After sharing my piece on “How Brands Really Grow“, one comment surfaced from Dale W. Harrison:

“This all sounds right — but it’s meaningless without broad reach. And reach is limited by market share.”

It’s a fair challenge. And it gets to the heart of how brand growth actually works. I didn’t leave it out on purpose and as we kick-off 2026 I thought it was worth a deep-dive.

So let’s be clear upfront:

Yes, reach is critical. No, it isn’t fixed. And yes — budgets matter.

But not in the way most people think:

First, a Reminder of the Fundamentals

From Part 1, the evidence-based foundations still stand:

Brands grow by increasing mental availability — being thought of easily in buying situations.

Mental availability is built through:

• Category Entry Points (CEPs): being associated with more buying occasions
• Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs): being recognised instantly when recalled

Media and creative must work together:

• Media creates exposure
• Creative builds memory and attribution

And critically: None of this works without reach.

But reach doesn’t come after growth.

It comes before it.

The Myth: “Reach Is Locked to Market Share”

The assumption goes like this:

“Small brands can’t reach many people because they’re small.”

But research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows the opposite:

• Market share is largely an outcome of reach
• Brands grow by reaching more category buyers, not by talking more to existing ones
• Penetration growth precedes share growth — not the other way around

Or as my favourite marketing professor Mark Ritson famously put it:

“The biggest mistake marketers make is confusing efficiency with effectiveness.”

Small brands don’t fail to grow because they can’t reach people.

They fail because they choose not to.

What Actually Constrains Reach

Here’s the more accurate truth:

A brand’s Share of Market (SOM) — and therefore its communications budget — does set a ceiling on what’s possible.

Unless you bring in outside cash, you can’t outspend the category leader.

But here’s the part many miss:

How you spend that budget sets the floor.

If you waste your budget in:

• Channels that reach very few people
• Over-targeted tactics with high frequency but low penetration
• Creative that doesn’t build memory or attribution

…you artificially lower your own performance — even before the ceiling matters.

So yes:

• SOM sets the ceiling
• Bad reach strategy sets an even lower floor

Reach Only Works If It Builds Memory

This is where Distinctive Brand Assets and CEPs come back into play.

Reach on its own does nothing.

Reach that isn’t remembered is just cost.

Research from System1 shows that advertising delivers long-term returns only when:

• It reaches broad category buyers
• It triggers emotional response
• It is clearly and fluently branded

That’s why Distinctive Brand Assets matter so much.

Not because they’re branding “fluff” — but because they ensure every impression builds your brand, not your competitor’s. (And why I wrote so much about it in the first article!)

CEPs Are How You Scale Reach Without Wasting It

Category Entry Points don’t narrow reach.

They structure it.

They help brands:

• Justify broad reach internally
• Link exposure to real buying situations
• Build memory before purchase intent appears

CEPs turn reach from “spray and pray” into future demand creation.

You’re not trying to hit fewer people. You’re trying to be remembered in more moments.

What the Best Brands Do Differently

WARC effectiveness analysis consistently shows that the strongest brands:

• Prioritise penetration over precision
• Invest in broad, consistent reach
• Use the same assets repeatedly to compound memory
• Balance short-term activation with long-term brand building

Brands that don’t grow usually aren’t under-funded.

They’re over-optimised.

The Real Growth Equation

The real growth equation therfore isn’t market share first and reach second — it’s the other way around.

Reach builds memory.

Memory builds mental availability.

And mental availability drives market share.

• Category Entry Points define where you need to be remembered.
• Distinctive Brand Assets define who gets remembered.
• Reach defines how many people encode it into memory.

Remove any one of these — and growth stalls.

Brands don’t stop growing because they hit a ceiling. They stop because they aim too small, repeat too little, and confuse efficiency with effectiveness.

Growth doesn’t come from protecting reach.

It comes from earning it — broadly, repeatedly, and recognisably.

The post How Brands Really Grow (Part 2): Reach Matters first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

“The key marketing task is to make a brand always easy to buy for every buyer; this requires mental and physical availability. Everything else is secondary.” — Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow

For all the talk about data, platforms, and AI, marketing at its core still comes down to a simple question: Do people think of you when it matters?

