVID-19 crisis.

Why stockpiling is not the crazy, selfish behaviour that it seems

Opinion • Chris Morley, March 2020

During the Coronavirus crisis, empty shelves have become a common sight around the world – Kantar’s Chris Morely explores whether the problem of stockpiling is all it seems or whether something else is at play.

Multimodal perceptual processing of cues in food ads: Do you smell what you see? Visual-induced olfactory imagery and its effects on taste perception and food consumption

Research Paper • Yamen Koubaa and Amira Eleuch, Journal of Advertising Research, Digital First, March 2020

In food advertisements, consumers often get inputs from only a few senses and rely on crossmodal interactions to represent those advertisement features from which they are not getting sensory stimulation.

COVID-19: Impact on the Australian FMCG landscape

Article • Research on WARC, March 2020

The FMCG industry is already playing a leadership role in these unprecedented times of uncertainty and insecurity.

New frontiers of behavioural science: The growth of bespoke nudging

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, The Behavioural Architects, March 2020

Explores how individual contextual factors can influence a person’s behaviour and in turn provide new opportunities to nudge in a more nuanced and tailored way.

Nudges might be low hanging fruit, but that doesn’t mean they’re not effective

Article • Josie Tutty, Event Reports, Mumbrella MSIX, February 2020

Behavioural Insights Team managing director Rory Gallagher gives some real-life examples of how simple behavioural nudges can have a big impact on complex systems.

Procter & Gamble keeps a human face on tech-driven “constructive disruption”

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Masters of Data and Technology, March 2020

Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods manufacturer, is seeking to ensure that a focus on the humans behind digital data is a consistent point of emphasis for its strategy.

Efficiency can’t equal effectiveness without creativity: DDB

Article • Josie Tutty, Event Reports, Mumbrella MSIX, February 2020

DDB managing director, strategy and innovation Leif Stromnes and chief creative officer Ben Welsh explain how an over-reliance on rationality is endangering creativity in marketing.

The grand paradox of branding

Article • Itiel E. Dror and Nir Wegrzyn, WARC Exclusive, March 2020

An exploration into the role of brand in driving purchase decisions from a cognitive-neuroscience perspective.

COVID-19: taking a behavioural science approach

News • 28 February 2020

As marketers consider how they may need to rethink their communications during the current coronavirus crisis, one suggestion from behavioural economics is that the framing can be more important than the messaging.

Museum of Modern Art Bogotá: The MAMBO is leased

Case Study • Case Studies on WARC, 2018

The Museum of Modern Art Bogotá (MAMBO) increased revenues and number of visits through a stunt that saw it being put up for rent.

Applying behavioural science to the coronavirus outbreak: Four key implications for brands

Article • Ashok Sethi, WARC Exclusive, February 2020

The novel coronavirus outbreak is causing one of the most widespread behaviour shifts in recent times – Illuminera Institute’s Ashok Sethi highlights what marketers can draw from behavioural science theories and how it can be applied to marketing strategies as new behaviours unlock new triggers.

How Alderfer’s E.R.G. Theory can inform post-coronavirus strategy for brands

Article • Dr. Mansur Khamitov, WARC Exclusive, February 2020

Psychologist Clayton Alderfer’s ERG motivational theory of human behaviour offers marketers a potential framework for charting steps forward in uncertain times – Nanyang Business School’s Mansur Khamitov talks through how brands can map out a positive path forward.

New Frontiers in Behavioural Science: Framing effects and contextual sensitivity

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, The Behavioural Architects, February 2020

Explores how framing effects can vary depending on the surrounding context and situation, on time pressure and on individual characteristics – particularly age and cognitive abilities.

UL: Close Before You Doze

Case Study • SABRE Awards, IN2, North America, Best Persuasive Content, 2020

Fire-safety organisation the UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute put regular people into a live fire video to bring its Close Before You Doze public service campaign to life in the US.