Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Have you tested WARC?

We have a trial to WARC.com, a database used extensively by advertising agencies, market research companies and media agencies. Peggy Teich has worked with the database and wrote a nice summary of its features. I'll post some of her general comments here but be sure to look for her full report on the shared drive in the "Databases" folder.

Unique Content: WARC contains information not available elsewhere. Examples are transcripts and reports from advertising research organization conferences from Europe (ESOMAR - World Association of Opinion and Marketing Research Professionals, formerly European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) and the United States (ARF or Advertising Research Foundation). Also included are transcripts and reports from related advertising associations such as POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising International). In addition, numerous periodicals, many of them British, are available in the full text here and unavailable elsewhere.

All Subjects Index: Allows employment of drill down technique and is, in many cases, the most effective use of the database. This may be the best search method when looking for broad or conceptual information (like advertising effectiveness or the long or short term effects of advertising, for example).

Case Studies: Click "find a case study" - allows selection of criteria by industry, by medium, target group and by advertising technique. Example: How have food companies targeted children on the internet? This search will yield information on companies that have effectively advertised and what that campaign entailed (medium used, frequency of advertising, length of campaign, etc.)

Classics: WARC will allow you to search for classics or alternatively, will denote on the results page which articles are classics.

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