Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about working with agencies

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2019

Summarises the insights from a series of key papers addressing client-agency relationships, which has seen many changes with globalisation and digital transformation.

What we know about in-house agencies

Article • WARC Best Practice, September 2019

Explores the impact of the increasing popularity of in-house agencies and how traditional agencies need to evolve to meet modern time and data demands.

How to work most effectively with multiple marketing partners

Article • Deb Giampoli and Karen Adams, WARC Best Practice, October 2018

Highlights characteristics of the most effective teams, barriers to integration, and “how-to’s” for marketers attempting to “orchestrate” the work of multiple agencies and other partners.

How the best marketers get their agencies to deliver the best work

Article • Deb Giampoli and Karen Adams, WARC Best Practice, August 2018

Outlines the skills marketers need to enable their agency’s creative team to deliver the best work.

How to develop an in-house agency: lessons learned from the launch of BBC Creative

Article • Alex Thom, WARC Best Practice, June 2017

This article outlines the steps brands should follow to develop a successful in-house agency, taking as an example the BBC's in-house creative agency, which was set up to co-create compelling creative work to maximise the BBC's relationship with its audiences.

How data – not agencies – drives Wayfair’s $1-billion marketing program

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Industry Preview, January 2020

Wayfair, the online retailer, has rapidly grown into a significant marketer, both in terms of its budgets and in its approach to innovation.

What’s old is new again: In-housing in-context

Opinion • Marsha Appel, February 2020

Although the term “in-housing” is relatively new, the concept of marketers bringing the advertising function in-house is not.

MADE.com’s five tips for better influencer marketing

Article • Anna Hamill, Event Reports, The Future of Brands, February 2020

Brands need to prioritise building brand advocates rather than short term partnerships, according to MADE.com’s Head of Brand Advocacy.

How consultancies assess their workers and what agencies can learn

News • 06 February 2020

An individual’s effectiveness is down to more than winning extra business, according to a new report into consultancy performance reviews – and agencies can take learnings from this.

Why in-housing could be bad for your health

News • 28 January 2020

Brands taking elements of their marketing in-house need to consider how their internal working culture can affect the success of this approach, as a new study highlights some significant differences with agencies.

P&G’s reinvention formula for advertising, partnerships, media and brand citizenship

Article • Geoffrey Precourt and Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, CES, January 2020

Procter & Gamble, the consumer packaged goods manufacturer, is transforming its marketing operations to ensure its messaging remains impactful and relevant to consumers.

Embrace the complexity: the evolution of Deutsche Telekom’s media operating model

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, January 2020

Looks at how Deutsche Telekom developed a new media operating model to cope with the complexity of the media landscape.

Trends from the Marketer's Toolkit 2020

Article • David Tiltman, WARC Webinars, November 2019

David Tiltman, VP of content at WARC, looks at what senior marketers are most excited about and worried by in the year ahead.

It’s a two-way street: Agency experts give their perspective on the client-agency relationship evaluation process

Article • Richard Benyon, ANA Magazine, Forward, November 2019

While much has been written about agency evaluations from the client's perspective, there's been little coverage of the agency's side and its specific practices and behaviors.

How Clorox shapes its brand strategy in Latin America

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Festival of Media LATAM, November 2019

The Clorox Company, which makes products ranging from bleach to charcoal and salad dressing, has a major presence in Latin America, and is making sure its brand strategies are fit for purpose in the region.

Marketer's Toolkit 2020: Data Report

Article • WARC Trends, November 2019

WARC's Marketer’s Toolkit 2020 Data Report adopts the STEIP methodology to cover five drivers of change that will affect marketers next year: Society, Technology, Economy, Industry and Policy.

Marketer's Toolkit 2020

Article • WARC Trends, November 2019

WARC's Marketer’s Toolkit 2020 adopts the STEIP methodology to cover five drivers of change that will affect marketers next year, built from an annual survey, 10 CMO interviews and WARC analysis.

Wieden+Kennedy’s creative excellence rests on seven points of agency culture

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, ANA Masters of Marketing Conference, October 2019

Wieden+Kennedy, the agency, is developing an agency culture that reflects the evolving contours of the marketing universe.

How increased diversity helps agencies

News • 11 November 2019

Agencies need to ensure their internal teams are as diverse as the audiences they seek to reach, as this approach can help deliver more impactful and relevant work.

Eight considerations for the next generation of agencies

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, Advertising Week New York, September 2019

Agencies must drive internal change in order to help their clients succeed at a time of rapid evolution in almost every marketplace.

Fimalac: Sorrell sets a trend for ‘new kind of agency’

News • 06 November 2019

With the purchase of a majority stake in the British digital agency Jellyfish, French group Fimalac is seeking to compete in a new space carved out, in part, by S4 Capital (and WPP) founder Sir Martin Sorrell.

WFA: For good agency relationships, budget and scope must be clear

News • 29 October 2019

The key to productive agency work is a combination of a longer relationship, and a careful balance of scope and budget, a new report finds.

Where agencies fit into MarTech conversations

Opinion • Amy Rodgers & Dr. Emma Slade, October 2019

Powerful as MarTech might be, it does not replace an agency for strategic insight – Amy Rodgers and Dr Emma Slade explore the practitioners’ view.

How ITV is bringing new brands into TV advertising

News • 25 October 2019

ITV, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, is attempting to cast the net of brands advertising on its platforms wider through a dedicated in-house client team to service smaller brands, a new WARC exclusive finds.

What Shell learned from its Agency of the Future review

News • 22 October 2019

Over the course of a year, Shell, the multinational oil and gas company, undertook a project to rethink its creative and media relationships at both a global and local level.

Client-agency relationships