WARC 100
LESSONS FROM
THE WORLD’S
BEST STRATEGIES
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Four ideas to take from this report
1
2
3
4
2
SCALE MATTERS
Campaigns from the Warc 100 – the best in the world, as judged in effectiveness
and strategy competitions – tend to be ‘bigger’ than the ‘average’ campaign.
They tend to have higher budgets, use more channels, with a longer duration.
DIGITAL-LED MODELS ARE EFFECTIVE
Campaigns using social media, earned media and online video prominently in
the mix are over-represented in the Warc 100 case study set, compared with the
total pool of effectiveness case studies on Warc. The finding points to the emergence of alternative strategic models that use digital to deliver scale effectively
and at low cost.
TRADITIONAL CREATIVE APPROACHES STILL WORK
Emotion and storytelling overindexed as creative approaches among Warc 100
case studies. Despite the explosion of media options open to marketers, these
‘evergreen’ forms of creativity remain powerful marketing tools.
BUSINESS RESULTS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Given that Warc 100 cases have led the field in effectiveness competitions, it is
no surprise that they tend to list more success metrics than the total pool of case
studies on Warc. It is clear, however, that ‘hard’ business results make a bigger
difference than ‘soft’ intermediate results.
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Executive Summary
Contents
Executive Summary
1. Data: The Best vs The Rest
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Media Channels
Lead Media
Campaign Durations
Campaign Budgets
Creative Approaches
Hard Metrics
Soft Metrics
Geographies
2. Anatomy of a winner: The
world’s top-ranked campaign
3. Views from the C-Suite: Building
an effective culture
4. Warc 100: 2015 Results
3
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
This report analyses the world’s best marketing campaigns to uncover shared creative, media and measurement strategies
Its basis is the Warc 100, an annual ranking
of campaigns based on their performance in
87 effectiveness and strategy awards from
around the world. These campaigns have
been judged to be the best of the best.
At the same time, Warc publishes hundreds
of effectiveness and strategy case studies
from all over the world – it is the world’s largest database of marketing ideas that work.
The purpose of this analysis is to see
whether the very best campaigns (those from
the Warc 100) stand out from the rest of the
case studies in Warc’s database in any meaningful way. In short: is there anything marketers and their agencies can learn from the best
campaigns in the world?
Data: The Best vs The Rest
The core of this report is a comparative data
analysis, measuring the 2014 and 2015 Warc
100 campaigns against all of the other cases
we published over the equivalent year. Criteria for comparison include media channels
used, campaign duration and budget, metrics
measured and the geographic origin of each
“
We collect metadata from
Warc 100 case studies, and
compare them to all of the
other cases we published
that year
case study.
From this analysis, several trends and
themes shared by a disproportionate number
of Warc 100 case studies have emerged.
Generally, we found that scale matters: the
‘bigger’ the campaign, the more likely it is to
win big at effectiveness and strategy awards,
and get ranked on the Warc 100.
There is an over-representation for bigbudget campaigns that run longer than
three months in the Warc 100. These highlyawarded campaigns tend to employ a wider
variety of media touchpoints than the rest.
However, the analysis of the media used
by Warc 100 campaigns reveals another
trend. Social media and earned media are
particularly prominent in the mix, suggesting
that cost-effective digital channels are being
increasingly used as a solution for spreading
the word about a campaign.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Executive Summary
At the same time, while there is a tendency
towards big-budget and long-duration work
on the Warc 100, cases with a budget of zero,
that therefore depend entirely on earned
media, are also over-represented.
Separately, there also appears to be a
divergence in the creative approaches of
Warc 100 campaigns, when compared to the
rest. Campaigns that aim to engage the viewer’s emotions, and storytelling-driven creative,
are both strongly over-represented within the
Warc 100. This suggests that, while successful
campaigns innovate in their media choices,
the ‘traditional’ brand-building narrative and
emotion-driven approach still works.
Meanwhile, when it comes to measuring
effectiveness, tracking and reporting on a
broad variety of metrics seems to be a key
way of winning awards.
Warc 100 case studies tend to report a
greater number of both hard and soft metrics,
compared to the rest. The divergence between
the Warc 100 and the rest is particularly wide
for hard metrics, suggesting that proving the
business impact of a campaign in a variety of
hard results is a key way of winning effective-
ness and strategy awards.
Anatomy of a winner
Of course, while these data-driven findings
illustrate strategic tendencies within Warc 100
campaigns, they do not form an exact prescription for success. Each marketing campaign, after all, has its own cultural context
and strategic challenges.
This is demonstrated by Kan Khajura
Tesan, a campaign from Unilever in India
that took the number one spot in the last
Warc 100, which provided a unique strategic
Case study summaries discussing Warc 100-ranked campaigns from brands including Hindustan Unilever, Foster’s and Dove are included in this report
4
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Executive Summary
“
Great case studies are not
created in a vacuum. Companies wishing to create
highly-awarded campaigns
need an ‘effective culture’
solution based on its specific cultural context.
The campaign involved the creation of a
feature phone-based entertainment channel
that reached ‘media dark’ audiences in rural
India.
For those that worked on the campaign, Kan
Khajura Tesan provides a standout example
of “frugal innovation”. The team worked from
a very tight brief to deliver a completely new
solution. They worked from a clear, simple
creative strategy, optimised the entertainment channel in real time, and measured big
increases in brand awareness for Unilever.
And then, Kan Khajura also achieved breakout success at international strategy and
effectiveness awards to become the number
one ranked campaign on the 2015 Warc 100.
Views from the C-Suite
Great case studies like Kan Khajura, and all
5
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
of the other case studies in Warc 100, are not
created in a vacuum. Companies wishing to
create highly-awarded campaigns need to
have an ‘effective culture’.
That’s a major argument from a series of
interviews we conducted earlier this year with
a panel of CEOs and Chief Strategy Officers.
