Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

How to apply behavioural science to build more effective everyday communications

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, WARC Best Practice, September 2018

Outlines a simple four-step process for applying behavioural science to optimise everyday communications.

Brands need to keep the lines of communication open during a pandemic

Article • Josie Tutty, WARC Exclusive, April 2020

In times of crisis, brands still need to connect with their customers to maintain open lines of communication as simply ‘ceasing fire’ on all marketing activity until the crisis passes isn’t an option.

Applying behavioural science to the coronavirus outbreak: Four key implications for brands

Article • Ashok Sethi, WARC Exclusive, February 2020

The novel coronavirus outbreak is causing one of the most widespread behaviour shifts in recent times – Illuminera Institute’s Ashok Sethi highlights what marketers can draw from behavioural science theories and how it can be applied to marketing strategies as new behaviours unlock new triggers.

The Future of Strategy 2019

Article • WARC Exclusive, August 2019

Analysing the results of a global WARC survey of senior strategists, The Future of Strategy report provides both quantitative and qualitative data on the current state and future expectations of the discipline.

Be bold, be creative, do research! How early communication research enables marketers to make more creative, bolder advertising... faster

Research Paper • Arnaud Debia, Research on WARC, Ipsos Game Changers

Strong ideas are essential for advertisers to grab attention and grow powerful brands, but this requires making bolder creative choices – which can turn around a category, yet risks making a wrong turn.

How Farmers Insurance learned to love marketing effectiveness

Article • Reed Karaim, Event Reports, ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference, April 2019

Farmers Insurance, the insurance provider, has ramped up its focus on marketing effectiveness in a bid to drive the maximum return on its investment.

Face presence and gaze direction in print advertisements: How they influence consumer responses – an eye-tracking study

Article • Safaa Adil, Sophie La coste-Badie, and Olivier Droulers, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2018, pp. 443-455

For product manufacturers and advertisers, attracting consumer attention in a cluttered advertising environment is essential.

Building three brands with one idea: How Carmichael Lynch fueled growth for Phillips 66, Conoco and 76

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, 4A's Strategy Festival, October 2018

Phillips 66, the energy company, tasked agency Carmichael Lynch with promoting three different brands using one common strategy.

The Financial Conduct Authority: How Arnold Schwarzenegger became the ‘head’ of the FCA

Research Paper • MRS Awards, Finalist, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2018

The Financial Conduct Authority, a conduct regulator for financial services and financial markets in the UK, increased awareness of the 2019 PPI complaints deadline through a creative campaign based on consumer research in the UK.

The AA: Sparkplugs to Singalongs

Research Paper • MRS Awards, Winner, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2018

The AA, British motoring association, turned around a decade of decline by re-introducing emotional brand building as part of a complete marketing overhaul.

The unskippable future for advertising: Google’s video strategy

Article • Brooke Hemphill, Event Reports, Advertising Week APAC, August 2018

Google is placing its bets on the future of data-driven video.

Applying behavioural science to everyday comms

News • 05 September 2018

GLOBAL: The effectiveness of everyday communications, including voice and written content such as letters and emails, can be improved by adopting a behavioural science approach, according to two industry practitioners.

Seven key behavioural science-based concepts for optimising everyday communications

Article • Crawford Hollingworth and Liz Barker, WARC Best Practice, September 2018

Discusses seven Behavioural Science based concepts which are key tools for optimising everyday communications: Choice Architecture, Salience, Anchoring, Framing, Chunking, Cognitive Ease and Social Norms.

The Home Depot becomes a content powerhouse

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, CommerceNext, July 2018

The Home Depot, the retailer, has developed content capabilities enabling it to meet a wide range of consumer needs.

How agencies can balance originality and strategy

News • 06 July 2018

NEW YORK: Striking the right balance of creative originality and strategy requires agencies to consider a variety of structural factors, according to a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Repeat to fade: planners need to adapt

Opinion • Mike Teasdale, July 2018

Planning cannot afford to keep repeating old mistakes, says Mike Teasdale, if it is to adapt to the rise of data, platforms and short-term response creativity and the decline of long-term brand-building ideas.

How Twentieth Century Fox drives attentive reach

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, IAB UK Engage conference, June 2018

Explores how the Twentieth Century Fox film studio drove ‘attentive reach’ by incorporating elements of storytelling into its online promotional activity for a new release.

How to market boring, complicated and undifferentiated products

Article • Sam Peña-Taylor, Event Reports, Advertising Week Europe, March 2018

Marketing is a discipline that makes improves the imperfect; a copywriting veteran outlines strategies for marketing ugly, boring, and undifferentiated products.

How Rhetoric Theory Informs the Creative Advertising Development Process: Reconciling Differences between Advertising Scholarship and Practice

Article • Alexander Tevi and Scott Koslow, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 58, No. 1, 2018, pp. 111-128

Advertising scholars have been hesitant to identify creativity as the heart and soul of advertising, and that has produced a chasm between themselves and practitioners.

How Addict’Aide switched from fiction to fact to help spot the signs of alcoholism

Article • Lucy Aitken, WARC Exclusive, February 2018

Discusses how Addict’Aide, a French organisation that raises awareness about any kind of addiction such as drugs, alcohol or gambling, gained global visibility in 2017 with its 'Like My Addiction' campaign and created a follow-up campaign, Le Secret de Laurence.

Unleashing cyborg creativity

Article • Oliver Feldwick, Admap, February 2018, pp. 10-12

Reveals the four levels of cyborg creativity, from simple automation to higher-order creativity, and discusses what the new cyborg agency of the future might look like, and how to achieve it.

Nationwide Building Society: How do you research a poem?

Research Paper • MRS Awards, Finalist, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development, 2017

Nationwide Building Society, a British financial services company, used a bespoke research methodology to provide feedback on Nationwide's 12 emotionally powerful poems.

How Marmite increased sales by 33% with the Gene Project

Article • Chiara Manco, WARC Exclusive, December 2017

Through a genetic study uncovering the science behind love or hate for its product, UK brand Marmite launched a PR-heavy campaign that once again played on its "You either love it or hate it" message in a fresh way.

Why Turkcell uses sign language in TV ads

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, MRMW Europe, November 2017

The use of sign language in TV advertising has generally been a rare one-off related to a particular campaign.

What AI means for communications planning

Article • Toby Roberts and Rohan Tambyrajah, Admap, October 2017, pp. 28-29

This article explains how the gap between consumers and technology, such as Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, is closing ever more rapidly and affecting how we buy.

Communications development research