A quick reference for information on a wide range of industry subjects from fundamental to leading edge.
Towards the end of 2018, the ARF issued a Knowledge at Hand report and a CMO Brief each called The OTT Revolution. Since then, the OTT revolution has not only continued but it has accelerated. Moreover, the pandemic acted as a catalyst, increasing the rate of this acceleration. At the same time, the meaning of the term OTT has changed.
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Despite a significant amount of research focusing on optimal frequency and recency, going back decades, little consensus exists on how many exposures/impressions are “too many” across platforms. Indeed, a blank frequency cap is likely to lead to inefficiencies. The bottom line, there is no simple “rule of thumb” for optimal frequency planning.
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Influencer marketing has grown more complex over a short period of time, and Covid has accelerated its development. Options have increased significantly while setting the right tone with consumers is perhaps more crucial than ever before. What consumers want to see is authentic relationships between brands and influencers. And the focus has shifted away from celebrities and towards niche, micro-influencers. The following Knowledge at Hand and CMO Brief cover a recent Knowledge Center report looking into the current state of influencer marketing, what the trends are, how Covid has affected this phenomenon and best practices when putting together an influencer strategy.
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One of the essential goals of advertising is to get customers’ attention. However, a lot of campaigns approach this simplistically. More “attention” does not necessarily mean an ad is more effective. Attention is a much more complex phenomenon than that. While attention is a prerequisite for ad impact, the term is ambiguous, complex and difficult to measure. Moreover, “attention” does not necessarily indicate a positive response, and a high level of attention is not always a sign of a positive ad impact.
Member Only AccessData sets for STBs and Smart TVs have, up until now, been separate from one another, which has hampered the ability to accurately assess viewing habits. This data would be very useful for planning, buying and optimizing ad campaigns. Since the two are complementary, combining them can help us form scaled, granular, TV tuning data sets that are more nationally representative. Luckily, a new report from the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM)—a subsidiary of the ARF, outlines best practices for combining set-top box data and smart TV ACR data. Read more.
Surveys are a necessary tool for exploring consumer behavior, attitudes and intentions. They provide valuable data to help make informed business decisions. However, quality matters and ignoring best practices impacts the validity and reliability of findings, which might make the data unusable.
Member Only AccessBuilding a brand across multiple countries is challenging. Generic messages are less likely to reach consumers across the globe today. What’s more, recent neuro studies suggest consumers in different countries process creatives differently. On another front, the business environment is unique in each market, meaning a different strategy is needed to position the brand and take on the competition.
No advertisement is seen in isolation. The impact an ad has depends on the context it finds itself in, including what type of ad or content preceded it or what it is adjacent to, in terms of digital or print. Today, there is a renewed interest in context effects, particularly in the COVID era, as advertisers worry about their ads rolling after or being adjacent to upsetting news. This newly updated Knowledge at Hand and corresponding CMO Brief explore all the latest research and insights surrounding context effects.
What are the secrets to creating and developing the best advertising creative? Several studies published in the March issue of the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) have become so influential in answering this question, the ARF held an Insights Studio event about it. There, creative experts from a number of different countries presented their fascinating findings. The following Knowledge at Hand distills these learnings into a brisk report brimming with insights, including how great creative ideas are generated and evaluated, if portraying passion in advertising transfers to the consumer, where six-second TV commercials work, and where they don’t, and more. Read more.
Defining what makes purpose-driven marketing campaigns successful has historically been more art than science. In an effort to shift the balance squarely back in favor of science, the ARF and Kantar have introduced Cracking Brand
Purpose, a study that identifies the elements that create leading purpose-driven campaigns and provides a best-in-class framework to shape, guide and evaluate future campaigns. Read more.