1. Warc User Guide
Introduction
In addition to this User Guide, remember our Help page where you'll also find:
• Warc Demo: a video demonstration of the key areas of warc.com
• FAQs: common queries and questions answered
• Search Tips: hints on getting the best from search
There are several routes you can take to access the content you want on warc.com; each is dealt
with in a separate section of this user guide:
• Search: A guide to keyword searching and refining results, the Advanced Search, Case
Finder (for searching just case studies) and Campaign Videos (for searching video content
only).
• Site navigation: Covers the key content areas that can be accessed from every page via
the horizontal navigation bar - Case Studies, Topics & Trends, News & Opinion, Forecasts &
Data and Your Warc.
• Forecasts & Data: Explains how to access all of Warc's own proprietary data, including our
international ad expenditure data, and its update schedules, as well as Warc's media data
and takeaway charts.
• Personalisation: How to get the most from warc.com by deciding what content appears on
your homepage, the topics to follow and managing your Warc profile.
• The Warc Toolbar: A guide to using the Warc Toolbar for creating folders and storing
content and notes in them, as well as saving searches and compiling video playlists.

2. Search
Word searching using the Search Engine
A keyword search will often be the quickest way to find content. Type your query in the box in the
top-right corner of the screen, and hit go. You can enter a word, multiple words or a phrase. Type a
phrase such as product placement in "double quotes" (Eg. “product placement”) if you want only
results using those exact words rather than results that include content also containing variations of
the word or phrase.
The search engine is automatically set to search “All of Warc” for your query. But you can also set
your search to bring back results only from a specific content type – such as Case Studies, Articles,
Research Papers, News or Charts – by using the drop-down menu to the right of the search box.
To save on typing, many of the most popular Warc search terms are pre-stored in the search engine
and will be suggested onscreen when you start typing them in. Just click on one of these suggested
search terms and hit go.
You can also build more complex search queries using so-called Boolean terms such as AND, OR
and NOT. Note, these terms must always be typed in CAPITAL LETTERS. For example:
• Starbucks AND innovation OR new product development (this will look for content
mentioning Starbucks as well as either innovation or new product development).
• Smartphones NOT iPhones (this will search for content which mentions smartphones but
exclude anything mentioning iPhones).
A typical search results page looks like this:
There are many ways of optimising your results from this page:

3. • Cross-screen tabs: The tabs at the top of the screen allow you to refine by content type: for
example, the Articles tab contains pieces from sources such as Admap, Market Leader
and the ANA Magazine, while Research Papers includes content from academic journals
and research-based sources such as ESOMAR.
• Sort by: This option (the blue box above the listed results) allows you to toggle between
sorting your results by Relevance (the default) and Date.
On the left-hand side of the page, you will find many different ways to refine your results.
You can refine your results by typing an additional term or phrase into the Search Within box or by
narrowing results by:
• Date range
• Country
• Industry Sector
• Brand
• Source
Click any of the individual links in these boxes to refine your results (Eg. select USA from the
Country refinement to bring back only US-related material). Any refinements you select will be
summarised in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
If you want to re-trace your steps during the refinement process, click on any of the items marked
with a cross in the top left of the screen. This will remove this refinement and automatically refresh
results to reflect this change. You also have the option to Save Search at any point (see the chapter
on the Toolbar for more details).
There’s more help for you on the right-hand side of the screen.
Related Searches offers you search terms and phrases which are closely related to the one you
have selected. Clicking on any link in the Related Searches box will run a new search based on the
term selected.
On some searches, you will see an additional right-hand box, appearing above Related Searches,
entitled Why not try? This feature appears when Warc has a Topic Page short cut which we
believe is relevant to your search. Topic Pages bring together in one place relevant content on
Warc’s most popular subjects (they are covered in more detail in the Chapter on Navigation).
There's more about search on our Search Tips page.
Advanced Search
If you want to impose additional refinements at the start of your search, click the Advanced Search
link beneath the Search box at the top-right of the screen.

