The WARC Podcast

How can strategy deliver measurable business value? Catherine Driscoll speaks with Martin Beverley (Ace of Hearts) and Baiba Matisone about value-based agency models, business-minded collaboration, timeless principles, and staying distinctive and evidence-led in an AI-shaped industry.

Guests:
Martin Beverley, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Ace of Hearts 
Baiba Matisone, Brand & Creative Strategy Consultant
Catherine Driscoll, Commissioning Editor - EMEA, WARC

Chapters:
(00:00) — Intro: Strategy's Commercial Calue in 2026
(01:54) — Why Time-Based Agency Fees Undervalue Creative Strategy
(05:05) — Value-Based Pricing and Bespoke Agency Models
(06:02) — Four Agency Pricing Models: Outputs, Outcomes, IP and Equity
(09:40) — Systems Thinking for Client-Centered Strategy
(11:13) — How to Demonstrate the Business Value of Strategy
(13:16) — Helping CMOs Make the Case for Strategy to the Board
(16:08) — Applying Creativity Beyond Advertising
(20:23) — Timeless Marketing Principles vs. Industry Trends
(26:15) — AI, Critical Thinking and the Future of Strategy Skills
(28:40) — Why Brand Distinctiveness Matters More in the AI Era
(30:18) — Is the Future of Strategy Worth Being Optimistic About?

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

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Ad strategists are navigating two realities on AI: its benefit as a research tool, and the fear it may take their jobs. In the first of WARC's Future of Strategy series, Nikita Walia (U.N.N.A.M.E.D) and Joe Burns (Quality Meats) join Ann Marie Kerwin to examine whether AI is a strategist's friend, foe, or something in the middle, based on new data from WARC research.

Guests:
Nikita Walia, Partner & Strategist, U.N.N.A.M.E.D;
Joe Burns, Partner and Head of Strategy, Quality Meats Creative
Ann Marie Kerwin, Americas Editor, WARC

Supporting resources:
The Future of Strategy 2026: The future is hard to measure (Joe Burns) https://www.warc.com/en/article/the-future-is-hard-to-measure-1dbdbd7a20454b65b97470b36407f6e8
The Future of Strategy 2026: The skills strategists need to thrive in 2026 and beyond (Nikita Walia) https://www.warc.com/en/article/the-skills-strategists-need-c3a1888f29e6467299bf892259f1b7e1

The Future of Strategy 2026 (full report) https://www.warc.com/en/article/the-future-of-strategy-2026-d9afde10c3a948d789a91159ae7f23ce 

Chapters:
(00:00) - Intro: The Future of Strategy 2026
(02:30) - AI Anxiety: Will AI Replace Marketing Strategists?
(04:57) - Using AI to Prototype and Stress-Test Strategic Ideas
(08:45) - Why Strategic Insight Is More Than a Polished Deck
(11:27) - Avoiding AI’s Legibility Trap in Brand Strategy
(15:26) - Building Brand Differentiation Beyond Advertising
(17:52) - How Strategists Can Lead Upstream Business Thinking
(21:26) - Bringing Strategy Into Early Brand Decisions
(24:07) - Aligning Agency Teams With AI and Shared Context
(27:04) - The Human Skills AI Can’t Replace: Client Relationships
(31:11) - Why Beauty Creates Commercial Value for Brands
(35:02) - Career Advice for Strategists: Look Beyond Marketing
(36:28) - Start a Business to Build Practical Strategy Skills

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

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New research looks into unspoken qualities that different out-of-home formats convey, and the impact this can have on campaign effectiveness. WPP Media's Richard Kirk and Ocean Outdoor's Steve Bernard join Alex Brownsell to discuss why not all outdoor formats are created equal.

Guests:
Richard Kirk, EVP - Planning, WPP Media
Steve Bernard, Head of Insight, Ocean Outdoor
Alex Brownsell, Head of Content, WARC Media

Chapters:
[00:00] — Intro: The Hidden Powers of Out-of-Home Media
[01:47] — Meet the Guests: WPP Media's Richard Kirk & Ocean Outdoor's Steve Bernard
[02:10] — Media Signaling: How Channels Shape Brand Perceptions
[06:07] — Why Out-of-Home Advertising Needs Format-Level Research
[09:38] — Attention vs. Signaling: Two Measures of Media Quality
[12:16] — UK Digital Out-of-Home: Premium Formats and 3D Creative
[14:53] — How the Out-of-Home Signaling Study Was Conducted
[16:36] — Study Results: Premium OOH, Iconic Formats, and TV
[19:15] — Using Brand Signaling to Justify Premium Media CPMs
[23:20] — How Premium OOH Can Amplify Omnichannel Campaigns
[25:43] — What Signaling Research Means for Media Planners
[28:46] — Key Takeaways: Trust, Reach, and Attentive Signaling
[32:02] — Quality-Adjusted Reach: Planning Media for Business Outcomes

#marketing #advertising #mediaplanning #OOH

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

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The US produces some of the most careful, literal commercials in the world. Is this 'vanilla' approach a creative failure? Or is it a structural necessity? Shann Biglione, author of 'The Vanilla Imperative: Why US Advertisers Are So Carefully Bland' joins WARC's Ann Marie Kerwin to discuss the nuances of US consumer psychology and why, in a nation as culturally loose yet ideologically polarized as the United States, playing it safe isn't a sign of creative cowardice but the only rational economic move to avoid alienating a fragmented market.

