The WARC Podcast

Aussie insurance giant Suncorp knows a thing or two about resiliency: both as a 120+ year brand, and through helping its customers in the toughest of times. Mim Haysom, EGM - Brand & Marketing, joins WARC's Rica Facundo to discuss what effectiveness means to Suncorp.

It's a Contagious takeover episode! Unilever's Esi Eggleston Bracey talks about the company's marketing refresh, and TikTok star Eugene Healey (eugbrandstrat) discusses why brands want to turn up in culture with Contagious's Adam Richmond.

Instacart grew from a tiny start-up in 2012 to 82.3 million grocery orders in Q1 2025. CMO Laura Jones joins the pod to share how marketing played an important role in that growth. Hosted by Ann Marie Kerwin, Americas Editor, WARC Strategy.

Creative Strategy Lions jury president Pats McDonald and juror Yusuf Chuku share tips on what drives outstanding creative strategy, jury deliberations and much more with WARC's John Bizzell.

Shoppers around the world buy Unilever's Dirt Is Good laundry products 120 times per second. Tati Lindenberg, Chief Brand Officer for Dirt Is Good, joins to discuss localising a global masterbrand, partnerships with Arsenal FC and much more. Hosted by WARC's Anna Hamill.

2025 Creative Effectiveness Lions jurors Andrea Diquez (Global CEO, GUT) and Martin Beverley (CSO, Ace of Hearts) share insights into the jury's decision-making process, the campaigns that impressed them, and tips on how to win a Lion. Hosted by WARC's John Bizzell.

How Brene Brown quotes helped Mercado Libre win dozens of Lions, some real talk on creators and inside stories from a Lions jury room. Hosted by WARC's David Tiltman.Guests: Sean Summers, Chief Marketing Officer, Mercado Libre; Fernando Ribiero, Global Chief Strategy Officer, GUT; Anastasia Leng, CEO and Founder, CreativeX; John Bizzell, Head of Awards, WARC

Mind-blowing new research on reach promises to reshape media investment. We also discuss Love Bonito's brand growth story and keys to multimarket success.Guests: Felipe Thomaz, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Oxford; Stuart Bowden, Global Chief Strategy and Product Officer at WPP Media; Gurdeep Puri, Founding Partner at the Effectiveness Partnership; Andreas Krasser, CEO, DDB Hong Kong; Dione Song, CEO, Love Bonito

It's time to shake up how we think about creativity. Experts guests including System1, Heineken, Rob Campbell, Paula Bloodworth and Kantar drop by the pod with their perspectives on where creativity is going next.Guests: Paula Bloodworth, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Alien Baby, Chief Marketing Officer of Idris Elba's IE7; Rob Campbell, Chief Strategy Officer, Colenso; Andrew Tindall, SVP, Global Partnerships, System1; Natasha Maharaj, Global International Brands Director, Heineken; Vera Sidlova, Global Creative Thought Leadership Director, Kantar

Brand building in a complex media landscape is the talk of the Croisette. Festival speakers including McDonalds, Spotify, Dr Grace Kite, the IPA, and Tracksuit join us to share about how to get it right.Guests: Michael Ainette, Chief Creative Officer, FCB New York; Rich Frankel, Global Creative Director, Spotify Advertising; Dr. Grace Kite, VP Analytic Partners; JJ Healan, VP of U.S. Marketing, Brand, Content & Culture; Laurence Green, Director of Effectiveness, IPA; Connor Archbold, Co-CEO of Tracksuit.

We're in Cannes! Expert speakers drop in to discuss unshittifying CX, the 'eye-watering' financial impact of dull media and how to unearth more insightful trends. Guests: Yael Cesarkas, Executive Strategy Director, R/GA; Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Founder, Amplified Intelligence; Adam Morgan, co-founder, eatbigfish; Amy Daroukakis, Founder, Culture Connectors. Hosted by Rica Facundo, Managing Editor - APAC, WARC.

Building influence in the C-suite, the creator takeover and 'unshittifying' CX... it's all happening at Cannes Lions 2025. WARC's David Tiltman and Anna Hamill discuss the big stories to watch at Cannes this year. Find out more about Creative Impact here.

Kidults, social fitness and the rise of conservative video... WARC's Adi Kishore and Stephanie Siew dig into entertainment and leisure trends marketers need to know.

