Drive Creative Impact | Branding & Engagement| Understanding Consumer Segments | Understanding Consumer Journeys
Featured Presentations
Opening Remarks
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF
In his opening remarks, Scott emphasized the need to foster the scientific mindset, but also to take into consideration the ethics of our research and marketing practices. Last year Cambridge Analytica won an ARF David Ogilvy Award in the Big Data category. In light of recent discoveries, the ARF is looking into whether the ARF should rescind the award. Scott discussed the bigger implications of the Cambridge Analytica issue, not only for the ARF, but for the industry.
Key takeaways:
- The classic model of discovery and a mindset of skepticism is essential. Facts and values are different things. Facts can be proven, values cannot. However, art and science are not opposites.
- Cambridge Analytica is a reckoning. There is a need for a code of ethics in market research. We need to ask ourselves, what responsibilities and obligations do we have as researchers?
- Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.
- We should recognize that the data we collect belongs to the consumers, and we should respect it.
- What is ethical is what’s good for business.
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF
Transcript of Wednesday speech:
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF Wednesday Video:
Lessons from Applying Behavioral Science to 1,000,000,000 Shoppers
Om Marwah – Global Head of Behavioral Science, Walmart
Walmart has been an industry trailblazer in implementing behavioral science based principles in their businesses. For example, behavioral science was used to understand and craft the onboarding of new Sam’s Club members. The following are some of the best practices developed from insights learned through behavioral science research.
Key takeaways:
- Reward proximity. For Sams’ Club members, mobile gamification rewarded proximity, which lead to engagement and purchase/conversion. Proximity became the preferred KPI.
- A brand relationship is based on shared values, and the process of understanding your consumer starts with empathy.
- People don’t immediately know their own preferences. Help them understand their preferences as you guide them slowly towards the decision. Progress is highly engaging for people.
- Systematize creativity in organizations. Predictors of success include: idea volume; interaction; diversity; imposing problems across businesses; creative agility; formal innovation process; slack time.
Presentation and video not available.
What a Shorter Ad Can (and Can’t) Do
Magda Nenycz-Thiel, Ph.D. – Mars Professor of Marketing & Senior Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia
Duane Varan, Ph.D. – CEO, MediaScience
Are shorter ads as effective? Is the effect of commercial length different for older vs. younger users? How does clutter affect performance of a shorter commercial? MediaScience and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute discussed these questions based on the findings from their three studies.
Context Matters: Emotions and Ad Effectiveness
Aaron Hoffman, Ph.D. – VP, Product Innovation, Magid
Gregg Liebman – SVP, Strategic Insights & Research, NBCUniversal
TV’s ability to emotionally connect with consumers is not being fully maximized by advertisers. Taking advantage of the interplay between the emotions that attract viewers to a show and the emotions evoked by the ad can generate improved ad “receptivity”, including more purchase intent. In 60 years of context effects research, this research is the largest study on the effects of the context in which advertising is embedded on the ad.
How to Build Brands
Linghan Wang – Sr. Manager of Research and Development, Nielsen Catalina Solutions
Leslie Wood, Ph.D. – CRO, Nielsen Catalina Solutions
This landmark study analyzed 50 brands over three and half years for 48 four-week periods. Data collected: frequent shopper sales data (household level), ad exposure and sales effect results, retail measurement services, AdIntel ad weight, TV Brand Effect. The findings showed that there are no one size fits all or simple truths. We need to accept nuances in brand and shopping behavior.
1 Bloody Shakespeare Play: 3 Experiences – Stage, Screen & VR
Elissa Moses – CEO, Neuro & Behavioral Science Center, Ipsos
Working with Ipsos, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) launched a project to explore the emotional responses to a production of Titus Andronicus – which is known as Shakespeare’s goriest play – in different contexts: live in a theatre, streamed cinema, or a filmed VR experience.
Creating Breakthrough Audio
Andrew Eisner – COO/Co-Founder, Veritonic, Inc
Michele Madansky, Ph.D. – EVP, Research, Insights & Analytics, iHeartMedia
Each month 271 million people listen to on-air radio, having the largest weekly each of any mass reach medium at 93%. Even among Millennials, radio has a reach of over 90%. iHeartRadio and Veritonic partnered on a study to answer “how do we make radio creatives that resonate?”.
This Month’s Brand Conversations Produce Next Month’s Sales
Koen Pauwels, Ph.D. – Professor, Marketing, Northeastern University
Ed Keller – CEO, Engagement Labs
Social/online listening is just the tip of the iceberg where conversations are considered. Offline conversations make up the bulk of the iceberg below the surface. A finding from previous work showed that there is no correlation between online and offline conversations; they are two different channels of communication. Engagement Labs looked at 21 brands using marketing mix models to explore trends over three years, and how well TotalSocial predicted next week’s sales.