Guests: 
Shann Biglione, Co-founder, Kumkuat AI
Ann Marie Kerwin, Americas Editor, WARC

Chapters:
00:00 Intro: Why US Advertising is so carefully bland
02:10 U.S. Ads vs. Global Ads: A creative gap?
03:52 Is bland advertising a result of fiduciary duties?
05:49 Why American ads favor literal, verifiable claims
08:20 American identity and the challenge of mass marketing
11:28 Cultural identity in US consumer audiences
13:44 Media fragmentation, algorithms, and US consumer Tribes
17:39 Nike, Liquid Death, and Yeti: Winning niche audiences
21:47 The 'stretch but don’t break' brand framework
23:34 The snap, overlap, and trip-wire tests for brand strategy
27:14 Screenshot and Boomerang tests for advertising campaigns
30:22 Protecting your brand core and exploring new flavors

#marketing #advertising #creativity #brandstrategy

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

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Video campaigns are 2x more likely to grow B2B market share and 1.7x more likely to deliver stronger ROI, according to new research from LinkedIn's B2B Institute and WARC. Amazon Business's Kate Rundell, LinkedIn's Vita Molis and LIONS Advisory's Imaad Ahmed join Anna Hamill to share insights from the research and practical applications for B2B marketing.

Chapters:
[00:00] Intro: Why video matters in B2B marketing
[02:34[ Methodology: 1,025 Award-Winning B2B Campaigns Comparing Video vs Non-Video
[05:03] How B2B Video Drives Market Share, ROI and Search Performance
[07:14] The “Video Paradox”: High B2B Video Effectiveness but Flat Investment Budgets
[09:35] Winning Over The B2B Buying Group
[12:34] Amazon Business's CMO on Using Video Across the Full B2B Marketing Funnel
[15:05] Creative Lessons: Designing Silent-First B2B Video and Proving ROI with Data
[16:34] Discoverable, Credible, Winnable: How Video Builds B2B Brand Trust and Recall
[18:35] Why B2B Marketers Underinvest in Video and Misjudge Business Buyers
[22:32] Use Cases For B2B Video
[24:40] Make Video Work Harder: Jobs-to-Be-Done and Journey-Led Planning
[27:22] The Future of B2B Video: AI, Hidden Buyers and CFO-Friendly Measurement

Supporting resources on WARC.com:
Unlocking the Value of Video in B2B: https://www.warc.com/en/article/unlocking-the-value-of-video-in-b-2-b-728926f28b29431c9493c568690fefea

#B2Bmarketing #marketing #advertising #videomarketing #media #B2B #marketingscience

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

Book a demo: https://www.warc.com/en/subscribe

2026 has been a challenging year for marketers, with constant upheaval forcing consequential decisions. Amid all this: the impact of the K shaped economy. WARC's Catherine Driscoll and Carat's Tony de Vizio join Anna Hamill to discuss marketing in economically challenging times, based on insights from WARC's recent report 'Marketing In The K-Shaped Economy'.

Guests:
Catherine Driscoll, EMEA Commissioning Editor, WARC
Tony de Vizio, Global Partnerships Director, Carat
Anna Hamill, Senior Editor - The WARC Podcast, WARC

Chapters:
[00:00] Intro: Marketing in the K-shaped Economy
[00:09] What Is the K-Shaped Economy? Setting the Marketing Context
[02:28] A Two-Speed Consumer Reality: Hermes vs Buy Now Pay Later
[03:09- How the K-Shaped Economy Changes Demand, Resilience and Marketing
[05:46] Top of the K: Affluent Consumers Driving Global Marketing Spend
[07:31] The End of the “Average Consumer” and What It Means for Marketers
[10:33] Mid-Market Brands in a K-Shaped Economy
[11:55] Redefining Value in Marketing: Beyond Low Price to Emotional Return
[14:07] Category, Occasion and Pricing Strategy in a K-Shaped Economy
[17:29] Marketing to Affluent Consumers: Luxury Lessons on Depth and Pricing Power
[19:27] Marketing to Pressured Consumers: Value, Dignity and Life-on-a-Budget
[22:00] How Technology Accelerates the K-Shaped Economy
[24:07] K-Shaped AI Adoption and Strategic Questions for Marketing Leaders

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

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Brands are increasingly looking toward micro and nano creators for social cut-through. Marcus Yong, VP - Global Marketing at travel brand Klook, joins WARC's Rica Facundo to discuss how smaller creators can help target niche segments while still scaling for reach, based on frameworks from WARC's Pace Principle 2.0 research.