For these agency network executives, getting the talent mix within the agency right,
whether from hiring, retention or acquisition,
is a major driver behind delivering results for
clients. And, as many marketing companies
have international offices and a global reach,
making sure this company culture extends
across borders is also key.
Awards also matter. And practical tips
for agency people wanting to win at these
awards include:
• Document everything you’re doing during
the campaign, as material for the case
• When writing the case, pass your story to
others to make sure it’s compelling
• Make sure you tie your results back to the
campaign
• Keep a human insight at the core of the
case study
And, with enough award wins, it’s likely that
a campaign that follows these tips will be
ranked on a future Warc 100.
Notes on the data analysis
In 2014, Warc published 75 case studies
from campaigns ranked in the Warc 100,
plus 660 other case studies. In 2015, Warc
published 89 Warc 100 cases, and 839
other cases. These case study sets are the
basis of our comparative analysis.
Unless otherwise stated, all bars on
charts appearing over the following pages
are expressed as a percentage of this total.
For example, if 45 of the 89 cases measured
for the Warc 100 use a certain creative
approach, the bar appears at 50.5% within
the chart.
Bars in charts may not add up to 100%
for three reasons. For clarity, many of the
charts display only selected criteria. Some
cases will have been assigned multiple
creative approaches, media channels, and
so on. Other cases might not have all of
the metadata included, missing details of
campaign duration, budgets and so on.
Unless otherwise stated, all of the following charts refer to the latest (2015) set of
Warc 100 data, though selected year-onyear comparisons are included.
VIEW THE WARC 100
1. The Best versus The Rest
The core of this report is a comparative data analysis,
measuring Warc 100 case studies.
We have collected the metadata from all of the Warc 100
case studies we have published for the 2014 and 2015 rankings, and compare the data to all of the other case studies
we published on the equivalent year.
6
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Media Channels Social media is
the most-used overall
MOST-USED MEDIA CHANNELS ‘IN THE MIX’
% of case studies using each channel
Overall
76%
71%
Warc 100
61%
55%
49%
43%
37%
47% 48%
46% 46%
43%
37%
32%
Social
media
Online
video
42%
37%
Earned
Public
media relations
Microsites
Out-ofhome
28%
TV
Word of
mouth
36%
32%
33%
31%
25%
28%
24%
Online Events/ Mobile
display experiential
Newspapers
• While the preponderance of media
channels available to today’s marketers
makes the overall picture complex, there
is a clear tendency towards social media
in both the overall case set (71% of the
total) and within the smaller set of topawarded Warc 100 cases (76%).
• A major over-performer in individual
channels used is for online video,
employed by 61% of Warc 100 campaigns, but just 43% of the rest.
• TV is consistently in the mix in both the
overall case study set and the Warc 100
cases (46% and 43% respectively).
• Otherwise, there is a major overperformance for earned media and outdoor as
a channel in the Warc 100 vs the norm.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF CHANNELS USED
Number of channels used per campaign
Warc 100
Overall
7
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
7.42
• Warc 100 cases use more channels overall, with 7.4 on average against 6.5 for
the rest of the cases. This suggests that
using a broader range of touchpoints
can pay off.
6.47
VIEW THE WARC 100
Lead Media Earned media and
online video over-perform
MOST-USED LEAD MEDIA CHANNELS
% of case studies using each channel as a lead media
Overall
39%
• When looking for which channels are
used as the “lead media” for a campaign, rather than just being “in the
mix”, new usage patterns emerge.
Warc 100
• While social media remains the most
widely-used lead channel, the highest
degree of over-representation in Warc
100 cases is for earned media. In all,
29% of these highly-awarded campaigns
lead with earned media, compared to
9% of the others.
33%
29%
28%
25%
23%
• The degree of outperformance is almost
as striking for online video, which leads
28% of Warc 100 campaigns against
10% of the rest.
17%
12%
12%
8%
8%
6%
5%
8
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
ut
do
or
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ed nt
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8%
re
9%
10%
10%
• On the other hand, mobile-first campaigns are slightly less-represented
within the Warc 100 than the norm.
• TV’s performance is consistent across
both sets of case studies, and serves as
the lead channel for around a quarter of
each.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Case Study ‘Real Beauty Sketches’
leads with online video
This campaign, for the Unilever
beauty brand, is an example of an
online video being used at the core of
a successful marketing strategy
strategic shift, Dove evolved the social
debate beyond beauty stereotypes
to address the new enemy to feeling
beautiful: a women’s inner beauty critic.
CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is
one of advertising’s longest-running
(it began in 2004) and most successful
initiatives. The campaign has inspired
women around the world to celebrate
their own beauty, and not get caught up
in airbrushed perfection and size zero
stereotypes.
But, a decade after Campaign for
Real Beauty started Dove wanted to
modernize its mission. In a radical
The idea was to show women they were
more beautiful than they think.
To achieve this, Dove used a FBI
trained sketch artist to draw women
according to their own self-description,
and then according to a stranger’s
description of her.
The results were startling. In every
case, the stranger’s portrait was more
beautiful and true than her self-description. The experiment was captured in a
six-minute online
film, which led all
other marketing
activity.
After the film’s
launch, the side
by side portraits
were then exhibited
in print and on a
variety of outdoor
media.
Brand
Dove
Agencies
Ogilvy &
Mather / PHD
Location
Global
Category
Toiletries &
Cosmetics
Women were then shown their real beauty
RESULTS
Warc 100
position
2nd
This renewed brand meaning boosted
the masterbrand halo, leading to value
growth in Dove’s biggest categories,
significantly outstripping category
value growth in every instance.
But perhaps the greatest achievement
is that real beauty became a cultural
conversation that helped women to
realise that they’re more beautiful than
they think.
Read the full case study
Case study sourced
from Cannes Lions
An artist sketched the women according to their self-descriptions
9
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Campaign Durations ‘Sweet spot’
of 3-12 months for top campaigns
MOST-USED CAMPAIGN DURATIONS
% of case studies for each campaign duration
Overall
29%
Warc 100
• Campaigns of this length are long
enough to produce measurable results,
not too long to make isolating marketing
impact overly problematic.