Stop Talking and Start Doing Something
Panelists:
Catharine Hays – Executive Director, The Wharton Future of Advertising Program – The Wharton School
Natasha Hritzuk, Ph.D. – VP Advertising Innovation Research and AdLab Lead, Turner Ignite
Sheri Roder – EVP, Chief of WHY, Horizon Media
Audrey Steele – VP Sales Research Insights & Strategy, FOX Network Sales
Moderator:
Howard Shimmel – Chief Research Officer, Turner Broadcasting System
What can media companies do to generate new ad experiences that makes the experience friendlier to consumers as well as marketers and advertisers? This lively panel discussion explored current challenges in the industry as well promising opportunities.
Key takeaways:
- Demonstrate to the consumers that you respect their time and won’t bombard them with ads. This practice gets a positive response. However, the cost of getting content must be understood by the consumer.
- Free ourselves from the linear prison. Digital, social should not be messaged to be more like linear. Start with the experience for the consumer. Then, format, platform.
- Less content (e.g., lower ad load), but better content is also needed.
Presentation and video not available.
The Future of the Agency
Eric Salama – Chairman and CEO, Kantar
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF
There are interesting disruptions in the agency world, including competition from consultancies, data analytic firms, FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google). FANG can bundle research with the media buy. Additionally, many advertisers are bringing some formerly outsourced marketing services in-house. How does Kantar remain competitive, and what are the larger implications for agencies in this ecosystem?
Key takeaways:
- There is a need to measure content on all devices as well as to consider time-shifted programming.
- The economics are challenging. Outside the U.S., joint industry committees are funded by the media businesses. The advertisers must become involved in paying for these services.
- The industry wants more competition to the mainstream measurement companies. Even the digital industry wants alternative measurement sources.
Video:
Data Meets Insights
David F. Poltrack – Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation; President, CBS VISION
Radha Subramanyam, Ph.D. – Chief Research & Analytics Officer, CBS Television
Moderator:
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF
Disruption can be good, but can be scary for individuals and companies. This discussion tackles how CBS is dealing with disruptions and the implications for the industry.
Key takeaways:
- Data is useless without insights. Smarter data leads to better insights. Surround yourself with people who are not afraid of change. Commit to it. Harness threats to business goals. Individuals should not be afraid of lateral changes.
- Disruption has totally changed CBS’ model; it now sells directly to consumers and sells internationally.
- CBS is mastering attribution and pushed to be much sharper, using dashboards, next gen insights.
- Better data lets CBS track the program, track progressive CUME. Due to social media and time shifting programming, there is a need to track continuously, change marketing promotions.
- No longer must the mass audience love the new program; a smaller segment of the audience can make a program successful.
Video:
CONSUMERxSCIENCE 2018: Drive Creative Impact Presentations
Pursuing Creativity – Bringing Back the Magic
Jodi Harris – Vice President, Marketing Culture & Learning, Anheuser-Busch
Shaun Dix – Executive Vice President, Ipsos Connect
How can consumer research fuel advertising? Is research the creative killer? For the Super Bowl, Anheuser-Busch and Ipsos went through a psychological exercise with their consumers and found an unexpected insight that lead to the strongest piece of creative in over ten years. By focusing on humanizing the history and journey of the company’s founder, Adolphus Busch, the team created the Cannes Lion winning spot for the Super Bowl.
Key takeaways:
- The role of testing is not to kill creative, but to nurture and fuel it.
- Involve consumers in the journey early.
- Use a system that nurtures and foster learning.
- Trust in people.
Presentation:
Tackling the Future of Socially-Charged Advertising
Patty Goldman – VP, Strategy & Evaluation, Ad Council
Carl Marci, M.D. – EVP, Chief Neuroscientist, Nielsen
Socially-charged advertising isn’t just for nonprofits anymore. Communicating a purpose has gone from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” – consumers expect companies and their brands to take responsibility for driving social change. However, taking a stance on social and political issues can be risky and brands must understand consumer reaction before making the leap. Four mini-case studies were presented which demonstrated the use of neuro tools to show the impact of small creative differences. By optimizing creative, greater consumer engagement and behavioral change can occur.
Key takeaways:
- There must be an alignment of social responsibility with the brand. Otherwise, taking a social or political position can have a negative impact on a brand.
- Optimize key branding and messaging moments to break through.
- Combine methodologies for a holistic view of consumer response.
- Develop creative for every screen.
Presentation:
Does Brand Usage Influence Visual Attention to Advertising?
Magda Nenycz-Thiel, Ph.D. – Mars Professor of Marketing & Senior Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia
The link of advertising to memory is critical. There is a lot of evidence that ad memory for non-users is lower than for users. Among findings from academic papers, brand users were more likely to recall brand advertising (93% of 8,000 brands examined). Could visual attention explain this finding?
