Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about online video effectiveness

Article • WARC Best Practice, October 2019

Explores the current thinking and writing on the effectiveness of online video, and the different ways in which they can be effective: emotional or informative, long or short.

What we know about online video audiences

Article • WARC Best Practice, July 2019

Explores the current reading and thinking on the topic of online video audiences, which are increasingly shifting to mobile - here, brand messaging is largely unwelcome, necessitating exceptional creative and controllable ads.

What’s working in online video

Article • WARC Category Intelligence, January 2019

Global strategies, campaign updates and trends in the use of online video.

How to optimise video creative across screens

Article • Dominic Twose, WARC Best Practice, May 2017

This article explains how brands can create video creative that is engaging and brand-centric in order to reward viewers with relevance or entertainment and prevent early skipping.

How to measure the performance of video marketing campaigns

Article • WARC Best Practice, February 2017

This article offers guidance and advice on how to select the right format and delivery channel for video ad campaigns, and which metrics to use to measure awareness, engagement and conversions.

How to develop an effective YouTube content strategy

Article • Julian Saunders, WARC Best Practice, July 2016

This article provides best practices for developing a content strategy on the most visited online video platform in the world, allowing brands to engage a different culture from the mainstream and find a place in the 'everything channel'.

How to make short-form video resonate

Article • Mihkel Jäätma, WARC Best Practice, January 2020

With short-form video advertising becoming more popular, marketers need to better understand how to make shorter formats engaging.

Olay tackles a deeply-felt issue by telling Chinese women to be 'Fearless of Age'

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

Olay kicked off a social discussion on age-related taboos and judgment facing older women and urged females to instead pursue their dreams without prejudice.

'Unkickable' Timberland boots glorifies the idea of unfinished business

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

Timberland built on the past success of its unusual China marketing campaign to promote its boots among young Chinese consumers, with videos that mostly avoided the faces of wearers in favour of shots of the products, and counter-intuitively stressed that the individuality of the boots increases with age.

The Brand Benefits Study

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

Pearl & Dean, a cinema advertising company, utilised a unique implicit testing methodology to prove that cinema is instrumental in benefiting brands in the UK.

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.

Rexona: Grab life by the hands

Case Study • Patricio Shilton, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Best Use of Data, 2019

Number-one deodorant in Argentina, Rexona created a precision marketing campaign to launch its new hand soap, grow market share and generate awareness.

Carlsberg Danish Quarter x Live Nation UK: Festival Programme

Case Study • Beryl Crofton-Atkins, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Carlsberg, the beer brand, launched Danish Pilsner to music fans in the UK through a number of brand activations at six major summer music festivals.

Pond's X Maudy Ayunda

Case Study • Avitasya Febryani, Fadila Hafsah, Mikhal Anindita, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Best Use of Data, 2019

Skincare brand Pond's took a precision-marketing approach to support an influencer partnership, in a bid to revamp its image to halt declining market share among young women in Indonesia.

Cornetto: Conefessions

Case Study • Kat Alday, Meryl Yap, Abhishek Gupta, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Tech, 2019

Ice-cream brand Cornetto used programmatic to leverage Valentine's Day and build its brand equity among young consumers in the Philippines.

Nescafé: From Tianyi with Love

Case Study • Benjamin Condit, Chaojie Miao, Jerry Perez, Sienna Zhang, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Bottled coffee brand Nescafé Smoovlatte partnered virtual idol Luo Tianyi to grow sales and brand love among a youth audience in China.

Nike World Cup: Dare to Become

Case Study • Benjamin Condit, Chaojie Miao, Jerry Perez, Sienna Zhang, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

Sportswear brand Nike joined with UGC platform Weishi for a branded content campaign designed to appeal to football fans in China.

Cornetto: Unicornetto

Case Study • Apoorva Shetty, Mukhlis Sholihin, R.K Narayanan, Sarabpreet Bedi, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Best Use of Data, 2019

Ice-cream brand Cornetto ran a targeted mobile campaign to appeal to teens for the launch of its UniCornetto variant in Indonesia.

Clear Men: Data Driven Emotion Mapping

Case Study • Soumya Ranjan Panda, Ha Tran, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Best Use of Data, 2019

Shampoo brand Clear Men conducted a TV, digital and out-of-home campaign, #BeYourOwnChampion, built around the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to connect with men in Vietnam.

Clear Men: We know when you're going to say cheers next

Case Study • Ha Tran, Jamie Wang, Thanh Vo, Soumya Ranjan Panda, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Tech, 2019

Shampoo brand Clear Men created a variant with beer as key ingredient to appeal to men in Vietnam and promoted it programmatically via online display, video and social media ads.

Ford: Ranger 360 – Tough Done Smarter

Case Study • Eugenia Teo, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Tech, 2019

The Ford Ranger 360 Showroom campaign in the Philippines managed to bring the full experience of a Ford showroom direct to users on their mobile phones.

5 Gum: Bounce 2.0 Campaign

Case Study • Chi Bao, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Partnerships and Sponsorships, 2019

International chewing gum brand 5 Gum sought to boost its market share in China by partnering with Tencent Games – the country's most popular online gaming platform.

Canesten: Thrush, The Musical

Case Study • Amy Francis, WARC Media Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Thrush cream brand Canesten broke category conventions to make its name synonymous with thrush, getting women to recall and ask for the brand by name.

Babyshop: World Without Walls

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, WARC Media Awards, Silver, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Children's retailer Babyshop used a multichannel approach to redefine its brand strategy during Ramadan in the Middle East.

Wingstop: 4/20 High-Atus

Case Study • Jessica Perrin, WARC Media Awards, Entrant, Effective Channel Integration, 2019

Wingstop, the global chicken wing restaurant chain hailing from Texas, boosted sales with a video campaign that targeted urban millennials celebrating 4/20 in the US.

Online video