Empirical Generalizations in Advertising Conference

The digital revolution is radically reshaping the advertising world by changing how consumers interact with media and advertising. Marketers are confronted with a staggering range of new advertising options emerging from the interplay of emerging new media channels and a world in which consumers are in charge. Choosing media and deciding how best to advertise is more complicated than ever.

Now is the time to take stock of what we do and do not know about advertising.

The purpose of this conference was to draw together cutting edge academics and practitioners to explore what we have learned from current research on advertising. The empirical generalizations submitted for the conference will enable us to better predict the future through a deeper understanding of what has been seriously proven about advertising.

The conference used an empirical generalizations approach wherein an inventory of substantive generalizable findings is evaluated to advance both the science and application of advertising knowledge. Such generalizations based on empirical findings are patterns that are law-like, in that they have been shown to hold across a wide variety of known conditions. The conference accumulated and discussed these ‘laws of advertising’, where they have been shown to hold and where not.

We also discussed the radical changes occurring in advertising, assessing which laws are likely to hold and which are not.

This invitation-only conference was held at The Wharton School and was attended by the world’s leading academic researchers and brought together major players from both established and emerging media.

You can read and comment at our conference blog showcasing reports from the conference and other Future of Advertising related postings.

Agenda

I. The State of Empirical Generalizations

Chair: Mike Donahue, Executive Vice President, American Association of Advertising
Agencies (AAAA)

  • Taking stock of existing advertising empirical generalizations
    Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science & Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
    Marketing Science, University of South Australia; Jerry Wind, The Lauder Professor and
    Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School

  • Massive data and implications for empirical generalizations in online marketing
    Jim Oliver, Quantitative Marketing, Google

  • Ad effectiveness in markets
    Gerard J. Tellis, Neely Chair of American Enterprise, Professor of Marketing & Director
    of Center for Global Innovation, USC Marshall School of Business

  • Update of the impact of TV advertising as measured by IRI’s Behaviorscan and matched
    market tests
    Len Lodish, Samuel R. Harrell Professor of Marketing; Abba M. Krieger, Robert
    Steinberg Professor, The Wharton School; (Ye Hu, Assistant Professor of Marketing,
    C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston)

  • Empirical generalizations: short-term effects of advertising
    Leslie Wood, Chairman, Media Trust LLC

  • Some logical generalizations about empirical generalizations
    John Rossiter, Research Professor, University of Wollongong

II. Empirical Generalizations: How Advertising Works

Chair: Chuck Porter, Chairman, Crispin Porter + Bogusky

  • Using quasi-experimental data to develop principles for persuasive advertising
    J. Scott Armstrong, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School; Sandeep Patnaik,
    Research Director, Gallup and Robinson

  • Krugman was right – TV advertising gets little attention but builds big brands
    Robert G. Heath, Lecturer in Marketing, University of Bath School of Management

  • Neurological Emotions measured as NET Emotional Response-strength (NERS) of
    brands based on selfrating of feeling words
    Flemming Hansen, Professor, Copenhagen Business School

  • Empirical generalizations about advertising engagement
    Robert Passikoff, President and Founder, Brand Keys, Inc.; (Amy Shea, EVP, Director
    of Brand Development, Brand Keys, Inc.)

  • The DVR is the 30- second advertisement’s best friend (Pre-recorded)
    Erik du Plessis, Chairman, Millward Brown South Africa,
    Visiting Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Author of The Advertised Mind

  • Role of emotional response to ads in three Latin-American countries
    Jorge Alagón, Vice President of Marketing Sciences and R&D, Millward Brown México;
    (Rogelio Puente, Millward Brown México)

  • Empirical generalizations regarding the effectiveness of TV advertising over time
    Joel Rubinson, CRO, The Advertising Research Foundation

III. Methodology

Chair: Colin McDonald, Principal Consultant, McDonald Research

  • The utility of lab-based research in understanding television’s changing landscape
    Duane Varan, Director, Interactive Television Research Institute, Murdoch University;
    (Steve Bellman, Deputy Directory, Interactive Television Research Institute, Murdoch
    University)

  • New modelling methods for simulating advertising impact
    Bruce Tedesco, CRO, OTX Research

  • Are brands dead? (and have we as marketers and modelers killed them?)
    Howard Finkelberg, Principal, m.a.g.i.c. llc

  • How important are ads for brands?
    Carl Mela, Professor of Marketing, The Fuqua School of Business

