WARC 100

LESSONS FROM
THE WORLD’S
BEST STRATEGIES

© Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.

 Four ideas to take from this report

1 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.

2 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 emer-
gence of alternative strategic models that use digital to deliver scale effectively
and at low cost.

3 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.

4 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.

2 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Executive Summary
This report analyses the world’s best mar-
Contents keting campaigns to uncover shared cre-
ative, media and measurement strategies
Executive Summary
Its basis is the Warc 100, an annual ranking
1. Data: The Best vs The Rest of campaigns based on their performance in
• Media Channels 87 effectiveness and strategy awards from
• Lead Media around the world. These campaigns have
• Campaign Durations been judged to be the best of the best.
• Campaign Budgets At the same time, Warc publishes hundreds
• Creative Approaches of effectiveness and strategy case studies
• Hard Metrics from all over the world – it is the world’s larg-
• Soft Metrics est database of marketing ideas that work.
• Geographies The purpose of this analysis is to see
whether the very best campaigns (those from
2. Anatomy of a winner: The the Warc 100) stand out from the rest of the
world’s top-ranked campaign case studies in Warc’s database in any mean-
ingful way. In short: is there anything market-
3. Views from the C-Suite: Building ers and their agencies can learn from the best
an effective culture campaigns in the world?
4. Warc 100: 2015 Results 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. Crite-
ria for comparison include media channels
used, campaign duration and budget, metrics
measured and the geographic origin of each
3 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
“
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 big-
budget campaigns that run longer than
three months in the Warc 100. These highly-
awarded 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 view-
er’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,
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.
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 pre-
scription for success. Each marketing cam-
paign, 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
VIEW THE WARC 100
 Executive Summary
“
Great case studies are not
created in a vacuum. Com-
panies 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 entertain-
ment channel in real time, and measured big
increases in brand awareness for Unilever.
And then, Kan Khajura also achieved break-
out 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, get-
ting 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 follow-
ing charts refer to the latest (2015) set of
Warc 100 data, though selected year-on-
year 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 rank-
ings, 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 • While the preponderance of media
Overall
channels available to today’s marketers
76%
makes the overall picture complex, there
71% Warc 100
is a clear tendency towards social media
61% in both the overall case set (71% of the
55% total) and within the smaller set of top-
49%
awarded Warc 100 cases (76%).
47% 48% 46% 46%
43% 43% 42%
37% 37%
• A major over-performer in individual
37% 36%
32% 32% 33% channels used is for online video,
31%
28% 28% employed by 61% of Warc 100 cam-
25% 24% paigns, but just 43% of the rest.

• TV is consistently in the mix in both the

overall case study set and the Warc 100
Social Online Earned Public Micro- Out-of- TV Word of Online Events/ Mobile Newspa- cases (46% and 43% respectively).
media video media relations sites home mouth display experien- pers
tial
• Otherwise, there is a major overperfor-
mance for earned media and outdoor as
AVERAGE NUMBER OF CHANNELS USED a channel in the Warc 100 vs the norm.
Number of channels used per campaign
• Warc 100 cases use more channels over-
all, with 7.4 on average against 6.5 for
Warc 100 7.42 the rest of the cases. This suggests that
using a broader range of touchpoints
can pay off.
Overall 6.47

7 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. 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 • When looking for which channels are
used as the “lead media” for a cam-
paign, rather than just being “in the
39% Overall mix”, new usage patterns emerge.
Warc 100
• While social media remains the most
33% widely-used lead channel, the highest
degree of over-representation in Warc
29% 100 cases is for earned media. In all,
28%
29% of these highly-awarded campaigns
25% lead with earned media, compared to
23% 9% of the others.

