Everyone says ‘make emotional ads’—but as D’Arcy O’Neill asks, which emotion do you actually want people to feel?

If this is true, why is Amazon — clearly a pretty remarkable company, a TECH company, and seemingly ubiquitous — why is it the largest advertiser in the US today, spending $16.9Bn last year on ads?

Most taglines sound nice but mean nothing—while the great ones actually make you think of the brand.

Where you advertise shapes how people see your brand—and Thinkbox found TV sends a very different signal than social.

Big purchases should mean big consideration—but DMEautomotive found most buyers barely shop around at all.

Columbia researchers found a ‘tale of two cities’ between marketing academia and practice—the gap is wide, and getting wider.

An NCSolutions study of 50 brands found ads mostly drive current buyers—up to 20X more than non-buyers.

Grace Kite and Tom Roach found the classic ‘long and short’ pattern holds up—but with a twist I call the ‘ramp and bump.’

Thinkbox found multi-channel campaigns really do work—each medium boosts another by about 8%, with TV leading the pack.

BBH Labs found Gen-Xers have less in common than Guardian readers or crossword fans—so maybe generations aren’t such a thing after all.

Want people to share your ads? Jonah Berger and Daniel McDuff’s global study found one emotion beats them all.

System1 found story-driven ads—real characters, real plots—beat flashy montages every time.

Warren Buffett says reputations die fast—but VW’s Dieselgate shows brands bounce back way easier than people do.

Everyone wants ‘ownable’ brand assets—but Ehrenberg-Bass’s global study of 1,200 elements shows few are truly unique.

The data is clear—small brands don’t have super-loyal fans; they just have fewer buyers who buy less often.

We all know Zoom fatigue is real—and it’s not just mental; our brains simply aren’t built for nonstop eye contact, self-view, and talking heads.

My latest for Contagious digs into the wiggle room between marketing’s laws and the creativity that breaks them.

You’d think slapping your logo on an ad boosts recall—but Ipsos found other brand cues work way harder.

Kantar found that how often—or where—you show your brand in an ad doesn’t actually boost recall. Yowza.

Ehrenberg-Bass found that for most brands, growth comes from stealing share—accounting for 65% of revenue gains.