WARC Awards

for Effectiveness 2024

Insights from the Europe regional awards

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

In this report Contents

About the WARC Awards for Effectiveness 3

Introduction 4
The WARC Awards Europe is a new competition
Takeaways 5
for 2024, exclusively showcasing European
campaigns for the first time. This report shares What this means for 6

lessons from the winning strategies and Meet the 2024 Jury 7
advertising trends in the region.

Theme 1: New relevance, renewed growth 11

Each theme is brought to life with insights from
some of the award-winning and shortlisted case Theme 2: Cultural insights boost brands 20

studies. The report also includes data analysis of Theme 3: Bold moves in media 27
all entries, and details of the Gold, Silver and Theme 4: The winning case studies 34
Bronze winners.
Theme 5: Data analysis 37

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

About the WARC Awards for

Effectiveness
For 2024, WARC restructured its each region, made up of senior
effectiveness awards to host five strategists, agency leaders and
separate regional competitions in brand marketers, reviewed every
Europe, Middle East & Africa, North entry online against the WARC
America, Latin America, and Asia Awards criteria and the Creative
Pacific. Effectiveness and B2B Effectiveness
ladders. The juries set a benchmark
The awards shine a light on the and only work meeting that standard
world’s most effective marketing, makes the shortlists. Bronze, Silver
share the lessons from the work, and Gold awards are then given for
and set a benchmark for the each region. The Golds then
industry. They are delivered in automatically progress to a second
association with LIONS, using round of judging for the Global
world-class expertise in award Grands Prix.
management and judging.
This report does not include an
How it works analysis of the Global Grand Prix
The 2024 programme runs across winners as they have not yet been
five regions, each with the same 12 awarded during the time of report
categories. Three juries from across writing.
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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

Following the ‘red thread’

These case studies The winning campaigns had a clear strategic narrative and
provide both inspiration meticulous measurement
and a masterclass in The WARC Awards Europe The jury chairs highlighted how Europe, but one brand stood out
competition has had a stellar the best campaigns featured a with awards in four different
how bold brand ideas
first year. We received entries ‘red thread’ of strategy from initial categories, including two Golds.
can directly lead to from 17 countries, and winners analysis and objectives, inspiring
McDonald’s Sweden’s Big Enough
included diverse campaigns the creative execution, and
significant business to Make a Difference campaign
from finance to fast food, with reflected in the results.
included locally driven initiatives
effects both global and local brands
Another key feature was the that reversed the brand’s decline
represented.
commitment to measurement. in the country. Meanwhile
There was nowhere to hide, McDonald’s in Finland gained
Best practices for effectiveness
judges forensically analysed each international fame with its McDrip
were widely in evidence.
entry and interrogated what else campaign that transformed
Campaigns that entered in the
might have contributed to the perceptions among young
Europe competition were more
results. The entries that won had people. While the creativity
likely to use emotion as a creative
thorough and cohesive behind these winning entries was
strategy than other regions and
measurement with results clearly outstanding, it was the detail and
Catherine Driscoll 60% focused on brand building as
Commissioning attributable to the campaign. the ‘red thread’ throughout that
an objective. So, what made the
Editor, EMEA took them from good to great.
WARC winners stand out? We awarded 18 winners in

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

Takeaways
Established brands find new Media strategy takes
01 relevance 03 campaigns to the next level
New creative approaches, often Linking the medium to the message
adopting codes from another was showcased in innovative ways.
category, enabled heritage brands to Whether by bridging online and
boldly re-establish their place in offline, doubling down on one
culture and appeal to younger medium or courting controversy, the
consumers. brand maximised media impact.
Careful strategic
planning and leveraging
unexpected insights
02 Local relevance is key to
unlocking growth 04 Focus on clear objectives and
measurement
Both big global players and small Winning case studies were those
lead to business national brands effectively used local campaigns that had clearly defined
nuance to reignite growth and objectives from the outset, a
transformation achieve impressive brand consistent strategy throughout and
turnarounds. effective measures of the results.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