4. The Advanced Search offers a series of filters with which to refine your results, including:
• Keyword combinations: find content containing exact phrases, individual keywords, or
some combination of both exact phrases and individual words, as well as content that
excludes specific words.
• Date Range: pinpoint content within a specific range of publication dates.
• Field: confine your search to just Titles, Summaries, Author Name, Fulltext, or combinations
thereof.
• Source: select which content sources to include in your search (the default setting is all
sources).
Fields are optional: you can type in and/or select as few or as many criteria as you like. For
example, you can concentrate on just building a word search using the search box options, or you
may leave these completely blank and focus on selecting a specific date range and single content
source to return articles from a single issue of a publication (e.g. November 2010's Admap).

5. More search options: Case Finder and Campaign Videos
Along with Search and Advanced Search, warc.com has two further ways of searching for case
studies and videos. Both can be found in the Case Studies drop-down box on the menu at the top of
the screen.
Case Finder
Case Finder is a quick way to find groups of case studies that share certain features in common:
you might want to find cases from a certain industry sector or a single region, with a shared
objective (“brand launch”, “increase brand awareness”), campaigns that target a certain audience,
that use TV or word of mouth or any combination of the above.
Clicking on the Case Finder takes you to this screen, from which you build your search.

6. Clicking on the arrows to the right of each option box brings up a series of check boxes, of which
you can click as many as you like. Take the following example where the user is looking for
Financial Services case studies from North America.
First, click on the right hand arrow next to the Industry Sectors option, click the + icon, and then
the check box next to Select all financial services.
Next, specify your region by opening the Countries & Regions box.

7. Again, the box on the right automatically updates to reflect your selections. Once you are happy
with your choices, click on the blue Find Cases button beneath this box to retrieve your results.
This takes you to a search results page where you can apply all the usual refinements via the boxes
along the left-hand column or eliminate any of your prior refinements. To amend your criteria
further, clicking Back to previous page will return you to the Case Finder page.
Campaign Videos
You’ll find videos available within many of the case studies on warc.com. The Campaign Videos
page enables you to search all these videos on their own (and then link to related case studies if
you wish). Here is an example of a Campaign Video search for Pepsi.

8. Videos are tagged by Brand, Brand Owner and Agency. In this example, a Pepsi ad is selected;
the brand owner is PepsiCo and the agency is JWT.
If you wanted to see other campaign videos from JWT, hit the Agency button at the top-right of the
screen, below the search box. It's a similar process to find videos sharing the same Brand and
Brand Owner.
If you want to view the case study from which the campaign video has been taken, click on the View
Case Study button below the video window.

9. Site Navigation
The horizontal site navigation bar is the key route into all of the various content areas of warc.com
- Case Studies, Topics & Trends, News & Opinions, Forecasts & Data and Your Warc - with each
heading opening an expandable sub-menu.
Case Studies
The Case Studies menu offers:
• Case Finder: search for case studies by industry sector, target audience, media used and
more (for further details, see the User Guide chapter on Search).
• Campaign Videos: search and browse the video content that accompanies many of our
individual case studies (for further details, see the User Guide chapter on Search).
• Latest Awards: the most recent award-winning case studies from around the world.

10. Topics & Trends
Topics & Trends offers a shortcut to the Warc Index, Topic Pages, Company Profiles, Best Practice
and Warc Briefings sections. Apart from performing a word search, the Warc Index is perhaps the
most efficient way of quickly finding the information you want on warc.com.
All of the content contained within the master index - accessed by clicking on Warc Index in the
Topics & Trends box. The index groups all articles, research papers and case studies into six
master categories, including Communications, Consumers and Industry Sectors (this latter
category contains all the case studies).

11. Clicking on one of the individual categories brings you to a page on which all of that category's sub-
groups are listed - for example, Communications.
From there, picking a single category (e.g. Agency costs and finance) takes you to a page
containing all of the relevant content, with links to similar and related categories on the right.

12. Also on the Topics & Trends menu is a link to Topic Pages. Each Topic Page has been designed to
cover a specific subject by showcasing selected research papers, case studies, company profiles
or news; they are all contained within seven subcategories.
Topic Pages are constantly updated with the latest relevant content. So, for example, if you want to
browse our latest content on the subject of Brand Architecture, click on the Brand Strategy
subcategory, and then on Brand Architecture.
When a new piece about Brand Architecture is published on the site, it will automatically appear on
this page.

