Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about using music in advertising

Article • WARC Best Practice, August 2020

Provides marketers with information and guidance about the most effective approaches to using music in advertising.

How to choose the right music for your brand

Article • David Meerman Scott, WARC Best Practice, August 2017

This paper explores best practices for using music to build a brand – one of the least understood elements of brand building.

How Mastercard is developing a multi-sensory brand - from sight and sound to taste

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Association of National Advertisers State of Audio online conference, September 2020

Mastercard, the payments company, is developing a multi-sensory strategy that will help its brand to engage consumers across numerous touchpoints.

McDonald's: Put the 'BIG' back in 'BIG MAC'

Case Study • Sarthak Ranka, Kunal Roy, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

McDonald's Malaysia targeted Gen Z with a social media campaign to reverse the Big Mac's long-term decline by increasing brand love and sales.

P/S: The Adventure With King Leo and Friends

Case Study • Sang Lam, Anish Appukuttan, Soumya Ranjan Panda, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Toothpaste brand P/S harnessed the power of AI to encourage kids to brush their teeth, increasing consumption and boosting growth in Vietnam.

Do your ads talk too fast to your audio audience? How speech rates of audio commercials influence cognitive and physiological outcomes

Research Paper • Emma Rodero, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2020, pp. 337-349

Speech rate plays a critical role in understanding speech and therefore in advertising messages. Announcers tend to speak fast in radio and television commercials.

2020 Content Strategy Report: Insights from the WARC Awards

Article • WARC Exclusive, August 2020

Analysing trends in content strategies with lessons for marketers drawn from the 'Effective Content Strategy' category of the 2020 WARC Awards.

Advertisers may be wasting money on music choices

News • 31/07/2020

Advertising professionals may be wasting valuable resources on choosing expensive music to accompany their work thanks to a bias that is not shared by consumers, according to a paper in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

The sound of simplicity: Why sonic branding is vital for a connected experience

Article • Victoria Kurzweg, WARC Exclusive, July 2020

Details major developments in sonic branding over the last 30 years.

Content should aim to be part of culture

Opinion • James Tucker, July 2020

Search for the best content solution that integrates into culture, advises Colenso BBDO’s James Tucker, who worked on the DB Export campaign that took the Grand Prix in the Effective Content Strategy category at this year’s WARC Awards.

The impact of source effects on the evaluation of music for advertising: Are there differences in how advertising professionals and consumers judge music?

Research Paper • Manuel Anglada-tort, Steve Keller, Jochen Steffens and Daniel Müllensiefen, Journal of Advertising Research, Digital First, July 2020

When choosing music for advertisements, professionals are influenced by a large number of factors that could impair their judgment.

Listen up: Why attention is an unhelpful measure for audio communication

Opinion • Mark Barber, July 2020

If something is not looked at, then it cannot be seen. However, if something is not listened to, it will still be heard, writes Mark Barber, Radiocentre’s planning director.

How HSBC pursued a global rebranding program – and responded to a pandemic

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Lions Live, June 2020

HSBC, the financial-services provider, undertook a rebranding exercise that aimed to reflect its internal culture of being a diverse, international organization, while remaining locally relevant.

e.l.f. Cosmetics: #eyeslipsface TikTok Challenge

Case Study • Case Studies on WARC, 2019

Cosmetics brand e.l.f created a viral TikTok campaign to boost brand awareness in the US.

Re-evaluating iconic brand assets in a post-pandemic world

Article • Dr Gemma Calvert, Win Ee Chun and Dr Eamon Fulcher, WARC Exclusive, June 2020

Distinctive brand assets have a powerful role to play in ensuring top-of-mind recall with consumers – but in a world changed by COVID-19, a strategic reassessment of assets is needed.

Saudi Telecom Company: Forget Old Habits

Case Study • Dana Alkutoubi, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Telecoms operator STC took over salary week with a multichannel strategy to appeal to male household providers and boost downloads of its STC Pay digital wallet in Saudi Arabia.

Etisalat Misr: Van Damme Ramadan

Case Study • Dina El Dessouky, Yosr Khalifa, Mustafa Darwish, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Etisalat, a telco provider in Egypt, took the fight to the competition with a - literally - hard-hitting campaign that captured consumer interest, and boosted confidence and engagement.

Saudi Telecom Company: The Year Banking Changed

Case Study • Dana Alkutoubi, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Telecoms operator STC used OOH, social media and digital to appeal to a broad target audience and launch its STC Pay app in Saudi Arabia.

Etisalat Misr: Demagh Tanya (Another Mind)

Case Study • Dina El Dessouky, Yosr Khalifa, Mustafa Darwish, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Telco brand Etisalat used an unorthodox online campaign to increase awareness of its new youth product and grow business in Egypt.

Anghami: Radio Windows

Case Study • Nour Reda, Chris Jabre, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Entrant, 2020

Music-streaming platform Anghami ran a social media campaign based on coping with coronavirus lockdown to increase brand love by presenting itself as a supportive face to subscribers across the Middle East.

Almosafer: As far as we go

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, WARC Prize for MENA Strategy, Bronze, 2020

Travel platform Almosafer reversed declining market share through an emotive Ramadan film in Saudi Arabia.

Janssen Sciences Ireland UC: Grounded – Growing conversations around mental illness

Case Study • SABRE Awards, Gold, EMEA, 2020

Janssen, the pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson, educated the public on the serious nature of mental illness in Ireland by creating a garden at the Bloom Festival that inspired people to grow their conversations about it.

Rock FM: Romania has rocker blood

Case Study • SABRE Awards, Gold, EMEA, 2020

Rock FM, a radio station in Romania, encouraged Romanians to donate blood by releasing a new rock cover of classic songs whenever a blood donation bag was filled.

Huawei's Unfinished Symphony

Case Study • SABRE Awards, Gold, EMEA, 2020

Huawei, a telecommunications brand, completed Schubert's famous Unfinished Symphony using AI technology and launched it at an event in London to promote its brand among UK consumers.

The anatomy of a TikTok meme

Article • Alex Brownsell, WARC Exclusive, June 2020

How a single post on TikTok can inspire millions of videos and create buzz across other online platforms.

Music & sound