5 Reasons Continuity in Advertising is More Important Than Ever
With so much having changed in the consumer mindset in 2020, it stands to reason that how we talk to people in advertising, and what we say, should change as well. But how much should it change? While producing updated imagery and messages to be sensitive to this new world is a good thing, I’d argue that producing entirely new advertising is very much not a good thing. Here are the reasons. 1. Familiarity is comforting. In his book...
A More Purposeful Use of Norms
In advertising evaluation, as in much of market research, norms are a critical tool that provides valuable context. ‘Your ad scored 27%’ on a particular measure isn’t very helpful, let alone actionable, without a frame of reference – and that’s where norms come in! However, there are a few important caveats around norms that today’s time-pressured business decision makers often fail to take into consideration. First, the usual...
What Hasn’t Changed in 2020
So much has changed. What we care about, what we worry about, the patterns of our lives. Among members of the Advertising and Insights communities, a big question on many minds is the ways that all these changes have affected how advertising works. Based on Communicus’ research, the surprising answer is that there’s more that hasn’t changed than has. First off, people are still paying attention to some ads, and not to others. Across...
COVID-Era Ads & Brand Love
As brands have responded to the COVID pandemic with ads that have been crafted for the times, some clear trends have emerged. In fact, in the initial period, so many ads have looked and sounded alike, it has been hard to tell them apart. As acknowledged by an ad agency Creative Director: “Everyone’s working from the same brief.” Not surprisingly, while these ads tended to resonate, and even be appreciated by consumers in-market, the...
Is anybody paying attention?
In the US and beyond, advertisers are starting to pay attention to ‘attention – the fact that simply buying ad exposures, or impressions, isn’t enough. If the targeted prospect doesn’t pay attention to the ad, it might as well never have appeared in their field of vision. Within the past year, the ARF has co-sponsored research and published numerous papers on the topic, while in the UK, a consortium of researchers has created The...