Visual attention can be influenced by top down (brand usage) or bottom up (visual attention to marketing). This study used eye-tracking among 696 persons 18-78 for 11 brands, and in four categories. Ads were tested within programs; 52 ads were tested with various lengths. Visual attention was measured by eye-tracking, memory by open-end brand recall and by recall of ad screenshots, and brand usage by survey questions.
Key takeaways:
- Visual attention is similar between users and non-users, as measured by eye tracking.
- The good news: marketing can get non-users’ attention. However, the findings suggest the need to include specific creative elements to appeal to non-users to improve recall.
Presentation not available.
How Short Can Be Sweet: The Effectiveness of 6-Second Video Ads
Mihkel Jäätma – CEO &
Co-Founder, Realeyes
Will the adoption of 6-second ads result in effective advertising? Realeyes’ emotional advertising technology platform measures how people react (webcams with facial coding technology) as they watch video content online.
Key findings:
- Short ads need a different creative approach. Rule #1: No clutter in the ad, keep it simple.
- Shorter videos deliver more per second (nearly 10x the impact per second), but a longer duration enables marketers to tell a more powerful emotional story. Achieving a high emotion peak in 6-second videos needs extra thought and creativity.
- In a Snapchat study, 30 ads of 10-seconds or shorter were shown to be effective for the teenage and 20-45 year-old bracket. Older consumers seem to prefer longer formats.
- There are no differences on ability to get attention early.
Presentation:
When Longer Isn’t Necessarily Better
Mark Green – Chief Strategy Officer – TVision Insights
Dan Schiffman – Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer, TVision Insights
How many seconds do you need for a spot to have an effect? Does eyes-on-screen attention lead to better outcomes? What ad duration has the best chance to capture attention? Does impact vary by creative or audience? To answer these questions, TVision Insights analyzed viewer-level TV attention data from their national TV panel.
Key findings:
- Eyes-on-screen attention has an impact. It makes a difference whether the viewer is actually looking at the screen vs. just being in the room.
- Attention on TV varies by such variables as brand, industry, audience, context, content, and creative.
- Longer ads provide an opportunity for longer attentive ad exposure, but may not be the most efficient.
Presentation:
Video:
Insights: The Killer of Creative? Or the Driver of Killer Creative?
Panel
Andy Smith – Flower Foods
Amy Carvajaj – J. Walter Thompson
Michael Joffe – Google
Moderator:
Jay Mattlin – ARF Council Director
Does research help or hinder the process of advertising creative development? This session from the ARF Creative Council explores this question, drawing on the results of an ARF member survey.
Key takeaways:
- Move away from doing research in silos and involve the creatives in the process from the get-go.
- Rather than a report card punishment that just green/red lights a creative, use creative testing to help understand how to make it better.
- There’s no formula for great creatives, but better collaboration that has everyone on the same page from the beginning of the process, builds trust and learning, and ultimately better results.
Presentation:
Branded Content to Effectively Reach the Consumer
Stephanie Fried – EVP, Research, Analytics & Audience Development, Condé Nast
Pranav Yadav – CEO, Neuro-Insight US Inc.
How does creative quality and brand strength impact people’s responses to native advertising and delivery?
To answer this question, this study measured brand activity of participants using four scenarios that were randomly rotated via YouTube and Facebook. Ads were delivered by interest within their personal feeds.
Key findings:
- Branded content can perform better than personal feed.
- Strong brands can drive attention and engagement.
- Device, screen, and platform matters. Mobile – more personal, emotional. Desktop – more focused experience, engaging. Content on individuals perform better on YouTube while alternative storytelling performs better on Facebook where it broke through personal feeds.
Presentation not available.
What 2018 Has in Store for Social Branded Content
Jason Klein – Co-CEO and Co-Founder, ListenFirst
Frank Kavilanz – SVP of Social Strategy and Solutions, Turner Ignite
Social branded content published by TV networks over the past year has grown steadily, with a
67% jump from Q4 2016 to Q4 2017. However, branded content is still less than 1% of the total content posted on Facebook. Research by ListenFirst of social branded content on Facebook showed that there was 12X more engagement for branded content published by TV programs and networks than those generated by advertisers on their own.
Key takeaways:
- Performance is highly correlated with the media property that posts the content.
- Social branded content posted by publishers (vs. by advertisers) had four times more link clicks and drove more emotional response: 414% more “Haha’s”, 121% more “Loves”, 220% more shares.
- Best practice: Pick the right media partner for your brand; Evoke emotion or is practical and interesting; Drive audience to the advertisers; Select the best genre and that drives the most engagement for your category.
