Costs
Part of Reading marketing collateral with a skeptical eye
3 takeaways on marketing collateral case studies
marketing collateral case studies should reveal audience, purpose, authority, evidence, design, production, distribution, access, outcomes, and transfer limits.
What to take away
- A visible publication is not evidence of measured effect.
- Study the operating system behind the artifact.
- Transfer one supported principle or test, not the source's status.
Marketing collateral case studies are useful when they explain why an asset exists, who it serves, what evidence it carries, how it was produced, where it appears, how people use it, and what changed. A photograph or portfolio page alone cannot answer those questions.
One named example is The Tampon Book by The Female Company with Scholz & Friends, Cannes Lions 2019. Another is the IKEA Bookbook catalog, Cannes Lions 2015.
Build a ten-field case record
Field / Question
- 1. Audience
- Who faced which decision in which setting?
- 2. Authority
- Who could publish, approve, and correct it?
- 3. Purpose
- What exact reader job did it support?
- 4. Evidence
- Which sources supported material statements?
- 5. System
- Which reusable rules and components shaped it?
- 6. Access
- Which formats, languages, and alternatives were available?
- 7. Production
- What proof and quality controls operated?
- 8. Distribution
- Where, by whom, and for how long was it delivered?
- 9. Outcome
- What mature change was measured, if any?
- 10. Transfer
- Which conditions differ from the proposed use?
Worked example: The Tampon Book, The Female Company with Scholz & Friends, Cannes Lions 2019.
Field / Record
- 1. Audience
- Women in Germany who bought sanitary products and faced a 19 percent tax.
- 2. Authority
- The Female Company and Scholz & Friends could publish and correct the book.
- 3. Purpose
- Turn a tax complaint into a printed object that journalists and shoppers could hold.
- 4. Evidence
- German tax treatment of books versus sanitary products.
- 5. System
- Bookbinding, tampon packaging, and a price that used the lower book tax rate.
- 6. Access
- German-language print run, online sales, and press coverage.
- 7. Production
- Agency and printer controls; no independent audit of every claim.
- 8. Distribution
- Sold online and mailed, with media distribution in 2018 and 2019.
- 9. Outcome
- Germany reduced the tax on sanitary products from 19 percent to 7 percent effective January 1, 2020.
- 10. Transfer
- A U.S. or Canadian brand faces different tax codes, retail rules, and audience duties.
Source: Cannes Lions 2019; German Federal Ministry of Finance, 2019.
The National Park Service maintains an accessible collection of official Unigrid brochures used for park information. The collection demonstrates artifacts and access formats; it does not by itself quantify comprehension, behavior, visitor safety, or return on publishing cost.
Read guidance as context, not outcome evidence
CDC's archived record for the Simply Put guide describes guidance for clear public-health material, including audience work and pretesting. Its advice should remain in that context, and the record describes a public-health method rather than a commercial test of an unrelated brochure.
- Save the original asset and release date
- Locate the brief, source record, and approval when available
- Separate planned purpose from observed audience use
- Distinguish distribution counts from mature outcomes
- Record funding, expertise, authority, and infrastructure
- State what a local pilot must test again
A responsible case memo names missing evidence. It does not label a collateral program successful because the artifacts are attractive, longstanding, distributed widely, produced by experts, or associated with a respected institution. Those facts may explain design and governance, and they require separate checks before any transfer.
Audit the published evidence
Rules block: U.S. substantiation and review integrity
The FTC advertising substantiation policy requires a reasonable basis before objective advertising claims are disseminated. Apply that U.S. rule to public marketing collateral case studies performance statements, with advice for the actual facts.
The FTC guidance for marketers using reviews warns about fake feedback, selective requests, conditioned incentives, hidden relationships, and paid rankings. Apply those U.S. integrity checks when marketing collateral case studies content names providers.
Separate provider claims, customer statements, measured records, and independent findings. Record selection criteria, commercial relationships, product version, study population, method, and missing evidence. Reproduce one material claim with local data before recommending a provider or copying a case.
For marketing collateral case studies, keep the evidence record beside the decision so reviewers can reproduce the reasoning without memory. Set the next review date and name the change that would trigger an earlier check.
Common questions
Can a public-sector case guide a business?
It can reveal supported process and design questions, while authority, audience, resources, duties, and outcomes may differ.
What is the strongest case-study evidence?
Evidence that connects a defined asset mechanism to a mature outcome through a suitable method and reports limitations.
What should a team copy?
Copy a supported control, information pattern, or research question, then test it under the team's own conditions.
Credible case study collections include the Cannes Lions archive, the Effie Awards case library, and the IPA Effectiveness Awards databank.
