The Marketing Architects

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.

In this episode, Elena and Rob explore whether the annoyance caused by overexposed ads actually fades over time and what that means for when and how brands should measure campaign effectiveness. 

Topics covered:[01:20] "Ad Wearout...Wearout: How Time Can Reverse the Negative Effect of Frequent Advertising Repetition on Brand Preference"
[02:40] What happens when people see your ad too many times?
[03:30] Halloween spiders and a field experiment on frequency
[04:00] Memory vs. annoyance: which one lasts longer?
[05:30] Why being "in market" changes everything
[06:20] What this means for brands with long purchase cycles

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast

Resources:

Kronrod, A., & Huber, J. (2019). Ad wearout wearout: How time can reverse the negative effect of frequent advertising repetition on brand preference. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36(2), 306–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2018.11.008

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Zoom has incredibly high brand awareness. But that's actually part of the problem. 

This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob sit down with Kim Storin, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Zoom, to dig into one of marketing's most counterintuitive challenges: too much awareness for the wrong thing. Kim shares how she diagnosed Zoom's perception problem, rebuilt the brand's health measurement from scratch, and launched a campaign strategy rooted in category thinking, humor, and hard data.  

Topics covered: 
[02:30] Mental availability vs. awareness 
[06:00] Reinventing brand health measurement to track new buying cohorts 
[08:30] "Brand to demand" and why Kim refuses to separate the two 
[11:00] Marketing in the dark funnel and the shift toward a zero-click world 
[15:00] Building a new category narrative around Zoom 
[19:00] The thinking behind the "Take Back Lunch" and Zuma Head campaigns 
[24:00] How AI-driven B2B search is changing citation strategy, content and credibility 

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter. 

Resources: 
2011 Byron Sharp Article: https://byronsharp.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/mental-availability-is-not-awareness-brand-salience-is-not-awareness/

Kim’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlystorin/

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.

In this episode, Elena and Rob dig into a sweeping meta-analysis on advertising creativity. Together, they go over what it really means, when it moves the needle most, and why chasing memorability may be the wrong goal.

Topics covered:

•    [01:20] "A Meta-Analysis of When and How Advertising Creativity Works"
•    [02:45] Originality alone isn't enough
•    [04:55] High involvement vs. low involvement: where creativity doubles in power
•    [06:55] The three theories behind why creative ads work
•    [08:00] Why consumer judges outperform award shows at predicting brand outcomes

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast

Resources: 
Rosengren, S., Eisend, M., Koslow, S., & Dahlen, M. (2020). A meta-analysis of when and how advertising creativity works. Journal of Marketing, 84(6), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242920929288

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

This week, we're sharing one of our top episodes from the archive. Enjoy, and we'll be back with new content next week!

Only half of marketers believe they understand marketing effectiveness principles according to WARC. Even worse, many US marketers lag their global peers in applying these proven frameworks for growth. Elena, Angela, and Rob break down the most important marketing effectiveness principles every marketer should know. They examine why these principles work, how to apply them to your brand, and what happens when marketers ignore them. Plus, learn why broad reach and brand building still matter, even in today's digital-first world.

Topics covered:

•    [01:00] How one healthcare CMO used marketing effectiveness to secure record budgets
•    [04:00] Why broad reach matters more than narrow targeting
•    [07:00] The science behind distinctive brand assets
•    [10:00] Why light buyers drive more growth than loyal customers
•    [14:00] The truth about the 60/40 brand building rule
•    [19:00] How excess share of voice predicts market share growth
•    [22:00] Mental and physical availability's impact on sales

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.

Resources:
2023 MI3 Article: https://www.mi-3.com.au/17-04-2023/how-ex-pg-us-marketer-ditched-cohorts-personas-and-restrictive-segmentation-blended-0

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. 

In this episode, Elena and Rob explore how AI shopping agents make purchase decisions and what the results mean for brands that aren't optimized to be found, chosen, or endorsed by an AI. 

Topics covered: 
[01:45] "What Is Your AI Agent Buying? Evaluation, Biases, Model Dependence, and Emerging Implications for Agentic E-Commerce"
[05:30] AI agents pile onto winner products and ignore everyone else
[07:00] Which AI model does the shopping changes everything
[08:00] How models respond differently to product position on the page
[09:00] Why "Overall Pick" badges dramatically boost selection rates
[09:45] How rewriting a product title drove market share from 0% to 41% 

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast 

Resources: 

Allouah, A., Besbes, O., Figueroa, J. D., Kanoria, Y., & Kumar, A. (2025). What is your AI agent buying? Evaluation, biases, model dependence, & emerging implications for agentic E-commerce. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.02630 
 
Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.