The answer lies in two of marketing science’s most powerful — yet often underused — concepts: Category Entry Points (CEPs) and Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs). Together, they form the foundation of mental availability — the ability of a brand to be easily recalled in a buying situation.

In my role at Publicis Groupe Denmark, I see my team leveraging this evidence-based approach to marketing across strategy, media, and creative on a daily basis. Our focus is to ensure that every campaign strengthens both short-term response and long-term brand memory through our Power of One approach.

Category Entry Points: How People Buy, Not How Marketers Think

Category Entry Points are the real-world situations, needs, or emotions that trigger purchase decisions. They’re not demographics or funnel stages — they’re the moments that open the door to your category.

Think “Friday night dinner,” “post-workout recovery,” or “quick breakfast before school.” Each represents a potential entry point for categories like ready meals, protein drinks, or cereals.

Research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that brands grow by building memory structures linked to as many relevant Category Entry Points as possible. The more associations your brand holds in consumers’ minds — across different contexts — the higher the likelihood it’s recalled when a buying situation arises.

This is the true job of marketing: not to make people love your brand, but to make them think of it first when a relevant need appears.

Distinctive Brand Assets: Make the Link Instant

But being remembered isn’t enough. Once a buyer’s mind opens that category door, your brand must be recognized immediately.

That’s where Distinctive Brand Assets come in — the visual, verbal, and sonic cues that signal your brand without needing to show the logo. Colours, sounds, taglines, characters, typography — these are the shortcuts that trigger recognition and trust.

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has consistently shown that most brands overestimate how distinctive their assets actually are. Many are either not famous enough (low recognition) or not unique enough (easily confused with competitors).

System1’s research reinforces this: emotionally engaging creative works best when it is fluent — when viewers instantly know who the message is from. Ads with strong brand fluency deliver higher recall, higher emotional response, and higher long-term ROI.

In other words: Distinctive Brand Assets turn attention into attribution. They make sure your marketing efforts — and your media spend — work for you, not your competitors. (More in this piece here).

Where Media and Creative Intersect

Building mental availability isn’t the job of media or creative — it’s the job of both.

Media determines when and where people encounter your brand. Creative determines what they remember. One without the other doesn’t build the mental structures that drive growth.

From a media perspective, this means planning broad reach across multiple Category Entry Points — not just frequency against one narrow audience. Reach is fundamental to brand growth: the more category buyers you reach, the greater your chance of being recalled when a buying situation arises. Media strategy should ensure your brand is present in as many buying moments as possible, across time and context.

From a creative perspective, it means using and reinforcing your Distinctive Brand Assets consistently over time. Every impression should strengthen your brand’s mental availability — building familiarity, trust, and recognition long before purchase intent appears.

When CEPs, DBAs and reach work together, you get the compounding effect of both exposure and recognition: you’re there when people think about the category — and they instantly know it’s you.

Why It Matters Now

Today’s media landscape is fragmented, attention is scarce, and the “path to purchase” is more chaotic than ever. That makes mental availability the most valuable real estate in marketing — and CEPs and DBAs the tools to secure it.

WARC’s Anatomy of Effectiveness (2022) highlights that brands combining emotional creative with consistent asset use outperform those that reinvent or fragment their identity. In a world of endless content, consistency isn’t boring — it’s efficient.

Meanwhile, Ehrenberg-Bass data shows that broad reach and memory-building — not micro-targeting — drive market share growth. The brands that win are those that show up in more buying situations, more often, and are recognised more easily when they do.

The Takeaway

To build brands that grow, focus less on targeting smaller and smaller groups, and more on building bigger mental availability and memory.

• Identify and prioritise your most relevant Category Entry Points — the real-world moments when your category is mentally accessed.
• Use and measure your Distinctive Brand Assets — ensure they’re both famous and unique.
• Plan media and creative to reinforce these associations consistently over time.

Or put simply:

Be remembered when it matters, and unmistakable when you are.

Sources & Further Reading

• Ehrenberg-Bass Institute: How Brands Grow (Byron Sharp)
• WARC: The Anatomy of Effectiveness 2022
• System1 Group: Test Your Ad & The Creative Effectiveness Framework

The post How Brands Really Grow… first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

Creative work in marketing is often perceived as an art and it is…

But in the pursuit of brand growth, creativity must also be grounded in data and insights. A growing body of research – led by institutions such as the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute -demonstrates that advertising effectiveness is maximized when creative development is informed by behavioral data, buyer psychology, and empirically validated frameworks.

