CMO Briefs

CMO Brief: Attention and Ad Impact — New Insights from New Research

• Posted: June 8, 2021

One of the essential goals of advertising is to get customers’ attention. However, a lot of campaigns approach this simplistically. More “attention” does not necessarily mean an ad is more effective. Attention is a much more complex phenomenon than that. While attention is a prerequisite for ad impact, the term is ambiguous, complex and attention is difficult to measure. Moreover, “attention” does not necessarily indicate a positive response, and a high level of attention is not always a sign of a positive ad impact. Read more.

CMO Brief: Best Practices for Comingling Set-Top Box and Smart TV ACR Data

• Posted: May 5, 2021

Data sets for STBs and Smart TVs have, up until now, been separate from one another, which has hampered the ability to accurately assess viewing habits. This data would be very useful for planning, buying and optimizing ad campaigns. Since the two are complementary, combining them can help us form scaled, granular, TV tuning data sets that are more nationally representative. Luckily, a new report from the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM)—a subsidiary of the ARF, outlines best practices for combining set-top box data and smart TV ACR data. Read more.

CMO Briefs: Best Practices in Media and Market Research Studies

• Posted: March 10, 2021

Surveys are an important tool to explore consumers’ behaviors, attitudes and intentions, and they can provide valuable data to inform business decisions. However, as with all research, quality matters and ignoring best practices impacts the validity and reliability of the findings, possibly to an extent that makes them unusable for business decisions.   Read more.

CMO Briefs: How to Adapt Global Campaigns to Local Contexts

• Posted: November 4, 2020

Building a brand across multiple countries is challenging. Generic messages are less likely to reach consumers across the globe today. What’s more, recent neuro studies suggest consumers in different countries process creatives differently. On another front, the business environment is unique in each market, meaning a different strategy is needed to position the brand and take on the competition.

Neglecting differences between markets can mean missed marketing and business opportunities. Consumer privacy laws differ too, adding an additional challenge. Global insights research finds that similarities between consumers and universal emotions can serve as meaningful themes for a global campaign. This recent Knowledge Center report, turned Knowledge at Hand and CMO Brief, covers best practices in localizing global messaging.  Read more. 

CMO Briefs: How to Use Context to Optimize Advertising Campaigns

• Posted: November 4, 2020

No advertisement is seen in isolation. The impact an ad has depends on the context it finds itself in, including what type of ad or content preceded it or what it is adjacent to, in terms of digital or print. Today, there is a renewed interest in context effects, particularly in the COVID era, as advertisers worry about their ads rolling after or being adjacent to upsetting news. This newly updated Knowledge at Hand and corresponding CMO Brief explore all the latest research and insights surrounding context effects.

Further complicating the issue is the question, what do we mean by “context?” Today, the industry is taking a broader view of the term. This is due to multi-platform campaigns, which force the need to consider all characteristics present in each medium or platform an ad takes place in. Our understanding of context has also been affected by the current pandemic and the role target consumers’ culture and values play, in light of it.  Read more.

CMO Briefs: 2019 Organizational Benchmark Survey, The Research Company Report

• Posted: May 15, 2020

Curious to see what changes have occurred in advertising and market research in the last few years? Want to know how companies collect research data? What departments they have to do it? If they are centralized or decentralized? What tools and techniques they use and how satisfied stakeholders are with their department? Many ARF members have inquired about such things. So many in fact that the ARF Analytics Council decided to develop a research project around these questions. The results are the very first Organizational Benchmark Survey of the industry. Read more

CMO Briefs: 2019 Organizational Benchmark Survey, The Agency Report

• Posted: May 15, 2020

Motivated by a number of member inquiries, the ARF Analytics Council recently investigated the vast changes that have taken place in marketing and advertising research over the last few years. The results are significant, culminating in the first Organizational Benchmark Survey of the industry. The study reveals a number of different aspects surrounding these changes, such as what departments are conducting research, what they are called, if they are centralized or decentralized, if small agencies differ from larger ones, the tools and techniques that are used and much more. Read more.

CMO Brief: Elements of a Successful Brand Purpose Campaign

• Posted: April 16, 2020

What do we really know about a purpose campaign? We know that eliciting an emotional response and sustainability are strategies that can deliver greater brand strength and appeal. Beyond that, there’s little else. So little, in fact that the industry hasn’t even agreed on how to properly define a purpose campaign.

The ARF and Kantar set out to uncover those defining characteristics. The result is Cracking Brand Purpose, a study completed in late 2019 that establishes a best-inclass framework that can be used to inspire, develop and evaluate purpose campaigns.  Read more.

CMO Brief: 2019 Organizational Benchmark Survey, The Advertiser Report

• Posted: March 31, 2020

Advertising and market research have seen significant changes in the last couple of years. ARF members have been inquiring about different aspects of these changes. To answer their questions, the ARF Analytics Council developed the very first Organizational Benchmark Survey of the industry. The aim was to see how companies collect research data, what departments conduct research, how they organize around research and data, and, if small advertisers differ from large ones. Read more.

CMO Brief: What Happens When Brands Go Dark?

• Posted: March 27, 2020

In the winter of 2018, the ARF composed a Knowledge at Hand report called “When Brands Go Dark.” This covered the impact of brands scaling back on advertising spend or eliminating it altogether. With a recession looming due to the coronavirus pandemic, economic jitters once again have many companies considering “going dark.” What are the short and long-term implications of such a move? Read more.