Brand strategy has been 'enshittified', argues Richard Huntington, CSO of Saatchi and Saatchi, in his new book Feral Strategy. He speaks to WARC's Lena Roland about why marketers need to throw off the constraints of orthodoxy and dogma to fix bland and uninspiring work.

S4 Capital's Sir Martin Sorrell joins the pod to talk industry upheaval, AI, and how Asia is setting the pace for advertising's next era with WARC's Rica Facundo.WARC's report,The Pace Principle, is a landmark analysis and mythbusting guide built on consistent data from across Southeast Asia, Greater China, and India, to prove what marketing strategies work in dynamic markets like Asia to drive outsized impact. WARC Members get the full report along with practical insights to help CMOs and marketers of every level to apply these ideas to their own work, exemplary case studies, and a deck's worth of charts to help you drive growth in dynamic and diverse markets. If you're yet to subscribe, don't worry - you can also get a sample report here. 

Producing high-quality insights and seizing cultural moments are challenges to creative confidence, according to new research. Natalia Ball (Mars Pet Nutrition) and Annie Smith (LIONS Advisory) join WARC's Anna Hamill to discuss the state of creativity in 2025. Read the full study here: State of Creativity 2025: A call for confidence.

Now is the time for marketers to build relationships and more trust with the CEO and CFO. WARC's Cathy Taylor talks to Mary Kyriakidi, Global Thought Leader at Kantar and Eric Tsytsylin, Brand Strategy Partner at Lippincott about how marketers can prove marketing's worth in challenging times. WARC members can read the full WARC Guide on “Making the case to the C-Suite: How to prove marketing drive growth in uncertain times” here.

Amazon's media 'side hustle' is booming, but that's only part of the story. WARC's Alex Brownsell and Celeste Huang discuss how Amazon's burgeoning ad empire offers new opportunities to brands.

This year's biggest measurement trends include experiments, pricing effects, AI-powered creative testing and more. WARC's Paul Stringer sits down with Ekimetrics' Matt Andrew to discuss how marketers can maximise benefit in a changing landscape.The Future of Measurement 2025 explores the latest emerging trends in media and creative measurement.WARC Members can read the report in full hereIf you're yet to subscribe, you can find a sample report here

Entertainment-driven brands like Duolingo are thinking about brand building differently. Dan Salkey, Co-Founder & Strategy Partner at Small World and Michaela Kron-Hags, Global Marketing Campaign Director at Duolingo join WARC's Catherine Driscoll to discuss disruptive ways to build a brand.

Consumer changes, pricing, politicization, retail media and more. Ian Whittaker, co-founder at Liberty Sky Advisors, joins WARCs Anna Hamill to pick out the top stories to watch from quarterly earnings season.

Retail media is expanding beyond e-commerce ecosystems and into channels like social media and connected TV. Kiri Masters, an independent commentator on the retail media industry, discusses the opportunities and potential pitfalls with WARC Media's Alex Brownsell.

Economic upheaval is hitting consumer confidence hard, and 'nouveau nihilism' is on the rise. Traci Alford, Global CEO at Effie Worldwide, and Shaun Dix, Global Service Line Leader and CEO/Creative Excellence at Ipsos, discuss their new consumer report on Nouveau Nihilism with WARC's Cathy Taylor.

Which work made the podium in this year's regional WARC Awards? WARC's John Bizzell and Anna Hamill dig into the highlights. See all the winners across regions on our awards page.

The relationship between brands and news media has deteriorated in recent years. WARC's Alex Brownsell is joined by Omar Oakes, founder at OOmph and Jamie Credland, CEO of World Media Group, to discuss why and how the relationship can bounce back.To learn more, read the latest Global Ad Trends, part of WARC Media, a quarterly report which draws on WARC's dataset of advertising and media intelligence to give a holistic view on the industry.WARC Media subscribers can read the report in full.If you're yet to join, you can find a sample of the report here.

How can brands move to a truly integrated 'brand x performance' model? In this fourth installment covering WARC's Multiplier Effect research, Americas Editor Ann Marie Kerwin sits down with Prophet's Kate Price and Marisa Mulvihill.Prophet is a contributing partner on The Multiplier Effect, along with Analytic Partners, BERA.ai and System1.WARC Members get the full report ⁠⁠along with practical insights to help CMOs and marketers of every level to apply these ideas to their own work, exemplary case studies, and a deck's worth of charts to help you make your argument to the CFO. If you're yet to subscribe, don't worry - you can also ⁠⁠get the full report here⁠⁠.

