Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What is the role of distinctive brand assets

Article • WARC Evidence, January 2020

Looks at the role of different kinds of brand assets – visual, verbal, auditory – and whether thy help to create shortcuts in consumers’ minds that make brands more memorable and impactful.

Developing brand assets

Article • Dominic Twose, WARC Best Practice, January 2020

This article explores the importance of building strong branding into marketing activity and how to develop brand assets.

There’s lots to like about likeable TV programs

Article • Peter Hammer, Research on WARC, December 2019

Revisits program liking with up-to-date information and tests the effectiveness of advertising in an on-demand TV viewing environment.

Nostalgia: why the desire to escape the present is unlikely to be short-lived

Opinion • Helen Rose, December 2019

UK consumers’ occasionally misguided nostalgia is an opportunity for advertisers, writes Helen Rose, Head of Insight & Analytics at the7stars.

Nostalgia – is it what it used to be?

Article • Research on WARC, December 2019

YouGov and the7stars joined forces to investigate the most fondly remembered parts of culturalhistory – and unpick exactly why the nation looks back on its past with rose-tinted glasses.

Lloyds Bank: Reflecting Modern Britain – Ethnicity in Advertising

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insights, 2019

Lloyds Banking Group, a retail and commercial bank, looked into the representation of certain groups in its ads in an effort to promote more diversity in advertising in the UK.

Identifying and measuring the Fluent Device

Case Study • MRS Awards, Winner, MRS Award for Media Research, 2019

System1 Research, the market research company, found that Fluent Devices are effective, and their use is in decline in the UK and US.

TV ads are too short-term in focus

News • 02 December 2019

Brands in the UK and US are too focused on narrow, goal-orientated TV creative rather than making ads that are based on empathy, relationships and human connection, according to a study by market-research firm System1.

The Power of Pledging: Helping Cancer Research unlock the potential of legacies

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2019

Cancer Research UK, a charity, researched the complex and sensitive topic of wills and put supporters' voices at the core of CRUK's Legacy communication strategy.

Creativity in crisis: The implications of left-brained dominance for advertising

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insights, 2019

New work by Orlando Wood of System1 shows how cultural insight and large-scale data analysis can combine to uncover a hidden and highly significant trend within marketing and advertising.

A three-part insight strategy to optimise Tesco’s trade driving print

Case Study • MRS Awards, Winner, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2019

Tesco, a supermarket, optimised its ads to grab consumers' attention in just two seconds in the UK.

Department for Education: Fire It Up – Effecting a seismic reframe of apprenticeships

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2019

The Department for Education, a UK government department, promoted apprenticeships across the UK by launching a mixed methodology research study that facilitated its campaign.

#everydayisdifferent: how the Department of Health and Social Care made people care about adult social care

Case Study • MRS Awards, Finalist, Jeremy Bullmore Award for Creative Development Research, 2019

The Department of Health and Social Care, a UK government department, launched a multi-methodological research approach which identified key insights that led to the 'Every Day is Different' campaign.

Asahi: Combining cultural insights and AI to solve the “mystery” of modern Japanese-ness

Case Study • MRS Awards, Winner, Virginia Valentine Award for Cultural Insights, 2019

Asahi Super Dry, a lager brand, combined semiotic analysis and artificial intelligence to create research that identified an exciting new territory for the brand in Japan.

Why literal, factual, repetitive TV ads are leading to a decline in effectiveness

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, Media, Marketing & Effectiveness Conference, November 2019

System1, the market-research firm, conducted a variety of studies that helped determine the impact of changing approaches to TV advertising.

Why Kevin the Carrot is a great Christmas ad

News • 25 November 2019

Different, emotional, enjoyable, attention-grabbing and able to create love for the brand – these are among the reasons that Aldi’s latest outing for Kevin the Carrot has been judged the UK’s most powerful ad of Christmas 2019.

How media neutrality impacts creativity

News • 01 November 2019

Advertisers that seek to produce media-neutral work may achieve heightened consistency across channels but risk a loss of creativity, a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) has found.

Advertising and the new online aesthetic

Article • Paddy Collins, WARC Exclusive, Paddy Collins

With over three-quarters of YouTube viewing in the UK now happening via mobile, Google's creative agency lead looks at video advertising best practice advice.

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, Digital First, October 2019

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

Bring marketing back to its original purpose: LEGO’s Goldin

News • 15 October 2019

The rise of performance marketing and short-termism means that that today’s marketers often lack the necessary skills to address core marketing principles of brand building and creating long-term value, according to LEGO CMO Julia Goldin.

Can media neutrality limit creative potential? How advertising’s use of ideation templates fares across media

Research Paper • Alexander Tevi, Scott Koslow, and John Parker, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2019, pp. 312-328

This article approaches the question of media neutrality by investigating whether ideation techniques such as templates produce the same quality of advertisements across media.

Best measures of attention to creative tactics in TV advertising: When do attention-getting devices capture or reduce attention?

Research Paper • Steven Bellman, Magda Nenycz-Thiel, Rachel Kennedy, Nicole Hartnett, and Duane Varan, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2019, pp. 295-311

Attracting attention is a common goal for advertisers, but there is limited knowledge about how best to measure attention.

Discovering new actionable insights with AI: Using AI to assess impact of ad creative

Research Paper • Manish Mittal and Sunita Venkataraman, ESOMAR, Congress, 2019

Intel, the tech giant, used AI to analyse its TVCs for new insights on how to optimise its creative in the US.

Measuring potential virality of content: Understanding neuroscience of virality

Research Paper • Mahesh Agarwal, ESOMAR, Congress, 2019

Discusses the neurological understanding behind what makes content click with viewers and demonstrates how to use new techniques such as EEG to measure the subconscious impact of content in Indonesia.

Creating brand and business transformation: Awakening a sleeping giant

Research Paper • Sally Smallman and Emiliana Vidali, ESOMAR, Congress, 2019

Explains how, in ten years, Gordon’s Distilled Gin, an alcoholic drinks brand, reversed its decline by discovering new insights and changing leadership behaviours in the UK.

Creativity & research