brands & branding

What Brands Did in 2020

  • Posted: June 6, 2023

In this presentation, Paul Donato, CRO of the ARF, covered findings from the seminal year of the “What Brands Did in 2020” (Brands 2020) project. This project will go on for at least the next two years or until the effects of 2020 are no longer felt. ARF researchers in the Brands 2020 study used IRI and NCS data, Kantar Ad Insights, NCS sales and Nielsen Ad Intel data, between 2017 and 2021. The IRI data was a very deep dive but across three categories: salty snacks, pasta sauce and personal care products. The NCS data was shallower but across 10 broad categories. Using all these data, ARF researchers looked at share of media, media spend and share of market before and after March 2020 (Covid) and before and after March of 2021 (start of inflation).

The Future of Social Media for Marketers

  • Posted: June 6, 2023

On March 16, 2023, the ARF Young Pros led an exploration of the ongoing transformation and future trajectory of social media to help organizations navigate the landscape and create more strategic social media plans. Panelists discussed trends, the role of influencers, creative branding campaigns and more.

What Does AI Mean for Advertising Research?

  • Posted: June 6, 2023

We’ve all heard about the growing use of artificial intelligence in advertising research and doom and gloom predictions that it will knock out jobs, but is this really the case? Agency leaders joined us for an ARF Town Hall to discuss the upsides and possible downsides of generative AI, as well as how they’re utilizing it in their businesses to boost efficiency. Attendees heard predictions on how AI will change the business model of advertising and what it could mean for media agencies.

Contribution of Media vs. Creative vs. Brand

  • Posted: June 1, 2023

Across all platforms, creative continues to have the dominant effect ranging from 46% to 49% of the effect of the campaign. The proportional effect of media and brand vary by platform depending on the targetability of the medium, the ability to build reach and the appeal to younger audiences such as is the case for social media.

Beyond Reach, the Importance of Measuring Ad Resonance

  • Posted: May 31, 2023

Tom Weiss and Megan Daniels of MarketCast introduced a new metric in their break-out session: brand effect resonance. This product evolved from one called Brand Effect which uses a combination of survey (15,000 consumers per day) and behavioral data across linear, social, digital (popular websites) and streaming. First developed by IAG, then owned by Nielsen and then Phoenix, Brand Effect stands as the main engine of the brand-effect resonance rating system, which was created to overcome gaps in reach measurement. They believe it can now isolate and show exactly how content and platform quality impacts advertising performance. Resonance here is defined as how well people remember the ad, how well they understood the creative and the message and how well they can link it back to the brand. Ad resonance measurement is said to be able to isolate the impact of content and platform on ad recall.

Know Your Meme – Sensory Memetics & Audience Engagement

  • Posted: May 31, 2023

Allison Gutkowski and Michelle Niedziela of HCD Research covered unique approaches to increasing consumer engagement and introduced the concept of sensory memetics, which they describe as an approach to curating it. They also shared their thoughts on identifying consumer habits and lifestyle and incorporating these with sensory profiling to make them more meaningful. Moreover, utilizing new technologies, like ChatGPT, can offer new product ideas and social media marketing messages that evoke brand harmony and are more engaging. They also dove into the theoretical drivers behind behaviors that either spell engagement or ad avoidance and where the line is between authenticity and distrust due to sponsorship.

What Brands Did in 2020 & the Impact on Market Share

What Brands Did in 2020 & the Impact on Market Share

  • ARF ORIGINAL RESEARCH

This multi-year project’s objective is to understand how brands reacted to the events of 2020 and what the long-term implications were. In that fateful year, brands encountered a pandemic-driven recession, lockdown and periods of social unrest, along with the impact of economic stimulus, leading to the current state of inflation. Questions this study looks to address include, what happens to a brand’s market share if it goes “dark.” Was this different than previous recessions? How long was recovery? Did small brands take advantage of inexpensive media and if so, how did this affect their market share? Findings from the initial year are now available.

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How MARS Builds Brands

  • Posted: May 11, 2023

Attention, Emotion and Memory (ESG) are seen as the key elements in building brands.

The “Attention Break-out Session” during the second day of the AUDIENCExSCIENCE conference showed that attention metrics are typically used within a larger framework. Case in point, a presentation by Realeyes and Mars showed how Mars sees attention to marketing messages as a trigger of emotions that leads to memory and (hopefully) brand building.

Source:

AUDIENCExSCIENCE Break-out Session, Attention Metrics: Validity, Reliability & Predictive Powers. Using Attention AI to Predict Real-World Outcomes – Max Kalehoff, VP Marketing Growth, Realeyes; -Johanna Welch, Global Mars Horizon Comms Lab Senior Manager, Mars.

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