Only 15% of brand assets are truly distinctive. And just 19% of logos achieve “gold” status in recognizability according to a study by Ipsos and JKR. So where are things going wrong? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob talk about what makes assets truly distinctive, the most effective formats for memorability, and whether consistency or creativity plays a larger role in an asset’s success. Plus, quiz yourself along with the hosts as they run through some of the most well-known brand assets used to...
Jan 23, 2024•22 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we’re resharing one of our top episodes from the archive. Enjoy, and we’ll be back with new content next week! Brand is far more measurable today than it was even five years ago. So why are we still questioning brand’s value? Maybe because it’s tough to know exactly how to grow brand. Or how to defend its importance to the business. In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob tackle brand misconceptions from a performance marketer’s perspective, from what it means to build brand awareness ...
Jan 16, 2024•21 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Last year, CTV ad spend reached a record high of $25 billion, and it’s only continuing to grow. A survey by the IAB found marketers plan to increase CTV spending by 14.5% in 2024—more than any other channel. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by VP Media Catherine Walstad to review everything marketers should know about the potential and pitfalls of Connected TV in the upcoming year. Together, they highlight misconceptions about the rise of CTV and explore tactical steps advertisers ca...
Jan 09, 2024•29 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Two trends are colliding. First, advertisers are tracking their investments more carefully. Second, traditional marketing metrics are under attack as privacy regulations evolve. One possible solution? Attention. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob discuss the rise and relevance of attention metrics in advertising. From how attention goes beyond visibility to the many ways attention is measured, our hosts are exploring the benefits, challenges, and practical applications of attention metrics. They ...
Jan 02, 2024•20 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast This week we’re taking time off to spend the holidays with our families so we’re republishing one of our top episodes from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back with new content next week. There are more than 130 marketing metrics. But how many really determine marketing effectiveness? Especially for brand-building channels like TV, radio, and print advertising? In this episode, VP of Analytics Matt Hultgren joins Angela and Elena to discuss how measurement best practices have chang...
Dec 26, 2023•30 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast It’s a podcast takeover! In a special bonus episode, we’re sharing Elena’s conversation with Marc Binkley and Vassilis Douros of “The Sleeping Barber” and Conor Byrne of “That’s What I Call Marketing.” Together, they review their favorite marketing trends and campaigns of the year, plus what they’re looking forward to for marketers in 2024. The conversation explores Apple’s distinctive brand assets, how Spotify and Strava make the most of customer data, the potential impact of AI, what brand pur...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Forrester predicts “experience with generative AI” will be written into 20% of new CMO job descriptions next year. They also say brand purpose is out of style and highly practical, results-driven campaigns will soon be in vogue. In this wrap-up episode for the year, Elena, Angela, and Rob are sharing their own predictions for the biggest marketing trends in 2024. From a focus on effectiveness to the growth of traditional marketing channels to AI completely reimagining the ad industry, there’s a ...
Dec 19, 2023•25 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast QR codes achieved mainstream status in 2020. But they're more than just a pandemic fad. In 2022, 83 million US smartphone users scanned the codes. And 3 in 4 consumers say they plan to scan the codes in the future. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Associate Director of Product Optimization Tilly DeNardo to talk about the future of QR codes in TV advertising. The team dives into Marketing Architects’ research on how consumers perceive the codes in advertising and how to create ads ...
Dec 12, 2023•26 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast 82% of ANA members say their company has an in-house agency. And now generative AI threatens specialized digital agencies. What does the future of ad agencies look like? Do they have a future at all? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by SVP Client Growth Dhiren Khemlani to discuss the pros and cons of in-housing, the impact of AI on agencies, and the importance of remaining agile and adaptable. Finally, they predict what agencies will look like in the next decade. Or if agencies will ...
Dec 05, 2023•30 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Only 22% of CMOs feel they have a collaborative relationship with their CFO. And only 39% of financial directors have confidence their marketing team will make smart commercial decisions. The numbers, well, aren’t great. To uncover the reason for this disconnect, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by CFO Brent Longval. Together, they explore why marketing and finance can end up at opposite ends of the table and how learning to speak the same language can close the gap. There’s work to do on both ...
