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The Most ABSurd Blog
Why did Quibi really fail?
Quibi bet big on our so-called short attention spans—but maybe that wasn’t the problem at all.
What we think drives profit in ads (vs the truth)
Kantar found most marketers misjudge what drives profit—overrating targeting and media mix, and underrating creative and brand size.
How are airplanes like sneakers?
Turns out buying airplanes looks a lot like buying sneakers—B2B and B2C follow the same laws of brand science.
What Can a Brand "Own"?
Every brand wants to ‘own heritage,’ but in mature categories, size—not story—drives those associations.
How bad are our guesstimates?
We’re terrible at estimating reality—like how Americans have thought crime was rising every year for the past 24 years.
Is neuromarketing dead?
One veteran fMRI researcher says the field’s at risk—because brain-scan follow-ups barely match the original results.
Brands X social issues
Brands want to sell phones and mattresses, not solve crises—but in moments like these, silence and statements both spark backlash.
CPG loyalty and the pandemic
Pandemic or not, NCSolutions shows brand loyalty hasn’t changed much—growth still comes from new buyers, not heavier ones.
$320 for a designer mask?
Conditions change; people don’t—masks might be the new sneakers, but our craving for status, belonging, and novelty stays the same.
50% of digital ‘working’ dollars aren’t ‘working’
ISBA found that half of every programmatic pound never reaches publishers—it just vanishes into the ad-tech ether.
Cadbury's pack redesign: a colossal waste?
Cadbury’s ‘new’ logo isn’t the story—the real design win is how the whole pack works on shelves, where shoppers just want to find their candy.
Brand loyalty in a pandemic looks a lot less loyally
iBotta’s receipt data shows what brand science’s been saying for years—‘loyalty’ isn’t all that loyal.
What businesses will be ‘killed’ by the pandemic?
Everyone’s predicting the death of everything from offices to the NFL—but history says most industries don’t die, they just shrink and adapt.
What your data will never predict
Big data promised perfect prediction—but Covid reminded us some ‘surprises’ were clearly on the radar all along.
BMW’s logo redesign gambit
BMW’s new logo may ‘radiate openness,’ but a logo’s first job isn’t vibe—it’s being findable, fast, and unmistakably yours.
Advertising people are not normal
Marketers and ad folks don’t exactly mirror ‘middle America’—we watch less TV, take more risks, and live very different lives from our audiences.
Do ads actually influence car sales? Hell yeah
A six-year study of 40 car brands found ad spend correlated with sales more than quality, satisfaction, or even product lineup.
How do you measure the success of a Super Bowl ad?
Every year we crown Super Bowl ad winners—but whether they ‘worked’ depends on which scoreboard you’re watching: surveys, buzz, sales, or just your gut.
No, advertising is not a tax you pay for being unremarkable
‘Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable,’ they say—but even the most remarkable brands, from Apple to Uber, still pay it gladly.
Happy New Year! It's prediction time.
Business predictions are mostly coin tosses—yet the ‘superforecasters’ at Good Judgment prove there’s a smarter way to beat the odds.