Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2020

This article explores the current sources informing how brands and agencies can use cultural insight, the ideas, customs and behaviour of particular people.

What we know about bricolage and semiotics

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2020

Summarises the insights from key papers on the topic of bricolage (how different materials are used in the creative process of understanding) and semiotics (the study of signs and symbols) – techniques used by qualitative researchers to deliver cultural insight.

Why brands need a different approach to online communities

News • 18/09/2020

Emerging platforms are creating new dynamics in the way people interact with and influence each other, and consume and distribute content, consequently impacting how brands should approach online communities.

Fortis Hospitals: Honor the Donor

Case Study • Lavanya MN, Shaziya Khan, Saumya Tyagi, Ankit Singh, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Fortis, the chain of hospitals, launched the first ever organ donor symbol to tackle the cultural taboo against organ donation in India.

Pantene: Break-Up Salon

Case Study • Owen Smith, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Hair care brand Pantene leveraged China's Singles' Day shopping event to get consumers' attention with their Breakup Salon brand experience.

Harpic: Overcoming India's Toilet Divide

Case Study • Jitender Dabas, Kush Anand, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Shortlisted, 2020

Toilet-cleaner brand Harpic used a multi-channel campaign to encourage behaviour change and unlock demand for the brand in rural India.

The new shape of online communities

Article • Florencia Lujani, WARC Exclusive, September 2020

The way people interact and influence each other online, and the way they consume and distribute content, are bringing new challenges for brands interested in creating communities with business impact.

PLAY NZ: How to gamify a country and playfully disrupt tourism marketing

Article • Matthew Moran, WARC Exclusive, September 2020

TBWA’s Mathew Moran offers a walkthrough of Tourism New Zealand’s PLAY NZ campaign and explores how tourism marketing can embrace new ways of storytelling.

Game-on: How brands can unlock the potential of gaming in Asia

Article • Michael Fegan and Jamie Lewin, WARC Exclusive, September 2020

Best practice advice for brands exploring gaming and esports as a marketing channel in Asia.

The Campbell Soup Co.’s recipe for meaningful brand purpose

News • 02/09/2020

The Campbell Soup Co., the food manufacturer, is mixing a series of “non-negotiable” principles that apply throughout its operations with brand-specific strategies as it develops purpose-driven efforts.

The priming effect of competitor product information on advertising creativity

Article • Mark Brown, Roop Bhadury, Nitin Bansal, Ellen Bloxsome, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 63, No. 5, 2020, pp. 633-648

This article examines the manner in which advertising creativity may be influenced by "near" primes in the form of competitor product information that is presented at the briefing stage of engagement with a client.

Campbell Soup Co.’s CEO: Brands can help drive social change

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, WARC Exclusive, September 2020

The Campbell Soup Co, the food manufacturer, is seeking to embody values such as authenticity and transparency as it responds to the imperative push for social change.

Postmodernism, ethnicity, and celebrity culture in women’s symbolic consumption

Article • Ayantunji Gbadamosi, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 63, No. 5, 2020, pp. 561-577

Although postmodernism and celebrity culture are closely linked, research attention on this has not been adequately synthesized with ethnic minority groups.

Balenciaga feels the heat in China

News • 13/08/2020

Luxury fashion brand Balenciaga has faced a tidal wave of criticism in China over promotional pictures of products it has created for the Qixi festival, but some observers suggest people are too ready to find fault with western brands.

Content-led marketing strategies are more effective than ever for brands

News • 11/08/2020

During lockdowns there has been a voracious appetite for good content; a new WARC report shows how a well thought-out content strategy can pay off for brands.

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.

Donner Sang Compter: Blood Unity

Article • AME Awards, AME Awards, Platinum, 2020

Donner Sang Compter, a brand that links potential blood donors with patients, innovated an outdated and irrelevant sect-driven ritual in Islam and made it relevant to modern day to encourage blood donations in Lebanon.

McDonald’s breaks with history to march boldly in support of Black Lives Matter movement

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANAAgile Marketing in the New Normal, July 2020

McDonald’s, the quick-service restaurant chain, became a high-profile supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement with a series of commercials that spread authentic, powerful messages.

Bevel grooming products stand up to specific needs of Black male consumers

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Brand Building Conference, July 2020

Bevel, the grooming brand made by Walker & Co., successfully tapped into a gap in the market when it came to meeting the distinct personal-care needs of Black men.

Staying in the middle or avoiding extremes? A test of the effect of rating scale length in advertising research with Chinese consumers

Article • Cong Li, Gunwoo Yoon, and John Petit, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 63, No. 4, 2020, pp. 418-431

Given the rapid growth of many Asian economies in recent years, Asian advertising research is attracting increasing attention.

Pandemic lessons: What can your business learn about purpose?

Article • Cordão, Research on WARC, July 2020

Report from the strategy consultancy Cordão, in Brazil, that looks at lessons from the pandemic for marketers, with perspectives both from the Brazilian viewpoint and insights from other global brand experts.

Looking forward: Philippine predictions post-lockdown and beyond

Article • dentsu, Research on WARC, June 2020

The extended lockdown period has restricted physically visiting the workplace for many, socialization, travel and general recreation, which will change how we move, work, learn, live, play, travel and govern.

Keep it local

Opinion • Chiara Manco, July 2020

This year’s WARC Prize for MENA Strategy shortlist reinforces the power of strong, local insights for both global and local brands, writes WARC’s Chiara Manco.

Why storytelling should be the first refuge for Indian brands

News • 06/07/2020

Government slogans such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Vocal for local’ appeal to patriotic sentiments, but brands ought rather to be focused on telling stories and adding to people’s lives, says an agency figure.

The seventh-year itch: when weirdos become mainstream

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, MRS Impact conference, March 2020

When it comes to cool-hunting, brand strategist Lida Hujić has been in the front line and has developed ideas that build on existing notions of innovation diffusion.

Cultural insight