22%
• That said, campaign periods of 0-3
months are by far the most widely-used,
in both the overall set of case studies
and in the Warc 100.
17%
10%
9%
8%
5%
2%
0-3 months
10
• Within the set of top-awarded Warc 100
case studies, there appears to be a clear
“sweet spot” for campaign duration of
three to 12 months: campaigns running
within this period are over-represented in
the Warc 100, relative to the norm.
3-6 months
6-12 months
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
1-3 years
3%
4%
3 years +
• Longer-term campaigns, by contrast,
are far less common overall, though
campaigns with a duration of over three
years are slightly over-represented in the
Warc 100, relative to the norm.
• Only around half of the case studies
measured for this report included details
of campaign duration.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Case study ‘Reddi-wip and Fruit’:
Six months to change usage
A multi-month effort across both
online, offline and in-store channels
was the key to Reddi-wip’s successful
fruit-based marketing campaign
The strategy required a multi-month
campaign period, from March-September: the period of the year during which
Reddi-wip was little used.
CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
Reddi-wip enjoyed strong seasonal
sales during November/December,
when, traditionally, the whipped cream
product was used to top pies. But
the brand wanted to become a more
‘everyday’ product, increasing usage
occasions.
Rather than try to encourage consumers to eat pie year-round, the marketing
strategy was to encourage consumers
to use Reddi-wip on a different host
food, fruit, during the spring and summer months.
After further qualitative analysis,
the brand decided to narrow its scope
within fruit to berries. This was because
berries and cream is a natural fit for
consumers and the size of the opportunity was still significant.
The campaign used a TV ad, online
video and banners and in-store messaging to promote the association
between Reddi-wip and berries.
Reddi-wip also partnered with
Naturipe – a national seller of berries.
This partnership featured in-store sampling of Reddi-wip on Naturipe berries,
as well as instantly redeemable coupons for Reddi-wip on packaging.
Separately, the Berry Keeper Give-
Research showed Reddi-wip eating patterns
11
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Brand
Reddi-wip
Agencies
DDB California /
Aspen /
JSH&A / POSSIBLE
Promotions complemented ATL ads
Location
US
away/Promotion, which offered a “free”
gift in return for a Like, was used by
Reddi-wip to build the brand’s Facebook community.
RESULTS
Every month of the campaign, Reddiwip’s sales were higher, year on year.
Notably, sales were +7.8% in July,
+7.9% in August, +18.6% in September, +10% higher in October.
Moreover, business results were
achieved via a campaign with strong
awareness and above average brand
linkage – led by a TV ad with above
average awareness and branding.
Read the full case study
Category
Food
Warc 100
position
84th
Case study sourced
from ARF David
Ogilvy Awards
VIEW THE WARC 100
Campaign Budgets Zero and high
budget campaigns over-perform
MOST-USED CAMPAIGN BUDGETS
% of case studies for each campaign budget
Overall
27%
Warc 100
• At the other extreme of the budget range,
there is a significant outperformance for
Warc 100 campaigns with no budget at
all, depending entirely on earned media.
20%
11%
10%
6%
6%
7%
9%
6%
5%
8%
5%
3%
2%
No budget
12
Up to 500k
• The Warc 100 is proportionally more
likely to feature big-budget campaigns
of over £3m. The degree of this outperformance also increases along with
the budget: the proportion of £20m+
campaigns in the Warc 100 is more than
twice that of the rest of the case studies.
500k-1m
1-3m
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
3-5m
5-10m
3%
10-20m
4%
20m+
• This suggests that zero budget strategies
sometimes cut through at awards shows,
though campaigns with high budgets
are overall more likely to win multiple
awards and get ranked on the Warc 100.
• By far the most common budget band in
terms of overall proportions was lowbudget (up to £500k) campaigns. But
these were less likely to appear in the
Warc 100: more than one in four overall
cases are in this range, but this drops to
a fifth of Warc 100 cases.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Case study ‘Good Call’: Foster’s
leads with big-budget TV
This lager brand revitalised sales in
the UK by reassessing men’s attitudes
towards social drinking and delivering a memorable series of TV ads
CHALLENGE
Forty years old and once an advertising
icon through its 80s TV ads featuring
‘Crocodile Dundee’ star Paul Hogan,
Foster’s had lost its way and lost touch
with its drinkers.
Life had moved on for them, and in
ways that weren’t all positive. In particular, the recession had made them
a lot more fearful and doubtful about
their lives.
They seemed to be laden with angst
that they kept hidden from the rest of
the world. And their friends acted as
both a support group and sounding
board for how to deal with these issues.
SOLUTION
To answer this branding challenge,
a brand-building
solution was
needed. Foster’s
returned to TV
to help out the
troubled new generation of troubled
British blokes.
A new campaign was devised
featuring a pair of
“agony uncles”,
humorously solving problems for
friends who called
on them.
TV ads were key to getting across the campaign’s message to men
Brad and Dan
13
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
began their work via a series of three
television commercials, posters, a website overhaul, a comedy sponsorship
programme and a regular dilemmas
column in Shortlist magazine.
In combination with the ‘Good Call’
campaign, Foster’s began to associate
itself with ‘funny’, partnering with the
long-standing Edinburgh Comedy Festival and sponsored a host of specialist
comedy venues across the nation.
Across the four years of the campaign
covered by the case study, ad spend
was maintained at a level of at least
£5.4m per year, with the vast majority
of this total going on TV. Outdoor and
press, both also big branding channels, were the next most lucrative.
Brand
Foster’s
Agency
adam&eveDDB
Location
UK
Category
Alcoholic
Drinks
Warc 100
position
15th
RESULTS
This budget represented a good investment for the brand. Every £1 spent on
ads since the beginning of the campaign has generated £32 in revenue.
Overall sales values for Foster’s have
grown +20% over the campaign period,
while volume sales have increased by
+7% overall.