Presentation:
Reimagining Advertising
Natasha Hritzuk, Ph.D. – VP Advertising Innovation Research and AdLab Lead, Turner Ignite
Larry Allen – VP, Ad Innovation and Programmatic Solutions, Turner
If consumers are rejecting ads, then we need to step back and understand what would make them receptive to the ads. Turner analyzed research over 18 months to understand how the ad experience can be reimagined for the consumer. They developed foundational insights which became the North Star for building ad experiences at Turner.
Key takeaways:
- Personalization for the sake of personalization doesn’t engage consumers unless there is some utility or reason for the personalization or interactivity.
- Consumers are increasingly impatient with superfluous information in advertising; want one salient info.
- More concise info, not constrained in existing ad format. Deliver sound bites of info in a linear environment; not in a truncated ad pod.
Presentation not available.
Walk the Talk: Insights to Concepts
Brian Laverty – Sr. Manager, Advertising Innovation Research, Turner Ignite
Consumers want ads that align to the same quality of content that they are watching. Advertising that are “in-tune” with the mood of consumers have proven to be successful in Turner Ignite’s latest research.
Key takeaways:
- Consumers want ads that are in-tune with their own mood or ads that are able to counterbalance moods.
- Consumers want to be wrapped in welcoming content, e.g., geolocation through Pokémon – this immersive experience was found to have high breakthrough.
- There is often an echo chamber where people might only look at ads that they are interested in and not branching out to new products. To flip this idea, Turner gave consumers the reigns and allowed them to serve as their own content creators.
Presentation not available.
Measuring Creative Impact Through Location Tracking
Vardan Kirakosyan – VP, Research Solutions, MFour Mobile Research
MFour wanted to understand consumer behavior as it related to ad assets. They went beyond A/B testing and looked at an all mobile experience in a real-world context on multiple platforms for two brands – McDonald’s and Target.
Key findings:
- McDonald’s: Shareability is highest among McDonald’s heavy users for Facebook and Instagram; viewers are more likely to audio-click on Instagram vs. Facebook; the ad was most effective in increasing visitation among light users.
- Target: Brand recall is highest among Target heavy users; interaction (ad visible, playback duration, audio clicked) are all higher for Instagram vs. Facebook; the ad positively influenced visitation among medium and light users for Facebook and Instagram.
Presentation:
The Science of #SeeHer
Panelists:
Christine Cervenka, Ph.D. – Director – Marketing Analytics, AT&T, Global Marketing Organization
Chrystal Day – Marketing Impact, Sr. Manager, HP
Claudio Zibenberg – Manager, IBM Worldwide Media
Moderator:
Shelley Zalis – Co-founder, #SeeHer; Founder & CEO, The Female Quotient (TFQ)
In this panel, equality and the Gender Equality Measure™ (GEM) were discussed with IBM, AT&T, and HP – three companies who utilize the module in their current business practices. The discussion tackles the topic of gender equality, highlighted how research has changed, the shift of emotion in advertising, and ways in which media defines culture.
Key takeaways:
- Equality should be a requirement for copy testing.
- What’s important: Women need to be in ads, give her screen time, test putting her in the lead role but also in a wide variety of roles.
- How women are portrayed is critical as well – portray her as embracing life and not being the brunt of jokes – show her in a compassionate way – be conscious.
- When advertisers challenge stereotypes, the best results come out.
Video:
CONSUMERxSCIENCE 2018: Branding & Engagement Presentations
The Seven Sins of Brand Identity (And How to Avoid Temptation)
Jenni Romaniuk, Ph.D. – Research Professor and Associate Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute;
Author, How Brands Grow Part 2
Distinctive Assets are non-brand name triggers for the brand. As these assets are indirect branding, it is easy to unknowingly interfere with category buyer mental structures and erode their strength. Brands need to build a distinctive asset palette (audio, word, shape, color, story, face, etc.) on a long-term basis.
Key takeaways:
- Understand the role of your Distinctive Assets and solve the right problem.
- Clarify the purpose of each asset; check for unnecessary duplications (e.g., only one tagline is necessary).
- If you don’t put your brand assets to work, there is a decay in brand memory. Value your brand’s history; identify neglected assets; identify over/underused assets and redress the balance.
- The four commandments for distinctive asset management: Choose wisely; Prioritize smartly; Execute well; Resist change.
Presentation:
Video:
The Importance of Brand Equity in an Era of Distrust
Michael Sussman – CEO, BAV Group
Kyle Boots – Director of Brand & Social Analytics, BAV Group
Lauren Hayden – Brand Consultant, BAV Group
During a nearly 20-year period of observation, brand trust is seen to be at an all-time low. BAV attempts to answer the question, “how do brands reinforce trust in a culture where the establishment is questioned?”
