engagement

How Unfamiliar Message Cues Can Improve Ad Recall in a Multitasking World

How Unfamiliar Message Cues Can Improve Ad Recall in a Multitasking World

  • ARF
  • JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

As media multitasking becomes the norm rather than the exception, advertisers face growing challenges in capturing and sustaining audience attention. This research demonstrates that introducing unfamiliar cues—such as technical or uncommon terms—into ad content can trigger selective attention and meaningfully improve ad recall, but only when audiences are multitasking in ways that are congruent with the message. Across multiple experimental studies, the findings show how curiosity-driven engagement can help ads break through distraction and be remembered more effectively.

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Improving AI-Driven Marketing Content Using LLM-Generated Knowledge

Improving AI-Driven Marketing Content Using LLM-Generated Knowledge

  • ARF, MSI

As generative AI becomes a central tool for producing marketing content, firms increasingly rely on fine-tuning models using engagement data, such as A/B test results. This MSI working paper argues that optimizing only for “what works” risks reward hacking, clickbait and poor generalization. The authors propose a knowledge-guided alignment framework in which large language models (LLMs) generate and validate hypotheses about why content performs well, and then use this knowledge to guide fine-tuning. Using more than 23,000 A/B-tested news headlines, the study shows that knowledge-guided AI produces higher engagement, avoids clickbait and generalizes better—especially in low-data settings.

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2025 Insights and 2026 Priorities

2025 Insights and 2026 Priorities

  • ARF
  • L.A. Research Council

On January 14, the LA Media Research Council dove into recent media research insights and discussed key issues and priorities for the upcoming year. Attendees heard new, research-based insights on changes in viewer behavior and the impact of viewer attitudes on content and platform preferences. Plus, listen in on an interactive Q&A with media experts.

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The Persuasive Power of Pets: New Insights for Influencer Strategy

The Persuasive Power of Pets: New Insights for Influencer Strategy

  • ARF
  • JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

A recent Journal of Advertising Research study presents the first empirical evidence that petfluencers can outperform human influencers in driving engagement and willingness to pay. Across four studies—including a real-world A/B test and controlled experiments, the researchers show that pet influencers benefit from higher perceived sincerity, and that message framing matters. When temporal cues align with consumers’ propensity to anthropomorphize animals, the persuasive impact increases further.

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