Read the full case study
Case study sourced
from IPA Effectiveness Awards
VIEW THE WARC 100
Creative Approaches Emotion and
storytelling remain effective
MOST USED CREATIVE APPROACHES
% of case studies using each creative approach, 2015
Overall
27%
Warc 100
20%
16%
y
7% 6%
el
at
io
is
ca
c
vo
Pe
r
so
C
Ad
In
ed for
uc ma
at tiv
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na ,
l
ng
lli
yt
e
9%
n
12%
9%
St
or
Pa
r
tn
af ers
fil hi
ia ps
tio ,
n
n
ot
io
Em
U
G
tic C,
ip pa
at r
io n
11%
17%
na
l
19%
y
17%
rit
20%
eb
22%
r
20%
18%
ou
27%
H
um
25%
% of case studies using each creative approach, 2014
19%
16%
21%
16%
Overall
21%
14%
Warc 100
16%
13%
12%
15%
12%
14
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
ou
r
7%
H
um
g
St
or
yt
el
lin
rit
y
eb
el
C
Em
ot
io
n
y
ca
c
vo
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af ers
fil hi
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tio ,
n
U
G
tic C,
ip pa
at r
io n
8%
14%
6%
4%
In
ed for
uc ma
at tiv
io e
na ,
l
Pe
rs
on
al
is
at
io
n
23%
23%
• Emotional, storytelling and humourous
creative approaches are consistently
more likely to be used in Warc 100 cases.
than in the others
• Indeed, emotion was the second mostpopular creative approach in the latest
year’s Warc 100 data, compared to fourth
most popular for the rest.
• User participation/UGC is a consistently
popular choice in advertising campaigns
across the board, but is not significantly
more widely-used in Warc 100-ranked
cases.
• One potentially interesting trend
between the 2014 and 2015 data sets is
the decline in popularity for campaigns
using a celebrity.
• Alongside this overall decline, celebrity
branding was even less common in Warc
100 case studies than the norm in 2015;
the reverse was true in 2014.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Case Study ‘Visit Mum’: Boosting
sales with emotional marketing
Emotional marketing was the creative
strategy for a lot of Warc 100-ranked
work, including this campaign aimed
at the Indian diaspora in the US
CHALLENGE
In North America, BA is a comparatively
small player known for one thing: flying
to London.
The campaign needed to broaden
the brand’s appeal, and make it known
for other destinations, in order to grow
revenue.
Research found the greatest revenue
opportunity was not European, Middle
Eastern or African destinations, but the
double long haul routes to India. The
market was worth almost $2 billion and
BA had less than 5% market share.
SOLUTION
Research revealed that, for the Indian
diaspora, the flight is merely a means
to an end, the A-to-B they were willing
to tolerate to get home. Their focus was
instead on what was waiting for them
back home: their mum.
15
In this matriarchal community, mum
is the pillar of the family, ever interested
in the details of life across the Atlantic.
To dramatise this idea, BA put
together a web film featuring a son
paying a surprise visit to his mum back
home. It aimed pull on the heartstrings
of every son and daughter. Once they’d
shed a few tears, they could be drawn
into a discussion about home, mum,
and eventually, the journey.
The brand also used recipes of the
food featured in the film, interviews with
other Indian mums, and an Instagram
contest to win a trip to visit home. It also
seeded discounts on flights for people
that engaged with the campaign.
Brand
British Airways
Agencies
Ogilvy & Mather
/ OgilvyOne
Location
US
Category
Travel, Transport
& Tourism
Warc 100
position
33rd
RESULTS
The video helped BA stem losses of the
previous year and gain 3.3% in market
share in four months. Direct sales rose
by +65% year on year while indirect
sales via travel agents rose +75%.
Major news outlets including the Sunday Times and the Huffington Post also
took notice and posted the video.
Read the full case study
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Family love was key to the campaign
Case study sourced
from Jay Chiat
Awards
VIEW THE WARC 100
Hard Metrics Top campaigns report
more metrics, especially sales
MOST-USED HARD METRICS
% of case studies using each metric
48%
Overall
Warc 100
40%
22%
19%
19%
16%
15%
16%
Sales
Revenue
Behavioural
change
• Sales effect was by far the most widelyreported hard metric in Warc 100 case
studies, at 48% of the total. In the other
cases, this was reported in just 40%.
17%
7%
3%
Market
penetration
Market
share
6%
Attitude
change
6%
4%
Customer
loyalty
2%
• Nine of the 10 most frequently-used hard
metrics were used more often in Warc
100 cases than they were in the rest of
the case study set. This demonstrates
the preference of awards judges for case
studies that cite hard metrics.
Number of metrics used per campaign
Warc 100
16
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
4%
• Other significant over-performers were
revenue (22% vs 15%) and behavioural
change (19% vs 7%).
Profit
AVERAGE NUMBER OF METRICS USED
Overall
• Unsurprisingly, Warc 100 campaigns
were significantly more likely than the
norm to report multiple hard metrics
in the case study. The highly-awarded
cases reported an average of 1.46 metrics of this kind, versus 1.08 overall.
1.46
• The only major under-performer was customer loyalty, cited by 6% of case studies
overall but by just 4% of Warc 100 cases.
1.08
VIEW THE WARC 100
Soft Metrics Social buzz and
awareness most-used overall
MOST-USED SOFT METRICS
% of case studies using each metric
63%
Overall
55%
Warc 100
• When comparing these totals to the
number of hard metrics reported (see
previous page), this suggests that case
studies tend to report a higher number of
soft metrics than hard metrics.
46%
39%
37%
27%
26%
28%
26% 25%
19% 18%
18%
12%
6%
Social
media, buzz
Awareness
PR value
Web traffic
Brand
health/equity
Warc 100
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
• That said, the degree of difference
between the Warc 100 set of case studies
and the overall set of case studies is less
pronounced for soft metrics. This in turn
suggests that listing hard metrics is a
factor in awards success.