13. You also have the option of digging deeper into our latest content. On the Brand Architecture Topic
Page, you can click on the View All buttons in the Articles or Latest Case Studies boxes to browse
and search within lists of relevant articles, papers and case studies.
The Topics & Trends menu box also offers links to:
• Company Profiles: in-depth, regularly-updated analyses of individual companies provided
by Euromonitor.
• Best Practice: a practical series of "how to" guides .
• Warc Briefings: overviews of key areas in communications and branding, which you'll also
find featured on many Topic Pages.
News & Opinion
Users concerned with getting the very latest marketing information can use the pages contained
within warc.com's News & Opinion section, which offers the latest marketing stories from around
the world, together with event reports, blogs and more.
The section includes:
• News: updated daily, the news section offers a digest of what's happening in the world of
marketing.
• Conference Reports: in-depth coverage of what people are talking about at the latest
industry events.
• Blogs: frequent posts from our team of bloggers around the world, including insight from
both the client and the agency side, as well as Warc staff.
• Quotebank: a database of pithy and memorable quotes from both contemporary and
advertising greats.
• Classic Speeches: memorable oratory from the 1920s onwards.
• Event Listings: upcoming conference dates for your diary.
Other navigation menus:
• Forecasts & Data: for adspend figures and forecasts, media data and takeway charts (see
the specific chapter on Forecasts & Data for full details)
• Your Warc: for updating your profile and personalising warc.com (see the specific chapter
on Personalisation for full details).

14. Forecasts & Data
The Forecasts & Data section can be accessed via a drop-down box in the top menu that appears
on every page of warc.com.
The section offers access to Warc’s comprehensive advertising expenditure database (historical
and forecast data), alongside forecast reports, global media costs, media trends and benchmark
data. It also contains a wide-ranging collection of Takeway Charts in PowerPoint format.

15. Forecasts & Data
The Forecasts & Data page is a gateway to Warc's adspend database and forecast reports.
Adspend Database – Overview
Warc's Global Adspend Database, covering 80 markets in total, comprises original Warc data plus
figures collected from dozens of respected partners around the globe.
It incorporates adspend data for seven media channels: newspapers, magazines, TV, radio,
cinema, out of home and internet.
Where possible, Warc publishes harmonised data to give a more accurate, comparable picture of
each country’s ad market. However, this is not possible in all cases, and data collection methods
vary considerably from country to country. Please refer to the detailed notes and sources for further
information.
The Adspend Database allows users to access the latest data in two ways. It’s possible to select a
pre-made Takeaway Table or use Table Builder (see below) to specify individual criteria. Both
options enable you to open or save data in Excel format.
Individual markets are updated on a rolling basis. Global data for a single calendar year is
generally released by September of the following year. (For any further queries on Warc’s data
schedule please contact your Client Services Manager.)

16. Table Builder
Clicking on the Table Builder option enables you to create your own bespoke adspend reports.
Choose according to your own set of preferences and parameters and then download the data in
Excel format.
You have four different selections to make for each table:
• Select Currency: allows you to choose whether to view results in US dollars or in local
currency. Please note: if you want to select global or regional data, you must select US
dollars.
• Output/Preferences: choose to have adspend figures calculated at current prices or
constant 2005 prices, alongside annual percentage changes.
• Select Time Period: select required years from 1981–2011.
• Select Data Series: pick your country and your medium (multiple selections are allowed). If
you want an overview of total adspend for a single medium (eg. TV) across all markets, use
the Global Overview menu; if you want an overview for a particular region of total adspend
across all seven of the media measured, (eg all North American adspend data) use the
Regional Overview menu.
Once you have set your parameters, hit Download to access your data in Excel format. You can
also save your settings for future visits by checking the check box at the bottom of the page. You
then give the custom table a name, and hit Save.

17. Example using Table Builder
The following options have been selected:
• US dollars
• Constant prices
• 1990–1999
• France, TV
After hitting Download, a pop-up box offers you the choice to download your custom table to your
hard drive or to open it straight away.

18. The resulting table looks like this:
From this example, at constant 2005 prices, French TV adspend rose from $3.58bn in 1990, to hit a
peak of $4.81bn in 1995, before falling back to $3.57bn in 1999.

