GLOBAL: Last week saw the launch of the 2017 WARC Media Awards and now WARC's Media Casebook has been published to provide analysis about last year's winners, along with tips and advice for those thinking of entering this year's competition.

The inaugural WARC Media Awards was launched in May 2016 as a global scheme to reward pioneering communications planning that could be linked to a positive impact on business results.

Coming with a combined prize fund of $40,000, a 40-strong judging panel scrutinised 150 entries to recognise the best examples across four categories – Effective Use of Tech, Effective Channel Integration, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, as well as Effective Use of Data.

Snickers, the Mars-owned confectionary brand, won last year's Grand Prix for Effective Channel Integration for its multi-channel campaign to promote Snickers Crisper, a lighter version of the chocolate bar, and it succeeded in driving more than 1.2bn impressions while increasing positive brand metrics and boosting sales.

Insights about this campaign, along with the other winners, are now to be found in the 2017 Media Casebook, which identifies four key themes that lead to marketing success.

Firstly, individual channels need to be considered for an integrated campaign, with tailored activations playing to the strength of each one. This helps an integrated campaign to achieve a "halo effect" as opposed to simply using an impressive number of channels.

Marketers should also always remember that using data effectively in their campaigns is about generating insight in a meaningful way.

In other words, data should not be about impressive looking dashboards or fitted in at the end, but rather should be used constantly throughout a campaign.

And for partnerships to be successful, marketers are advised to be bold and original with their ideas, which need to be well-articulated with compelling content and clear benefits for the brand.

Finally, when it comes to the effective use of tech, this should include problem-solving or offering people a value exchange rather than using technology in a gimmicky way.

Above all, vital to the long-term health of a new tech-centred concept is whether or not it can be scaled or modified for different business sectors.

As in 2016, entry to this year's WARC Media Awards is free and papers submitted as effectiveness case studies are welcomed from any territory or discipline.

Further details, including entry kit and entry form, can be found on the WARC Media Awards website. The deadline for entries is 19 September 2017.

Data sourced from WARC