Giving GWI a credible voice in culture

The research giant; GWI (formerly Global Web Index) had recently gone through an extensive rebrand, with a view to creating a brand world that is fit for purpose given the spectacular growth the business has experienced and its ambitious plans for the future. As a business and a brand, GWI has a passion for doing things differently. They are bold, confident, innovative and energetic, in a way that most others in the world of research and data are not - and they wanted to announce their brand to the UK and US markets.

The Challenge

GWI wanted to reach audiences outside of the usual research department - the storytellers in organisations, those who are creative and have a need for data to help tell those stories. So effectively we needed to reach, amongst others, agency folk. The most creatively cynical group on the planet.

The Insight

Data’s role in marketing is becoming increasingly critical, bringing clear benefits around deeper customer understanding, insights into value drivers and measurement, enhancing personalisation and customer experience, and driving marketing performance. And above all, data has a key role in helping to tell the stories within an organisation that can really drive change and growth. But, for it to be really powerful, you need to have access to it before anyone else. The key for us was to showcase that with GWI, you can unleash the storytelling power of data earlier than anyone else.

Strategy & Approach

For this to cut-through with our agency folk, we knew we needed a powerful creative idea with a visceral message and a distinct visual layer. And because this is a relatively low-interest category on the whole, we needed a way of helping GWI punctuate moments on culture in a meaningful way, to show up with insights at the moment that things were happening, and to bring context to situations that no-one else - certainly in the slow moving world of research - could bring. GWI were at the forefront of innovation in the space, so we needed to show that we could move at the speed of culture so as to give our subscribers the ultimate edge.

Our Solution

‘Who cares…’ was a powerful creative thought that ticked all the boxes for the brand. By asking a set of seemingly provocative questions - “Who cares about the NHS?”, “Who cares about Climate change?”, “Who cares about Vaccines?” - and resolved the ad with a “We know who” brand line.

This positioned the brand as the go-to research platform to learn about consumer attitudes right now. We were able to position tactical messaging at appropriate OOH sites - for example “Who cares about Spurs?” right outside the Arsenal stadium - to give brilliant PR opportunities to the brand.

We took the campaign to global audiences, including the US, Singapore and Australia, delivering culturally-relevant messaging across the world (“Who cares about the Superbowl?”).