Re:think 2012 – Proposal Submissions

Submissions now closed

For more information about your submission, please contact Rachael Feigenbaum at Rachael@thearf.org .

Topics

Advances in Understanding How Advertising Works

Theories or frameworks about how advertising works were developed in an earlier age - the mass communications era of print, broadcast and outdoor. We all know that today’s media world is digital and diverse, with information and the ability to act on it at one’s fingertips. Yet most brand advertising is still largely informed by our mass media heritage, focused on consumer learning, attitude change and persuasion in variations of the Awareness Interest Desire and Action paradigm. However, now that consumers don’t necessarily need advertising to learn about products, that we are appreciating the role of emotions in decision-making, and that consumers can access product facts, opinions about them and product performance and satisfaction before they buy, the role of advertising is changing and understanding the way advertising works needs modernization. The papers we call for will forward new models of how advertising works and their implications for advancing the practice of advertising and communication. We are looking for contributions along, but not limited to, these lines of inquiry:

• Neuromarketing insights
• The role of emotions and non-rational factors
• Social communication among consumers, and among consumers and brands
• Consumer management of multiple information sources

Evaluating Media Campaigns

The growth of digital and mobile has given advertisers plenty of new opportunities to reach consumers, but our ability to measure new technology hasn’t kept pace with innovation. We not only have to measure new platforms, but we have to also evaluate how different media work together for overall ad effectiveness. We want to know how you’re evaluating media campaigns in new spaces and across platforms. Some questions we’d love to see addressed:

• What are the most effective ways to measure the effectiveness of integrated 360 (multi-platform) campaigns?
• What new tools have allowed you to create 360 campaigns at the planning level?
• What were your biggest obstacles in measuring integrated media campaigns and how did you overcome those obstacles?
• How can we get beyond direct response and measure branding and awareness in digital and/or mobile?
• What are the most promising trends and new methods in measuring online advertising including display, video and search?
• What metrics can be used to define success in mobile, and how are brands defining their mobile marketing strategies based on these metrics?

Social Media: Planning and Metrics

Social media marketing and CRM have become common practice in business, and we want to know how you’re planning for and measuring success in social. Some questions to address:

• What challenges do different platforms pose for effective measurement and how have you tackled those challenges?
• How does social marketing drive customers to other platforms and vice versa?
• How do you integrate social into your overall media plan?
• What kinds of metrics are effective when using social for research versus metrics good for measuring social marketing?
• How have insights gained from social media impacted your marketing plan?

Dividends of Investing in Data/Research Quality

Research buyers and sellers are jointly investing in new data sources, methodologies, analytic tools and computer systems to boost quality and confidence. What rewards are being paid to companies who are pursuing best practices in recruiting and maintaining online survey panels, rigorously testing survey design and analytics, and offering clients greater transparency, and quality assessment? How has a greater quality focus changed your corporate culture? Your client relationships? Which investments in quality are seen to be less risky today, those in technology, or those in human capital? Key points to consider:

• What are you investing in?
• Is cooperation greatest between buyers and sellers? Or potential competitors?
• What dividends are you recouping?

New Developments in Consumer and Shopper Insights

Consumer behavior, and the associated learning in shopper insights, has grown and evolved more in the past two years than in the previous 20, by some accounts. The older funnel models, based on early AIDA principles, and revised to accommodate the vision of a shopper moving in a direct linear path from awareness to consideration, to preference to purchase, and ultimately to loyalty, have largely given way to less-structured paradigms that recognize the importance of new developments like search and social media. Papers in this general theme could show how the new mental models for shopping behavior are more aptly describing current behaviors. Key questions to be answered include:

• What are the new sources of information being used by consumers, and how are they used?
• How do the new models of shopping change marcom resource allocations?
• How can advertisers maximize ROI – and profits – by leveraging new behavioral trends?
• How can we expect these trends to play out over the next two to five years?

Neuroscience and Other Lab-Based Research Methods

Advances in neurological science are contributing to the application of neurological and biometric methods to marketing and advertising research. Given the complexity of the science and the methods, there are still many challenges. At the same time, as this research is typically lab based, it has revived interest in research and under controlled lab conditions and experimental designs. We invite you to share your latest research on:

• Advances in neuroscience and biometric methods as they apply to advertising research
• Issues surrounding research in a lab environment and controlled experimental designs
• New insights from neuromarketing research

Global Research: Challenges, Solutions and Insights

As global business issues are becoming more important, we want to hear about the work you are doing. We invite you to share research on the following global issues:

• Measurement and data collection of global advertising, media and consumer behavior
• Global insights within multi-national companies
• Facilitating the knowledge transfer and the application of global learning to US centric research
• Best practices for global/multicultural research
• Insights from international research projects

Submissions

Timetable

Papers must be submitted by Friday, September 16, 2011. The ARF will notify key contacts of the status of their paper submission by Friday, October 28, 2011.

Hints for Improving Your Proposal’s Chance of Being Selected

• Marketers/Advertisers as co-presenters: If you have done research on behalf of a client, especially a marketer, having the marketer co-present with you will affect the committee’s rating and thus your chances of being selected. The judging committee, when reviewing the papers, will require client co-presenters confirmed on the submission form in order to participate in the first round of selection.

• Focus on new information, not your new tool/technique: Presentations about new tools or techniques should focus on how this new effort helps move the industry forward, bringing new insights. Proposals that focus on the tool or technique may not be selected if they are sales-oriented.

• Learning something that will alter the way the industry works.

How to Submit

Please use the form below for your submission. Your paper synopsis should be no more than 3 pages. Your submission should include:

• One topic area, selected from those above
• Complete paper title
• Short paper title and description for ARF event program
• Key contact: This individual will serve as the point person for communications from the ARF about the status of the proposal
• Author(s) Information: Names and complete contact information for all authors
• A complete paper abstract
• A paper synopsis (document attachment), no more than 3 pages long, describing:
  1. How your research, findings or tool will help further the knowledge of the industry
  2. The new research, model, data or method that you will present (please be as specific as possible)
• To participate, it is mandatory that your research already be completed, or will be complete, by February 24, 2012. A copy of the research paper MUST be made available to Re:think attendees after the conference.

For More Information

For more information, please contact Rachael Feigenbaum at Rachael@thearf.org.