A snippet of reality from Effworks Global 2022

Effworks Global 2022

We very much enjoyed a IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) Effworks streaming party last week, watching presentations from the great and good of the global advertising industry. Themes amongst the headliners tended to focus on a couple of key areas:

-          Managing spend through an economic downturn

-          Balancing brand-building and sales-activation

An interesting moment came during a fringe event where Imaad Ahmed presented WARC’s brilliant whitepaper, Anatomy of Effectiveness (WARC’s advertising playbook built on 5 pillars for success: Invest for Growth, Balance Your Spend, Plan for Reach, Be Creative, Plan for Recognition).

In a refreshing twist, Imaad paused to run a couple of live polls courting opinion on what’s being prioritised in the day-to-day lives of those viewing. The questions were:

-          In your current work, what tends to get prioritised? [referencing Long vs. Short term]

-          Thinking ahead, which [Anatomy of Effectiveness] principle do you feel your planning needs to place greater emphasis in?

The results offer a glimpse into what’s keeping markers awake at night... Over half are prioritising short-term activation in their current work, yet thinking ahead, 35% want to prioritise Investment for Growth – and that’s a quandary. Unsurprisingly, Bothism is another buzzword that kept popping up over the week.

WARC’s principles provide a fantastic framework for best practice, and we hold them dear, but the grim reality is that incorporating some/all of these elements can be a real Sophie’s choice, particularly when budgets are tight and instant results dominate the conversation.

For us, a key is to understand the thinking (and evidence) behind each principle, hold it dear, stay ambitious, but then be willing to adapt and mould it into something that works for you. Have honest conversations about which elements are most achievable and use this as the starting point. For those in the dichotomy of short/long thinking, we say:

1-       Be willing to #Rumble your current approach

2-       If you can’t out-spend, find ways to outsmart

3-       Look beyond ROI to measure, test and learn

Or, come have a chat about how we might apply this thinking for your brand.