  • Single source data: how do findings from individual-level analysis converge with
    aggregate level advertising experiments?
    (Jennifer Taylor) and Kate Newstead, Research Associates, Ehrenberg Bass Institute for
    Marketing Science, University of South Australia; Rachel Kennedy, Associate Professor,
    School of Marketing, University of South Australia; Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing
    Science & Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South
    Australia

  • Implications of the spacing effect for scheduling the new media
    Alan Sawyer, Professor of Marketing, Hough Graduate School of Business, University of
    Florida; (Chris Janiszewski, Professor of Marketing, Warrington College of Business
    Administration, University of Florida); (Hayden Noel, Assistant Professor of Marketing,
    Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College)

  • What you say and how you say it: Generalizations from ad pretesting and tracking
    Dave Walker, Senior Vice President/Global Research Director, Ipsos ASI

IV. Dinner Panel: Business Opportunities in the Changing World of
Advertising

Chair: Mark Morris, Former Chairman, Bates North America

  • Douglas Alexander, Managing Director of Operations, Internet Capital Group
  • Bob Barocci, President & CEO, The Advertising Research Foundation
  • Joe Doran, CEO, Media6º
  • Max Kalehoff, Vice President of Marketing, Clickable
  • Stephen Kim, Senior Director of Global Trade Marketing, Microsoft
  • Christian Kugel, Senior Vice President, denuo
  • Martin Lautman, Managing Partner, Marketing Channels, Inc.
  • Sebastien Lion, Corporate Marketing Planning Staff Officer, Mars Incorporated
  • Bill Moult, Founding Partner and CEO, Media Behavior Institute
  • Joe Plummer, Adjunct Prof. of Marketing, Columbia University, Former Chief
    Knowledge Officer, McCann Worldgroup

  • Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science & Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
    Marketing Science, University of South Australia

  • Jim Spaeth, Founding Partner, Sequent Partners

V. New Media

Chair: Jeff Bell, Former Corporate VP of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment
Business, Microsoft

  • TV: Back to the future
    Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science & Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
    Marketing Science, University of South Australia; (Martin Collins and Virginia Beal,
    Senior Research Associates, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University
    of South Australia)

  • Brand executions within new & old media
    Jenni Romaniuk, Head, Brand Equity Research Group, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
    Marketing Science, University of South Australia

  • Behavioral effects of digital signage
    Ray Burke, E.W. Kelley Professor of Business Administration, Kelley School of
    Business, Indiana University

  • How online advertising works: Whither the click
    Gian Fulgoni, Chairman, comScore, Inc.; (Marie Pauline Mörn, Director, Product
    Management comScore, Inc.)

  • The future of advertising in a word of mouth era
    Ed Keller, CEO; Brad Fay, COO, The Keller Fay Group

VI. Advertising Discoveries

Chair: Jack Wakshlag, CRO, Turner Broadcasting

  • The insisting consumer
    Karsten Koed, CEO, Gorm Larsen & Partners

  • Discovering a new theorem for optimizing the advertising budget
    Malcolm Wright, Head of School, School of Marketing, University of South Australia

  • How TV advertising media are consumed: EG for TV viewing
    Peter Danaher, Coles Myer Professor of Marketing and Retailing, Melbourne Business
    School; Tracey S. Dagger, UQ Business School, The University of Queensland

  • Influence of TV advertising and communications clout patterns in the global marketplace
    (Oscar Jamhouri, CEO, Integration Marketing and Communications); Marek Winiarz,
    Managing Director, Method Marketing Communications

  • Triggered: how stimuli in the environment influence consumer behavior
    Jonah Berger, Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School

  • Effects of advertising and product placement on television audiences
    Kenneth C. Wilbur, Assistant Professor of Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business;
    (Michelle S. Goeree, Asssistant Professor of Economics, University of Southern
    California; Geert Ridder, Professor of Economics, University of Southern California)

  • Putting listening to the test: comparing social media monitoring data to traditional
    primary survey research
    Jon Gibs, Vice President, Media Analytics, Nielsen Online

VII. The Changing Audience and Context

Chair: Erwin Ephron , Partner, The Ephron Consultancy

  • When advertising works
    J. Walker Smith, President, Yankelovich; Bill Moult, Founding Partner and CEO, Media
    Behavior Institute

  • The impact of media fragmentation on media targeting
    (Karen Nelson-Field, Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing
    Science, University of South Australia); Erica Riebe, Senior Research Associate,
    Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia

  • Six degrees of engagement - an empirically based model of competition for attention to
    media content
    Mike Bloxham, Director of Insight & Research, Center for Media Design, Ball State
    University; Mike Holmes, Associate Director of Insight & Research, Center for Media
    Design, Ball State University

  • What do we know about clutter?
    Erica Riebe, Senior Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science,
    University of South Australia; Rachel Kennedy, Associate Professor, School of
    Marketing, University of South Australia; (Peter Hammer, Senior Research Associate,
    Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia)

  • Have the patterns of advertising elasticities changed since the eighties?
    Raj Sethuraman, Associate Professor and Leo F. Corrigan Research Fellow, Edwin L.
    Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University; Gerard J. Tellis, Neely Chair of
    American Enterprise, Professor of Marketing, and Director of Center for Global
    Innovation, USC Marshall School of Business

  • Old Thinking ? New Thinking = Multicultural Mindset
    (Ronald Franklin, Vice Chairman of Research and Planning, Globalhue); David Burgos,
    Vice President, Multicultural Practice, Millward Brown

  • Marketing to ‘Homo Mimicus’?
    Mark Earls, Author and Consultant, Herd Consulting; (Alex Bentley, Reader,
    Department of Anthropology, University of Durham)

VIII. Lunch Roundtable Discussions: Emerging Topics

  • Conversational metrics: new inferences driven by data and measurement in social
    networks
    Steve Ennen, Managing Director, Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (WIMI), The
    Wharton School

  • Branded entertainment
    Nelson Gayton, Executive Director, Entertainment and Media Management Institute,
    UCLA Anderson School of Management, Partner, Crayon Venture Partners, LLC

  • Demand Generation when customers are in charge - How Cisco is changing its
    marketing from traditional outbound activities to a new form of inbound marketing
    Alan Hallberg, Senior Director, Worldwide Advertising and Demand Generation, Cisco
    Systems

  • The art and science of scheduling commercial breaks within television programming
    Walter McDowell, Program Director for Electronic Media, Broadcast Journalism, and
    Media Management, School of Communication, University of Miami; Steven Dick,
    Owner, Modern Media Barn, Statistician/Analyst, Center for Child Development

  • Key word search: model as two sided network and policy implications
    Carl Mela, Professor of Marketing, The Fuqua School of Business

  • Leveraging tomorrow’s advertising with insurgent communications
    David Morey, Vice Chairman, Zyman Group

  • It’s all about the pact: what consumers really look for in advertising practice
    Stephen Rappaport, Knowledge Solutions Director, The Advertising Research
    Foundation; Howard Moskowitz, President, Moskowitz Jacobs Inc.

  • Think beyond the mobile screen: How will mobile blur the line between offline and
    online advertising?
    Steve Roberts, Founder & CEO, ShopText, Inc.
    The new media ecosystem
    Joel Rubinson, CRO, The Advertising Research Foundation

  • B2B advertising
    Rick Short, Indium

IX. The Advertiser

Chair: John Forsyth, Partner, McKinsey

  • Rules of the road for public service advertising
    Mike Hess, Director of Global Research & Communication Insights, OMD; George
    Perlov, EVP/Research & Innovation, Advertising Council; (Tony Foleno, Vice President,
    Director of Research, Advertising Council)

  • Is once really enough?
    (Jennifer Taylor, Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science,
    University of South Australia); Rachel Kennedy, Associate Professor, School of
    Marketing, University of South Australia; Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science
    and Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South
    Australia

  • Empirical generalizations in advertising effects for services
    Venky Shankar, Ph.D. Advisor & Coleman Chair Professor in Marketing, Mays Business
    School, Texas A&M University

  • Moving from an experimental to a meaningful Second Life Experience (Pre-Recorded)
    David McNeill, Virtual Worlds, IBM; Matthew Ganis, Senior Technical Staff Member,
    IBM

  • The role of in-store digital media in recovering “lost” shopper time
    Herb Sorensen, Global Scientific Director, Consumer and Shopper Insights, TNS North
    America

X. New Rules of Advertising: Research and Action Agenda

Moderators:

  • Bob Barocci, President & CEO, The Advertising Research Foundation
  • Jerry Wind, The Lauder Professor and Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School
  • Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science and Director, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
    Marketing Science, University of South Australia

  • Catharine Findiesen Hays, Project Director of The Future of Advertising Project, SEI
    Center for Advanced Studies in Management, The Wharton School

    1. What are the three most important rules that you have the most confidence in?
    2. What should be our research agenda and action agenda?