At Publicis Groupe Denmark we work with an evidence-based approach to marketing and anchor our creative development in marketing science. We look at mental availability, distinctive brand assets, category entry points (CEPs), and the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework and more in order to craft compelling creatives that create true business impact:

Advertising’s Primary Function: Increasing Mental Availability

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute defines mental availability as the probability that a brand will be noticed or come to mind in buying situations (Sharp, How Brands Grow, 2010). Advertising’s core function is not to persuade, but to refresh and build memory structures that enhance this availability.

Evidence shows that broad-reach, emotionally simple creative—using recognisable brand elements—drives improvements in mental availability. Creative decisions, therefore, should not be left solely to subjective taste or assumed emotional impact. They should be designed to systematically reinforce brand memory structures through salience and consistency.

Distinctive Assets: Memory Triggers, Not Decorations

Distinctive Brand Assets (logos, colours, characters, sounds, etc.) serve as triggers in memory that allow consumers to identify the brand without needing to read or decode messaging. Research from Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp (2004) shows that distinctive assets can act as low-attention processing cues, improving fluency and reducing cognitive load in brand recognition.

Empirical studies indicate that when brands consistently use their distinctive assets across touchpoints, they increase the efficiency of media spend and reduce the cost of building awareness. Importantly, assets must be tested for uniqueness (only associated with the brand) and fame (widely recognized), or they risk becoming generic and ineffective.

Category Entry Points: Mapping Mental Availability to Buying Situations

The Category Entry Points (CEPs) concept, also developed at Ehrenberg-Bass, refers to the cues that lead buyers into a category—such as need states, occasions, locations, or social contexts. Advertising should aim to link the brand with as many relevant CEPs as possible.

For example, instead of positioning a coffee brand as “premium,” it is more effective to link it to specific CEPs like “early mornings,” “low energy,” or “catching up with friends.” The broader the array of category entry points a brand is linked to, the greater its mental availability across different buying situations.

Empirical studies show that brands with broader CEP coverage enjoy greater market share growth (Romaniuk & Sharp, 2016). Thus, creative briefs should not be guided by abstract personas or segmentation heuristics alone, but by real-world buying contexts mapped through CEP analysis.

Jobs to Be Done: Functional and Emotional Causality in Consumer Choice

While mental availability captures “when” and “how” a brand is recalled, Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) helps explain “why” a brand is chosen. The JTBD theory, developed by Christensen et al. (2003), posits that consumers don’t buy products—they “hire” them to perform specific functional, emotional, or social jobs.

From a creative development standpoint, JTBD forces marketers to frame communications in terms of outcome-driven use cases. For example, a meal delivery service might serve jobs like “reducing weekday planning effort” or “avoiding decision fatigue after work.”

Creatives that are empirically grounded in consumer JTBD research (e.g., through interviews, ethnography, or usage data) tend to outperform generic benefit-led messaging, particularly in cluttered or low-attention environments.

Some general “laws” to follow for Advertising Effectiveness

On top of the above there are a few other things to consider when taking an evidence-based approach to creative production… Decades of advertising effectiveness research have revealed several laws that should also inform your creative strategy:

• Reach beats targeting. Broad-reach creative is more effective at building mental availability than narrow targeting (Sharp, 2010).
• Emotion works via salience, not persuasion. Emotional creatives drive effectiveness by enhancing memory encoding—not by changing beliefs (Heath & Feldwick, 2008).
• Consistency builds recognition. Variations in tone, look, or messaging reduce distinctive asset linkage and memory retention (Romaniuk, 2018).
• Creativity must be brand-linked. Award-winning creative is ineffective if the brand is not easily recalled (IPA, Binet & Field, 2013).

These laws should be used not as constraints, but as parameters within which effective creative can flourish.

Implications for Marketers

So what are the implications for marketers if they want to follow this approach? An evidence-based creative process implies a shift in how creative work is briefed, developed, and evaluated. Marketers should:

• Use validated pre-testing tools to assess recognition, brand attribution, and linkage to CEPs and assets.
• Anchor briefs in observable buyer behaviour—not attitudinal segmentation or internal stakeholder preferences.
• Ensure consistent use of distinctive assets to reduce cognitive effort and aid recognition.
• Use post-campaign data to track not just impressions or engagement, but improvements in mental availability metrics.