Nov 28, 2023•30 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast This summer, consumers dug into their wallets to attend concerts, watch movies in theaters, and enjoy sporting events in person. But as economic concerns grow, can the summer’s spending keep up for retailers’ crucial holiday sales season? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Strategy Director Kyle Lewis to discuss the trends retailers can expect during the holiday shopping season and how they can cultivate positive experiences to support sales going into 2024. Starting with the fact t...
Nov 21, 2023•25 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Do digital ads have your attention, really? What about your audience’s attention? Marketers have shifted from traditional channels to digital ones—but the long-term returns of TV, radio, and print have been difficult to replicate. According to Data2Decisions and DDB, digital attribution techniques overestimate the business effects of search by a factor of two and underestimate the impact of TV by a factor of 10. In this week’s episode, Rob, Angela, and Elena discuss digital advertising’s effecti...
Nov 14, 2023•21 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast In 2023, Google will rake in $57 billion from search. Their dominance in the market has left marketers heavily dependent on Google’s platform even as prices rise, making it both necessary for success online... and a massive headache. This week, Elena and Rob are joined by Director of Analytics Jordan Rossler to discuss how marketers can improve the effectiveness of their SEM investment—while reducing their dependence on Google. Because no brand that wants to compete online can fully avoid Google...
Nov 07, 2023•22 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Despite a surplus of data and advanced targeting capabilities, marketers aren't targeting as well as we think we are. And it’s hurting performance. IJRM recently found many targeted campaigns have to double their click-through rate to outperform untargeted ones. Another study from Truthset discovered nearly half of data used for ad targeting is incorrect. So is targeting really what marketers have been promised? This week, Angela, Elena, and Rob dig into the classic targeting vs reach debate to ...
Oct 31, 2023•25 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Despite a heightened focus on growth, businesses frequently sideline creativity. Even though unconventional thinking is exactly what’s needed to reach new levels of success. Demand for chief creative officers has declined by 4% since 2018. And marketing roles increasingly prioritize analytical skills over creative talent. This week, Rob and Elena are joined by Chief Creative Officer Steve Babcock to discuss the growing creativity gap and how to fix it. Surprisingly, the answer might not be about...
Oct 24, 2023•29 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast How do you defend marketing’s value through economic changes, a narrowing focus on ROI, and changing ideas about how to build a memorable brand? This week, Elena and Angela are joined by Mary Kyriakidi, Global Thought Leader at Kantar. Mary is the author of Kantar’s evidence-based report “Modern Marketing Dilemmas” which explores some of the most contentious and widely debated topics in marketing today... and what the research says about those topics’ answers. Topics covered: [02:30] How common ...
Oct 17, 2023•28 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Connected TV. Podcasts. TikTok. Even virtual reality. They all offer advertisers new opportunities to reach potential customers. But emerging channels are inherently risky. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob dig into eMarketer’s report on the mismatch between the channels consumers spend time with and those marketers invest in most. They also explain why that mismatch can sometimes be the right decision. Because with emerging channels, starting small is often a smart approach, even if you fall be...
Oct 10, 2023•22 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast The term "marketing effectiveness" has gained attention lately, but what does it really mean? And what’s stopping marketers from developing truly effective work? The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) recently investigated this exact question with a survey of more than 300 marketers. This week, Angela, Rob, and Elena are breaking down the definition of marketing effectiveness, discussing the findings of the WFA’s report, and sharing their own thoughts on how to reach, measure, and educate oth...
Oct 03, 2023•23 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Marketers have been overwhelmed with lessons from the success of the Barbie movie’s marketing strategy. But those lessons only go so far if you don’t have a 150-million-dollar budget to spend. This week, Rob, Angela, and Elena explore why Barbie’s marketing was so successful and how other marketers could replicate the principles of Barbie’s strategy with smaller budgets. They’re discussing category design, lightning strikes, and the importance of making bold strategic moves to stand out from com...
Sep 26, 2023•24 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Research from System1 and Pinterest found that digital ads rated highly for emotion resulted in a staggering 90% average increase in brand favorability. And this isn’t the first time research has proven emotion’s effects on ad performance. The IPA reports that 43% of emotional ad campaigns lead to very large business effects across sales, market share, loyalty and new customers, compared to only 23% of rational campaigns. Clearly, emotion is a valuable creative lever. But how do you use it well?...