19. Quarterly Forecasts
Warc's forecasts can be quickly accessed by clicking on the links in the Quarterly Forecasts box.
Both forecasts look two years ahead and cover the following media channels: newspapers,
magazines, TV, radio, cinema, out of home and internet.
The Warc International Ad Forecast (covering 12 key global markets) is released four times a year:
in January, April, July and October. The latest forecast estimates are incorporated into the Adspend
Database.
Meanwhile, the Warc Consensus Forecast (covering 12 key global markets) is also updated four
times a year, although the nature of the report means timings can vary. The aim is to publish the
Consensus Forecast in February, May, August and November.
Global Media Costs – Overview
This section allows users to access Warc’s database of global media costs alongside media
inflation forecasts for key markets.
The purpose of Warc's global media costs database is to provide standardised, summarised
information in a comparable format, which will help the user broadly estimate the likely cost of
communicating a marketing message.
The global media cost data has been provided by the global media agency group, OMD. Data is
collated from an annual survey. The costs shown are after the deduction of negotiated discounts,
but before the deduction of agency commission.
The database incorporates media cost data for seven media channels: newspapers,
magazines, TV, radio, out of home, cinema and internet; for eight target audiences: adults, men,
women, main shoppers, children, young adults, upmarket adults and businessmen.
Users can access the database via the Table Builder, which allows for the specification of
individual criteria.
Warc also carries out its own survey of media inflation twice a year. Working with a panel of four
global media agencies, Warc asks each agency to estimate the annual percentage increase in cost
per thousand based on an 'all adults' audience for specified formats, eg. 30 second spot on TV,
colour page in magazines. Warc then takes a straight average of the results. These results are
published in our Media Inflation Forecast.

20. Table Builder
Clicking on the Table Builder option enables you to create your own bespoke media cost reports.
Choose according to your own set of preferences and parameters and then download the data in
Excel format.
You have six different selections to make for each table:
• Select Currency: allows you to choose whether to view results in US dollars or in local
currency.
• Output/Preferences: choose to download data as cost per 100 GRPs or cost per thousand.
• Select Time Period: select required years from 2004–2009.
• Select Target Audience: pick your target audience. Please note: only one target audience
can be selected per download.
• Select Medium: pick your chosen medium.
• Select Country: pick your country from the available options. It is possible to select multiple
countries.
Once you have set your parameters, hit Download to access your data in Excel format. You can
also save your settings for future visits by ticking the check box at the bottom of the page. You then
give the custom table a name, and hit Save.
Downloaded data is presented in a similar format to the Adspend Database.

21. Media Data
The range of media data offered includes:
• Time Spent by Medium: data from 50+ markets across seven major media (Excel).
• TV Viewing Trends: details of individual channels' market shares across 70 countries
(Excel).
• Newspapers Trends: market overviews and statistics across 70 countries (PDF).
Benchmarks
Warc provides benchmarks for:
• Advertising expenditure as a percentage of sales ratios: this is a key consideration when
setting advertising budgets; our data covers industry sectors in the US and UK (Excel).
• Production Costs: a brief summary report of advertising production expenditure made by
UK advertisers, based on an annual survey of the larger members of the Incorporated
Society of British Advertisers.

22. Personalisation
Taking a little time to personalise warc.com ensures you get the most from our service - and there
are several different ways to do this.
Homepage
By default, six of the most popular content boxes appear on the warc.com homepage when you first
log on. These include Just Arrived - links to some of the recent highlights to be uploaded to the site -
Your Topic Updates and News Headlines.
But the way in which your homepage appears each time you visit warc.com is really up to you.
After clicking on the blue Customise your homepage option at the bottom-right corner of the
screen, you can choose to add (and remove) content boxes.
Each of these boxes contains the latest updates from a particular content area of the site.