Key takeaways:
- Define it: identify brand values that drive trust. There is a rise in the importance of Purpose in driving trust, particularly with younger Americans.
- Live it: articulate in an authentic way. Brands that haven’t reinforced their purpose authentically have failed (e.g., Pepsi’s mistake with Kendall Jenner ad).
- Understand it: keep a pulse on real-time conversations that impact trust. We learn from brands like Domino’s that emerged stronger after a crisis online through equity.
- There are four ways that brands translate their purpose into calls to action online: Urgency, Solvability, Relevance, Trends.
Presentation:
Understanding the Consumer in the Age of Disruption
Brad Jakeman – Senior Advisor & Consultant; Former President, PepsiCo Global Beverage Group
Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF
This conversation dealt with how brands can stay culturally relevant and engage consumers in a more meaningful way, but still be prepared to deal with possible backlashes in social media.
Key takeaways:
- Playing safe is a mistake. If you want to be a relevant brand, with cultural resonance, you are likely to be in a situation – be prepared for it to happen, have relationships with people that are willing to defend you without asking them to.
- Find credible space that you can own. Make sure that it’s not only the brand’s value, but the company’s value. Avoid spaces that are so emotionally charged that any notion of commercial work associated with it is off-putting.
- A lot of the tools that test pre-market creatives miss out on the vocal minority. Brand faux pas – mostly came from a vocal minority with broad reaching social media platforms which feeds into mainstream media. Are the tools focused too heavily on the commercial impact of the creative? Do we pay enough attention to the social impact?
BrandZ™: Building Valuable Brands in a Changing World
Sana Carlton – NE Group SVP, Kantar Millward Brown
Christopher J. Frank – VP, American Express
Julia Oswald – SVP, Business Insights, Strategy & Consumer Insights, Dominos
Mark Truss – Global Director of Brand Intelligence, J. Walter Thompson Company
Brands are an important and valuable intangible. Strong brands generate superior shareholder returns. The presentation discussed the drivers of strong brands.
Key takeaways:
- Important elements of brand health based on BrandZ™: Brand purpose (important for customers and employees); Perceived innovation (being known for innovation); Strong communications (accelerate growth); Brand experience; Love of the brand (irreplaceable).
- Insights are more about the consumer than the product. There is a need to focus on the consumer’s perspective and the motivation for their decision in favor of one brand vs. another brand.
- Marketers should shift away from seeing digital as just another channel. Brands need to behave differently in social media situations.
Presentation:
Consumer Data Value Exchange
Natasha Hritzuk, Ph.D. – VP Advertising Innovation Research and AdLab Lead, Turner Ignite
Turner explored the attitudes of consumers towards their data, especially their willingness to share data to enable curation and serendipity. Turner found that if there’s an expected benefit of value, consumers are willing to part with their data.
Three key findings were identified as empowering consumers in their sharing of personal data:
- Trust and transparency: Explain to the consumer why the network needs the data; make any user agreement clearly written and brief.
- Shared benefits power the relationship: Articulate the benefits to the consumer that result from their sharing of data.
- Celebrate progress: Share with participating consumers the new products and experiences that are being powered by sharing of personal data.
Presentation not available.
The Rise of You: The New Work of Customer Engagement
Maria Bartolome Winans – CMO, IBM Watson Customer Engagement
Within 10 years, 40% of Fortune 500 companies will be gone. Sixty-eight percent of business leaders expect their organizations to focus on customer service rather than products. Testing, tracking, measurement, and adaptation are vital. Marketers need to be storytellers, outcome drivers, difference makers, and:
- Customer-centric: Only one out of five companies provide good or great customer experiences. Adding a digital platform for NPS can close the feedback loop.
- Data-led: 4.5 quintillion bytes of new data are being generated every day. To know a customer, you must make sense of your data, but data is not wisdom. Adding expertise and insights using the right technology creates meaning.
- Agile to the core: This dramatically reduces hierarchy and teams can be more effective. At IBM, $1 billion is invested in the training and education of teams in the next four years; six agile marketing hubs. This represents a huge cultural shift for IBM.
Presentation:
Video:
Leveraging Technology to Drive Brand Affections
Raja Rajamannar – Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, MasterCard
Consumers are hit with 5K messages every day. It’s estimated that 600 million devices are coming with pre-installed ad-blockers. Advertising is not the way forward. Storytelling is dead. It’s more about experiences. Go where the consumer are. The following are examples of MasterCard engaging consumers at their “passion points.”
- Priceless Cities: Once in a lifetime experience for MasterCard holders. E.g., chance to go to the Louvre after hours and view the Mona Lisa in candle-light. MasterCard curates these global experiences. There is a need to develop scale.