• Social buzz was the most-cited soft metric, at 63% of Warc 100 cases and 55% of
the rest of the case study set. Awareness
was also a significant out-performer, at
46% vs 39%.
Number of metrics used per campaign
Overall
9%
Consumer Brand-specific
Search
participation
measures
performance
AVERAGE NUMBER OF METRICS USED
17
• In common with the findings for hard
metrics, Warc 100 cases showed a
greater number of soft metrics than the
norm, at 2.38 versus 2.17.
2.38
2.17
• Brand health/equity was slightly less
likely to be measured by a Warc 100
case compared to the norm.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Geographies Strong performance
from Australia and NZ campaigns
REGIONS
% of case studies from each region
31%
29%
28%
24%
Adspend
25%
Warc 100
19%
18%
8%
2%
North America
• For these regional charts, the Warc 100
case studies are compared to share of
overall adspend, as captured in PPP
terms.
Europe
Australia &
New Zealand
Asia
8%
6%
Central & South
America
2%
Middle East &
Africa
• This shows that the regional breakdown
of the Warc 100 is broadly in line with
global adspend. But Asia as a region
significantly underperforms. It contributes 31% of global adspend, but only
18% of Warc 100 campaigns.
• On the other hand Australia and New
Zealand take 2% of global adspend, but
19% of the Warc 100.
COUNTRIES
% of case studies from each country
Adspend
27%
Warc 100
20%
• The US was one of the exceptions, taking
20% of Warc 100 campaigns compared
to 27% of overall adspend.
16%
13%
13%
8%
4%
United
States
18
United
Kingdom
2%
Australia
3%
India
8%
8%
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
6%
3%
2%
Canada
• Most of the major advertising countries
listed in this chart overperformed on the
Warc 100.
China
France
6%
.2%
New
Zealand
4% 4%
4% 3%
Brazil
Germany
• The opposite was true in the UK, with
16% of the Warc 100 versus 4% of
adspend.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Case Study ‘Fair Go Bro’: Making
Doug Pitt a star in Australia
This campaign used the Australian
concept of “fair go” to give a US
celebrity sibling a new life as a brand
ambassador, and promote a telco in a
tough market environment
CHALLENGE
Virgin Mobile was a challenger brand
in the Australian telco market, and
faced a saturated market and a very
cynical audience base.
Therefore customer retention became
paramount.
There are no new customers to be
had so all the telcos were fighting for
competitors’ customers … particularly
the more lucrative post-paid customers.
Historically Virgin Mobile had followed an acquisition business-model
but, ahead of the campaign, retention
of customers became just as important.
Thus the communications challenge
was to produce a campaign that would
firstly retain existing customers (so
reducing churn) and also help acquire
new customers.
SOLUTION
The campaign targeted two key groups:
‘live wires’ (young, always on consumers) and ‘straight talkers’ (pragmatic,
lighter users). It aimed to deliver a
highly-engaging
creative idea,
based on ‘Fairness’, that would
both light up
earned media,
so attracting ‘live
wires’, and carry
pragmatic product messages for
straight-talkers in
paid media.
Giving Doug Pitt a “fair go” was the central creative idea
This concept of
19
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
fairness was brought to life via the Aussie slang phrase of “fair go”: or, giving
a fair chance to everyone.
The campaign used Doug Pitt
(younger brother of Brad Pitt) as he was
someone who had never received his
fair share of attention. So it was time to
show him the benefit of a “fair go”.
It ran in three phases, First, a viral
film made Doug an “international
celebrity” via PR coverage. Second, a
paid media push, including TV ads,
cemented Doug’s status in the minds of
the target audience. Third, Doug visited
Australia for the celebrity ambassador treatment, holding over 30 TV and
radio interviews along with several
public appearances.
Brand
Virgin Mobile
Agencies
Havas/One
Green Bean
Location
Australia
Category
Telecoms
Warc 100
position
10th
RESULTS
Virgin Mobile’s revenue rose by 15%
including a 24% increase in the target
post-paid customers, and brand awareness and consideration also increased
significantly.
Reduction in churn peaked at the
height of the campaign (August) when
post-paid churn fell by 40%.
Read the full case study
Case study sourced
from Effie Australia
VIEW THE WARC 100
2. Anatomy of a winner: The
world’s top campaign
In order to broaden the discussion beyond the data, in
this section we discuss in depth the number one ranked
campaign in the last Warc 100: Kan Khajura Tesan, from
Hindustan Unilever in India.
As well as a general case study summary, including the
campaign’s strategy and results, we have also included
insights from the creative agency behind the campaign,
and comments from the marketing industry, both client side
and agency side, about why Kan Khajura stands out as an
exceptionally good case study.
20
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Kan Khajura Tesan
Case study summary
The number one ranked campaign on
the last Warc 100 was Kan Khajura
Tesan, a campaign from Hindustan
Unilever in India. This case study both
showcases and challenges some of
the shared tendencies in top-awarded
cases revealed by the data analysis
CHALLENGE
While most of the world is now connected, even spoilt, by an overload of
entertainment via regular media, Bihar
and Jharkhand remain two of India’s
most media-dark regions.
Residents of these regions generally have no electricity for 8-10 hours
every day. However, with a population
of 130 million these regions remained
key growth markets for Unilever. The
advertiser had to find a way to reach
out to them.
SOLUTION
The answer lay in the only electronic
equipment that people there always
kept on – a rudimentary mobile phone,
and there were 54 million people that
possessed one. By transforming their
basic phones, Unilever was able to give
them something they didn’t have: an
entertainment channel.
This was Kan Khajura a 15-minute,
free on demand entertainment channel
that worked on mobile phone.
The moment anyone called in, their
call would be disconnected and an
automated callback was then generated that contained 15 minutes of
music, jokes, news and promotions
from certain brands. This assured
listeners that the service was free, as
incoming calls are free in India.
