Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Footnotes to Aristotle: Modern Modes of Persuasion

Opinion • Faris Yakob, June 2019

Certain ideas, though ancient, have retained their power. Faris Yakob explores the ways in which Aristotle's Ars Rhetorica has influenced this industry.

Four lessons to help brands sing in other languages

Opinion • Catherine Barr, January 2019

Catherine Barr shares the four golden rules of transcreation she’s learnt setting up creative translation agency franklyfluent.

How to craft memorability in multi-platform advertising

Article • Orlando Wood, Admap, September 2018, pp. 10-14

With campaigns with short-term aims on the rise and an ever growing amount of platforms to run them on, this article offers marketers guidance on the best way to create effective multi-platform work.

What creative experts can learn from classical rhetoric

News • 01 June 2018

NEW YORK: A deeper appreciation of classical rhetoric could help advertising practitioners and scholars improve their understanding of what makes for strong creative, according a paper in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

How iconic brands use design for maximum consumer recognition

Article • Low Lai Chow, WARC Exclusive, April 2018

Well-known brands including McDonalds, Samsung and Oppo are using colour, logo and multichannel branding to boost their brand recognition and saliency with consumers.

The pratfall effect: How flaws make advertising more appealing

Article • Richard Shotton, Market Leader, Quarter 2, 2018, pp. 36-39

Examines how marketers can make use of the pratfall effect, where flaws make a thing more likeable, to improve brand image.

Back to the future

Opinion • Malcolm White, March 2018

In the creative communications industry, it feels vital to find exactly the right words but, Malcolm White asks, why not use malapropisms as a resource to define a brand’s essence and values? Close to...

Fluent Devices and the forgotten art of memorability

Article • Tom Ewing, WARC Webinars, December 2017

Tom Ewing, Head of Communication at System1 Group, explains how to use Fluent Devices to deliver brand-building impact and why these long-term brand-building strategies continue to deliver better business returns.

Do Resonant Advertisements Resonate with Consumers? The Interaction Of Wordplay, Regulatory Focus, and Need for Cognition and Its Impact on Persuasion

Research Paper • Jieun Choi, Charles R. Taylor and Doo-Hee Lee, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2017, pp. 82-93

Resonant advertisements—which employ a twist or deviation to create multiple meanings—commonly are used by marketing practitioners.

The power of brand properties

Article • David Taylor, Market Leader, Quarter 1, 2015, pp. 49-51

This article discusses the the importance of brand familiarity, and argues that any changes to branding should be carefully considered and gradually implemented to ensure valuable brand associations in the memories of consumers are not lost in the change.

Mythbuster: Is it ownable

Article • Les Binet and Sarah Carter, Admap, November 2014, pp. 9-9

This article argues that brands should not worry about if a campaign endline is 'ownable', but instead focus on creating a distinctive and consistent brand voice.

10 top tips for copywriting

Article • Ian Stockley, Admap, April 2014, pp. 42-43

This article details 10 tips to improve copywriting, all supported by the key principle of enjoying it.

Point of view: The long and short of it

Article • Molly Flatt, Admap, October 2013, pp. 17-17

This article discusses the role of copy-writing in marketing, using an example of a long copy campaign from Apple, the electronics company, as a 'how not to'.

Are You In Good Hands? Slogan Recall: What Really Matters

Research Paper • Chiranjeev Kohli, Sunil Thomas and Rajneesh Suri, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 53, No. 1, 2013, pp. 31-42

Slogans are very important in brand building, and recall is considered one of the most effective measures of slogan success.

The seven deadly sins of business writing

Article • Laura Mazur, Market Leader, Quarter 2, 2013, pp. 56-57

This article argues that clear, concise and correct writing is an essential part of how the world sees your brand or organisation, and lists and expands on the seven chief writing mistakes to avoid.

How to shoot yourself in the credibilities

Article • Jeremy Bullmore, Market Leader, Quarter 4, 2012, pp. 20-20

If controversial recommendations are to be taken seriously, they need to come from a credible source or the would-be experts risk shooting themselves in the credibilities.

Mythbuster: Crimes of passion

Article • Les Binet and Sarah Carter, Admap, June 2012, pp. 9-9

The authors of this brief article criticise the misuse of the word 'passion' within marketing materials, which has become an overused exaggeration.

The effectiveness of regulatory (in)congruent ads: the moderating role of an ad's rational versus emotional tone

Research Paper • Erlinde Cornelis, Leen Adams and Veroline Cauberghe, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2012, pp. 397-420

In a 2 (ad tone: emotional versus rational) × 2 (ad’s regulatory focus: prevention versus promotion) × 2 (viewer’s self-regulatory focus: prevention versus promotion) between-subjects experimental design, the effectiveness of fair trade campaigns is tested.

Marketing language: Make your brand a verb

Article • Rebecca Moody, with Diana Caplinska and Chris Skillicorn, Admap, May 2012, pp. 16-17

In an age when search engines are increasingly becoming the filter for brands, the choice of words has never been so important.

How should voiceovers be used in ads?

Article • Millward Brown Knowledge Point, March 2012

Voiceovers are commonly used in ads across the world, and are often used to convey information, which they can do effectively.

Point of view: The end for end-lines

Article • John Woodward, Admap, January 2012, pp. 7-7

Researchers at the University of Miami tested end-lines that told people what to do and discovered that, actually, people would often do the opposite.

Slogans in Advertising

Article • Millward Brown Knowledge Point, April 2011

When well-used and oft-repeated, a slogan can become part of the fabric of a brand. But how do you build a strong connection between slogan and brand? It's not simply a matter of tacking a slogan onto an ad, because an ad with a slogan isn't necessarily more effective than an ad without one.

The Feldwick Factor: Are our attention spans shorter?

Article • Paul Feldwick, Admap, January 2011, pp. 50-50

Paul Feldwick is asked to consider the question, "Has the amount of time we spend online shortened our attention spans, and has this led to the demise of long copy ads?" Both sides of the debate over shorter attention spans is considered and the demise of long copy ads can be traced back to long before the internet revolution.

Does your brand sound as good as it looks?

Article • Lulu Raghavan, WPP Atticus Awards, Highly Commended, 2010

Lulu Raghavan of Landor Associates Mumbai claims that brand managers spend lots of time thinking about a brand's visual identity but little time on how it sounds.

When was the last time a subtitle made you cry?

Article • Jeremy Bullmore, Market Leader, Quarter 1, 2011, pp. 16-16

There is a magical power in words, but most of the efforts of contemporary copywriters are thoughtlessly clumsy.

Copywriting & slogans