Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Article • WARC Best Practice, July 2019

Provides guidance on using packaging to create standout for brands and drive purchase consideration.

How to use design in today's fragmented media mix

Article • Katie Ewer, WARC Best Practice, September 2017

This paper provides a best-practice guide for using graphic design, including packaging design, in the marketing mix to build brand equity.

Evolving the alcoholic beverages category: Marketing to engage Gen Z

Article • Vicky Bullen, WARC Exclusive, April 2020

Gen Z drinking habits are changing, and brands need to wise up to the ‘why’ and shift their brand strategies.

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.

The digital skills gap

Article • Research on WARC, March 2020

Provides guidance for digital marketers who need to be able to not only recruit the best people, but alsokeep up-to-date with changes in technology and working culture in order to retain them.

Marketplaces are ‘not a valid strategy’

News • 16 March 2020

Stores in Hong Kong and Singapore have suffered a sharp drop in footfall because of COVID-19, but they can use this period to revamp their strategies and minimise lost sales from physical stores, an industry figure suggests.

How to align your retail strategy with what Singapore and Hong Kong consumers want

Article • Low Lai Chow, Event Reports, March 2020

Marketplaces are useful as part of a broader retail strategy, especially for customer acquisition, but they shouldn’t be your end-all and be-all strategy because brands have little flexibility and sway over UX.

Nescafé: Tribute

Case Study • Case Studies on WARC, 2018

Coffee brand Nescafé reversed a sales decline and improved its perception as a socially committed brand in Mexico through a campaign that got people closer to its CSR program.

Nongfu Spring's 'Forbidden City Bottles' sells history in bottles of water

Case Study • Jenny Chan, Case Studies on WARC, ROI Festival, October 2019

Famed Chinese water brand Nongfu Spring released new bottle designs that are covered with drawings of emperors, concubines and empress dowagers, alongside humorous monologues that left good impressions on consumers.

Where creative meets commerce: Orchestrating brand experience in digital marketplaces

Article • Research on WARC, February 2020

A look at four trends defining the landscape reveals what every manufacturer should know about the state of brand storytelling on digital marketplaces – and why it matters so much.

Back to the future: How AI-enhanced contextual targeting may help marketers in the post-cookie era

Article • Ben Plomion, WARC Best Practice, February 2020

Contextual advertising, one of the first forms of ad targeting in both the off and online worlds, is something marketers need to take a renewed look at.

Samsung finds new tech markets as seniors embrace “aging at home”

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, CES, January 2020

Samsung, the electronics giant, is finding new ways to engage and serve older consumers, who could often benefit from using smart digital tech in their daily lives.

A data-driven and user-centred approach for health communication in the digital age

Article • Oliver Childs, Admap, January 2020

Details strategies to ensure digital health communications projects are successful – and inclusive.

Data regulation drives the digital experience opportunity

Article • Gabe Morazan, WARC Exclusive, December 2019

Looks at how brands can use newfound data awareness to actually drive improved digital experiences for their users.

Greenhouse by Wells Fargo: An “endorsed brand” that mixes historic equity with startup energy

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Money 20/20, October 2019

Greenhouse by Wells Fargo, a financial-services offering centered around a mobile app, has based its approach on using digital tech to solve long-term consumer painpoints.

Plastic packaging: Global evolution of pet bottles in a sustainability-focused world

Article • Euromonitor Strategy Briefings, December 2019

Discusses the trends and influencers for PET bottles in the global retail consumer goods marketplace.

IKEA UK: Soffa Sans

Case Study • Data and Marketing Association, Gold, 2019

IKEA, a furniture retail company, increased usage of its sofa planning tool by launching a downloadable, usable font built from 38 different sofa configurations.

How Tesco used insight to guide the strategy and execution of a new entry tier range

Research Paper • MRS Awards, Finalist, MRS Award for Applications of Research, 2019

Tesco, a supermarket brand, used insight to guide its strategy and execution of a new entry tier range, to fight back and reclaim its brand position among competitors in the UK.

Trends from the Marketer's Toolkit 2020

Article • David Tiltman, WARC Webinars, November 2019

David Tiltman, VP of content at WARC, looks at what senior marketers are most excited about and worried by in the year ahead.

Marketer's Toolkit 2020

Article • WARC Trends, November 2019

WARC's Marketer’s Toolkit 2020 adopts the STEIP methodology to cover five drivers of change that will affect marketers next year, built from an annual survey, 10 CMO interviews and WARC analysis.

Marketer's Toolkit 2020: The Greta Effect (Society)

Article • WARC Trends, November 2019

Part of WARC's Marketer’s Toolkit 2020, this chapter offers a deep dive into social and consumers trends that brands are prioritising in 2020.

KFC: Buckethead Army

Case Study • James Barnett, WARC Media Awards, Silver, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Fast-food brand KFC harnessed Australians' love of cricket to create a fan army that won the support of the whole country, boosting sales along the way.

Foodbank Western Australia: Hungry Puffs

Case Study • Hannah Muirhead, WARC Media Awards, Gold, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Hunger charity Foodbank Western Australia created a new cereal brand, consisting of an empty box, to raise awareness and funds in the run-up to Christmas in Western Australia.

Coca-Cola Coke: Coca-Cola Faces of the City

Case Study • Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness Awards, Silver, 2019

Coca-Cola, the soft drinks brand, increased market share and brand love in China by launching an Augmented Reality (AR) experience on Baidu that connected young people through games and live maps.

Building a bridge between UX and analysts

Research Paper • Paula Herrera Andrade, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

This paper discusses the importance of a company's user research and analytics teams working together in order to provide the most valuable and actionable insights that can impact the product.

Design