Conclusion

Creativity remains essential in marketing, but it must operate within an evidence-based framework if it is to drive growth. The combination of mental availability theory, distinctive assets, category entry points, and JTBD offers a scientifically robust foundation for creative effectiveness.

I believe that when marketers align their creative processes with empirical insights, they reduce waste, increase efficiency, and build brand assets that endure over time.

What do you think?

Sources:

1. Sharp, B. (2010). How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know. Oxford University Press.
2. Sharp, B., & Romaniuk, J. (2016). How Brands Grow Part 2: Emerging Markets, Services, Durables, New and Luxury Brands. Oxford University Press.
3. Romaniuk, J., & Sharp, B. (2004). “Conceptualizing and Measuring Brand Salience.” Marketing Theory, 4(4), 327–342.
4. Romaniuk, J. (2018). Building Distinctive Brand Assets. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
5. Heath, R., & Feldwick, P. (2008). “50 Years Using the Wrong Model of Advertising.” International Journal of Market Research, 50(1), 29–59.
6. Binet, L., & Field, P. (2013). The Long and the Short of It: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies. IPA.
7. Christensen, C. M., Cook, S., & Hall, T. (2003). “Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure.” Harvard Business Review, December 2005.
8. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. (Various Reports and Working Papers). Retrieved from: https://www.marketingscience.info

The post The Case for Evidence-Based Creative Development in Marketing first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

To often you hear the marketing spiel : “We’ll build brand love, drive loyalty, and win hearts.”

But in the real world of boardrooms, budgets, and P&Ls, love is rarely enough. What separates effective marketing from feel-good campaigns is measurable impact – growth in penetration, profit, mental availability, and consistency over time.

Below I share my POV and explore why marketers must move from activity-based metrics to true business impact — drawing on the latest evidence from System1 , WARC and Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and outline how to build a practical, measurable system for marketing effectiveness. Hope you find it insightful!

Here goes:

1) The Misalignment: Activity Over Outcomes

In 2025 many marketing teams still to often focus on what is easiest to measure: impressions, clicks, engagement rates etc. These metrics are tempting because they’re precise, often near-real time, and feel like levers to pull.

But the danger is that you end up optimizing what you can measure, rather than what drives business performance. You allocate spend to the latest channel with “good metrics,” even if it underperforms in real contribution. You prioritize performance tactics over brand work because brand metrics feel longer, fuzzier, riskier.

In short: you lose sight of impact—incremental profit, market share gain, penetration growth, price resilience. When marketing is reduced to a cost center, you starve the very levers that scale returns over time.

2) What the Evidence Demands

Too often, this disconnect between activity and impact isn’t due to a lack of effort — it’s a lack of evidence. Marketers aren’t short on data; they’re drowning in the wrong kind. Dashboards glow with metrics that feel precise but say little about growth. What we need is clarity on what truly drives effectiveness, backed by research that separates signal from noise.That’s where the growing body of evidence from System1, WARC, and Ehrenberg-Bass helps.

Together, they point to a consistent truth: creativity, consistency, and mental availability—not clicks or impressions—are the real multipliers of marketing performance. Here’s what the leading research tells us:

2.1 Creativity as a Profit Multiplier

The Creative Dividend (System1 + Effie) demonstrates that high-quality creative, particularly emotional, delivers outsized business effects. System1 analyzed over 1,250 campaigns across the US and Europe (with data from >200,000 consumers) to show that creativity is not a cost but an investment..

Their findings show that well-branded, emotionally engaging ads outperform low-emotion ones—even in short horizons. (System1 calls emotional campaigns a source of “safe payback.”)

Follow-up analysis of the study reinforces that it’s not emotion alone that drives results — it’s the combination of strong emotional response and clear branding (distinctive assets). When creativity is both emotionally engaging and easily attributed to the brand, the commercial effect multiplies.