What this means for

Advertisers Agencies Media owners People and Planet

Focus on clear objectives and Differentiating Measurement of each channel Consider how a global
long-term KPIs at the outset, communications from separately and holistically is campaign can be translated
this pre-planning can make all category norms can key. Some brands leaned into for each country through
the difference to a campaign’s reinvigorate a brand’s one medium, while others research and applying local
success. There are strong positioning and provide a new leveraged the full range of nuance. Winning campaigns
advantages to building a platform for effective, longer- omnichannel to deliver used local relevance to embed
longer-term strategy that term brand building. seamless offline and online sustainability initiatives, which
drives brand building to experiences. also super-charged growth
position future campaigns. and transformed attitudes
towards the brand.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

Meet the Europe jury

Chair: Joost Hoppe Elizabeth Anyaegbuna Fernanda Marantes Juha Halmesvaara Krisztian Zvara
Global Media Lead Cofounder CEO CEO Head of Strategy & Insight Strategy Director,
Heineken 16 x 9 Media Havas Media Group Dentsu Global Business
PHD

Lindsey Jordan Saskia Wagenmakers Shane O’Leary

Head of Creative Strategy CEO Marketing Director DTC
essenceMediacom IPG Mediabrands Zoetis

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

Meet the Europe jury

Chair: Tanja Grubner Armando Potter Ete Davies Isabelle Quevilly Louise Sonne-Bergström
Global Marketing Director Head of Strategy Chief Operating Officer Director Creative Shop Chief Strategy Officer & Partner
Essity GmbH 72andSunny Dentsu Creative Meta TBWA\Copenhagen

Roberto Fara Sarah Higgins Tomas Lauko

Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy Spain Managing Director CEO
Global Creative Experience Lead State Street Global Advisors Publicis Groupe
Ogilvy

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

Meet the Europe jury

Chair: Kevin Mercer Andrew Gardner Béla Ziemann Christine Siemssen Eddie D’Sa
Director Brand Strategy Chief Strategy Officer Chief Strategy Officer Chief Marketing & Digital Officer CEO
Expedia Group Havas Lynx LePub DANONE Nord DDB Oslo

Georgina Smither Sara Layadi Talya Pulver-Lindqvist

Strategy Director Global Marketing Director Group Brand Director
McCann Yassir AKQA

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

What all the winners had in common

is that they had been very clear on
objectives from the beginning, and
that was the red thread all the way
through the insights and strategy to
the results.
Tanja Gruber, Global Marketing Director, Essity
Creative Effectiveness Jury Chair, WARC Awards Europe

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Theme 1

New relevance,
renewed growth

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Established brands used codes from one

A fresh category and applied them to another to
start connect with new, often younger, audiences.
By giving their proposition a fresh focus,
these bold brands were able to re-enter the
cultural conversation and to drive sales.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Case study Gold, Strategic Thinking

Uncovering emotion unlocks growth Value sales uplift

When growth starts to plateau, based around the proposition that
or even decline it’s a scary time
for a complete change of
Vanish helps clothes last longer.
The brand then took this one step
74%
creative strategy, but several further and highlighted the
winning and shortlisted brands emotional importance of favourite
did this to great effect. clothing for the autistic community
and for girls who are often Increase in engagement
Gold-winner Vanish stain remover underrepresented in depictions of on the Vanish landing page

+2000%
was losing relevance in the UK – autism in the media. Making it a
other brands made the same long-term commitment, Vanish
functional claims and cheap also partnered with Ambitious
fashion meant people were more about Autism and ASDA to amplify
likely to throw away stained the work.
clothes than care for them. The Trending video on TikTok
brand changed its strategy away The bold campaign had significant with +5m views

#1
from generic, functional and impact on Vanish’s brand equity,
performance-led messaging to a its brand share, and its sales and
more emotionally-led approach revenue.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

What stood out about the Vanish

campaign was the calibre of the case
study. There was a line of strategic
thinking running all the way through. It
took time, care and craft to add each
extra layer of strategy to the campaign.
Kevin Mercer,
Director Brand Strategy, Expedia Group
Strategy Jury Chair, WARC Awards Europe

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Case study Bronze, Business to Business

