James Forr of OZ recently spoke at the ARF’s AudiencexScience Conference about “The A-B-4Cs of Winning Advertising.” He discussed how using metaphor to illustrate a product attribute (even an otherwise mundane attribute) can be a powerful communication tool.

Thanks to OZ’s Joe Plummer for sending a summary of a Journal of Consumer Research article that discusses the art of sticking to a boring task. The key is distraction.

The power of visual imagery is central to what we do at OZ – a metaphor or an image can tell an entire story with no words required.

New research published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that scientific claims are fine for selling utilitarian products, but not so good for selling products that bring pleasure.

Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett comments in Scientific American about the supposed correlation between facial expressions and emotions.

Adweek features a story about Oatly’s clever positioning and marketing strategy. It is behind a paywall, so if you don’t subscribe, here is the dumbed-down version.

Today at the IIEX North America Conference, we will discuss our ZMET research into minds of sustainability innovators. One of the points emerging from the research is that for sustainability to take root in an organization, it must be perceived as a contributor to the company’s bottom line, not charity work that can be jettisoned whenever times get tough.

The brilliant Under the Influence podcast recently featured two episodes about “Don’t Do It” advertising. It discusses examples of campaigns that have successfully convinced people not to do something.

It is difficult to ask consumers to predict what they will do in the future. Well, you can ask. But you won’t necessarily receive an accurate answer, especially when people don’t have any context for predicting that future.

The authors apply their research to hypothesize about the surprisingly successful Ukrainian resistance. They argue that, in Ukraine, children grow up hearing bedtime stories about characters who persevere against long odds. They follow a classic Hero’s Journey, using their savvy and persistence to emerge triumphant.

Imagine you were PlayStation and you had the insight that people use games, in part, to escape from the drudgery of everyday existence. How would you bring that to life in an ad?

Just like you’re not you when you are hungry…you’re not you when you are on your phone. (Or maybe you are.)

Ukrainians are proving themselves to be skilled communicators, and they have mobilized nearly the entire world around their cause.

Under the category of “Words Matter”…. YouGov recently ran a poll that revealed that only 37% of Americans agree that “K-12 schools should be allowed to mandate vaccines for their students.”

A Super Bowl ad that has stuck with me is “Seen on Pixel” from Google. The ad highlights Real Tone, which is the culmination of years of development efforts to ensure that Google’s camera technology accurately represents all skin tones.

Just as marketing and culture can be intertwined, so is art and culture. In that light, the graphic above about film genre popularity (from 1910-2018) is fascinating.

Thanks to OZ’s Joe Plummer for sharing this research by Dr. Lindsey Cameron of Wharton, who has published a paper that explores the mind of the ride-hailing driver.

For the next five minutes or so, Wordle will remain the hottest thing on the web. Wharton Professor of Marketing Cait Lamberton explains why this is a perfect game for this moment in our culture.

A boutique running store in Paris called Distance recently took advantage of some news headlines with a clever guerilla marketing campaign.