As tariffs, and fear of recession, roil the global economy, Koen Pauwels, distinguished professor of marketing at Northeastern University in Boston, discusses paths forward for brands and consumers with WARC US Commissioning Editor Cathy Taylor.

WARC's Jenny Chan speaks with two top marketers Dhiren Amin (Income Insurance) and Jiunn Shih (Zespri Kiwifruit) to unpack the new Pace Principle report — and explore how these brands are putting twin-pace thinking into practice.WARC Members can read the Pace Principle here⁠.If you're yet to subscribe, don't worry - you can also ⁠get a sample report here⁠. 

The economy is hurting, and so are ad spend forecasts. WARC's Catherine Driscoll and Anna Hamill discuss how brands can stay effective on a low budget.

Does long-term brand building work in fast-paced markets? WARC's new research, the Pace Principle, proves the case. WARC's Jenny Chan asks Rica Facundo and Rob Brittain how to outrun the competition in Asia's dynamic markets.WARC Members can read the Pace Principle here.If you're yet to subscribe, don't worry - you can also get a sample report here. 

New WARC data models potential scenarios for media channels and key global markets as a result of economic upheaval. WARC's Alex Brownsell and James McDonald go through the numbers.WARC Subscribers can read the full Q1 2025 Global Ad Forecast update here.

How to convince leadership, especially the CFO, that investing in brand building isn't just a fluffy expense, but a critical driver of long-term, profitable growth. Americas Editor Ann Marie Kerwin talks with Preston Rutherford, cofounder of the men's apparel brand Chubbies, and Marathon, a new platform designed to measure the revenue impact of brand initiatives.

Congrats to 'ADLaM: An alphabet to preserve a culture' by Microsoft and McCann NYC, winners of the Effective 100. McCann's Socrates Papazoglou joins WARC's Anna Hamill to share the inside story behind the winning work.Find the full WARC Effective 100 Rankings here. 

This is the third in our series of podcasts that talks to each of WARC's partners about the evidence they contributed to WARC's report, The Multiplier Effect, which lays out the evidence for how investment in brand drives business growth. Americas Editor Ann Marie Kerwin and System1's Jon Evans talk about how creativity contributes to effectiveness, why brand platforms are stronger than campaigns, the cost of dull and how brand building ads drive both short term sales and lasting brand impressions.

Effectiveness legend Les Binet and Intuit Mailchimp's Greg Shumchenia join WARC's David Tiltman to discuss how core marketing effectiveness principles apply to growing small and medium brands.Click here to read How to grow your brand.

Many advertisers think in terms of campaigns, when they should be focused on building long-term creative platforms. WARC's Paul Stringer sits down with Kantar's Dom Boyd to discuss why creative platforms are so effective, how they're built, and how to measure them.

Congrats to Nosotras Women Connecting and PHD Costa Rica, winners of the 2025 Media 100. Marysela Zomora and PHD's Alan Vainrub join WARC's Anna Hamill to discuss their against-the-odds campaign to ensure free menstrual products in Costa Rica's schools, passing essential legislation.Find the full WARC Media 100 Rankings here. 

New research from Oxford University's Felipe Thomaz questions the importance of optimising campaigns for maximum reach. Hosted by WARC's Alex Brownsell. Read the full report here: Beyond the Pair: Media Archetypes and Complex Channel Synergies in Advertising.

Congrats to WoMen's Football by Orange, #1 in the WARC Rankings Creative 100! Gaëtan du Peloux and Youri Guerassimov, co-CCO/CEOs at Marcel Paris, join WARC's Anna Hamill to discuss Orange's ground-breaking campaign supporting the French women's football team.The WARC Creative 100 Ranking can be viewed in full here. It includes the world's top 100 awarded campaigns for creativity, top 50 creative agencies, agency networks, brands, advertisers, countries and top holding companies.

Effie Worldwide CEO Traci Alford and Phil Thomas, Chair of Cannes Lions and Executive Chair of Informa Festivals, join WARC's David Tiltman for an exclusive interview about the future of Effies and how the two brands will be working together moving forward.