Rethinking business to business

Sage, a business services brand, also evenly between performance driving and
employed a change to emotionally driven brand building. Rethinking category
messaging, borrowing from the codes of conventions and focusing on the real
emotion-driven brand-led CPG products. experiences people in business face enabled
the campaign to cut through, increasing
Sage was a legacy player in an increasingly spontaneous awareness and marketing ROI.
competitive market. Its rapid growth had led
to fragmentation, and an over-reliance on Planner Alex Orton of VCCP said “By moving
demand-focused marketing was weakening from a demand generating to a brand
the brand. Combined with the rise of building model, Sage was able to move from
younger, cloud-native competitors, Sage just selling products to building a brand that
seemed increasingly out-of-touch. The sells products. Not only has that created the
challenge was to re-orient Sage's spend foundations for longer-term success, by
behind brand-building communications building term trust, warmth and awareness, it
without losing sight of driving high-quality was also able to deliver short-term business
leads. The campaign featured real life effects.”
customers and bold, graphic creative. Sage
rebalanced the media budget to spread

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Case study Bronze, Long-term Growth Leveraging new brand recognition in

Using bold new positioning performance marketing
Indexed online sales
Linking to emotion also proved a in Denmark and 91% in Sweden.
strong tactic when a brand There was also a 65% uplift in
compares unfavourably to consideration among consumers
alternatives. who were exposed to advertising in
Finland, 63% in Norway, 39% in
Another services brand, IF Sweden, and 118% in Denmark.
Insurance, leveraged humour and Brand preference also saw similar
emotion to build the brand in an increases, including a 90% uplift in
always-on strategy. Targeting a Sweden and 100% in Denmark.
diverse audience across the
Nordics, IF Helps a Lot used a Overall, the new communication
customer promise as well as concept and media strategy
distinctive and memorable brand resulted led to a rise in revenue of
assets as part of a strategy to focus over €296M and showed how a
on long-term growth. As well as a long-term creative idea can
turnaround in sales in target transform a brand in a low interest
markets, communication awareness category with remarkably swift
increased in a few months by 330% results. Source: IF Online Sales (6m rolling average)

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Connecting with a new audience

Established brands also challenged engage in honest and vulnerable
category norms to reach new conversations and to go deeper in
audiences. understanding the lives and needs of its
customers, despite mental health being a
ING Bank in Romania took a radically very sensitive topic for Romanian society.
different approach to financial education
campaigns with Unfollow Self:Hate to go Shortlisted Magnum ice-cream also
beyond generic financial advice and sought to increase its appeal with a
connect with a younger audience on a younger audience – most of its
personal level. The campaign explored consumers were now over 40 and it was
the emotional triggers of spending, rapidly losing share to private labels. The
focusing on the why behind people's brand used a music remix to appeal to
overspending, rather than just letting Gen Z, and successfully changed
them know what the best practices of attitudes towards the brand. The
financial education are. campaign delivered 2.9m litres of Remix
ice-cream sales, of which 32% came
By openly discussing self-hate and its from new customers (added to
financial implications, ING Bank repertoire) and 63% switching from
established itself as a brand willing to private label.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Case study Bronze, Long-term growth

Reframing the brand for an adjacent category

While Vanish reframed the product around "finally" launching pasta sauces "after
function, Heinz took things a step further 150 years of growing tomatoes" that
and created an entirely new product ultimately got existing (and new) pasta sauce
range. Pasta sauce was a credible consumers to believe Heinz had the
adjacency for a brand that was most expertise to create something worth buying.
known for its tomato products.
Since launch, Heinz Pasta Sauces has
As one of the nation's most loved and delivered $11.7 million of incremental sales
trusted brands, Heinz leveraged its name and to Heinz. With a consistent growth in Heinz
brand foundations to drive innovation that pasta sauce sales performance over three
resonated with its existing consumer base. years, the brand reached volume and value
Ensuring the brand logo, distinctive assets share of 10% and outperformed in all key
and signature tone of voice were at the objectives.
forefront of each campaign, amplification
was imperative. In addition to strengthening the Heinz brand,
Heinz Pasta Sauces is recruiting new
Despite Heinz already being a household shoppers, driving 60% incrementality to the
brand, it was their continued messaging category.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 1 – New relevance, renewed growth

Succeeding “This is ridiculous”: New Heinz Pasta Sauces, a case for winning
through in an adjacent category
innovation
The ridiculously good platform
Heinz committed to a long-term
strategy to boost its brand and
establish itself in a new, adjacent Announcing Accelerating Establishing
category. Whilst stunts and short-
term successes are relatively easy
for brands like Heinz, building and
establishing brands into
adjacencies is more difficult.

