Advertising is on its way out. Or so marketing professor Scott Galloway suggested in his recent interview on the Uncensored CMO podcast. We (naturally) found this concerning. So this week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are taking a good, hard look at whether advertising really impacts business growth. They review how much the biggest and most innovative brands in the world really spend on advertising, how advertising connects brands with customers, and why brand storytelling matters. Topics covered: [0...
Jun 04, 2024•26 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob explore what drives us to click and share online content. Is virality just luck, or is it strategic? Discover how emotions and planning play a part. Topics covered: [00:50] “What Makes Online Content Viral” [01:25] What makes something go viral...
May 30, 2024•12 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Brace yourselves. This week, we’re covering a highly debated marketing topic: targeting strategy. Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by VP Strategy Dan Cleveland to talk about misconceptions around narrow vs broad targeting, problems with hypertargeting, and how CTV targeting is changing the game for TV advertisers. Plus, hear about a new targeting method Dan created with the help of machine learning, called Smart Targeting. Topics covered: [01:30] Mark Ritson vs Byron Sharp on targeting [02:30] ...
May 28, 2024•28 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob revisit the traditional divide between brand and performance marketing. Then, they explore how advertising effectiveness is now being redefined through three dimensions: scale, efficiency, and time. Topics covered: [01:20] “Profit Ability 2” [0...
May 23, 2024•14 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Did you know marketers will spend more than $650 billion on online ads this year? Or that a surprisingly massive chunk of this spending will be completely wasted? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob discuss Bob Hoffman’s recent book, Inside the Black Box, which highlights one of the dark sides of online advertising—ad fraud. As marketers, we all know ad fraud is a problem. But it might be even worse than we thought. Shockingly, WFA says that by 2025, ad fraud may be the second largest source of cr...
May 21, 2024•26 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob discuss the relationship between marketers' intuition and data-driven decisions in ad effectiveness. Listen in as they discover whether instincts or analytics offer the best path to advertising success. Topics covered: [00:40] “Marketers' Intui...
May 16, 2024•10 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Does mass reach marketing still have value in a world where digital advertising lets brands target their bullseye customer alone? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are discussing the importance of broad reach for business growth, driving long-term demand, and truly effective marketing. Inspired by P&G’s Mark Pritchard’s recent comments on what efficient and effective marketing looks like, they’re talking about everything from the origins of mass reach marketing to reach strategies on digital...
May 14, 2024•26 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob explore the reasons behind TV advertising's ongoing success—despite all the buzz around digital. Learn more about Peter Field's insights into why TV ads remain a critical part of successful marketing strategies. Topics covered: [00:55] “Why TV ...
May 09, 2024•13 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Ready to talk politics? Well, political advertising anyway. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are exploring how marketers should think about the impact of political ad spend in 2024. (There’s no actual politics allowed). This year, US political ad spend is expected to surpass $12 billion, setting a new record... That’s triple what was spent on the 2016 election, and it’s already affecting media availability. Topics covered: [01:00] The state of US political spend in 2024 [02:00] How will politic...
May 07, 2024•19 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob explore how advertising can impact stock prices and boost investor confidence. Research shows successful campaigns often lead to higher stock values by showcasing a company's market presence and consumer demand. Topics covered: [00:50] “The Imp...
May 02, 2024•12 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast 63% of TV advertisers doubt their ability to accurately measure TV’s impact. And it’s not just TV. Top-of-funnel marketing channels are notoriously hard to evaluate. But accurate attribution isn’t impossible. This week, Elena and Angela are joined by Director of Analytics Jordan Rossler to break down the report “Everything Wrong with TV Measurement.” They’re covering attribution best practices for brand marketing channels, including the importance of using multiple attribution models to determin...
Apr 30, 2024•26 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. Once upon a time, Elena and Rob decided to explore the meaning of “brand love” and the use of powerful storytelling. They discovered that brands with a strong story create meaningful connections and fuel brand loyalty. Topics covered: [00:46] “The Role of Storytelling in the...
Apr 25, 2024•13 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Can marketers tap into psychology to improve the effectiveness of their work? Well, there’s a reason why Dr. Robert Cialdini’s psychology book Influence is a marketing and sales bestseller. Whether you realize it or not, psychological principles are applied in marketing all the time. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are reviewing the six psychological lessons found in Dr. Cialdini’s classic book. They cover how marketers can use these principles for good (not evil) and how they show up in every...
Apr 23, 2024•24 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob explore why some brand names are better than others. Like how the rhythmic and repetitive sounds of names like Coca-Cola, Kit Kat, and Lululemon can sway our feelings and decisions to buy. Topics covered: [00:54] “The Sound of Brands” [02:23] H...
Apr 18, 2024•10 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast How much has marketing really changed in the last decade? It might not be as much as you think. This week, Elena and Rob are covering what’s next in marketing, from how younger generations are making new demands of businesses to why it's so hard to keep up with the latest AI developments. But they’re also talking about what doesn’t change. And how marketing for the future is sometimes about focusing on fundamentals. Topics covered: [01:15] Some marketing fundamentals never change [04:00] How AI ...
Apr 16, 2024•22 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob are going back in time... sort of. They’re covering nostalgia, what it is, and why it’s become a common and highly effective tool in advertising. Topics covered: [00:45] “An Involvement Explanation for Nostalgia Advertising Effects” [01:00] How...