Brand
Hindustan
Unilever
Agency
Lowe Lintas /
PHD
Location
India
Category
Household &
Domestic
Warc 100
position
1st
RESULTS
The new radio station offered up to 15 minutes of free content via the user’s mobile phone
21
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
The service reached 25.5% of the population and grew spontaneous awareness for Unilever brands. At its peak,
the campaign’s subscription base was
expanding at a rate of 45,000 daily.
So far, the station has served 200m
minutes of content, and 100m ad
impressions.
Read the full case study
Case study sourced
from Warc Prize for
Asian Strategy
VIEW THE WARC 100
Kan Khajura Tesan
The agency’s strategic approach
Anaheeta Goenka, executive director at
Lowe Lintas, the creative agency behind Kan
Khajura, and Deepa Geethakrishnan, the
agency’s president of creative, participated
in a Warc Webinar in 2014. Here, in their own
words, is the story behind the campaign
CULTURAL INSIGHT
“This is a country that thrives on entertainment,” Geethakrishnan said. “We are an oral
tradition. We like stories, we like songs. But we
had an audience starved of entertainment.”
The make-up of the 15 minutes of entertainment contained in a Kan Khajura call was
carefully pre-planned. “There was a lot of
content from movies and songs, but there
were also some jokes, stories and news,”
Geethakrishnan said. “So it was a rewarding
experience for them. There was no limit on
how often they could call, and it was all free.”
Within the mix were three or four 15-second
ad “capsules”. With such a strict time limit,
messaging was kept “sharp and direct”.
CREATIVE STRATEGY
But of course, if the ads were to be heard at
all, people had to call the station. “So we just
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© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
based our creative strategy around popularizing the number,” Goenka explained. “The
number was on every single banner.”
In most of the campaign creative, the number was promoted via the station’s mascot: a
cartoon centipede with the Kan Khajura station’s number spelt out on its body segments.
“We chose a centipede because it’s a very
common creature in rural India, people see
it on the floor, but they know it’s totally harmless. It’s part of the culture, too.”
MEASUREMENT
this medium, it had never been done, we had
no benchmarks to go on,” Goenka explained.
LEARNINGS FOR OTHERS
But how can others leverage Kan Khajura’s
success? “What we’re most proud of is that we
took a rudimentary mobile phone, and made
the best we had of it,” Goenka said.
The cultural context plays its part. “Generally, in India we only have one or two media
on the brief,” she added. “And that leads to
greater strategic acuity. Planning here has to
be very, very customer-centric. As marketers,
if we concentrate on what we do have and we
maximize it, we find out new things. Frugality
drives innovation.”
Watch the full Webinar
Real-time measurement was important in
order to optimize the campaign content.
This led to tweaks being made on the fly. For
example, the team soon learned that a lot
of people hung up on local dialect
content. So they switched to Hindi –
the “Bollywood language” – and call
length improved. “They wanted new
Bollywood songs, the big celebrities,
not local things,” Goenka said.
Brand awareness was a key metric
in measuring ultimate success.
“We saw an increase in spontaneous awareness – more than we
expected because when we started The campaign mascot, a centipede, was carefully chosen
VIEW THE WARC 100
Kan Khajura Tesan
Lessons from the campaign
“It’s using what is seen in many
places as ‘old tech’ in a new and
interesting way. And it’s solving a
problem on quite a massive scale:
we’re talking about a market of 130m
people potentially adopting this. It’s
caught the public’s imagination in
India and we’re very pleased to see
it catching the imagination of people
around the world as well.”
Mihir Warty, Managing Partner, Lowe
Counsel
“For me, it’s like when a man is
pushed against a wall, they fight
back. The brand saw people who they
couldn’t reach, but rather than giving
up and saying there was nothing they
could do, they created a new channel
through mobile.”
Shahvez Afridi, head of strategy for
P&G APAC, Grey Group
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© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
“Kan Khajura started from the
consumer – rich media insights of the
consumer in India. The fact that these
consumers are very difficult to engage
with. And working out how to reach
a consumer who does not see a lot of
the media that are out there.”
Freddy Bharucha, Head of Marketing
for P&G Asia, Procter & Gamble
“I wish I had had that idea. It’s a
classic example of where it’s hard
to find the line between strategy
and creative because it’s such an
original and strong thought. To take
a negative – people who don’t have
access – and come up with something
that works, it’s such a wonderful
original thought. And original
thoughts are hard to come by.”
Robin Nayak, Chief Strategy Officer,
TBWA Asia Pacific
VIEW THE WARC 100
3. The view from the C-Suite
Around the Warc 100 launch, we talked to top executives
and strategists at some of the world’s largest agencies
about how to build a company culture and how to win
effectiveness and strategy awards. We spoke to:
• Carter Murray (CEO, FCB)
• Andrew Robertson (CEO, BBDO Worldwide)
• Suzanne Powers (Chief Strategy Officer, McCann)
• Lou Aversano (CEO, Ogilvy & Mather New York)
• Stuart Hazlewood (Chief Strategy Officer, DDB New York)
• Patrick Frend (President/East, Razorfish)
• Troy Ruhanen (CEO, TBWA Worldwide)
24
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
The view from the C-Suite
Why the Warc 100 matters
“The Warc 100 is one of the most
respected metrics when it comes to
awards.”
Carter Murray, CEO, FCB
“When we are ranked top five on
something like this, it tells us that our
push for effectiveness is working.”
Suzanne Powers, CSO, McCann
“It’s confirmation of what we’re doing,
which is disruption as a strategy,
which will then drive results.”
Troy Ruhanen, CEO, TBWA Worldwide
“We aim to win it every year. The best
proxy we have for measuring our
performance is these awards.”
Andrew Robertson, CEO, BBDO
“It’s a meaningful thing for us. It’s
great proof that creativity can have an
impact on the marketplace.”
Stuart Hazlewood, CSO, DDB NY
“To be in the Warc 100 is a thrill, an
honour and a privilege. It proves our
mantra of ‘we sell or else’.”