- Priceless Causes: Tap into philosophic interests. E.g., partnered with the WFP (World Food Program) in Eastern Europe. Even after the promotion ended, there was still momentum. Raised enough money to feed 300K school children for one school year. Brand liking increased and MasterCard became the fourth most liked brand in the year of campaign.
- Shopping with Augmented Reality: Virtual Showroom with Atelier Swarovski – tracks your eye movement so that you can virtually select and buy things. VR overlaid over ecommerce: create apps to give 3D experience; AR shopping experience at Saks Fifth Avenue with Masterpass, which allows authentication using wearer’s iris.
Presentation and video not available.
CONSUMERxSCIENCE 2018 Understanding Consumer Segments
Who’s in Charge Here Anyway? Millennial Families’ Path to Purchase
George Carey – Founder & CEO, The Family Room
Theresa Pepe – VP, Marketing & Partner Insights, Viacom
The family structure is undergoing enormous change, with the traditional two-parent households down by 25% since 1980 while “non-traditional” households increase. To understand implications of this, Viacom undertook the Millennial Family Decision Making project in partnership with The Family Room.
Key takeaways:
- “Protection and safety” as an emotional driver went to the #1 position among parents after years of being a much lower consideration – a sea change.
- There is no category that is of low interest to kids, only categories that haven’t given kids a reason to be interested.
- Questions to ask yourself: Is your company staying ahead of the profound changes in emotional priorities that form the basis of decision making? Does your company understand the emotional WHY of your category and brand? Is your company starting with the rational WHAT or emotional WHY in constructing your brand’s selling proposition?
The Remarkable Influence of Millennial Men
Brad Fay – Chief Commercial Officer, Engagement Labs
Maggie Fosdick – VP, Engagement Labs
There is more to Millennial men than just beer drinking sports fans. Compared to the total male population, Millennial men are more likely to be talking about children’s products, the home, travel, and beauty. Beer and sports are present in Millennial men’s conversations, but so are financial services, Nivea, and Gillette.
Key takeaways:
- Creative messaging: Men care about relationships, want to be smart shoppers, enjoy meal preparation; Stereotype of beer-drinking sports fans is only partly true.
- Targeting: Time for more categories to think about targeting young men: Beauty, Apparel, household products, CPG.
- Trend-spotting: Watch younger men as your guide to what’s coming next.
- Influencer marketing: Young men’s social networks become a major asset, making young men more valuable as targets for influencer marketing.
Presentation:
Buy or Boycott: Multicultural Millennials, Causes and Connections
Devi Shah – Colgate Palmolive; ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council Chair
The ARF Cultural Council presented the results of studies it conducted on Millennials, which focused on brands’ advocacy of social causes in their advertising.
Key takeaways:
- Millennials expect more of brands in terms of social causes. They want to see what a company has done, not just a statement of the brand’s beliefs.
- Multicultural millennials are more supportive of brands that support social causes. Female millennials are also more supportive of brands that support social causes vs. male millennials.
- A two-way conversation often takes place on social media between brands and their customers: 62% use social media to connect with brands.
- They are likely to boycott brands if they disagree with the brand’s POV.
Connecting Across Generations
John Cora – VP, Sales Research, Forecsting & Measurement, Disney-ABC
Sarah Gardiner – VP, Research & Strategy, Insight Strategy Group
Jonathan Steuer – CRO, Omnicom Media Group
Marketers and researchers tend to focus on targeting specific generations, rather than trying to understand people holistically. As you rarely reach a person in isolation, it’s crucial to understand what unites us as well as divides us.
Key takeaways:
- United States of Anxiety: Americans are worried about the future, and the American Dream has been turned upside down. On the positive side, this results in an increase in self-reliance and growth in entrepreneurial spirit.
- Family Values 2.0: In a world of uncertainty, relationships are everything. Eighty-seven percent say “family is the most important to me.” This type of relationship, bond, they crave from brands.
- Media as a Dialogue: Content is a form of dialogue. Visual media, such as memes and short clips are becoming a shared vocabulary across all generations.
- Video as Mood Therapy: All generations use video for identity and for mood benefits. Using video as mood therapy spikes even more among those in certain life stages.
The Psychology Behind Image Perception
Ameneh Atai – SVP, Business Development, Nielsen
Tristen Norman – Manager, Creative Insights & Planning, GETTY
GETTY’s challenges: What drives instinctive reactions? They have assumptions of who is buying their images and why, but lacked validation and understanding of why people respond to certain images in certain ways. What are the differences between amateurs vs. photo/visual professionals? Are there regional differences in image choice?
Nielsen designed a global psychometric survey to investigate these questions, using OCEAN methodology (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism).
Key takeaways:
- True engagement enabled rich data collection: 85% satisfaction rate from respondents, 60K respondents in a couple of weeks.
