Author: Daniel E. Aks & RJ Turchick

Unnecessary Limitations on Creative Thinking

Research consistently shows that creative execution accounts for at least 50% of campaign results¹. For
serious advertisers, the primary focus must be finding and empowering creative teams while providing
them with cutting-edge tools and frameworks for experimentation.

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) is now a powerful tool for juicing creative execution. Although it’s
not a new concept, companies are experimenting with it every day, yet its full potential remains largely
untapped. However, we believe that brands are only scratching the surface of DCO’s capabilities to
stimulate brand affinity and drive sales growth.

Read the full article HERE

The Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), the world’s leading business voice on aging, convened its third High-Level Silver Economy Forum on December 6th and 7th in New York. The forum primarily concentrates on promoting policy that aligns with health and public finance for improving senior citizen lives via prevention and/or remediation. Dan Aks, Undertone by Perion President, had the privilege of moderating a panel called The New Joy: The Future of Fun in the Silver Economy which focused on tapping the commercial aspects of the enormous wealth and spending of older adults, and the self-induced hurdles to reaching that market. Addressing the senior market can be both highly profitable and enjoyable for product designers and marketers and offers a large swathe of our fellow citizens a chance to reap the rewards of fun earned through their long years of contribution.

Stereotypes persist, however, preventing maximum access to and exploitation of the market. The truth is, the “New Old” has arrived. Adventure travel, augmented reality headsets, online dating, fashion statements, movies about grown-ups – this is no longer your grandparent’s retirement life. And with this perspective on living and new, enthusiastic active aging comes the advent of a new focus on fun for a population that has been heretofore ignored or relegated to rest and passivity. Businesses have been slow to adjust their scopes, yet this older market controls the largest portion of disposable income and research backs the benefits of fun both for healthy longevity and for economic growth across industries, from travel and leisure to gaming and technology. This panel’s primary objective was to discuss how the exploding Silver Economy opportunity is reshaping the customer base and business.

Read the full article HERE.

The Way We Were

Those with lots of gray hair in this business (including the authors) will recall that the eminent dean of measurement, the ironically named David Poltrack, determined that 70% of the effectiveness of a TV ad was related to the creative content — even Google quotes it. Get the creative narrative right, and you’re more than halfway there, regardless of the media strategy. Of course, in those days the targeting choices were very limited, as broadcast reach was highly concentrated. With limited channels and the Internet in the realm of DARPA researchers, it was easy to reach just about everyone but far more difficult to persuade those to whom the ad was particularly relevant. Targeting in those days was best performed in special interest magazine publishing (we miss Soap Opera Weekly).

Full Paper: Find A Way: The True BIG Creative

The financial services industry is highly competitive, and companies must look for innovative ways to stand out and reach their target audience. One such example is a major financial services company that partnered with our team at Undertone and Mindgruve, to create a campaign that was not only successful in driving awareness but also helped to increase engagement. Let’s take a closer look at the campaign and how the client’s goals were achieved.

Read the full case study here.

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” The quote, from retail magnate and marketing pioneer John Wanamaker, is over 100 years old. Despite digital media’s promise of accountability, many retailers still struggle with this attribution conundrum.

The goal of understanding how marketing and advertising resources are consumed and determining the return on those efforts is necessary to optimizing the marketing mix. Attribution model after attribution model is developed, with endless amounts of touch point data attempting to determine the magic ingredients that drove consumer behavior. Using the wrong models and approaches can lead to exactly the wrong conclusions, thereby being precisely wrong rather than vaguely right. Many are waiting for the perfect model. The situation seems to closely parallel Waiting for Godot, and for those who implore more rationality in media measurement, bringing a rope in the final scene echo as well!

We’ve written this paper because we’ve witnessed first-hand the misleading results of ham-fisted and sometimes lazy models. At Undertone, we offer unique High Impact digital circulars, recipe ads, and more, all personalized through a slew of AI-driven selected variables that drive sales lifts leading to 15x to 19x ROAS. These state-of-the-art products can stymie old and tired media models. This is because, in some retailer attribution models, high impact display is treated with the same modeling considerations as boring, small and entirely missable standard display ads. Of course, this is plain wrong, yields misleading results and is hurtful to retailer aspirations.

This note attempts to better explain what drives retail store visits, and perhaps a simpler and more effective means of being largely right in motivating people to make a trip to the local grocer, department, or specialty store.

Check out the full article here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10SV8ace9Lts9RnBb6kWwNgmLoMBYftze/view?usp=sharing