To help the brand stand out and

grow, reaching its goals of
awareness, consideration and
sales, they consistently used
powerful creative leveraging the 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024
brand’s established brand assets to
stand out, and kept tapping into
culture via the ‘Ridiculously Good’ Source: Heinz
platform.

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Theme 2

Local insights
boost brands

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 2 – Local insights boost brands

Both the biggest global brands and local

Connection brands leveraged cultural insight to change
through perceptions and achieve a turnaround in
commercial performance. Using nuances
culture
that resonated in a local market enabled
brands to grow regionally, find younger
audiences, and increase positive sentiment.

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 2 – Local insights boost brands

Local focus leads to transformative growth

How do you win back the trust of created biodiversity initiatives,
Consecutive sales and visit growth
people who think you're a big, published millions of children's
capitalist company? This was the
challenge facing McDonald’s in
books, contributed to Ronald
McDonald House Charities, 60+ months
Sweden. reduced litter and engaged
disaffected youth. By doing so, it
In 2018, after losing 11 million changed perceptions, significantly
visits between 2012-2017, increasing brand trust and
Increase in market share
McDonald's Sweden launched the purchase intent.
brand platform ‘Big Enough to
Make a Difference’. The idea came
to guide the entire organisation,
Rather than focusing on the global
brand, McDonald's championed
+25%
from the CEO to all 12,000 what Swedish people care about
employees in the country. and committed to long-term
initiatives. As a result, McDonald’s
Sales value
Through more than 20 campaign grew its market share from 40% to
initiatives, McDonald's focused on 50%, making "Big enough to make
things that value-driven Swedes
care about. McDonald’s expanded
a difference" the fastest
turnaround in the brand's history.
+€110m
its electric car charging network,

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 2 – Local insights boost brands

Case study Bronze, Channel Integration

The power of cultural context

IKEA in Belgium faced a similar negative trends and scored exceptional
challenge. The pandemic had increased positive shifts in ‘local enabler' (+4 pts),
the preference for local stores. ‘emotional meaning' (+4 pts = highest ever
However, tapping into the local cultural score), and generated 32.1 million euros
landscape led to significant engagement incremental turnover.
and commercial success.
By tailoring an international concept to
Historically, it's tough to significantly resonate with local nuances, IKEA Belgium
progress key brand metrics with a single reinforced the notion that global brands
campaign for a category leader like IKEA. can achieve remarkable success when
But that's exactly what I Love You But … they authentically integrate local culture
achieved in Belgium in just five months. By and consumer insights into their
successfully using Belgian insights into campaigns. Jury chair Joost Hoppe
cohabitation frustrations, with locals as commented, “Adding the local nuance
the main protagonists of the campaign, took the campaign from average to
IKEA localised a multi-market concept. It exceptional”.
also cost-effectively implemented a 360°
campaign and, in so doing, reversed

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 2 – Local insights boost brands

Brutal honesty: A bold strategy Increased value share at twice the

leveraging
. cultural relevance market growth
Two award-winning beer longer met consumer expectations. Zlatý Bažant also outperformed Saris, which introduced
campaigns impressed the judges It was an unexpected move for an a new beer at the same time
with their use of brutal honesty, established brand to be so honest
admitting the brand’s challenges. about a product’s flaws. The The increase in value
The judges were impressed by strategy involved the most 5-10/23
the way both campaigns were so significant recipe reformulation in
close to the consumer and its 50-year history. The campaign
achieved huge growth in a led to an 11.8% volume growth in a
category where such gains are declining market and a record sales
rare. growth of 28.5%. By directly
addressing the challenges facing
The Zlatý Bažant is not what it used the brand and offering a tangible
to be! campaign for Slovakia’s solution, Zlatý Bažant not only
leading beer brand reversed achieved its business and
declining consumer trust and sales communication objectives but also 26.8% 7% 17.5% 6%
in a shrinking market. Zlatý Bažant achieved a brand revitalisation
Zlatý Bažant MARKET ŠARIŠ PILSNER URQUELL
agreed with critics of its previous within the competitive beer market.
product and admitted that it no
Source: A.C. Nielsen

