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  • AI creative: What gets attention & what builds trust

    Successfully leveraging AI-generated creative in your advertising can be tricky. We’ve taken data points from AI creative presented to real consumers in-feed to show you exactly where and how it works, as well as where it falls flat, especially in terms of building trust The only constant we found across brands is that there isn’t…

  • The anti-rec: reverse psychology & “don’t buy this” marketing

    You might have noticed a new trend in social-first marketing strategies — we’re calling it “anti-recommendation marketing”, and it’s especially prevalent on short-form video platforms like TikTok. Ads and paid content open with a bold statement like “DON’T BUY THIS”, or “If you already bought this, I feel bad for you”, followed by reasons that…

  • The IKEA Effect: Why we overvalue what we make and what that means for CPG

    Build something like a side table yourself, and you’ll probably love it more than the exact same thing store-bought. Even if it’s a little crooked and wobbly.  Think about what it took to get there. The 20-page manual you skimmed through. The piece you installed backwards and didn’t catch until seven steps later, when everything…

  • Keeping up with the culture: Where traditional research falls behind

    When it comes to being culturally relevant, winning brands don’t just set the tone, they meet the moment. Things move fast, especially now. With social media, 24-hour news cycles, rapidly advancing technological innovations, and the constant stream of notifications and updates, brands are being prompted to not only adapt, but to anticipate what’s coming around…

  • How incentivized surveys can work against you

    If you advertise something as free, by definition, you’re saying that there is no expectation to exchange effort, money, or anything otherwise of value in order to obtain the thing.

  • Spring cleaning your brand identity—the right way

    It’s that time of year again — the time where we take stock of what’s still needed and what’s just taking up space and gathering dust.

  • Super bowl ads 2026: what worked & where to test from here

    With ad spots going for up to $10 million for Super Bowl LX, the pressure was on for brands to make their 30 seconds count.

  • Marketing mindfulness: Dry January & what it means for alcohol trends

    Going sober is having a moment, and the proof is in the numbers –– alcohol sales have dropped 5% in the last year.

  • Short-form ads: holding the attention of the modern consumer

    There’s a lot of noise online, especially where short-form content is concerned.

  • Hack the hype: shortening the disillusionment stage with pretotyping

    The Gartner Hype Cycle was developed as a model for how attitudes change over time around emerging innovations and technologies. It exists on a 5-point scale, starting from the moment an innovation is released (the Innovation Trigger stage) and ending being actually productive (the Plateau of Productivity). What happens in the middle in terms of timing is up to the innovators,…