2.2 Long / Short (Brand + Performance) Balance Matters

Creativity may be the spark, but consistency and balance are what sustain effectiveness over time. WARC and leading effectiveness practitioners emphasize that brand building doesn’t compete with activation — it enables it. A strong brand foundation amplifies every short-term performance effort, creating what professor Mark Ritson calls “the ultimate strategic BOGOF” — because long-term investment pays back twice, strengthening both brand equity and short-term response.

The much-cited 60/40 rule isn’t a rigid formula, but a useful starting point for planning. The evidence is clear: brands that invest roughly 60% in long-term brand building and 40% in short-term activation outperform those skewed heavily toward performance. You simply can’t build a healthy brand on activation alone — short-term tactics may drive spikes, but they rarely compound.

And just as important as balance is creative consistency. WARC’s longitudinal analyses show that brands maintaining consistent creative platforms and visual codes build stronger equity and require less spend over time to achieve the same effect. Frequent resets, new taglines, or changing brand personalities might feel refreshing internally — but to consumers, they dilute memory structures and reduce return on investment. And that leads nicely into distinctive assets, read on below !

2.3 Distinctive Assets: The Foundation of Brand Recognition

While creativity and balance drive effectiveness, the building blocks of lasting marketing impact are distinctive brand assets — the visual and verbal cues that make a brand instantly recognizable.

Research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that most brands overestimate how distinctive their assets really are. In many categories, only a handful of elements — a color, a logo, a tagline, or a character — are both famous and uniquely attributed to the brand. Yet these seemingly simple cues are what make marketing efficient: they reduce cognitive effort for consumers, build memory structures, and allow campaigns to work harder with less media spend.

Distinctiveness is often misunderstood as differentiation. The goal isn’t to be radically different — it’s to be recognizably you. As Byron Sharp puts it, brands should “look like they belong in the category, but be easy to tell apart.” Distinctive assets create that shortcut in the mind: they trigger recognition, reinforce trust, and keep the brand top-of-mind even when the consumer isn’t consciously thinking about it.

For marketers, this means measuring and protecting these assets over time. Consistency is not a constraint; it’s a growth strategy. Rebranding too frequently, or fragmenting visual identity across touchpoints, erodes mental availability and forces brands to spend more to rebuild what they already owned.

3) Mental Availability, Attention, and Consumer Indifference

Ehrenberg-Bass and Byron Sharp’s broader point is simple but uncomfortable: consumers are largely indifferent to brands. People don’t think about brands very often, and they rarely feel deep loyalty. That’s why marketing exists — not to make consumers love us, but to ensure they remember us when it matters.

At a recent Publicis Client Academy in Stockholm, this insight came alive in discussions about real-world marketing behavior. Across industries, we saw the same pattern: brands chasing emotional “love marks” or purpose-driven storytelling, while neglecting the basic job of building memory and salience.

Sharp’s argument reframes what effective marketing should do:

• Build mental availability — ensure the brand is easily recalled in buying situations.
• Maintain physical availability — make it easy to buy through distribution, placement, and accessibility.
• Focus on attention and entertainment — because if people don’t notice your ads, nothing else matters.
• Avoid over-investing in “purpose” narratives that few consumers connect to actual purchase decisions.

As Byron Sharp’s evidence reminds us, most consumers are simply not that invested. They don’t wake up thinking about brands, and they don’t form deep emotional bonds with them. Which brings us back to where we started: too often, we promise to “build brand love, drive loyalty, and win hearts.”

But in the real world of boardrooms, budgets, and P&Ls — love is rarely enough. The real challenge isn’t affection; it’s attention. Great advertising gets noticed, connects clearly to the brand, and lodges in memory. Purpose, tone, and meaning can all support that — but they can’t replace it.

For modern marketers, the implication is clear: effectiveness depends on mental availability — ensuring your brand comes to mind quickly and effortlessly in buying situations. To achieve that, we must measure what reflects how people actually think and buy, not what flatters our dashboards. Track memory recall, brand fluency, salience, and distinctive asset strength — the true indicators of mental availability — not just engagement or “brand love.”

Because if consumers are largely indifferent, as Byron Sharp reminds us, attention is the scarce currency. And if your brand isn’t noticed, remembered, and thought of at the moment of choice, it might as well be invisible.

4) Building a Measurement System Anchored in Impact

If creativity and consistency are what drive effectiveness, then measurement is what keeps it honest. Yet too often, marketing measurement still rewards activity as mentioned earlier, not impact.