23. Optimising which boxes appear on your homepage enables you to prioritise which content you see
- from new issues of Admap or the latest case studies to recent Blogs and Warc adspend data.
You can add (and remove) these content boxes as you wish by a single click on the Add or Remove
buttons next to each box. The boxes that already appear on your homepage have a blue border.
Newly-added items appear at the very bottom of the homepage.
But you can reposition any content box with a simple-drag-and-drop approach. Just click and hold
the icon at the top-right corner of the box and drag the box to the part of the homepage you want it
to appear in.
You can rearrange any of your content boxes appearing on the homepage in this way.
Your Topics
You can also personalise the items that appear in Your Topic Updates - one of the content boxes
automatically set up on your homepage.
Your Topics keep you up to speed with our latest content on the topics of your choice; there are over
50 to choose from, ranging from Using Emotion to Luxury Marketing. You can choose and review the
topics you follow via the Your Warc menu at the top-right of the screen.

24. From the Your Topics section, you browse through the topic categories via the left hand menu
(under Select Your Topics), and make selections by clicking in the check boxes of the individual
categories on the right (under Your Content).

25. So, for this example, Brand Architecture and Celebrity Branding - both located in the Brand
Strategy topic category - are selected.
You can keep track of your choices through the Your Chosen Topics section at the right of the
screen; if you wish to remove a topic, you can also click the X buttons next to each topic.
Click on Save Changes when you are happy with your selection.
Once you have done this, the latest content on your chosen topics appears on the Your Topics box
on your homepage – together with a link to the full Topic Page of all our best content on that subject.
You can change the topics you follow at any time by going back to the Your Topics section within
the Your Warc menu.
Your Warc
Further personalisation options can be found within the Your Warc menu:
• Your Profile can be edited at any time by navigating to this page and then clicking on
Update Your Profile. From this page, you can change personal information such as job
titles and your email address, and upload a profile picture which will appear alongside any
comments you post next to articles or blog posts (though you also retain the option not to
show this picture).
• Email Updates: choose which Warc emails you receive. There are three of these: a daily
Warc News bulletin and monthly updates of latest highlights arriving on warc.com and the
latest issue of Admap. You can manage the mails via the check boxes located next to each
of the three; click Save Changes once you have set your preferences.

26. • Client Services: full contact details of your Warc client services manager.
• Usage History: a list of all the papers you have viewed on the site in the past month, and all
of the searches conducted in the last three months.
• Warc Plus: the paid-for service that puts our research team at your disposal. If you have a
specific question to ask and you have yet to find the answer on your own, you can purchase
a Warc Plus report that will reach your inbox within 24 hours. The report pulls together a
comprehensive collection of the most-relevant information and data, and provides
interpretation and analysis of profiled information geared specifically for your enquiry.

27. The Warc Toolbar
The Warc Toolbar - located along the bottom of the screen on every logged-in page - is a place to
save, manage and recall key information. This includes creating folders for content and making
notes, as well as saving searches and compiling video playlists. (The Toolbar does not work in older
web browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 or earlier.)
Notes and Folders
Notes & Folders is for storing, recalling and making notes about Warc content.
Articles and case studies can be added to folders individually (by clicking the Add to Folder button
which appears at the top of them) or in batches (by checking the boxes beside the items you want to
add in search results and clicking the Add to Folder button at the top of the list).
You can assign items to existing folders or create new ones - simply provide a name when
prompted.
At this point, you can also assign a note to the items you add by clicking Add note to my selection.

28. Then click Add to Folder.
Folders and the items and notes you save to them are automatically saved to the Notes & Folders
section of your Toolbar, where you can browse, edit or delete their contents. Below items are being
saved to a folder named “Shopper Research”.

29. Saved Searches
Saved Searches is a tool for storing and recalling specific search results, which can be useful if you
have a set of search terms you often use on warc.com, or have you spent time building a specific set
of refinements. Simply click on the Save Search button at the top-left of the search results screen.
When you click Save Search, you are prompted to name your search.

30. You can then access your saved search via the Warc Toolbar.
When you click on your saved search at a later date, you are automatically taken to the same
results page - and you can check whether anything new has arrived on the site.
To delete a saved search, click on the X to the right of the listed search.
Video Playlist
You can save a video to a playlist by clicking the Save to Playlist button at the top of a case study or
when viewing a video within the Campaign Videos section. You can store up to 10 videos in your
playlist.
These can then be accessed on the Warc Toolbar.

31. The final button on the Warc Toolbar - the Noticeboard - is a shortcut for you to keep up to date with
the latest news and announcements from Warc.