Lou Aversano, CEO, Ogilvy New York
MORE FROM THE PANEL: VIEW VIDEO
25
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
VIEW THE WARC 100
The view from the C-Suite
Building an effectiveness culture
How does an agency ensure that
their teams deliver effectiveness?
Frend: Effective campaigns come from a
diverse set of skills. We believe that to deliver
great experiences you need to understand the
digital landscape. You need to come up with
ideas that work natively in that realm.
Robertson: The first thing is making it part
of your mission. If you have an obsessive
focus with ‘the work, the work, the work’ – and
that’s how we live and breathe [at BBDO] –
then it becomes part of the fabric, the culture,
of the organization.
Murray: First, get A-class talent and make
sure that you have people that feel that
they’re learning from the person next to them.
Second, focus on great creative product –
because at the end of the day, that’s all we’ll
have to show what we did.
Third, have clients that want to share their
business challenges. If you do all of that
you’re going to get the results that you need.
How much do you rely on hiring in or
building expertise?
Ruhanen: People work in packs. Inevitably, in
26
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
“
We have 8,000 people
around the world, and to
replace these 8,000 people
often just isn’t a good business model
groups of around 20, even if they work in an
organization of around 2,000 people and on
an account of 200 people. It’s about working
out where the inefficiencies are, and what the
right structure is for these groups of 20.
Once you’ve made those choices, it’s not as
hard as you think.
Powers: We’re looking for a mishmash
when we hire. One of my favourite creatives
in the company has compared a good team
to an “atomic soup”: you’re looking for lots of
different, interesting ingredients, then when
you get it right you have something incredible
happen.
Murray: We have 8,000 people around the
world, and to replace these 8,000 people often
just isn’t a good business model. And, more
importantly, it’s not the right thing to do.
Our industry is changing. But you shouldn’t
throw the baby out with the bathwater. You
should celebrate the people who are already
within the agency culture.
It’s about having a mix of talent – and making the talent feel like they belong to something.
And how do you make this all work
at a global level?
Frend: Over the last 5-6 years, our global
footprint has grown significantly, both from
organic growth and acquisition.
We have some larger-scale offices like New
York, where we offer all the capabilities, while
in some smaller offices, we offer some core
capabilities. It’s like a ‘hub and spoke’ model.
Powers: Spreading the effectiveness culture
around the world is a challenge. We have
spots of brilliance, we have other spots that
are developing. One of the things we have
that helps is ‘simplicity, simplicity, simplicity’.
We have a really simple strategic approach
that helps us all work together – we have
similar tools – and that creates a starting
point for us to work together across different
departments, across companies, and across
geographies.
VIEW THE WARC 100
The view from the C-Suite
How to show your ideas worked
“
Make sure that results can
be tied back to the campaign. Keep it real. Write
it up in the most impactful
way possible
What’s the importance of effectiveness and strategy awards within the
industry?
Ruhanen: Our clients are judged by their
results on a daily, monthly or quarterly basis
by the market. We are at TBWA, too, as we’re
part of a holding company.
We have to shine the torch much more
brightly on these types of awards in order not
to be pigeonholed in the creative segment.
Murray: There’s a debate between talking about creative and effectiveness awards.
Both are valid for different reasons. For us to
attract talent I think creativity is important, but
the other awards bring the proof that we are
doing great work, but also holding yourself
accountable to the results. It’s not an either/or.
Frend: We are seeing the role of the CMO
27
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
growing. More and more, they are getting to
be next in line to the CEO. Clients are looking
for a more balanced approach. So business
results [must] run in parallel with creative.
Aversano: They are critical. At Ogilvy we
believe that in order for great creativity to be
great, it has to be effective. You can see that
in the work we did for Dove, IBM and the other
brands that were in the Warc 100 ranking.
Hazlewood: We are an agency founded on
the notion of ‘you sell, or else’. People think of
[DDB co-founder] Bill Bernbach’s legacy as
one of creativity – and it is – but it was creativity that had a purpose. It had a purpose
to solve issues for clients, sell their products,
build their brands and make them famous.
Creativity for creativity’s sake is not something
that we would ever espouse.
Do you have tips for winning?
Powers: I will often talk to our teams and say,
‘you are in the middle of a case study. You are
living it. Make sure you document everything!’
One other tip that I always use is ‘pass it to
the right’. It means that if we are all sitting at
a table, I usually make people sit next to each
other that don’t know each other, then tell
them to pass their story to the right and have
some fresh eyes read it through. They can tell
you if it’s interesting, compelling and powerful, and if it created something novel.
Hazlewood: I’ve been an awards judge so
many times. And it’s remarkable how badly
some of those cases can get written.
My first piece of advice to case study writers
would be to make sure that results can be tied
back to the campaign. Keep it real. But then, if
it is real, you have every licence to write it up
in the most impactful way possible.
Make sure there is a real human insight at
the core of it. Something that makes you go,
‘well the obvious thing would have been to
think X, but because we did this innovative
piece of research, or collided several data
points, we came up with a fresh insight that
actually had an impact on the business’. Make
that turn to make it exciting and interesting.
See more
This YouTube playlist features more from
our CEO and CSO panel, interviews with
Warc 100 winners and campaign videos
VIEW PLAYLIST
VIEW THE WARC 100
4. Warc 100: 2015 Results
These are the top campaigns and companies in the world
according to the latest Warc 100 results.
For these rankings, we tracked over 2,200 individual award
wins across 87 different strategy and effectiveness competitions around the world.
