AI is transforming how organizations generate insights and forecast outcomes, but questions remain about reliability and the need for human oversight. On September 14-15 in NYC, industry and academic leaders gathered to discuss integrating AI into analytics workflows and maintaining transparency.
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Can the emotions viewers experience while watching television influence how they respond to commercials? And can advertising, in turn, shape their emotional reactions to the programs they watch? New research published in the Journal of Advertising Research examines this two-way relationship using biometric measurements and real-time audience feedback. Drawing on television viewing sessions across four countries, the study explores how emotional responses carry over between programs and advertisements, how commercial placement affects engagement and why certain programming genres may offer advertisers distinct advantages. The findings offer valuable insights for media planners, advertisers and broadcasters seeking to better understand the role of emotional context in advertising effectiveness.
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AI-optimized, omnichannel campaigns are changing how media are planned, activated and measured. Drawing on in-depth interviews with advertisers and providers, the ARF Cross-Platform Measurement Council’s Attribution Working Group examined omnichannel campaign tools such as Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+, exploring their potential to simplify execution, optimize across channels and improve performance. Their research also identified important tradeoffs, including transparency, testing capabilities and ongoing measurement and governance challenges.
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Generative AI is becoming an active participant in the purchase journey, helping consumers compare products, interpret information and select among alternatives. Based on a survey of 500 adults who use AI at least weekly and have used it for shopping or product research, the latest report in the ARF and MSI Psych of Gen AI series examines how much of the decision process consumers are willing to delegate, where they still insist on control and what their growing reliance on AI means for marketers.
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What happens to brand growth when consumers increasingly turn to AI assistants instead of relying on familiar brands or traditional search results? As generative AI becomes a more influential part of product discovery and purchasing decisions, marketers face new questions about how brands gain visibility, enter consumers' consideration sets and compete for attention. In MSI Working Paper, Tri-System Brand Growth: The AI Mediation Layer, researcher Pablo Ulpiano González Castro introduces a framework that adds AI availability to the established concepts of mental and physical availability. Drawing on brand-growth theory, an experiment and cross-category measurement research, the paper examines how AI-generated recommendations may reinforce existing brand advantages or create new opportunities for competing brands, and what these changes mean for marketing strategy and brand measurement.
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Generative AI is changing how advertising creative is developed—but not by replacing human creativity. Drawing on interviews with industry leaders and a broad review of emerging research, this ARF Creative Council white paper examines how AI is being used across the creative process, from briefing and ideation to personalization and optimization. It explores where AI delivers the greatest value today, the risks organizations continue to navigate and why human judgment remains central to producing distinctive, effective advertising.
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