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 2 – Local insights boost brands

Finding ‘Sardinian In four years Ichnusa became the number three beer brand in Italy
Soul’ transforms Ichnusa also contributed more than 40% of incremental growth in the category
beer brand
Ichnusa beer had only been sold in Market penetration Average yearly marketing spend: 2017-2022
Sardinia; the challenge was to 15 4000
rebuild the brand’s identity and
develop its first campaign across
3000
Italy. The bold idea was to reframe Launch
10
Italians’ attitude towards

Penetration %
Sardinians. The creative playfully

€.OOOP
2000
leaned into the “backward”
perceptions of Sardinians and 5

flipped them into positive ways of 1000

living. Ichnusa became the most

meaningful brand in Italy across all
0 0
categories, and brand penetration
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3.1% to 9.3%. Source: Nielsen, 2022; IRI, 2022

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 2 – Local insights boost brands

Breaking through to Gen Z

Shortlisted and winning campaigns 48% did so on impulse because of the
also used local insight to connect with campaign.
new audiences. Trying to authentically
connect with Gen Z can be riddled with McDonald’s in Finland increased
pitfalls for brands, but two campaigns recruitment among young people by
did so by leveraging local culture to partnering with local up-and-coming
great effect. fashion label VAIN. For the McDrip
campaign, designerJimi Vain created
Media company CANAL+ wanted to new McDonald’s uniforms only available
increase the take-up of its package of to people who worked there. The
streaming services for young people in campaign managed the tricky task of
France. It drew on an online meme making the brand culturally relevant to
popular with French youngsters that young people in an authentic way. The
celebrated being a rat ‘sniffing out a good number of applications increased by
deal’. CANAL+ Ciné-Séries became 63%, the campaign changed perceptions
"Rat+”, and it immediately made the of McDonald’s and earned media reach
offer's price superiority self-explanatory. was 228 million, 40 times the Finnish
The offer led to record sales peaks; 68% population.
had never subscribed to CANAL+, and

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Theme 3

Bold moves in media

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 3 – Bold moves in media

Smart media executions took campaigns to

Creative
the next level. Some campaigns
excellence demonstrated the power of joined-up
in media campaign planning, while others leveraged a
specific medium for maximum effect.
executions

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 3 – Bold moves in media

Case study Gold, Partnerships & sponsorships

Buzz collaboration becomes part of Heinz Pasta Sauces long–term success

Several winning campaigns collaboration was amplified through
showcased their strategy through layered media executions and on Selling SKU in entire pasta category
inspiring and powerful use of the shop floor with creative that
media. However, what took these
campaigns to the next level in the
leveraged distinctive brand assets
from both products.
#1
WARC Awards was the attention to
measurement to prove the After seeding via influencers, Heinz
contribution of strategy and created buzz through print ads in Selling Heinz SKU behind Tomato
specific media to business results. selected fashion magazines and Ketchup and Baked Beans

#3
placed OOH billboards across
The Absolutely Heinz campaign won trendy areas in London – all before
Gold for Partnerships & the product launched. A limited
Sponsorships, and it was a number of assets were released to
masterclass in bringing two huge ensure all partners were delivering
Sales uplift for the entire Heinz pasta
and contrasting brands together in a the same message. Restricted sauce range
way that amplified both. A significant distribution via one premium
part of the campaign’s success was
down to how the clever
supermarket added to the FOMO
appeal.
+52%
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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 3 – Bold moves in media

