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The competition cases against Google are the biggest legal battle marketing has ever seen. How they are resolved will decide the choices marketers have for decades to come. Everyone with a marketing budget will be affected. And it’s possible that the lawyers and economists involved are missing something. Evidence has ...

For the first time this Autumn, a number of marketers that work on big brands and think about strategy and positioning, emotion and nuance have had a look at search data. Previously it had mainly been used by that other type of marketer. The type that chooses keywords, buys search ...

This year Facebook is 15 and Google is 21, but as advertising channels for big brands, neither has emerged from the troublesome teenage phase into a fully effective adulthood. It’s because marketers are often not using these and other online channels appropriately: Online ads perform two distinct tasks that need ...

Ever since Cinderella we’ve loved a makeover story. Re-casting someone who’s struggling as a diamond in the rough and then bringing out their shine is an enduring type of story, even a life affirming journey. It’s no surprise then, that makeovers make good telly. Whether it’s a person being made ...

This chart is probably the most famous theoretical illustration of how advertising works. But in the seven years since it was first published, there has been very little serious discussion of how it actually reflects the experience of everyday brands. You know, the ones that sell functional products using average ...

It’s July 2020 and major brands are boycotting Facebook because of concerns about hateful content on the platform. But how damaging will this be? Can big brands afford not to have Facebook in their media plans? What are the costs of taking a stand? On this, the evidence is that ...