The WFA recently joined forces with insights leaders Warc and online video specialists Unruly to present case studies from the world’s best brands and highlight the latest trends in advertising. Around 70 marketers from over 30 brands gathered in Singapore at the exclusive, members-only Tower Club on the 62^nd Floor of Republic Plaza for the half-day session.

The meeting kick-started with a presentation of WFA’s proprietary research conducted with 100 global, local and regional brand marketers for their perspectives on marketing in ASEAN across consumer insights, internal and external capability requirements, ROI measurement and data. Not surprisingly, as marketing organisations across the region grapple with transformational change, capability development in the ‘upstream’ functions of integrated activity planning and innovation are critical for business success.

Warc’s 4 Lessons from the World’s Best Marketing Campaigns

Ed Pank, Managing Director, Asia at Warc then presented Warc 100, which ranks the world’s best marketing campaigns based on performances in effectiveness and strategy competitions from around the world. Common themes from the campaigns:

#1 The prominence of social

Over 80% of this year’s Warc 100 campaigns used social. Online video and PR were also used by the majority ahead of traditional above-the-line channels such as TV and outdoor. Social media also emerged as the lead channel for almost half of this year’s Warc 100 campaigns.

#2 The importance of emotion

Emotion is now by far the most-used creative approach on the Warc 100. Each year, usage of emotional marketing has increased and now features in almost a third of campaigns.

#3 The emphasis on sales

6 of this year’s top 10 campaigns reported sales as a hard metric. Sales was also by far the most-reported hard metric, mentioned by half of the Warc 100 campaigns in 2016.

#4 Australia & New Zealand lead the charge in this region

Compared to relative share of global ad spend, Australia & New Zealand were the big over-performers. More than one in ten Warc 100 cases are from these two markets – compared to a global ad spend share of just 1.5%.

5 Video Trends to take note of for 2016

The final presentation for the day was led by Greg Fournier, Director of Strategic Partnerships – APAC, Unruly, who shared his take on the trends in video to look out for this year:

#1 It’s gloves off for a quadrennial year!

With the Summer Olympics, the Australian and American elections and the UEFA European Football Championships, 2016 promises to be a competitive year. And with these events expected to fuel a 5.6% increase in global ad spend, we can expect rivalries to spill over into the digital realm.

#2 Adland follows Hollywood into battle

Where cinema leads, advertising follows. As consumers are flooded with over-the-top war flicks, special ops storylines and apocalyptic blockbusters at the box office, expect to see Brands taking a similar ‘POW, WOW KABOOM!’ approach with high-octane emotions coming to the fore.

#3 Vertical video booms for brands

Thanks to native mobile video platforms such as Snapchat, Periscope and Meerkat, vertical video has already seen rapid adoption among consumers. Vertical video ads have up to nine times more completed views than horizontal video ads and 29% of video ads are now viewed vertically.

#4 VR becomes reality for brands looking to break new ground with immersive experiences

In 2016, we’ll see more brands explore VR as a storytelling platform for creating new and immersive viewer experiences; in an age of attention scarcity, brands will prize immersion more than ever.

#5 Simple ads offer respite to consumers suffering from future shock

In the face of ‘Future Shock’ consumers experience daily from new content, new media platforms, new technologies, new apps, new wearables and new smart devices, therein lies the opportunity for brands to respond by creating simple stories and homespun tales of friendship and ads that focus on craftsmanship.

For more information on WFA events in Asia, please contact Ranji David – Marketing Director, Asia at r.david@wfanet.org.