Sep 19, 2023•24 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Nearly half of marketers believe senior stakeholders focus too much on ROI. Because while it’s the top metric the C-Suite cares about, ROI alone doesn’t show marketing’s full impact. Proving marketing’s value to the business isn’t a new challenge. But it is a persistent one. This week, Elena and Angela are joined by John Wojcik, VP New Business and Solution Development at Brother USA and former CMO at The Zebra, to discuss strategies marketers can use to communicate the value of their work to la...
Sep 12, 2023•26 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Based on an analysis of 2,500 B2B ads, one thing is very clear: B2B needs a new creative formula, one that’s actually effective. This week, Ty Heath, Director of Market Engagement at The B2B Institute, a think tank funded by LinkedIn, joins Angela, Rob, and Elena to talk about why B2B advertising struggles with creative effectiveness. They cover why marketing to businesses is still marketing to people and explore the ABLE formula’s guide to developing B2B creative that people will remember. Topi...
Sep 05, 2023•31 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast The battle over whether marketers should focus on sales or brand results has raged for years now. But while many marketers are now embracing both, this philosophy of “bothism” has only recently been applied to TV advertising. This week, VP Client Growth Devan Futterer joins Elena and Angela to talk about ways they’ve seen brands set up TV campaigns to drive both long- and short-term results. It starts with a media strategy optimized for reach, requires thoughtfully produced creative, and of cour...
Aug 29, 2023•19 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Targeting the right customer at the right time is a marketer’s dream—but only if the price is right. This is the second of three episodes reviewing a report released by Marketing Architects called “Reach, Revenue and ROI: 3 Principles for Effective TV Advertising.” This week, Elena and Rob are joined by VP of Analytics Matt Hultgren to talk about the tradeoffs between targeting and cost, the importance of reach in a media plan, and how to leverage technology to get the most out of traditional me...
Aug 22, 2023•20 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Why would anyone market to those who aren’t likely to buy right away or who don’t fit perfectly within your ICP? Actually, there are multiple reasons. This is the first of three episodes reviewing a report released by Marketing Architects called “Reach, Revenue and ROI: 3 Principles for Effective TV Advertising.” This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Chief Client Officer Whitney Stratten to talk about the power of broad reach marketing, how reach builds mental availability, and how cli...
Aug 15, 2023•21 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Awareness vs affinity. Reach vs resonance. Even customer acquisition vs loyalty. The debate has many names, and it’s clearly not going anywhere. But what if everyone’s right? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by SVP Brand Strategy Catrina McAuliffe to break down the purpose of both brand awareness and affinity. Because one thing is very clear: this is far from a simple debate. They’re talking through the definitions of awareness and affinity, the importance of both, how to measure the...
Aug 08, 2023•27 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Earned media is a small part of marketers’ budgets, but it’s a growing focus for brands across all categories. Still, is it really a winning marketing strategy on its own? Deciding how to prioritize marketing investments across earned, owned, and paid media has been a long-debated topic. Even the definitions of those three categories are contested. This week, Elena, Rob and Angela are diving into the pros and cons of each type of media, why growing challenges in paid digital advertising has more...
Aug 01, 2023•23 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast 75% of marketers struggle to link creative activities to commercial returns. And 79% say they have inadequate training to connect creative impact and business outcomes. Are we in the middle of a creative effectiveness crisis? In this episode, Elena and Rob explore what creative effectiveness really means, how to measure it, and why award shows are so bad at identifying it. They even explore a framework that marketers at brands of all types can use to evaluate the likely impact of their creative ...
Jul 25, 2023•19 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Google announced they would disable cookies for 1% of Chrome users at the beginning of 2024. Now, the pressure is on advertisers looking for targeting alternatives that don’t need cookies. Like contextual targeting. In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob are joined by SVP Technology Aaron Lange to discuss what contextual targeting is, why it’s seeing renewed interest across the advertising industry, and how streaming TV advertisers especially can benefit from testing the targeting method. Plus, ...
Jul 18, 2023•29 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Following AI news has been quite the rollercoaster ride lately. The technology’s potential is incredible for a wide range of fields. But especially for creative work like copywriting, design, and video editing. In this episode, Elena and Rob are joined by Marketing Content Designer Greg Brannen to talk about the way AI is transforming creative work and how creatives should feel about that shift. Their discussion covers everything from how technology has changed creative work in the past, to why ...
Jul 11, 2023•31 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast 
