Does Super Bowl Advertising Really Pay Off?
Jan08

Does Super Bowl Advertising Really Pay Off?

As anticipation for the 2015 Super Bowl begins to build, marketers and sports fans alike are awaiting Sunday, Feb. 1. Advertisers who are investing $4 million or more in a Super Bowl commercial are busy plotting their creative strategies and public relations programs while the rest of us wait to be entertained. But marketers everywhere should take pause and examine past insights that have emerged from previous Super Bowl ad...

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Super Bowl Ads Mostly Failed in 2014, Especially Ones for Cars
Dec29

Super Bowl Ads Mostly Failed in 2014, Especially Ones for Cars

New or unfamiliar products did relatively well in 2014 Super Bowl advertising, while established products and particularly automotive brands fared poorly, according to research firm Communicus. That may help explain why this year’s Super Bowl is more loaded with unfamiliar players, and why automotive brands are mostly sitting on the sidelines, according to Jeri Smith, CEO of the firm that rates effectiveness of Super Bowl and...

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Survey explores how the “pester power” of children drives retail sales
Dec19

Survey explores how the “pester power” of children drives retail sales

Advertising consultancy Communicus says it has found that “child pestering” is one of the top predictors of a parent’s purchase intentions to buy a wireless device for their children. Its study, “The Mobile Device Path to Purchase: Parents & Children” found that for Apple, “child pestering” is the top predictor, being twice as important as social media, while for Samsung, it was the second predictor (first...

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Pester power factor in mobile purchases
Dec18

Pester power factor in mobile purchases

In its study, The Mobile Device Path to Purchase: Parents & Children it found that for Apple, “child pestering” is the top predictor, being twice as important as social media, while for Samsung, it was the second predictor (first was positive word-of-mouth, by about 15%) in driving parental purchase intent. Jeri Smith, president and CEO, Communicus, said. “We found that ‘pester power’ can even outweigh a parent’s beliefs that a...

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How Your Brand Can Leverage Competitor Ads This Holiday Season
Nov25

How Your Brand Can Leverage Competitor Ads This Holiday Season

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s just coming a bit earlier and lasting longer than expected. Welcome to the year of the “Christmas creep,” as described by Stuart Elliott’s October 15, 2014 column in The New York Times. Retailers have holiday displays up before Halloween. Brands are sharing holiday shopping wish lists earlier than ever before. Consumers are receiving e-mails, mailers, ads and a variety of “shop here now”...

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The Constant-Sum Game Called Advertising
Nov19

The Constant-Sum Game Called Advertising

Advertising campaigns are intended to build brands, but they don’t work in a vacuum. Consumers are bombarded with messages from a variety of brands, most of which are intended to build the advertised brand and to win market share. In fact, advertising typically works as a constant-sum game; one brand’s rise is another’s fall. Given this dynamic, it’s surprising that most advertisers and advertising researchers don’t pay closer...

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