Apr 11, 2024•11 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast At any time, only 5% of a B2B company’s potential customers are in-market. That’s a small group. Which means marketing to the other 95% might be pretty important... In this episode, Elena and Angela are joined by Peter Weinberg, former Global Head of Development at The B2B Institute from LinkedIn. They’re talking about the contrarian ideas Peter researched and popularized during his time at LinkedIn, including the 95-5 rule, why tight targeting isn’t always the right choice, and the role of crea...
Apr 09, 2024•28 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob are talking all things TV advertising. There have been plenty of marketers announcing “TV is dead” over the last decade, but what does research say about TV’s effectiveness today? Topics covered: [00:45] “Effectiveness and Efficiency of TV’s Br...
Apr 04, 2024•10 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Is primetime really the “prime” time for TV advertisers? What does research say about subliminal advertising? And is personalization actually worth the effort? In this episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob look at some of the biggest myths and misconceptions in the marketing industry and tackle what research says about each. A word of caution... listening to this episode could challenge deep-rooted beliefs. Topics covered: [01:30] What happens when marketing debates get controversial [06:00] Where did...
Apr 02, 2024•26 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob discuss a study reviewing behavioral advertising’s impact on consumer welfare, with some surprising results. Hint: behavioral advertising’s not as helpful for consumers as you might think! Topics covered: [01:00] Introducing Behavioral Advertis...
Mar 28, 2024•8 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast The rise of video-driven social platforms. Evolving privacy regulations limiting advertisers’ access to targeting and reporting data. Meta’s dominance finally facing challengers... Social media is changing for good. In this episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob unpack the evolution of social media marketing, influenced heavily by Facebook's introduction of dynamic, algorithm-driven experiences. The conversation explores the need for platform diversification, the implications of privacy changes on targ...
Mar 26, 2024•22 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In our inaugural Nerd Alert episode, Elena and Rob get meta by reviewing research on marketing research. They’re looking at the current state of marketing research and why research is more focused right now on tactics than strategies, creating a gap in how we think about the...
Mar 21, 2024•11 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast The old 80/20 rule is simply wrong. The top 20% of buyers actually account for only 50% of sales. So is brand loyalty still the secret to efficient growth or is the smart move to pursue new customers? In this episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob discuss the ongoing debate about whether it’s better to focus on building brand loyalty or driving new customer acquisition. The team reviews studies highlighting the importance of emotional connection and positive brand experiences in fostering both customer...
Mar 19, 2024•25 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Programmatic advertising is bigger than ever. AI’s transforming media buying. Ad fraud continues to grow. And now, MFA (made for advertising) sites have emerged as top contenders for ad dollars. Clearly, there are a few reasons to be concerned about media quality. In today's episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob are addressing the impact of AI on digital advertising, the rise of made-for-advertising (MFA) inventory, the costs and benefits of offline vs online media, and how much brand safety really ma...
Mar 12, 2024•22 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Kim Kardashian and Skims. Snoop Dogg’s 'smokeless’ stunt for Solo Brands. And of course, celebrity-packed Super Bowl commercials. What’s the true power of star power in advertising? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are discussing the benefits (and risks) of using a celebrity to promote your brand. Because while celebrities can drive strong attention to your ad, they typically come with high price tags, can feel inauthentic if they aren’t clearly connected to your brand, and can even draw attent...
Mar 05, 2024•27 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast As a marketer, going all-in on digital can seem like a safe choice. After all, 72% of marketers say digital campaigns are easier to measure than traditional channels. But is digital alone actually what’s most effective? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by SVP Partnerships Jordan Mauer to discuss the ideal balance for online and offline channels. Jordan’s marketing experience includes work for companies like US Bank, Visa, NASCAR, and Shutterfly. And he has strong feelings about the i...
Feb 27, 2024•20 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast It’s hard enough to agree on definitions for “reach” and “frequency.” Consensus on the ideal balance between the two is just about impossible. The internet is undeniably divided over this topic, but Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined this week by VP of Analytics Matt Hultgren to finally settle the debate. Which drives better business results—broadening your audience reach or increasing the number of times your target sees your ad? Does this change across marketing channels? Or even industry and t...
Feb 20, 2024•20 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast The US might be behind in marketing effectiveness—at least according to Mark Ritson. But why? What does the state of marketing effectiveness and research really look like? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Dr. Mitch Olsen, marketing professor and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, to answer that very question. With rich experience in both the corporate and academic worlds of marketing, Mitch shares his thoughts on the state of marketing effectiveness...
Feb 13, 2024•34 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast The biggest ad platforms are leaning into media mix modeling, even when that means giving other ad channels more credit than their own. Why? Well, MMM might just be making a comeback. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by VP Strategy Dan Cleveland and Director of Analytics Jordan Rossler to talk about all things MMM. They’re digging into the pros and cons of the model, how new tools have made MMM more accessible than ever, and the importance of tying marketing investments back to busin...
Feb 06, 2024•28 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast B2B marketing is behind. Research by BrandFinance shows the top 100 B2B brands have $1 trillion in untapped brand potential... It might just be time for a B2B marketing revolution. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Colin Fleming, EVP Global Marketing at Salesforce. Colin leads a team of more than 600 marketers building Salesforce’s brand and customer base. In this episode, he shares how Salesforce identified the need to lean into brand-building, how to balance brand and performance...
Jan 30, 2024•37 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast 