- Top performer image deemed as the least creative.
- Insights from the study helped better inform the image creation process; what images they should be shooting; serving the right image to the right people at the right time; optimize image recommendations.
- How to win in today’s complex world: break from tradition – go beyond age and demo, create quality customer engagement, gain access to quality data on a global scale, make big data actionable data.
Presentation:
White paper:
Could Audience Buying be CREATING Waste?
Christine Pierce – SVP, Data Science, Nielsen
Not all data is created equal when it comes to advertising outcomes. According to Nielsen, we cannot rely on guesswork, accurate data needs to reach the right consumers. Data should represent “the people.”
Key takeaways:
- Research on audiences have been biased for years – the industry has traded on age and gender and this is still current in the industry.
- Remember that our devices are not viewers – universe estimates are not comparable.
- Big data can lead to inaccurate adjustments.
- Unrepresentative data leads to waste and poor marketing ROI.
- Trustworthy insights into the TV Universe are imperative when it comes to accurately targeting and posting on audience-based segments.
Presentation:
Video:
CONSUMERxSCIENCE 2018 – Understanding Consumer Journeys
Can an Old Category Modernize the Purchase Journey?
Donn Froshiesar – VP, Market Research & Insights, New York Life
Tasha Space – Managing Director, CS Space
New York Life wanted to make its own journey from an agent-led company to one that makes more broad use of corporate sales and marketing. A big question was “does advertising even matter to us”? The company was performing well without a focus on it. Their data showed greater brand awareness did not lead to more buying. They conducted immersion studies (brand, cultural and consumer) to better understand the consumer path to purchase in this category.
Key takeaways:
- The dynamics are deeper than was thought. Buying is something we learn to do, we aren’t born doing it – so insurance, being bought “under cover” and very rarely, means people never learn the skills to buy it.
- What criteria can consumers use to differentiate different insurance companies? Be responsible.
- The confusion and pressure involved in insurance buying leads to the consumer feeling anxiety and inertia, and buying the first thing that they see that even comes close to what they need, rather than shopping around.
Presentation:
Insight to Action: AT&T’s Omni-Channel Customer Journey
Charlie Hinton – AVP, Marketing Analytics, AT&T
Warren Thompson, Ph.D. – Director, Advanced Analytics, AT&T
Anubhavi Gupta – Principal, Advanced Analytics, AT&T
AT&T wants to understand customer journeys to build a better brand experience and to be more surgical in their marketing so as to increase ROI. They have many different product combinations and four consumer segments. The solution was to do a multi-touch attribution model. The model is: Holistic – accounting for all demand factors; Accurate – provide true incremental impact of each factor; Integrated – unified by design, using marketing mix modeling for the upper funnel and multi-touch attribution for the lower funnel; Actionable – designed for agile, aggressive marketers.
Key takeaways:
- Paid search was costlier than expected.
- Social had a halo effect from other AT&T branded products/messages.
- Display showed a change in efficiency.
- Customer path fragmentation exists but there are synergies that can be leveraged.
- Constantly improve so there are better inputs and better outputs.
Presentation:
Customer Journey Insights Through a Unified Lens
Preeti Mehta – Director, Analytic Partners
Maggie Merklin – EVP, Analytic Partners
This presentation discussed how adaptive measurement helped a higher education company (for profit college) understand their customer’s journey. This category has a complicated business model with many touchpoints that include not only enrollment but persistence to remain enrolled to graduation. Previously the company depended on digital analytics or on late stages of the purchase funnel; they had no understanding of the full purchase journey.
Key takeaways:
- Implementing the study results provided an opportunity for 6% growth in inquiries or applications, and a 3% increase in enrollments.
- Measurement needs to be customized by type of business.
- Need to measure the full journey, not just top and bottom of the funnel.
- Leverage a unified measure for a better “truth”.
Presentation:
Radio Drives Search
Philippe Generali – President & CEO, Media Monitors, RCS Works
Tammy Greenburg – SVP, RAB
Alice Sylvester – Partner, Sequent Partners
One of the most common questions to the RAB from both ad buyers and sellers is “can you prove radio can drive online action, specifically search?”. Radio was found to impact all aspects of the consumer journey by driving search, including awareness, search consideration, purchase, and retention.
Not surprisingly, impact varied by the effectiveness of the creative. Top creative elements driving search included price deals, non-price offers, product news or updates, inclusion of specific locations, or personalization of the creative for a particular target demo (car owners vs truck owners, for example).
Key takeaways:
- Radio ads consistently drive incremental google brand searches.
- Drive of search varies by brand.
- Radio was better to drive search than TV except for one case.
- Creative is a major contributor to driving search.