Case study Gold, Channel Pioneer

Connecting online and offline

The McDonald’s Deals Stuck in Time digital. People could scan McDonald's
won Gold by impressing judges with outdoor ads and/or find the historic
its impressive connection strategy, outdoor ads in the same location on
blending offline and online Google Street View.
experiences, and driving purchase
through the McDonald’s app. By turning previous deals into
McDonald's best deals in the present,
Inflation in Sweden had hit McDonald’s Swedes time-travelled more than
sales, and the brand found a creative 840,000 times. The number of active
way to address the issue. In 2022 app users increased +28%, and "good
Google’s new Street View feature value for money" rose from 43% to
allowed users to scroll back in time to 56%. Visit intent increased from 41%
revisit geographical locations. to 53%, leading to +17.1% sales
McDonald's old deals were ‘stuck' in growth in January 2023 versus
the captured images, protected from January 2022.
inflation. There were two ways to get
these deals, one physical and one

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 3 – Bold moves in media

Deals Stuck in Time had exemplary

connection strategy with the bridge from out-
of-home to digital. The execution was clever in
how they linked touchpoints and drove
purchase. Technology, creativity, and business
impact all came together in one case study.

Joost Hoppe, Global Media Lead, Heineken (Netherlands)

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 3 – Bold moves in media

Making the most of one medium

Some winning campaigns proved that outdoor ads and business effects, as
more isn’t always better. In these, the clothes featured had direct sales uplift
creative strategy was focused and in some cases sold out.
through one specific medium, which
was carefully chosen to amplify the German health insurance company
message. Barmer used music to become more
relevant to the younger generation. In
Fashion brand Lacoste launched a collaboration with pop star Loi, it
campaign showcasing Unexpected produced a song that had a measurable
Encounters between individuals wearing impact on the mental wellbeing of its
similar Lacoste clothing, celebrating listeners. More than a stunt, the
inclusiveness and positive connections. campaign led to 176 million
The idea was the happy accident of very impressions, a modernised brand
different people wearing the same style image, increased search volume and
Lacoste items, and the choice of 39% more applications from GenZ than
outdoor as the lead media literally in the same quarter the previous year –
positioned the ads where such as well as reaching 4th place in the
encounters might occur. The judges charts.
noted the direct link between the

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 3 – Bold moves in media

Courting controversy
There were two winning campaign period as a key and
campaigns that leveraged media unique moment for the brand in the
coverage to maximum effect by coming years – a contrast to the
creating what the judges called usual focus on ‘Veganuary’ for its
‘good trouble’. competitors.

Challenger plant-based meat brand Bodyform’s ‘Vaginas uncensored’

Oumph! achieved its objectives of campaign highlighted censorship on
increasing brand awareness and social platforms by strategically
generating national conversation developing content containing
about the brand by selling plant- banned words relating to women’s
based burgers that tasted like bodies and empowering others to
human meat in one location for do the same. It turned the
Halloween. The low-budget censorship into additional content
campaign increased sales by 36% in and positive PR stories to further the
value compared to the previous cause. The campaign spiked
month, making it the best-selling positive sentiment from 3% to 91%,
brand in its category during that helping drive a 10% increase in
timeframe and establishing the sales for the brand.

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Theme 4

The winning
case studies New image
needed

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 4 – The winning case studies

Gold Silver Bronze

Channel Pioneer Long-Term Growth Partnerships & Sponsorships

McDonald’s McDonald’s Heinz Pasta

Sauces
Deals Stuck in Time Big Enough to Make a
Difference Absolutely Heinz
View the case study View the case study View the case study

Strategic Thinking Customer Experience Instant Impact

Vanish Oumph! Zlatý Bažant

Me, My Autism & I Human meat plant- Zlatý Bažant is not what
based burger it used to be
View the case study View the case study View the case study

Long-Term Growth Partnerships & Sponsorships Brand Purpose

Ichnusa McDonald’s ING Bank

Sardinian Soul McDrip Unfollow Self-Hate
View the case study View the case study View the case study

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 4 – The winning case studies

Gold Silver Bronze

Brand Purpose Business to Business Channel Integration

McDonald’s Sage IKEA

Ronald McDonald From B2B to Human-to- I Love You But
House Roblox Human
View the case study View the case study View the case study

Cultural Impact Instant Impact Long-Term Growth

Lacoste Barmer Heinz

Unexpected The song that makes New Heinz Pasta
Encounters you strong Sauces
View the case study View the case study View the case study

Long-Term Growth Partnerships & Sponsorships Strategic Thinking

If P&C Tazz Bodyform

Insurance Your place is in the
kitchen only when you Vaginas Uncensored
If Helps A Lot want it to be
View the case study View the case study View the case study