An evidence-based system should do three things well:

• Diagnose quality before spend. Measure creative effectiveness early — not only by how it performs in market, but by its emotional strength, clarity, and brand linkage. Creative quality is the single biggest multiplier of profit, and it should be treated as such.
• Track distinctiveness over time. Audit your brand’s assets — colour, logo, sound, tone — not to refresh them constantly, but to ensure they remain recognizable and consistently used. The goal is to strengthen memory structures, not redesign them.
• Balance mental and physical availability. Evidence shows growth depends on both: Build mental availability by ensuring your brand is easily recalled in buying situations. + maintain physical availability by making your product simple to find and buy — through distribution, placement, and accessibility.
• Link marketing to commercial outcomes. Move beyond campaign metrics toward business effects: profit, penetration, price resilience. Map short-term and long-term performance so every initiative builds cumulative value, not isolated results.

The best measurement systems are not dashboards; they’re learning systems. They help marketers see what works, prove value to the business, and continuously improve creative and brand performance. In short: measure less, but measure what matters.

Conclusion

In a world of fragmented channels, rising ROI pressure, and constant noise, marketers can’t afford to steer by gut or vanity metrics. The case for evidence-based marketing is straightforward: creativity backed by data outperforms, consistency compounds, and memory matters more than love.

The tension is real — stakeholders want instant proof, while effectiveness takes patience and structure. But when you measure impact rather than activity, you align creative ambition with business outcomes.

Because at the moment of choice, if consumers don’t remember your brand, even the most emotional story or purpose-driven message disappears. So focus on availability. Strengthen your assets. Test with rigor. And let evidence — not opinion — guide your marketing.

The post The Growth Case for Marketing: Creativity, Consistency, and Measured Impact first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

In marketing, few things are as universally praised yet under-leveraged as creativity.

We say creativity drives differentiation. We say it builds brands. But when budget season comes around or performance pressure rises, creativity (and marketing in general! ) is often treated as a cost centre. Something to trim. Something “nice to have.”

It’s not. According to a new global study from System1 and Effie Worldwide called “The Creative Dividend”, creativity is one of the strongest drivers of profit available to marketers – outperforming targeting, media optimization, and even budget size.

Yet most marketers lack the confidence, tools, and internal alignment to fully use it. At Publicis Groupe Denmark me and my team work with a evidence-based approach to marketing and creativity and very much welcome these new data points and insights.

To that point I wanted to unpack and distill what the data reveals – and what it means for how marketers should think about brand growth. So here we go:

The Creative Multiplier: +12x on Profit

System1 analysed 1,265 campaigns across the US, UK and Europe – matched with real-world effectiveness data from the Effie Awards. Here’s what they found:

• Creative quality delivers a 12x profit multiplier.
• By contrast, targeting? Just 1.1x.
• The most awarded creative campaigns had 6.7x higher ROI than non-winners.

Creativity is not soft. It’s not fluffy. Done right, it’s one of the most powerful levers we as marketers have.

So Why Are Marketers Undervaluing It?

The data also reveals a troubling pattern:

• 60% of marketers don’t feel confident their teams can deliver creatively effective work.
• Most default to short-term metrics like impressions, clicks, or conversions.
• Creativity is perceived as risky – especially in the absence of clear strategy and customer insight.

In short and to put it bluntly, the data shows that marketers are “under-skilled”, over-targeted, and under-ambitious!

Emotional Ads Drive Business Results

I also found this super interesting: One of the most consistent findings in the study was that emotionally engaging campaigns outperform rational ones across every brand and market type.

• High-emotion ads deliver +50% more business outcomes.
• Challenger brands with high-emotion ads grow as effectively as category leaders.
• Emotion boosts market share, loyalty, pricing power and more.

Why? Because emotion builds mental availability – the foundation of long-term brand value.

The study also showed that the “safest” ads – the ones that generate no emotional response- are also the least effective:

• Dull campaigns return 40% less profit.
• Nearly 1 in 3 ads tested generated zero emotional engagement.
• Many ads failed to even clearly link to the brand – 20% of viewers couldn’t remember who the ad was for.

