Lessons from the world’s top

effectiveness campaigns
Contents of the full report

Four lessons from the WARC 100 2018 3 Chapter Two: Building long-term campaigns 28
Executive Summary 4 Ariel ‘Dads #ShareTheLoad’ 29
Methodology 7 Building long-term platforms – the neuro perspective 31

Chapter One: Data Analysis 8 Chapter Three: 2018 Results 34

Trend: Strategies with PR baked in are becoming the norm 9 Top campaigns 2018 35
The media mix 10 Top agencies 2018 36
Campaign objective & soft metrics 11 Top networks & holding companies 2018 37
The Swedish Number 12 Top brands & advertisers 2018 38
Reword 13 WARC 100: 2018 winners’ quotes 39
Trend: The effective use of partnerships is increasing 14
Creative strategy 15
Hungerithm 16 More from Gunn Report 40
Van Gogh BnB 17
Trend: Video-led campaigns are seeing success 18
Lead media 19
Budget of campaigns leading with TV and online video 20
Media mix of TV-led and online video-led campaigns 21
Creative strategy of TV-led and online video-led campaigns 22
Imagine The Possibilities 23
Hard metrics of TV-led and online video-led campaigns 24
Soft metrics of TV-led and online video-led campaigns 25
Care Counts 26
Geographies 27
Four lessons from the WARC 100 2018
1
Effective campaigns
increasingly have PR
‘baked in’
Analysis of campaigns in this year’s
WARC 100 reveals the increasing
use of PR in their channel strategies.
This reflects the rise of creative
ideas built to gain press coverage
and other earned media. Several
ideas at the top of the ranking
centre around a highly PR-able
stunt or concept, like the Transport
Accident Association’s ‘Graham’,
that can generate content across
channels and media.
3 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE
2
TV-led and video-led –
two different models
This year a dominance of video –
both online and TV – is evident in
the winning campaigns. Analysis
of campaigns led by TV and
campaigns led by online video
shows they are key to emotional
creative strategies. Budgets tend
to be higher for TV-led campaigns,
and the media mix differs between
the two groups as a result. Though
social media is the most common
support channel regardless of lead
media, OOH and print are more
commonly present in the mix of
TV-led campaigns, with word-of-
mouth and PR supporting a higher
proportion of online video-led
strategies.
3
The use of partnerships is
on the rise
Over the past two years, the use
of partnerships as a creative
strategy has increased in WARC 100
campaigns. Utilising the reach or
credibility of partner organisations
was an effective strategy for four
of the top 10 campaigns this year,
with both expected and unusual
partnerships seeing success.
Though seen across the WARC 100,
partnerships saw particular use in
campaigns targeting millennials,
like Burger King's 'The McWhopper
Proposal'.
4
Brands are looking for
multi-year platforms
Long-term ideas are a growing
feature of the WARC 100 as
brands look to squeeze more
out of their platforms. The
continuing presence of the John
Lewis Christmas campaigns in
the WARC 100 provides a great
case for the success of long-term
campaigns. John Lewis has taken
the Christmas period and turned it
into an advertising event, annually
driving huge amounts of publicity,
engagement and ultimately return
on their investment. Two further top
10 campaigns for Ariel and Snickers
have reworked or evolved ongoing
campaign themes with success
over the past year, using the power
of association to grow and reinforce
the memory’s perception of brands
over time.
© Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
Executive Summary
This report analyses the world’s top effectiveness This report analyses the world’s
top effectiveness campaigns to
campaigns to uncover shared creative, media and uncover shared creative, media
and measurement strategies. Its
measurement strategies. Its basis is the WARC 100, basis is the WARC 100, an annual
an annual ranking of campaigns based on their ranking of campaigns based on
their performance in effectiveness
performance in effectiveness awards from around awards from around the world.
(As of 2018, the WARC 100 became
the world. (As of 2018, the WARC 100 became part of part of WARC’s Gunn Report stable
WARC’s Gunn Report stable of rankings.) of rankings.)
The campaigns ranked in the WARC
100 have been judged highly by their
peers in terms of their impact on
a client’s business. To rank highly
in the WARC 100 typically reflects
success in multiple competitions,
meaning that a campaign has been
judged repeatedly on the basis of
its results.
As a set of campaign case studies,
the 2018 WARC 100 can be
analysed in two ways. First, it can
be compared with the 2017 cases.
Second, it can be compared with
all other case studies published on
WARC in the same year, to see if
there are any significant differences
4 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE
between the highly awarded WARC
100 campaigns and a more ‘typical’
example of an effective marketing
campaign.
This analysis is possible because
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. And all of
these case studies are tagged in the
same way, producing a set of data
that can be analysed.
This case study tagging includes
which media channels were
used, the campaign duration and
budget, metrics measured and the
campaign’s geographic origin. From
this analysis, several trends and
themes have emerged.
© Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
Executive Summary – continued
Strategies with PR baked
in are becoming the norm
PR is an increasingly prevalent part
of the cross-media strategies of
campaigns in the WARC 100, with
creative and channel strategies
often revolving around a highly
PR-able element. Half of the
campaigns in the top 10 used PR
to great effect, with the Australian
Transport Accident Commission’s
‘Meet Graham’ campaign a prime
example. The ‘indestructible human’
model central to the campaign
was designed to attract maximum
coverage through PR, and was a
hugely successful campaign both
in terms of measurement against
campaign objectives, and in award
wins. In a highly cluttered advertising
environment, it could be argued,
creative platforms need to work
increasingly hard to maximise
earned as well as paid media, and
having highly PR-able idea is one way
to achieve this.
Research from the ANA has shown
that a majority of marketers plan
to increase staffing and spend on
public relations over the next five
years. This is attributed to the rise
5 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE
of digital communications channels,
bringing PR and marketing much
closer together within brands,
and the increasing importance of
integration and consistency across
campaigns.
Video-led campaigns are seeing
success, but the composition of
campaigns led by TV vs online
video differs
In previous years, the WARC 100
has featured digital channels
prominently, and the most-used
lead channel (i.e. the medium that
takes the lead role in a campaign)
has been social media. This year has
seen video-led campaigns overtake
social, with the latter now more likely
to take a supporting role in the media the momentum of the TV work. stem from campaign budgets; TV-
mix of the majority of cases. However, alternative models are led campaigns tend to have higher
This reflects recent research emerging, and this is clear in some budgets, and more often have OOH
showing the growing importance of the WARC 100 case studies. and print as support media than
of video in campaigns, and the use Though social is the most common campaigns leading with online video.
of social to guide and maintain support medium of both TV-led and TV-led campaigns are also more
the resulting conversation. When online video-led campaigns, the likely to drive a sales impact, and
budget allows, TV is still generally remaining media mix differs between tend to be less reliant on social
seen as the best way to achieve the two; there are markedly different measures.
reach and emotional impact, creative strategies, and different
with online video a means to gain metrics are used to measure
incremental reach and to maintain success. Some of these differences
© Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
Executive Summary – continued
The effective use of
partnerships is increasing
Four of the top 10 campaigns in
this year’s WARC 100 used a brand
partnership to some extent in
their strategies. This is a recurring
theme - an increased number of
partnerships was also seen in the
2017 WARC 100, and the trend
has continued this year as brands
continue to use collaboration to
gain credibility and piggyback on
the reach or the organisations or
individuals they are partnering.
Often there is relevance or a link
between successful partnerships,
but unexpected partnerships
can also have a big impact. The
link between the Art Institute of
Chicago and Airbnb is not obvious,
but generated huge publicity and
far exceeded its targets in terms of
increased memberships and visitors.
Purpose is effective when
brands have a credible role
Purpose-led campaigns are a long-
standing presence at the top of
the WARC 100 rankings – proof
that, when done well, purpose
6 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE
can be highly effective. Three
purpose-driven campaigns appear
in the top 10 this year; Whirlpool’s
‘Care Counts’, ‘Imagine the
Possibilities’ for Barbie, and ‘Dads
#ShareTheLoad’. Two of these
campaigns – Dads #ShareThe Load
and ‘Care Counts’ found a purpose
for which their product could help.
The Barbie campaign, meanwhile,
plumbed the brand’s history to find
a credible role that the product
could take for modern parents. None
of these, it is clear, is purpose for
purpose’s sake.
New takes on long-term ideas
Now in its fifth year, the WARC
100 is seeing the same brands
return to the top of the ranking
with reworked and evolved ideas
that are generating long-term
success. This year’s winning
campaign is a development of last
year’s number one, Ariel’s ‘Share
The Load’, and is an example of a
big strategic evolution, but there
are now multiple ways to extend big
ideas both tactically and locally. For
example, Snickers’ ‘Hungerithm’
used the ‘You’re Not You When You’re
Hungry’ theme to execute a regional
campaign in Australia with a different
creative strategy and objectives to
the original film-led campaign.
It has been argued – for example,
by Les Binet and Peter Field in the
UK, that the increasing diversity and
relative low cost of digital channels
and platforms had led to some brands
focusing on the short-term wins that
digital can produce, at the expense
of longer-term brand building. In
the last couple of years, research
from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute,
among others, has discouraged
that approach, suggesting that
consistency in brand assets helps
deliver long-term success.
All three examples of blockbuster
sequels in this year’s top 10
campaigns – ‘Share The Load’,
‘Hungerithm’ and the ‘John Lewis
Christmas Campaigns’ - either
centre on or have included television
in their media mix to extend the
reach of the campaign (all three are
high-budget creative platforms). In
each, a campaign film acts as the
starting point on which the rest of
the content hinges.
Heather Andrew, CEO of
Neuro-Insight, discusses the
neuroscience behind the benefits
of consistency across channels
and time in Chapter Three.
© Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
Methodology

The WARC 100 is now part of the Gunn Report, A campaign’s ‘score’ reflects the sum 1199 others.
of all the weighted points attributed - 2018: 99 WARC 100 cases, and
which tracks the winners' lists from all the most to it from different competitions. 1150 others.
important advertising award contests, globally. The
We have also collated information on Unless otherwise stated, all bars
results of effectiveness competitions are used to the agencies behind the campaigns on charts appearing over the
(including, where they have been following pages are expressed
compile the WARC 100, which is built on a rigorous listed, contributing agencies), and, as a percentage of this total. For
methodology, developed in consultation with where possible, the authors of the example, if 56 of the 99 cases
campaign case studies. measured for the WARC 100 use a
King’s College London. The methodology is applied certain creative approach, the bar
Notes on the data analysis appears at 57% within the chart.
consistently across all competitions we track. The comparative analysis on which Bars in charts may not add up to
Chapter 1 of this report is based, 100% for three reasons:
How we built the rankings Planner Poll: WARC has conducted uses WARC’S case study database.
First, a list of relevant competitions a survey of over 100 senior agency WARC compares the metadata of all 1 F
 or clarity, many of the charts
was compiled. Campaigns that won planners and strategists to gauge the case studies it published during display only selected criteria
awards in those competitions were which of the competitions we track a calendar year, compared to the
awarded points based on the level are viewed as the most prestigious metadata of those case studies for 2 Some cases will have been
of award they won (Gold, Silver, or rigorous. Winners at the most- campaigns that were ranked in that assigned multiple creative
Bronze etc). Those points are then cited awards schemes are given year’s WARC 100. approaches, media channels
weighted according to the standing extra weighting in the final rankings. and so on
of each competition in the global In 2014, WARC published 75 case
marketing industry. The calculation 
Size of market: WARC takes into studies from campaigns ranked in 3 O ther cases might not have
includes data from: account how much of the global the WARC 100, plus 660 other case all of the metadata included,
advertising market the eligibility studies. missing details of campaign
for each competition represents. - 2015: 89 WARC 100 cases, and 839 duration, budgets and so on.
It is able to do this using WARC’s others.
comprehensive adspend data - 2016: 84 WARC 100 cases, and 856
resources, which includes analysis others.
by channel and by geography. - 2017: 87 WARC 100 cases, and

7 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE © Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
Chapter One:
Data Analysis
Trend: Media mix – a strong year
for PR

PR-led strategies have become

commonplace in the WARC 100, and
have done particularly well this year.

Three campaigns in the top 10 use
this approach, where the creative
and channel strategy revolve around
a highly PR-able element; often a
real-world product or event designed
to generate headlines. The Swedish
Tourist Association’s ‘The Swedish
Number’, Burger King's 'McWhopper
Proposal', and Headspace’s ‘Reword’
all used this strategy to drive brand
awareness and increase sales.
The charts that follow demonstrate
the increased use of PR using the
data behind the campaigns, with PR
and word of mouth marketing both
seeing increased use in this year’s
WARC 100, and over indexing in the
ranking compared to the rest of the
cases published by WARC in 2017.
The media mix

% of WARC 100 cases using each channel, 2018 vs 2017 (top 10 media shown)
Commentary
100%
82% 83%
The media mix of this year's WARC 100 follows
75%
59%
63% similar trends to last year's, with social media
47% 46% 45% 45% 46% 50%
being used in more than 80% of campaigns,
44%
39% 39% 37% 35%
32%
and online video in more than 60%.
29% 29% 29%
25%
17%
25%
The past year has seen an increase in the use
of word of mouth marketing and public relations
0%
Social Online Websites Public Television Outdoor, Online Word of mouth, Events & Content
in the mix, both versus last year's WARC 100
media video & microsites relations out-of-home display advocacy experiential marketing and over-indexing compared to the rest of the
cases published.
2017 2018
Almost all of the top 10 media over-index in
the WARC 100, continuing last year's trend of
% of WARC 100 cases using each channel, 2018 vs all cases (top 10 media shown) the most effective campaigns in the world using
a larger media mix than typical campaigns
100% WARC publishes.
83%

72% 75%
63%
57%
46% 45% 45% 50%
35% 37% 35%
34% 32%
31% 29%
26% 27% 26% 26% 25%
25%
17%

0%
Social Online Websites Public Television Outdoor, Online Word of mouth, Events & Content
media video & microsites relations out-of-home display advocacy experiential marketing

Overall WARC 100

10 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE © Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
Campaign objective & soft metrics

% of cases with campaign objectives in the WARC 100, 2017 vs 2017 (top 10)
Commentary
100%

The growth of word-of-mouth marketing is

75%
61% reflected in its use as a creative strategy, which
56%
46% 45% 50%
has more than doubled since last year’s WARC
41% 38% 100 – the largest year-on-year increase of any
31%

20%
28%
23% 22% 25% campaign objective.
16% 17% 15%
11% 12% 11%
6%
2%
8%
Campaigns in the WARC 100 are more likely to
0%
Awareness Brand building: Word of Sales growth: Social, Brand building: Traffic & Sales growth: Brand Brand
measure PR value as a soft metric than a typical
Build brand
equity
mouth Increase value/ political &
volume not-for-profit
Refresh brand
identity
footfall:
Web traffic
Gain new
customers
relaunch:
Reverse
launch:
new brand
campaign, further demonstrating the increased
decline use of PR in this year’s WARC 100.
2017 2018

% of cases using soft metrics in the WARC 100, 2018 vs ‘the rest’
100%

74%
75%
67%
62% 62% 60%
56%
45%
42% 50%
34%
31% 30%
26%
25%
11%
7% 5% 7%

0%
Social media, Brand health/ PR value Awareness Web traffic Consumer Brand-specific Search
buzz equity measures participation measures performance

Overall WARC 100

11 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE © Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
 The Swedish Number
THE SWEDISH NUMBER
Want to learn more lessons from the world's best marketing campaigns?
Brand: Swedish Tourist Association
Agency: INGO
Country: Sweden
Category: Transport & Tourism
WARC is a paid for subscription service.
The Swedish Tourist Association
If you'd like to find out about the rest of this report and get access to more
increased membership sales
in Sweden by helping people
become more proud of their
country and connecting them with
people from abroad via a mobile
app. The campaign centered
on an international PR strategy,
generating initial awareness and
facilitiating ongoing coverage.
12 WARC 100 – Lessons from the world’s top effectiveness campaigns - SAMPLE
like it, get a demo at:
Challenge
The Swedish Tourist Association
www.warc.com/Demo
(STF) manages hotels and hostels all
over Sweden. As a small organisation
with a limited marketing budget, its
main source of income comes from
its membership fees. Between 2007
and 2015, the membership base
of STF had a decrease of 18.2%,
putting the company, and its mission
of enabling people to enjoy the
Swedish outdoors, at risk.
STF realised that they needed to
make up their dwindling membership
base with a younger target audience
of ‘explorers’, but this target group
were more interested in travelling
outside Sweden and were not very
nationalistic unless talking about
their country to foreigners.
Strategy
The solution was to create a platform
for Swedes to have conversations
about Sweden with foreigners and
in that way instil pride and curiosity
both among Swedes themselves and
the people they spoke to.
The platform was a phone number
that if called from a foreign country,
connected you to a random Swede.
An extensive PR strategy was
created for international media,
launched with a live TV interview
with STF’s general secretary on
Sweden’s morning show.
The campaign leveraged the
story of 250 years of free speech
within the country, and influencers
and celebrities were used to call and
take calls, both further increasing
the national and international
press coverage.
Results
The campaign was picked up by global
online and offline press, which had a
media reach of 9.324bn impressions,
and a PR value of $146.6m. STF saw
a 7.5% increase in memberships via
the web, and 41.6% of these members
came in during the 3 months directly
after the campaign. The yearly
decrease in existing memberships
was also reduced by 50% in the year
following the campaign.
VIEW CREATIVE
© Copyright WARC 2018. All rights reserved.
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