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Theme 5

Data analysis and key

observations New image
needed

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 5 – Data analysis

Increasing Campaign objectives

awareness top 2024 entrant campaigns (selected objectives)
objective
87% of the 2024 campaign entries Awareness 87%

from Europe included awareness Brand building: Build brand equity 58%
as a campaign objective.
Sales growth: Increase value/volume 27%
Two in three campaigns also
included brand building as an Sales growth: Gain new customers 20%
objective, reflecting a focus on
Sales growth: Increase market share 19%
longer-term performance.
Brand launch: extension/variant 18%

Brand relaunch: Reverse decline 14%

Brand building: Maintain price 11%

Social, political & not-for-profit 10%

Seasonal, event, promotional tie-in:

9%
Christmas & seasonal activity
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Source: WARC AWARDS EFFECTIVENESS 2024 EUROPE

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 5 – Data analysis

Leading with Creative strategy

emotion 2024 entrant campaigns (selected strategies)
Partnerships and emotion were the
two most common creative Partnerships 36%
strategies used by campaigns in
Emotion 35%
Europe in 2024.
Informative, educational 26%
Artificial intelligence had not yet
Storytelling 14%
taken hold, and was used as a
creative strategy by 5% of all Celebrity 13%
European campaigns in 2024.
Music 13%

Corporate responsibility 11%

Sustainability 8%

Humour 6%

Artificial intelligence
5%
(Al) as creative
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Source: WARC AWARDS EFFECTIVENESS 2024 EUROPE

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 5 – Data analysis

Digital media Media mix

dominates 2024 entrant campaigns (selected media)
Television and connected
television was utilised by one in Media used Lead media
four campaigns as lead media.
Television &
Social media 66% 24%
Connected TV
Social media and online video play
an important role within the media Online video 51% Online video 20%

mix in Europe, being utilised by

Word of mouth,
more than half of the campaigns in 41% Integrated 17%
influencers, KOLs
the region.
Outdoor,
38% Social media 15%
out-of-home

Outdoor,
Radio & audio 26% 13%
out-of-home

Websites & Gaming & in-game

23% 6%
microsites advertising

Websites &
Online display 20% 4%
microsites

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Source: WARC AWARDS EFFECTIVENESS 2024 EUROPE

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 5 – Data analysis

Brands focused Hard and soft metrics

on return on 2024 entrant campaigns (selected media)
investment
An increase in ROI and sales were
Hard metrics Soft metrics
the most commonly measured hard ROI 51% Awareness 88%
metrics in 2024, being reported by
Sales 47% Brand health/
almost half of all campaigns in equity measures
74%
Behavioural change 32%
Europe.
Market penetration/ Social media, buzz 40%
22%
customer gain
The most common soft metrics PR value 35%
Revenue 19%
measured were increase in
Market share 18%
awareness and brand health/equity Web traffic 17%
Attitude change
measures, reported by three 10% Search
(non-profit) 5%
quarters of campaigns. performance
Efficiency gain 3%
Brand-specific
3%
Price 3% measures

Consumer
Profit 1% 1%
participation
0% 20% 40% 60% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Source: WARC AWARDS EFFECTIVENESS 2024 EUROPE

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe | Theme 5 – Data analysis

Fewer than half of Budgets and durations

campaigns over 2024 entrant campaigns
three months
Over a third of all campaigns in
Media budgets Campaign duration
Europe had a media budget of up
Over 20 million 5%
Over 3 years 10%
to 500k, and one third had a budget
of between one and three million. 10 - 20 million 4%
1 - 3 years 7%
5 - 10 million 7%
Shorter campaigns, of up to three
months, accounted for more than 6 - 12 months 9%
3 - 5 million 4%
half of all campaigns in Europe in
2024. 1 - 3 million 29%
3 - 6 months 18%

500k - 1 million 12%

Up to 3 months 55%
Up to 500k 37%

Real-time 1%
No budget 1%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 0% 20% 40% 60%

Source: WARC AWARDS EFFECTIVENESS 2024 EUROPE

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

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 WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024, Europe

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