Executive Summary:
Presentation:
Customer Path to Purchase Across Platforms
James Fennessy – CEO, Standard Media Index
Audrey Steele – EVP Sales Research Insights & Strategy, FOX Networks
Bill Harvey – Executive Chairman, Bill Harvey Consulting
Karlo Cordova – Group Media Director, Wieden+Kennedy
This presentation shared findings from a study by SMI and FOX Networks on the value of TV and two case studies from Widen+Kennedy and Bill Harvey on the impact of ad context.
Key takeaways:
- Brands that increased spend in non-premium video lost sales and market share. If they had switched $1 million from digital to TV, there would have been a large increase in sales.
- Across multiplatform ad campaigns and verticals, the majority of sales effect (average of 75.8%) was contributed by Television/Premium TV-based video content.
- The effect of optimal allocation is especially pronounced for the auto vertical. Auto brands that increased Broadcast TV spend by more than +5% saw a total cumulative growth of +1.84% in market share.
- The context case studies showed that ignoring context can halve ROI. There are plans to conduct studies of ROI at the household level to see what happens when ads, programs, and households are all in psychological Resonance (“HyperResonance”).
Presentation:
The New Battleground for Marketing-Led Growth
Dave Elzinga – Partner, McKinsey & Company
Alex Swales -Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company
Brands come in and out of the consumer’s consideration set. This make it important for the brand to consider its impact at all touchpoints and at all stages of the journey.
Key takeaways:
- Brand switching occurs frequently: 58% of consumer change brands.
- Loyalty is elusive for most products. Most products are driven more by shopping than by loyalty.
- It is critical for a brand to get into the consumer’s initial consideration set.
- Brands can impact their CGI (customer growth indicator) by: expanding their target consumers to include a wider set of consumer segments; reallocating marketing budget to emphasize marketing-related activities to encourage consideration by the consumers; building a pipeline of innovative products and services.
Presentation not available.
Go the Distance with Integrated Location Insights
Jennifer Pelino – SVP, Omni Channel Media, IRI
Nadya Kohl – EVP, Business Development & Marketing, PlaceIQ
Tracking consumer path to purchase can be daunting. There are also personalization challenges. How to serve marketing at the right level, right point in the purchase cycle, and the right context? IRI data and PlaceIQ worked together to determine purchase impact, using geolocation to assess path to purchase, to serve ads at the right time, and close loop to in-store sales. A use case looked at the value of season-long sports event sponsorship.
Findings:
- Compared to the control group, exposed persons had 2x higher dollar spend per HH.
- Looking deeper, those who attended 3+ events had a sales lift of 31.7% compared with 12.8% for those who attended only one event.
- Further digging can reveal opportunities for event marketing in the event area, for example in this case, event attendees tended to visit QSRs, casual dining restaurants, and mid-level hotels.
Presentation:
White paper:
Location Intelligence: Stories from the Frontline
Jasper Snyder – Senior Director, Ad Research & Measurement, Foursquare
Why is location intelligence important? Now 96% of adults have a smartphone in the USA, transforming how to reach and to understand consumers. What can location data tell us?
- Understand consumer journeys
- Understand consumer segments based on consumer interests and the location visit
- Moment based messaging – providing marketing messages in context
- Measurement and optimization – understand impact of ads and how to optimize, typically using control vs exposed comparisons
Presentation:
Unified Marketing Measurement
Nishat Mehta – President, Media Center of Excellence, IRI
The CPG space is undergoing a revolution in terms of how consumers access content and buy products, coupled with tech innovation, which is creating confusion, chaos, revolution. Marketing mix models drive big picture, strategic analysis but there is a need to understand the impact of each marketing channel related to both base and incremental sales. However, attribution is difficult in the CPG space.
Key takeaways:
- There is a critical need to unify measurement and the brand’s data by having Marketing Mix and Attribution models work together.
- Marketers need to optimize advertising every week. It is critical to apply insights and to change campaigns while they are still running. This approach needs buy-in throughout the organization.
- Unified Marketing Measurement requires improvements to data and technology: have right, accurate data assets; speed-weekly basis to change campaign based on insights, granularity, technology platform; deployment of this information throughout the process.
No presentation available.
Omnichannel Uplift: Measuring Campaign Levers to Drive Marketing ROI
Bret Weinberg – Director, Media Measurement, InfoScou
Some retail channels will always be blind spots. InfoScout collects information about consumer shopping trips, and provides single-source measurement. Customers submit receipts via gamified shopping apps (Shoparoo, Receipt Hog). Super Bowl ads were analyzed to understand if there was conversion based on these ads. A key finding was that a wide variety of channels are shopped by Super Bowl viewers that are not accounted for by the current measurement sources. It is critical to measure the total market across all channels. The full market view is critical.
Presentation: