Behavioural insight

What we know about gamification as a research method

Article • WARC Best Practice, March 2018

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.

What we know about consumer decision making

Article • WARC Best Practice, August 2017

This article 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.

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.

What we know about behavioural economics

Article • WARC Best Practice, July 2017

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

Finding relevance: Two takes on context from Channel 4 and Trinity Mirror

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, Big Day of Data, London 2018

Contextual advertising is difficult to achieve, but can be incredibly powerful, as both Channel 4 and Trinity Mirror show.

du: #PostWisely – If it were your pain, would you share it?

Case Study • Haytham Dayeh, Omar Kishk, Mahmoud Jaber, Pooja Beri et al., WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Shortlisted, 2018

Leading UAE telco du created a fully integrated campaign to encourage people to actively consider the choices they make when interacting online about painful issues.

How do consumers choose sellers in e-marketplaces? The role of display price and sellers' review volume

Article • Saravana Jaikumar, Journal of Advertising Research, Digital First, June 2018

In e-marketplaces, consumers often have to choose a seller from which to purchase a product. The author argues that seller choice depends on both evaluations of the display price of the product, related to anchoring, and sellers’ review volume, related to assimilation-contrast.

Seven steps to finding your brand's true customer journey

News • 29 June 2018

HOBOKEN, NJ: A brand’s ability to deploy impactful and efficient marketing strategies depends on how it understands and responds to relevant consumer journeys, so the ability to map these across all touchpoints and channels is essential for ...

How to analyze the omnichannel consumer decision journey

Article • Alex Zhu, WARC Best Practice, June 2018

Provides advice, research methodologies and step-by-step approaches for mapping the omnichannel consumer journey.

Addict'Aide: Louise Delage – Like My Addiction

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

Addict'Aide, an addiction-focused digital information platform, launched a fake Instagram profile that, over time, surprised its French followers with the growing alcohol addiction of its profile owner.

The Ad Council: Love Has No Labels

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

The Ad Council, a US non-profit organisation, created a campaign which used a live stunt and PR support to address prejudice at a national scale.

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese: New and Not Improved

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

Kraft Heinz, a food processing company, increased sales and successfully launched its new recipe Blue Box Mac and Cheese in the US by creating the biggest blind taste test in history.

Pril: The One-Drop Bottle

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

Pril, a liquid soap brand, increased market share in the UAE by distributing mini-sized bottles of its product to prove its effectiveness.

Parodontax: Changing the world's oral health by thinking outside the box

Case Study • Marketing Society UK, Excellence Awards, Highly Commended, 2018

Parodontax, a toothpaste brand, increased brand sales by redesigning its packaging and launching global ads that encouraged people to take their gum health seriously without scaremongering.

Yes We Can: How Transport for London harnessed the power of the collective to achieve justice for victims of unwanted sexual behaviour

Case Study • Marketing Society UK, Excellence Awards, Winner, Partnering for good, 2018

Transport for London (TfL), a local government body, launched a collective campaign with London police forces to achieve justice for victims of unwanted sexual behaviour in the UK.

Prudential Financial: Everyday Bravery

Case Study • Lisa Parada, Tracy Reilly, WARC Awards, Entrant, Effective Content Strategy, 2018

Financial products and services provider Prudential used an online campaign to inspire fresh consideration of its services and financial solutions among working US consumers.

Conference note: "When things go wrong and people are afraid"

Research Paper • Ian Murray, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2018, pp. 316-322

This conference note discusses a novel method of obtaining an implicit measure of how Brexit identity primed discriminatory behaviour.

How emotion really works in advertising

Article • Phil Barden, Admap, June 2018, pp. 10-13

Emotions are a physiological response to something we experience or anticipate and our brain continuously tries to make predictions about the world around us in order to survive.

Speed Read: The Choice Factory

Article • Robert Thackerey, WARC Exclusive, June 2018, pp. 47-47

This book by Richard Shotton presents 25 behavioural biases that influence everyday decision-making and, with its comprehensive scope, aims to make behavioural unpredictability much easier to navigate and negotiate.

How Unilever nudged its way to a successful relaunch

News • 29 May 2018

BANGKOK: Brand relaunches carry a significant risk of losing existing customers to rivals and it can take a long time to win them back, but Unilever found the use of nudge theory can help make the change almost seamless.

Introducing the 'ultimate moment of truth'

News • 25 May 2018

NEW YORK: Marketers must consider a new step on the path to purchase known as the “ultimate moment of truth” – or “UMOT” – according to a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Stopping Our Taps Running Dry! With a little inspiration from the behavioural sciences

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, The Behavioural Architects, May 2018

Discusses how behavioural science helps us understand why we might often behave in a profligate manner with water - from our tendency to discount the future, our deeply embedded habits and also the fact that energy doesn't communicate our usage in the most cognitively easy ways.

#catchcurious for Merck

Case Study • SABRE Awards, Gold Sabre Award For Chemicals and Indsutrials, EMEA, 2018

Merck, a pharmaceutical company, launched #catchcurious, a global campaign to strengthen its reputation as a vibrant science and technology company among customers, innovation partners and potential employees.

PENNY: Give Bag

Case Study • AME Awards, Gold, 2018

Penny, a German supermarket, helped encourage customers to buy and use its reusable bags by offering them a 10 cent discount every time they used one with a purchase.

Special Olympics: Dare to Play

Case Study • MIXX Awards, Gold, Campaign Effectiveness, 2018

Special Olympics, the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, launched its Dare to Play campaign in Belgium to promote the inclusion of disabled athletes into training and matches.