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 unpack System1's new report, "The Cure for Dull," revealing why 48% of ad viewers still feel absolutely nothing and the five creative ingredien...

Ask media buyers what quality media means, and answers vary. Reach, brand safety, dwell time, exclusivity: nobody agrees, and that confusion is costing marketers real money. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob challenge the industry's obsession with premium placements. They argue quality really comes down to effectiveness: reaching real humans, in a context where the ad can do its job, at a price th...

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 look at new research on nostalgic advertising. They break down when a "remember when" ad sticks in someone's memory, and when a straightforward...

Cannes debuted a new award for creative consistency this year. 73 brands entered. Just two won. This week, Elena, Angela, Rob, Catherine, and Nikki unpack what actually happened at Cannes versus what just made headlines. The team shares why intelligence-gathering, not glamour, is the real reason to attend, and how AI is quietly reshaping ad tech products behind the scenes. They also weigh in on wh...

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 break down why proving ad ROI is far harder than most marketers assume, even with millions of dollars and millions of customers. They also unpac...

84% of the time, buyers choose a brand that was already on their radar before they ever started shopping. So why do so many marketing budgets only chase the people ready to buy today? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob talk with brand strategist and author James Hurman about his new book, Future Demand . James breaks down why brands hit a growth ceiling when they lean too hard on performance market...

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 what triggers the personalization backfire effect and why the same ad can feel helpful one day and invasive the next.  Topics covered:[0...

This week, we're resharing a favorite episode from the archive. Enjoy, and we'll be back with new content next week! Our hosts are joined by Nick Asbury, creative writer and author of The Road to Hell: How Purposeful Business Leads to Bad Marketing and a Worse World. Nick challenges brand purpose, arguing it produces formulaic campaigns while the research supporting it is fundamentally flawed. Top...

According to WARC, TV drives more sales impact than Facebook video and YouTube. GOVX proved the research to be true, growing orders alongside TV impressions. Recorded live at CommerceNext 2026, this bonus episode features Marketing Architects Chief Strategic Growth Officer Stacey Hawes and GOVX Chief Brand Officer Aaron Pelander. They tackle one of marketing's toughest challenges: proving TV's imp...

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 why packaging redesigns so often backfire, and what actually drives shoppers to pick a product off the shelf.  Topics covered:  [01:21]...

Concern over short-termism has more than doubled in three years, from 25% of marketers calling it the biggest industry issue in 2022 to 55% in 2025. And yet, budget allocation has barely moved. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob dig into why the say-do gap persists in media planning and what it looks like to build a mix based on marketing effectiveness principles instead. They walk through the 60-4...

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 direct experiment comparing TV and YouTube advertising to find out which format drives more attention, stronger emotion, and better b...

Rebalancing toward brand from a performance-only mix lifts revenue ROI by a median of 90%. Yet 67% of senior marketers are still shifting budget the wrong direction. The gap between what marketers know and what they do turns out to be one of the costliest problems in the industry. In this episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob dig into the Multiplier Playbook, a new WARC report that surveyed over 200 sen...

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 humor belongs in B2B advertising. They dig into new research that challenges the assumption that business buyers only respond to...

A premium supplement brand saw retail sales jump 40% in six months after one strategic shift: switching from direct response TV to brand advertising. That single result changed 25-year media pro Peter Sengenberger's entire belief system.  In this episode, Elena and Rob are joined by Peter Sengenberger, former demand gen and brand strategy lead at BambooHR. Peter explains why over-reliance on perfo...

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 examine why advertising consistently underperforms with consumers over 60 and find the answer has less to do with older brains and more to do w...

Concern about short-termism among marketers jumped from 25% in 2022 to 55% in 2025. Budget allocation barely moved. The funnel may not be dead, but it might be damaging your brand. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob debate whether the marketing funnel still belongs in the boardroom. They unpack why the funnel persists despite strong evidence against it, how ad platforms reinforce flawed thinking fo...

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 why consumers sometimes turn on brands after an acquisition, even when the product hasn't changed, and what marketers can do to soften t...

95% of senior marketing leaders are already using or planning to use synthetic data within 12 months. So why are so many marketers still on the fence? In this episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob talk with Peter Weinberg, co-founder of Evidenza and former head of research at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute. They discuss where to start with synthetic audiences, how to assess accuracy, and why brand building st...

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 the first large-scale benchmarking study of distinctive brand assets, and the results challenge some long-held assumptions about which a...

More than 40% of American marketers can't define positioning. And 84% of those same marketers rate themselves as above average. Both can't be right. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Mark Ritson, marketing professor, consultant, and creator of the Mini MBA. Mark walks through his new research with Ipsos on US marketing knowledge, explains why formal training is the single biggest pre...

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 examine how large language models like ChatGPT recommend vendors. They unpack why visibility in AI-generated lists doesn't always mean credibili...

Telling people not to listen drove three times more podcast listeners than telling them why they should. That's behavioral science at work, and most marketers are barely scratching the surface of it. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Phill Agnew, host of "Nudge," the UK's number one marketing podcast. Phill breaks down the hidden psychology that shapes how consumers think and buy, fr...

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 camp...

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...