Guests:
Marcus Yong, VP - Global Marketing, Klook
Rica Facundo, Managing Editor - Asia, WARC

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

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The gap between creative and media is closing, with large scale creative data and next-gen measurement tools combining to predict commercial outcomes, not just clicks. Boots' Peter Grant, CreativeX's Anastasia Leng and DAIVID's Ian Forrester join the pod to share the lessons from a pilot experiment at health and beauty retailer Boots, and what its taught them about the future of creative effectiveness. Hosted by WARC's David Tiltman.

Guests:
Peter Grant, interim media and marketing effectiveness director, Boots
Anastasia Leng, founder and CEO of CreativeX
Ian Forrester, founder and CEO of DAIVID

Chapters:
[00:00] Boots, CreativeX and DAIVID’s Real‑World Test
[03:55] Boots’ effectiveness journey
[05:49] 3,500 assets at scale: how CreativeX built creative observability for Boots
[07:43] What is a creative quality score?
[09:32] Inside DAIVID’s model: attention and brand recall metrics
[11:41] Human ground truth vs synthetic data panels
[12:52] Linking creative signals to real‑world commercial outcomes
[14:55] Results of the testing on Meta and YouTube
[17:22] Diagnosing boredom, confusion and underperforming creative at scale
[20:02] How Boots uses creative data to reinvest, not cut, media spend
[22:02] From one‑off analysis to always‑on optimization
[24:34] Feeding signals into GenAI and creator workflows
[27:26] Fixing long‑tail content waste in digital media
[30:18] Common language for creative and media teams
[38:06] Boots’ 18‑month vision: operationalized creative effectiveness

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

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Failing to usher buyers from discovery to purchase in the fewest possible steps is often seen as a setback. This belief misunderstands the consumer purchase journey, according to new research. Mindscope's Lea Karam and TikTok's Elias W. Bassil join WARC's Alex Brownsell to discuss the alchemy of customer consideration.

Guests:
Lea Karam, CEO & Founder of Mindscope
Elias W. Bassil, Regional Head of Business Marketing, TikTok METAP
Alex Brownsell, Head of Content, WARC Media

Chapters:
[0:10] – Introducing “The Alchemy of Consideration” with TikTok & Mindscope
[1:56] – Does Marketing Misunderstand the Consideration Phase in the Customer Journey?
[3:28] – Why Traditional Journey Models Are Broken
[5:51] – Reframing Decision-Making Beyond Funnel Thinking
[10:41] – What Is a Behavioral Pause?
[12:57] – Desire vs Need: Liking, Wanting, and Value Alignment in Consumer Choice
[13:42] – How Pauses Show Up on TikTok
[16:54] – The Cost of Forcing Narratives in the Consideration Phase
[18:18] – Short-Term KPIs vs Long-Term Brand Building: Rethinking the Attention Economy
[21:10] – The Four Forces of Consideration: Social, Cognitive, Contextual, and Emotional
[23:18] – Why Context Has Veto Power: Viewing Environment and Mental Availability
[27:44] – How Brands Can Improve Consideration Effectiveness

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

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Effectiveness expert James Hurman joins to discuss the key ideas in his new book 'Future Demand', why performance marketing is plateauing, how brands really grow, and the nuances of building a dual measurement system. Hosted by WARC's David Tiltman.

Guests:
James Hurman, marketing effectiveness expert and author, 'Future Demand'
David Tiltman, Chief Content Officer, WARC

Chapters:
[00:00] Introduction to James Hurman’s new book 'Future Demand'
[03:21] Solving diminishing returns in performance marketing
[07:07] Explaining 'future vs current demand' with the 95–5 rule and Ehrenberg-Bass insights
[09:39] Why advertising doesn’t directly cause short-term sales
[11:18] How consideration sets drive 84% of brand choice
[13:20] Making marketing make sense to the C-suite
[16:19] Advertising’s true role is misunderstood
[22:38] Two jobs of advertising: brand building for future demand vs performance for current demand
[23:20] How to measure brand and performance impact
[27:15] Using emotional metrics as leading indicators
[31:10] How digital-first brands rebalanced brand and performance
[35:41] The 'two audience problem': why brands must be machine-readable and human-lovable

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

Subscribe to The WARC Podcast here: https://www.warc.com/en/warc-podcasts

Sign up to daily WARC News for free: https://www.warc.com/en/latest

Book a demo: https://www.warc.com/en/subscribe