How can marketers prioritise effectiveness in a highly fragmented media landscape? Dr Grace Kite (Magic Numbers) and Tom Roach (Jellyfish) join WARC's David Tiltman to discuss new strategies to consider.

WARC's new effectiveness research The Multiplier Effect shows how brand equity drives growth. Americas Editor Ann Marie Kerwin sits down with Ken Favaro, BERA's Chief Strategy Officer and Michael Reh, BERA.ai's head of data science, to discuss the power of brand equity in effective marketing.WARC Members get the full report ⁠along with practical insights to help CMOs and marketers of every level to apply these ideas to their own work, exemplary case studies, and a deck's worth of charts to help you make your argument to the CFO. If you're yet to subscribe, don't worry - you can also ⁠get the full report here⁠.

Podcasts are having a big moment. But why is ad spend so sluggish in the channel? WARC's Alex Brownsell speaks to Timi Siytangco, Key Account Director, Asia, Acast and Giles Martin, EVP, Strategy & Insights, Oxford Road about WARC's new Global Ad Trends report covering the rise of video podcasts, creator convergence and big opportunities for brands in the podcast world.Global Ad Trends: Podcast media sets sights on video boom — WARC Media subscribers can read the report in full and non-subscribers can read a sample report. 

In this second of a two-part series covering Most Contagious New York, WARC gathers takeaways from the day from Contagious principal strategist Chris Barth, and interviews presenters George Bryant from Golin Harris, and Elizabeth Paul from The Martin Agency on how their work for Grubhub and Solo Stove respectively built buzz that led to success throughout the funnel. To listen to part one, click here.

Why Clash of Clans launched a true crime podcast, and how Nutter Butter's smart strategy transformed the brand. WARC's Ann Marie Kerwin speaks to DAVID NY's Paula Vampre and André Toledo, and Dentsu Creative's Tony Wood and Mondelēz International's Kelly Amatangelo at Most Contagious NYC.

In this episode of the WARC podcast, Becca Peel, the head of advisory at Contagious North America, and Vanessa Chin, senior VP of marketing for System1, unpack what stood out about this year's ads with Cathy Taylor, US Commissioning Editor for WARC.

Discussing the biggest trends set to shape media planning and the wider ecosystem this year; planning in the era of abundance, the rewiring of search, and commerce media can help build brands. WARC's Paul Stringer talks to Billy Ryan, head of analytics and effectiveness at the7stars.WARC members can read The Future of Media 2025 here and read Paul Stringer's introduction to the report here.

Following WARC Advisory and Edelman's Beyond the Buzz report, Tom Hehir and Jay Gallagher from Edelman join WARC's Aditya Kishore to discuss how earned media can drive greater effectiveness. With advice on media abundance, attention fragmentation and fame, hear how marketers can navigate the nuanced balance between Earned, Paid and Owned.

A deep dive into Barbie's transformation from a lightning rod to a beloved icon, and how encouraging shoppers to ‘try something new' had a transformative impact on UK supermarket Sainsbury's. WARC's Lena Roland is joined by creative strategist Alaina Crystal, and craig + bridget's Craig Mawdsley to discuss their award winning campaigns that show how great strategic thinking drove business transformation. To enter the 2025 APG Awards, download the entry kit here.

In this first episode of this year's Marketing Truth series, we are doing a deep dive into a new WARC report, The Multiplier Effect. Analytic Partners, through its ROI Genome project, pools the measurement plans of over 1000 marketers, gleaning insights into what's driving growth. Americas Editor Ann Marie Kerwin talks with SVP Mike Menkes about the pitfalls of depending too much on performance marketing tactics, and how brand building accelerates growth throughout the funnel. WARC Members get the full report along with practical insights to help CMOs and marketers of every level to apply these ideas to their own work, exemplary case studies, and a deck's worth of charts to help you make your argument to the CFO.  If you're yet to subscribe, don't worry - you can also get the full report here.

On this bonus episode, WARC's Anna Hamill speaks to Madison & Wall's Brian Wieser and WARC Media's Alex Brownsell about the uncertain future of TikTok in the US and the impact of Meta's content moderation changes. Is this a new era for social media?