Leveraging Human Psychology to Build Brands and Sales Why do people buy some products and not others? How do media messages influence a shopper’s buying choices? What makes buyers tick and what makes them click? How can marketers effectively harmonize emotion and action? What are best practices for combining big data and small data to understand and predict customer behavior? We (humans) like to think of ourselves as rational animals. Over the past two decades, the notion that humans are…

Market research, media research and advertising research all faced plenty of obstacles prior to the Coronavirus outbreak. Response rates and cooperation rates were already widely discussed problems. Access to gated communities, the wide use of Caller-ID, and restrictions on mobile phone numbers had already challenged survey researchers trying to achieve representative samples. Worries about “professional respondents” in online panels or in qualitative research databases did not arrive with the pandemic. However the pandemic has introduced a whole set of new…

The only certainty brands face as they grapple with two drivers of uncertainty — a pandemic and recession — is the need to adjust their marketing and communications strategies. Messaging sociability, travel and large events (think restaurants, cruise lines and concerts) can appear tone deaf in today’s environment. Research has proven the critical importance of ad creative and messaging, but it has also found that the contextual environment in which the ads appear can influence their acceptance and success. For…

Every crisis is unique, but every crisis also has antecedents in history – especially with regard to the crisis’s effect on public opinion. In some ways, the current moment is similar to 9/11 in that it involves charged emotions and fears that go beyond those associated with a mere economic downturn. After 9/11 appeals to patriotism and to solidarity with victims and first-responders resulted in a short-term “rally-round-the-flag” sentiment. Now, a global pandemic plus nationalist rhetoric is leading to some…

How to plan and recover from a recession market The ARF’s second Virtual Town Hall, How is the Coronavirus Impacting the Global Advertising Industry?, focused on the recent coronavirus outbreak and how to best plan and recover from a recession market. Huge parts of the U.S. economy have shut down. From restaurants to gyms to hotel chains, workers are being hit hard as layoffs snowball daily. The advertising industry is feeling the shock as advertising budgets dry up due to…

The market research industry, along with everyone around the globe, is trying to come to terms with the Coronavirus (COVID-19), a fast-breaking and scary event. Some of the best analysis and predictions — including scenario planning structures and budgeting — have been shared in an online forum known as The Wonks List. The ARF feels strongly that more should be in the know, which is why we are bottling some of this lightning into a virtual town hall. Join us…

Solving the Attribution Puzzle Bridging MMM and MTA for Better Marketing Outcomes Market mix models (MMM) have been a staple of marketing analytics for decades, but our ever-expanding digital footprints have facilitated the rise of multi-touch attribution (MTA) as a competing paradigm for understanding the ROI of each component of marketing spend. Each approach has its pros and cons: MMMs are more comprehensive, but they take more time. MTA models are faster and more granular, but generally apply to more…

Viewer behavior is shifting at an unprecedented rate. By 2022, more than 58 percent of the US population will subscribe to OTT video content services according to eMarketer. How and why do viewers choose platforms and networks? How do they discover new programs, and what influences their program selections? At OTTxSCIENCE on October 22 at the Universal Studios Lot attendees heard about the latest trends, technologies, content and competition within the OTT space. During this one-day program, industry experts discussed:…

Why has customer experience become such a critical factor today for brand success? At EXPERIENCExSCIENCE, ARF’s one-day event on September 25 during Advertising Week New York, we addressed why customer experience has become such a critical factor today for brand success. Speakers from Ben & Jerry’s, Philips, Levi’s, CBS, LATAM Airlines, Kantar, Salesforce and more, shared: The role of CDP in managing customer experience How brands can get the best out of paid, owned and earned media Best practices for…

Scoring Big with Sports Marketing & Sponsorship Sports is big business. Learn how to score at SPORTSMARKETINGxSCIENCE, where the play-by-play will delve into trends, best practices and success metrics. Log-in to view videos and download presentations and the event summary. PwC projects the North American sports market to surpass $80 Billion in revenue in 2022. And that’s just accounting for traditional revenue streams like media rights, tickets, sponsorship and merchandise. Sports Sponsorship revenue alone is expected to reach over 18…