• The degree of outperformance is almost

17% as striking for online video, which leads
28% of Warc 100 campaigns against
10% of the rest.
12% 12%
10% 10%
9% • On the other hand, mobile-first cam-
8% 8% 8%
7% paigns are slightly less-represented
6%
5% within the Warc 100 than the norm.
4%
3%
• TV’s performance is consistent across
both sets of case studies, and serves as
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8 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Case Study ‘Real Beauty Sketches’
leads with online video
This campaign, for the Unilever strategic shift, Dove evolved the social
beauty brand, is an example of an debate beyond beauty stereotypes Brand
online video being used at the core of to address the new enemy to feeling Dove
a successful marketing strategy beautiful: a women’s inner beauty critic.
Agencies
SOLUTION Ogilvy &
CHALLENGE
Mather / PHD
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is The idea was to show women they were
one of advertising’s longest-running more beautiful than they think. Location
(it began in 2004) and most successful To achieve this, Dove used a FBI Global
initiatives. The campaign has inspired trained sketch artist to draw women
women around the world to celebrate according to their own self-description, Category
their own beauty, and not get caught up and then according to a stranger’s Toiletries &
in airbrushed perfection and size zero description of her. Cosmetics
stereotypes. The results were startling. In every Women were then shown their real beauty
But, a decade after Campaign for case, the stranger’s portrait was more Warc 100
Real Beauty started Dove wanted to beautiful and true than her self-descrip- RESULTS position
modernize its mission. In a radical tion. The experiment was captured in a 2nd
six-minute online This renewed brand meaning boosted
film, which led all the masterbrand halo, leading to value
other marketing growth in Dove’s biggest categories,
activity. significantly outstripping category
After the film’s value growth in every instance.
launch, the side But perhaps the greatest achievement
by side portraits is that real beauty became a cultural
were then exhibited conversation that helped women to
in print and on a realise that they’re more beautiful than
variety of outdoor they think. Case study sourced
media. Read the full case study 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 • 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
Overall within this period are over-represented in
29%
Warc 100 the Warc 100, relative to the norm.

• Campaigns of this length are long

enough to produce measurable results,
22% not too long to make isolating marketing
impact overly problematic.

17% • 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.
10%
9% • Longer-term campaigns, by contrast,
8% are far less common overall, though
campaigns with a duration of over three
5% years are slightly over-represented in the
4%
3% Warc 100, relative to the norm.
2%

0-3 months 3-6 months 6-12 months 1-3 years 3 years + • Only around half of the case studies
measured for this report included details
of campaign duration.

10 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. 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
CHALLENGE
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.
Research showed Reddi-wip eating patterns
11 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
The strategy required a multi-month
campaign period, from March-Septem- Brand
ber: the period of the year during which Reddi-wip
Reddi-wip was little used.
Agencies
SOLUTION DDB California /
Aspen /
Rather than try to encourage consum- JSH&A / POS-
ers to eat pie year-round, the marketing SIBLE
strategy was to encourage consumers
to use Reddi-wip on a different host Promotions complemented ATL ads Location
food, fruit, during the spring and sum- US
mer months. away/Promotion, which offered a “free”
After further qualitative analysis, gift in return for a Like, was used by Category
the brand decided to narrow its scope Reddi-wip to build the brand’s Face- Food
within fruit to berries. This was because book community.
berries and cream is a natural fit for Warc 100
consumers and the size of the opportu- RESULTS position
nity was still significant. 84th
The campaign used a TV ad, online Every month of the campaign, Reddi-
video and banners and in-store mes- wip’s sales were higher, year on year.
saging to promote the association Notably, sales were +7.8% in July,
between Reddi-wip and berries. +7.9% in August, +18.6% in Septem-
Reddi-wip also partnered with ber, +10% higher in October.
Naturipe – a national seller of berries. Moreover, business results were
This partnership featured in-store sam- achieved via a campaign with strong
pling of Reddi-wip on Naturipe berries, awareness and above average brand Case study sourced
as well as instantly redeemable cou- linkage – led by a TV ad with above from ARF David
pons for Reddi-wip on packaging. average awareness and branding. Ogilvy Awards
Separately, the Berry Keeper Give- Read the full case study
VIEW THE WARC 100
 Campaign Budgets Zero and high
budget campaigns over-perform
MOST-USED CAMPAIGN BUDGETS
% of case studies for each campaign budget • The Warc 100 is proportionally more
likely to feature big-budget campaigns
of over £3m. The degree of this outper-
formance also increases along with
27% Overall the budget: the proportion of £20m+
Warc 100 campaigns in the Warc 100 is more than
twice that of the rest of the case studies.

• At the other extreme of the budget range,

20% there is a significant outperformance for
Warc 100 campaigns with no budget at
all, depending entirely on earned media.

• This suggests that zero budget strategies

sometimes cut through at awards shows,
11% though campaigns with high budgets
10% are overall more likely to win multiple
9% awards and get ranked on the Warc 100.
8%
7%
6% 6% 6% • By far the most common budget band in
5% 5%
4% terms of overall proportions was low-
3% 3% budget (up to £500k) campaigns. But
2%
these were less likely to appear in the
No budget Up to 500k 500k-1m 1-3m 3-5m 5-10m 10-20m 20m+ Warc 100: more than one in four overall
cases are in this range, but this drops to
a fifth of Warc 100 cases.

12 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Case study ‘Good Call’: Foster’s
leads with big-budget TV
This lager brand revitalised sales in ways that weren’t all positive. In par-
the UK by reassessing men’s attitudes ticular, the recession had made them
towards social drinking and deliver- a lot more fearful and doubtful about
ing a memorable series of TV ads their lives.
They seemed to be laden with angst
that they kept hidden from the rest of
CHALLENGE
the world. And their friends acted as
Forty years old and once an advertising both a support group and sounding
icon through its 80s TV ads featuring board for how to deal with these issues.
‘Crocodile Dundee’ star Paul Hogan,
Foster’s had lost its way and lost touch SOLUTION
with its drinkers.
Life had moved on for them, and in To answer this branding challenge,
a brand-building
solution was
needed. Foster’s
returned to TV
to help out the
troubled new gen-
eration of troubled
British blokes.
A new cam-
paign was devised
featuring a pair of
“agony uncles”,
humorously solv-
ing 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 web- Brand
site overhaul, a comedy sponsorship Foster’s
programme and a regular dilemmas
column in Shortlist magazine. Agency
In combination with the ‘Good Call’ adam&eveDDB
campaign, Foster’s began to associate
itself with ‘funny’, partnering with the Location
long-standing Edinburgh Comedy Fes- UK
tival and sponsored a host of specialist
comedy venues across the nation. Category
Across the four years of the campaign Alcoholic
covered by the case study, ad spend Drinks
was maintained at a level of at least
£5.4m per year, with the vast majority Warc 100
of this total going on TV. Outdoor and position
press, both also big branding chan- 15th
nels, were the next most lucrative.
RESULTS
This budget represented a good invest-
ment for the brand. Every £1 spent on
ads since the beginning of the cam-
paign has generated £32 in revenue.
Overall sales values for Foster’s have
grown +20% over the campaign period, Case study sourced
while volume sales have increased by from IPA Effective-
+7% overall. ness Awards
Read the full case study
VIEW THE WARC 100
 Creative Approaches Emotion and
storytelling remain effective
MOST USED CREATIVE APPROACHES
% of case studies using each creative approach, 2015 • Emotional, storytelling and humourous
Overall creative approaches are consistently
27% 27% Warc 100 more likely to be used in Warc 100 cases.
25% than in the others
22%
20% 20% 19% 20%
18% 17% 17% 16% • Indeed, emotion was the second most-
12% popular creative approach in the latest
11%
9% 9% year’s Warc 100 data, compared to fourth
7% 6%
most popular for the rest.

• User participation/UGC is a consistently

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23% 23% Overall • One potentially interesting trend

21% 21% between the 2014 and 2015 data sets is
19% Warc 100
16% 16% 16% 15% the decline in popularity for campaigns
14% 14%
13% 12% 12% using a celebrity.
8% 7% 6% • Alongside this overall decline, celebrity
4%
branding was even less common in Warc
100 case studies than the norm in 2015;
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14 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. 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 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
In this matriarchal community, mum
is the pillar of the family, ever interested Brand
in the details of life across the Atlantic. British Airways
To dramatise this idea, BA put
together a web film featuring a son Agencies
paying a surprise visit to his mum back Ogilvy & Mather
home. It aimed pull on the heartstrings / OgilvyOne
of every son and daughter. Once they’d
shed a few tears, they could be drawn Location
into a discussion about home, mum, US
and eventually, the journey.
The brand also used recipes of the Category
food featured in the film, interviews with Travel, Transport
other Indian mums, and an Instagram & Tourism
contest to win a trip to visit home. It also
seeded discounts on flights for people Warc 100
that engaged with the campaign. 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 Sun-
day Times and the Huffington Post also Case study sourced
took notice and posted the video. from Jay Chiat
Read the full case study Family love was key to the campaign Awards
VIEW THE WARC 100
 Hard Metrics Top campaigns report
more metrics, especially sales
MOST-USED HARD METRICS
% of case studies using each metric • Unsurprisingly, Warc 100 campaigns
were significantly more likely than the
48% norm to report multiple hard metrics
Overall in the case study. The highly-awarded
40%
Warc 100 cases reported an average of 1.46 met-
rics of this kind, versus 1.08 overall.

• Sales effect was by far the most widely-

reported hard metric in Warc 100 case
22% studies, at 48% of the total. In the other
19% 19% cases, this was reported in just 40%.
17%
15% 16% 16%
• Other significant over-performers were
7% 6% 6% 2% revenue (22% vs 15%) and behavioural
3% 4% 4% change (19% vs 7%).
Sales Revenue Behavioural Market Market Attitude Customer Profit
change penetration share change loyalty • Nine of the 10 most frequently-used hard
metrics were used more often in Warc
100 cases than they were in the rest of
AVERAGE NUMBER OF METRICS USED the case study set. This demonstrates
Number of metrics used per campaign the preference of awards judges for case
studies that cite hard metrics.

Warc 100 1.46 • The only major under-performer was cus-

tomer loyalty, cited by 6% of case studies
overall but by just 4% of Warc 100 cases.
Overall 1.08

16 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Soft Metrics Social buzz and
awareness most-used overall
MOST-USED SOFT METRICS
% of case studies using each metric • In common with the findings for hard
metrics, Warc 100 cases showed a
63% greater number of soft metrics than the
Overall norm, at 2.38 versus 2.17.
55% Warc 100
• When comparing these totals to the
46%
number of hard metrics reported (see
39% previous page), this suggests that case
37%
studies tend to report a higher number of
28% soft metrics than hard metrics.
27% 26% 26% 25%
19% 18% 18% • That said, the degree of difference
12% between the Warc 100 set of case studies
9% and the overall set of case studies is less
6%
pronounced for soft metrics. This in turn
Social Awareness PR value Web traffic Brand Consumer Brand-specific Search suggests that listing hard metrics is a
media, buzz health/equity participation measures performance factor in awards success.

• Social buzz was the most-cited soft met-

AVERAGE NUMBER OF METRICS USED ric, at 63% of Warc 100 cases and 55% of
Number of metrics used per campaign the rest of the case study set. Awareness
was also a significant out-performer, at
46% vs 39%.
Warc 100 2.38
• Brand health/equity was slightly less
likely to be measured by a Warc 100
Overall 2.17 case compared to the norm.

17 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Geographies Strong performance
from Australia and NZ campaigns
REGIONS
% of case studies from each region • For these regional charts, the Warc 100
case studies are compared to share of
31% overall adspend, as captured in PPP
29% 28% Adspend terms.
24% 25%
Warc 100
19% 18% • This shows that the regional breakdown
of the Warc 100 is broadly in line with
global adspend. But Asia as a region
8% 8% significantly underperforms. It contrib-
2% 6% 2%
utes 31% of global adspend, but only
North America Europe Australia & Asia Central & South Middle East & 18% of Warc 100 campaigns.
New Zealand America Africa
• On the other hand Australia and New
Zealand take 2% of global adspend, but
COUNTRIES 19% of the Warc 100.
% of case studies from each country
• Most of the major advertising countries
27% Adspend listed in this chart overperformed on the
Warc 100 Warc 100.
20%
• The US was one of the exceptions, taking
16% 20% of Warc 100 campaigns compared
13% 13% to 27% of overall adspend.

8% 8% 8% • The opposite was true in the UK, with

6% 6%
4% 4% 4% 4% 3% 16% of the Warc 100 versus 4% of
2% 3% 2% 3% .2% adspend.
United United Australia India Canada China France New Brazil Germany
States Kingdom Zealand