28
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Warc 100 Results
Top Campaigns 2015
TOP 10 CAMPAIGNS
Campaign title
Brand
Advertiser
Primary agencies
Location
Points
1
Kan Khajura Tesan
Hindustan Unilever
Unilever
Lowe Lintas / PHD
India
2
Real Beauty Sketches
Dove
Unilever
Ogilvy & Mather / PHD
Global
88.6
3
Travel Yourself Interesting
Expedia
Expedia
Ogilvy & Mather
UK
78.1
4
Help a Child Reach 5
Lifebuoy
Unilever
Lowe Lintas
India
74.2
5
Beautiful Hair, Whatever the Weather
Pantene
Procter & Gamble
Leo Burnett/Arc, Starcom
MediaVest Group
US
71.5
6
Bentley Burial
Brazilian Association of
Organ Transplants
Brazilian Association of
Organ Transplants
Leo Burnett Tailor Made
Brazil
66.4
7
SMART TXTBKS
SMART Communications
SMART Communications
DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu
Philippines
63.0
8
#YouDrive
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
AMV BBDO
UK
62.5
9
The Hornbach Hammer
Hornbach
Hornbach
HEIMAT Berlin
Germany
58.9
10
Fair Go Bro
Virgin Mobile
Virgin Group
Havas Worldwide Sydney,
One Green Bean
Australia
57.3
120.7
View full rankings on Warc
29
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
VIEW THE WARC 100
Warc 100 Results
Top Agencies 2015
TOP 10 CREATIVE AGENCIES
TOP 10 MEDIA AGENCIES
Agency
Location Points
Agency
Location Points
1
Lowe Lintas Mumbai
India
212.9
1
Starcom MV Group Chicago US
202.7
1
360i New York
US
69.8
2
AMV BBDO
UK
191.0
2
PHD Mumbai
India
105.7
2
R/GA New York
US
58.4
3
Colenso BBDO
NZ
147.6
3
Manning Gottlieb OMD
UK
92.0
3
Proximity Toronto
Canada
55.7
4
Ogilvy New York
US
136.1
4
OMD UK
UK
83.0
4
FRED & FARID Paris
France
47.7
5
Grey London
UK
131.0
5
UM Sydney
Australia
80.1
5
Razorfish New York
US
45.2
6
McCann Melbourne
Australia
126.3
6
PHD London
UK
75.1
6
OgilvyOne London
UK
45.2
7
Ogilvy Mumbai
India
106.0
7
Starcom MV Group NY
US
71.6
7
VML Australia
Australia
38.6
8
HEIMAT Berlin
Germany
105.2
8
OMD New York
US
57.3
8
Proximity Bogotá
Colombia
38.4
9
Publicis Kaplan Thaler
US
103.6
9
MediaCom London
UK
49.5
9
Proximity Barcelona
Spain
36.7
Brazil
102.0
10 Starcom MV Group London
UK
49.4
10 Possible New York
US
36.2
10 Ogilvy São Paulo
View full rankings on Warc
30
TOP 10 DIGITAL AGENCIES
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Agency
View full rankings on Warc
Location Points
View full rankings on Warc
VIEW THE WARC 100
Warc 100 Results Top Networks &
Holding Companies 2015
TOP 10 AGENCY NETWORKS
Agency Network
Points
Holding Company
Points
1
BBDO Worldwide
1236.3
1
WPP
4008.2
2
Ogilvy & Mather Advertising
1027.2
2
Omnicom Group
3942.5
3
DDB Worldwide
749.9
3
Publicis Groupe
2552.4
4
Lowe & Partners
645.4
4
Interpublic Group
2532.3
5
McCann Erickson
628.9
5
Havas
585.2
6
Starcom MediaVest Group
610.4
6
Dentsu
373.6
7
OMD Worldwide
602.6
7
Vision7
100.9
8
Publicis Worldwide
541.8
8
MDC Partners
87.5
9
Leo Burnett
500.9
9
Hakuhodo
78.9
10
Grey
492.6
10
Chime Communications
61.7
View full rankings on Warc
31
TOP 10 HOLDING COMPANIES
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
View full rankings on Warc
VIEW THE WARC 100
Warc 100 Results Top Brands and
Advertisers 2015
TOP 10 BRANDS
TOP 10 ADVERTISERS
Brand
Product category
Advertiser
Location
1
Coca-Cola
Soft Drinks
387.0
1
Unilever
Netherlands/UK
785.1
2
McDonald’s
Retail
190.1
2
Procter & Gamble
US
576.1
3
Mercedes-Benz
Automotive
172.5
3
The Coca-Cola Company
US
454.6
4
Toyota
Automotive
137.8
4
PepsiCo
US
384.0
5
Audi
Automotive
131.4
5
Mondelez International
US
258.3
6
Hindustan Unilever
Household & Domestic
126.3
6
McDonald’s
US
190.1
7
Dove
Toiletries & Cosmetics
116.3
7
Nestlé
Switzerland
182.9
8
Gillette
Toiletries & Cosmetics
112.2
8
Mercedes-Benz
Germany
172.5
9
Lifebuoy
Toiletries & Cosmetics
112.0
9
Heineken
Netherlands
167.7
10
Vodafone
Telecoms
105.0
10
Toyota
Japan
150.6
View full rankings on Warc
32
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
Points
Points
View full rankings on Warc
VIEW THE WARC 100
About the Warc 100
The Warc 100 is an annual ranking of the world’s best
marketing campaigns and companies, based on their
performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions.
• It focuses on marketing that makes a difference, driving
business performance or changing consumer behaviour.
• It is a benchmark for commercial creativity, allowing
brands and agencies to compare their performance with
their peers.
• It is a showcase for the world’s smartest strategies, and
the people and organisations behind them.
The rankings are compiled based on the
winners of 87 effectiveness and strategy awards from
around the world.
Find out more by visiting warc.com/warc100
33
© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
More from Warc
CASE FINDER
You can find all Warc case studies, including those cited in this
report, by searching our unrivalled database, which is organised
by campaign objective, country, industry sector, audience, media
channels, budget and campaign duration. Find a case.
ABOUT WARC
Warc.com is an online service offering advertising best practice,
evidence and insights from the world’s leading brands. Warc helps
clients grow their businesses by using proven approaches to maximise
advertising effectiveness.
Warc’s clients include the world’s largest advertising and media agencies, research companies, universities and advertisers.
CONTACT US
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