Resources - Site review - The whole world in an ad exec's hands. The World Advertising Research Center is, just like it says on the tin, a global database of knowledge for professionals working in the marketing and media space. Bobby Pickering took a WARC on the wired side and returned with multiple downloads of inspiration.

The World Advertising Research Center is an online subscription service that offers strategic information, knowledge and "inspiration" to top-level marketing, advertising, media and research professionals.

Based in Henley-on-Thames, the company publishes a range of titles relevant to its readership, and articles from these are available here in an historical archive.

Top of its list of publications is Admap, a venerable title that has been around since 1964. Admap aims to help "make buzz around your brand" and keep its readers up to date with new thinking and best practice in advertising and marketing communications.

WARC's other publications are Market Leader, International Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Market Research and Young Consumers.

The online service, according to WARC's managing director Robin Sutton, is getting "heavy student usage from a growing number of academic library subscribers". So IWR took the database for a spin to see how well it performs online

When you sign in for the first session, WARC asks you to fill out a subscriber form, and then adds a cookie to your desktop to ensure you don't get this initial sign-in page when you next log in.

Once you have logged in, WARC's extremely busy, jam-packed home page fires up. There's a range of search options and fast-find boxes in the left-hand column, letting you locate specific material or browse topline material on subject categories.