18 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. 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
Giving Doug Pitt a “fair go” was the central creative idea
19 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
the more lucrative post-paid customers. fairness was brought to life via the Aus-
Historically Virgin Mobile had fol- sie slang phrase of “fair go”: or, giving Brand
lowed an acquisition business-model a fair chance to everyone. Virgin Mobile
but, ahead of the campaign, retention The campaign used Doug Pitt
of customers became just as important. (younger brother of Brad Pitt) as he was Agencies
Thus the communications challenge someone who had never received his Havas/One
was to produce a campaign that would fair share of attention. So it was time to Green Bean
firstly retain existing customers (so show him the benefit of a “fair go”.
reducing churn) and also help acquire It ran in three phases, First, a viral Location
new customers. film made Doug an “international Australia
celebrity” via PR coverage. Second, a
SOLUTION paid media push, including TV ads, Category
cemented Doug’s status in the minds of Telecoms
The campaign targeted two key groups: the target audience. Third, Doug visited
‘live wires’ (young, always on consum- Australia for the celebrity ambassa- Warc 100
ers) and ‘straight talkers’ (pragmatic, dor treatment, holding over 30 TV and position
lighter users). It aimed to deliver a radio interviews along with several 10th
highly-engaging public appearances.
creative idea,
based on ‘Fair- RESULTS
ness’, that would
both light up Virgin Mobile’s revenue rose by 15%
earned media, including a 24% increase in the target
so attracting ‘live post-paid customers, and brand aware-
wires’, and carry ness and consideration also increased
pragmatic prod- significantly.
uct messages for Reduction in churn peaked at the
straight-talkers in height of the campaign (August) when Case study sourced
paid media. post-paid churn fell by 40%. from Effie Australia
This concept of Read the full case study
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 con-
nected, even spoilt, by an overload of
entertainment via regular media, Bihar
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.
and Jharkhand remain two of India’s
most media-dark regions.
Residents of these regions gener-
ally 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, Brand
and there were 54 million people that Hindustan
possessed one. By transforming their Unilever
basic phones, Unilever was able to give
them something they didn’t have: an Agency
entertainment channel. Lowe Lintas /
This was Kan Khajura a 15-minute, PHD
free on demand entertainment channel
that worked on mobile phone. Location
The moment anyone called in, their India
call would be disconnected and an
automated callback was then gener- Category
ated that contained 15 minutes of Household &
music, jokes, news and promotions Domestic
from certain brands. This assured
listeners that the service was free, as Warc 100
incoming calls are free in India. position
1st
RESULTS
The service reached 25.5% of the popu-
lation and grew spontaneous aware-
ness 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 Case study sourced
minutes of content, and 100m ad from Warc Prize for
impressions. Asian Strategy
Read the full case study
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 entertain-
ment,” 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 entertain-
ment 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
22 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
based our creative strategy around popular- this medium, it had never been done, we had
izing the number,” Goenka explained. “The no benchmarks to go on,” Goenka explained.
number was on every single banner.”
In most of the campaign creative, the num- LEARNINGS FOR OTHERS
ber was promoted via the station’s mascot: a
cartoon centipede with the Kan Khajura sta- But how can others leverage Kan Khajura’s
tion’s number spelt out on its body segments. success? “What we’re most proud of is that we
“We chose a centipede because it’s a very took a rudimentary mobile phone, and made
common creature in rural India, people see the best we had of it,” Goenka said.
it on the floor, but they know it’s totally harm- The cultural context plays its part. “Gener-
less. It’s part of the culture, too.” ally, in India we only have one or two media
on the brief,” she added. “And that leads to
MEASUREMENT greater strategic acuity. Planning here has to
be very, very customer-centric. As marketers,
Real-time measurement was important in if we concentrate on what we do have and we
order to optimize the campaign content. maximize it, we find out new things. Frugality
This led to tweaks being made on the fly. For drives innovation.”
example, the team soon learned that a lot Watch the full Webinar
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 spontane-
ous 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
23 © 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
“It’s confirmation of what we’re doing,
which is disruption as a strategy,
which will then drive results.”
Troy Ruhanen, CEO, TBWA Worldwide
“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
MORE FROM THE PANEL: VIEW VIDEO
25 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved.
“When we are ranked top five on
something like this, it tells us that our
push for effectiveness is working.”
Suzanne Powers, CSO, McCann
“We aim to win it every year. The best
proxy we have for measuring our
performance is these awards.”
Andrew Robertson, CEO, BBDO
“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
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 busi-
ness 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 mak-
ing the talent feel like they belong to some-
thing.
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 cam-
paign. Keep it real. Write
it up in the most impactful
way possible
What’s the importance of effective-
ness 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 talk-
ing 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 cre-
ativity 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 power-
ful, 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 competi-
tions 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 120.7

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

Leo Burnett/Arc, Starcom

5 Beautiful Hair, Whatever the Weather Pantene Procter & Gamble US 71.5
MediaVest Group
Brazilian Association of Brazilian Association of
6 Bentley Burial Leo Burnett Tailor Made Brazil 66.4
Organ Transplants Organ Transplants

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

Havas Worldwide Sydney,

10 Fair Go Bro Virgin Mobile Virgin Group Australia 57.3
One Green Bean

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 TOP 10 DIGITAL AGENCIES

Agency Location Points 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

10 Ogilvy São Paulo Brazil 102.0 10 Starcom MV Group London UK 49.4 10 Possible New York US 36.2

View full rankings on Warc View full rankings on Warc View full rankings on Warc

30 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Warc 100 Results Top Networks &
Holding Companies 2015
TOP 10 AGENCY NETWORKS TOP 10 HOLDING COMPANIES

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 View full rankings on Warc

31 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. VIEW THE WARC 100
 Warc 100 Results Top Brands and
Advertisers 2015
TOP 10 BRANDS TOP 10 ADVERTISERS

Brand Product category Points Advertiser Location Points

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 View full rankings on Warc

32 © Copyright Warc 2015. All rights reserved. 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
CONTACT US
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