This panel, moderated by Scott McDonald, led a discussion in response to the presentations on the generational implications in marketing and advertising. Topics of discussion included the notion of labels and challenges that can be associated with them, using generational attributes as a starting point or a “lens,” and the idea that while generations may be an indicator, values and certain behaviors can “transcend age.”
J. Walker thanked Bobby Duffy for his insights and perspectives and offered a somewhat different take: He stressed that generations are an important way to study social change. They are a useful construct, but they are not perfect. According to J. Walker, generations are best understood as an aggregation of life trajectories, shared circumstances and events as generational members come of age. Graduating during a recession or growing up in a pandemic will shape those generations. Cohorts who grow up at the same time and share common experiences, expectations and values matter for brands and culture. The shared starting point is the critical factor. Comparing Boomers at 20 years old with Millennials at 20 is the relevant point. A general comparison of Boomers vs. Millennials is not relevant.
Highlighting key points from his book, The Generation Myth: Why When You’re Born Matters Less Than You Think, Bobby Duffy presented his research on generational thinking as a powerful idea corrupted by stereotypes, myths, and cliches. As he tracked today’s generations over time (Pre-War, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z) to see what is truly generational, Bobby looked for gaps between young and old on attitudes to everything from drinking, smoking, and loneliness to race, gender equality and climate change. He found that many analyses and forecasts about consumer behavior ignore the complexity of change, that is, they only look at one of the three mechanisms that cause changes: Cohort Effects—Behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that are more common among members of a generation; Period Effects—Changes resulting from events and circumstances that affect everybody, all generations, from war and disasters to periods of economic boom; Life-Cycle Effects—Members of all generations change as they grow older and experience getting married, having children, etc. The key to using generational analyses in consumer behavior forecasts, therefore, is to untangle these three mechanisms and recognize the importance of period and life-cycle effects to avoid overstating cohort effects.
MSI’s Earl Taylor moderated a panel discussion regarding art and science in ad creative. The diverse panel of industry leaders provided feedback, commentary and viewpoints on a variety of topics presented on day two of AUDIENCExSCIENCE 2022. Areas of discussion included category disruption, ad currency, drivers of interactive video, opportunities from disruption and ad length effectiveness.
In this session, Chris McCarthy of Kantar addressed the question: “In today’s environment of constant, dynamic change, how can brands enhance how they innovate and engage with audiences?” The speaker examined the “age of disruption,” noting consumer obstacles such as COVID supply chain shortages and inflation leading to a shift to higher-involvement decisions by consumers, which has resulted in some risks but also opportunities for brands. The speaker pointed to tension hunting, the process of enhancing innovation and success by focusing on the mitigation of problems, as a way to address disruption and consumer inertia, head-on.
As many companies join in Pride celebrations this month (and some deal with backlash), we review the growing amount of research available to inform marketers on how to best market to and in support of LGBTQ+. We recommend these studies, all conducted in 2022 or 2023:
GfK studies suggest that “innovation and creativity” are needed to make purpose-driven ads as effective or more effective than “mainstream” ads.
Sharing his latest “Media Universe Map,” which describes the rapidly changing media landscape, Evan Shapiro conducted a discussion based on the map to exemplify the swiftly developing and competitive media ecosystem. Noting the “war for attention” in the new media landscape, he indicated that the largest media companies (“The Death Stars”), such as Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia, will play a direct or indirect role in what happens to smaller or emerging companies. Other drivers of the media ecosystem include the balance of single unit and subscription sales, generational effects, and the emergence of the creator content economy.
On June 7, 2023, attention economy experts came together in NYC to share case studies and participate in engaging discussions on the attention measurement landscape. Plus, attendees heard a recap of the issues debated at AUDIENCExSCIENCE and an update on Phase I of the ARF Attention Validation Initiative, an empirically based evaluation of the rapidly developing market for attention measurement and prediction.
Member Only AccessAt Part I of our Insights Studio Series on November 2, 2022, we discussed key shifts in the ads landscape and insights on peoples’ thoughts and behaviors around privacy—based on the latest ARF Privacy Survey. Experts from Boston University, Meta, Nielsen and the ARF shared macro-level trends as well as frameworks to help make sense of the advertising ecosystem.