When the world is thrust into turbulent times, understanding how consumers respond to uncertainty is essential for brand resilience. This report from the ARF explores enduring behavioral patterns, recent shifts in consumer expectations and actionable strategies for marketers to sustain trust and relevance in volatile times.
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A new study uncovers how advertising agencies are attempting to integrate generative AI into their creative workflows, and the repercussions of that process. Based on interviews and field data, the research presents a four-phase model—readiness, co-creativity, validation and execution. Although the study reveals certain anxieties surrounding this integration, in the end both human and AI elements together are required to boost and enliven the creative process.
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Digital marketing’s fast pace allows for unprecedented testing of what drives ad success. This study combines human coding and machine learning across over 2,300 food, beverage and restaurant video ads, to reveal how sensory cues like “crunch sounds” and human interaction can significantly boost brand awareness, consideration and purchase intent—while some commonly used tactics, surprisingly, fall flat.
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The household is a crucial unit of consumption that involves joint decision-making. While many studies have focused on individual-level advertising impacts, the interactions among household members have been largely overlooked. This study investigates a dyad-exposure advertising method that targets both spouses as decision-makers in purchasing household products. The findings reveal that dyad exposure significantly increases conversion rates by stimulating intra-couple interaction.
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On May 21, the industry’s top minds gathered in Chicago for a look at the future of retail, media, and consumer behavior and dove into the rapidly evolving role of Retail Media Networks (RMNs). Attendees gained actionable insights on the opportunities and challenges that RMNs present. Leading experts led discussions on optimizing RMN investments, navigating sales attribution complexities, adopting an "omni-normal" approach to connect with shoppers across all touchpoints, harnessing AI for brands and consumers, and more.
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How much impact can a single word have in a marketing message? A new study introduces a cutting-edge causal inference framework using language models to quantify the exact influence of words—such as “you” or “thank you”—on consumer engagement. The findings show that traditional A/B tests often miss these nuanced effects, while this new method isolates true word-level causal impacts, with big implications for advertising and fundraising success.
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On January 16, we kicked off our AI Series while exploring what AI means for consumers, advertisers, and the rapidly evolving marketplace. Attendees gained access to new research, perspectives, and practical guidance for staying ahead. Panelists dove into actionable strategies for the future of shopping and unveiled Kantar’s groundbreaking “Human-Plus” framework — a human-centric perspective on AI that anticipates consumer needs, marketing opportunities and investment strategies.
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In the digital age, marketers are increasingly utilizing online sales promotions. However, this study hypothesized that offline (versus online) media more effectively induce consumer behavioral responses to sales promotion. Field and lab experiments supported this hypothesis, showing that sending print (versus online) coupons increased redemption behavior. This effect was mediated by cognitive engagement with the content and was more pronounced among consumers with low (versus high) brand attachment. These results were consistently replicated across different product categories.
This study provides behavior-based evidence supporting the effectiveness of offline media and highlights brand attachment as a new moderator of the effect. The findings caution against marketers’ overdependence on online sales promotion and suggest that offline promotional media can enhance consumers’ cognitive engagement with the content, leading to better behavioral outcomes.
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