This was similar to what we found in a big Danish research piece we did last year in partnership with Dansk Reklame Film A/S and Neurons (article in Danish): https://bureaubiz.dk/klumme/foelelser-er-en-effektiv-kur-mod-forbrugernes-vigende-koncentration-og-hukommelse/ – here we actually saw the “Neutral” is the most dangerous emotional feeling of all!

Consistency Compounds Creativity

But even more important is consistency! Because the research also showed that one of the most overlooked drivers of brand growth is creative consistency.

Brands that commit to consistent creative platforms and brand codes are up to 3x more profitable than those that constantly reinvent!

Why it matters: Consistency helps builds mental availability – the ease with which your brand comes to mind in buying situations. And that availability is built through distinctive brand assets: logos, characters, taglines, colours, sounds, and other recognisable brand codes.

Yet too many brands underuse them:

• 1 in 5 can’t identify the brand behind the ad
• Ads with strong brand fluency are 70% more likely to build distinctiveness and 52% more likely to drive differentiation
• Emotional campaigns that also use distinctive assets are significantly more profitable over time!

Inconsistent brands were 1/3 less likely to grow differentiation – because without repetition, assets don’t stick!

So the conclusion has to be that it isn’t about running the same ad on repeat. It’s about building a coherent, recognisable brand identity across time, touchpoints, and teams—so that every campaign reinforces what came before.

How to Reframe Creativity as a Growth Engine

So what can marketers (and their CFOs ) take away from this research?

Here are my 2 cents:

• Stop chasing only short-term metrics: Clicks, impressions and conversions are not business outcomes. Revenue, market share, and loyalty are.
• Invest in emotional storytelling: Ads that make people feel something build brand memory. That memory drives future choice.
• Use your brand codes: Fluent branding – distinctive assets, visual identity—is critical. Don’t just logo-slap at the end.
• Be consistent over time: Don’t reinvent the wheel each quarter. Build equity with repetition and evolution—not reinvention.
• Pair creativity with strategy: Great work isn’t random—it’s anchored in customer insight and business objectives. That’s where creativity earns its seat at the board table.

From Soft Metric to Strategic Asset

So marketers and agency colleagues, it’s time to change the narrative. Creativity is not a risk. It’s not an art project. It’s not just for Cannes. It’s one of the most powerful strategic levers marketers can use to drive business impact.

If we want our brands to grow, we need to stop treating creativity (and marketing in general! ) like a cost – and start treating it like the growth engine it really is!

If you want to deep-dive into the reserch, here’s the link: https://system1group.com/the-creative-dividend

Let’s include creativity at the core of marketing effectiveness. And let’s measure what matters: profit, penetration, and long-term brand impact.

The post Creativity Is Not a Cost – it’s a Multiplier first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

If you’ve ever felt lost in conversations about AI due to the jargon — you’re not alone. Following my breakdown of digital media acronyms “From CPM to SOV: The 50+ Most Essential Acronyms in Digital Advertising”, I create a list focused on the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.

Whether you’re leading a marketing team, working with product or tech, or just trying to stay fluent in AI’s expanding influence — this glossary should help.

It is a mix of Core AI Acronyms – terms that are “foundational” to understanding how AI systems are built and applied plus AI Marketing Acronyms which are especially relevant to modern marketers leveraging AI for personalization, automation, and performance. So here we go:

1. AI – Artificial Intelligence Simulating human intelligence in machines to perform tasks like reasoning, learning, and decision-making.
2. ML – Machine Learning A subset of AI that uses data to train algorithms to improve performance without explicit programming.
3. DL – Deep Learning A branch of ML using neural networks with many layers to model complex data patterns.
4. LLM – Large Language Model AI trained on massive text datasets to understand and generate language (e.g., GPT, Claude, Gemini).
5. NLP – Natural Language Processing Enables machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language.
6. NLU – Natural Language Understanding A subset of NLP focused on interpreting the meaning and intent behind human language.
7. NLG – Natural Language Generation Automatically creates human-like text from structured data.
8. CV – Computer Vision Allows machines to process and analyze visual information like images and video.
9. OCR – Optical Character Recognition Converts images or scanned documents into machine-readable text.
10. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition Transcribes spoken language into text.
11. TTS – Text-to-Speech Converts written text into spoken audio.
12. RPA – Robotic Process Automation Automates repetitive, rule-based tasks in workflows using software bots.
13. AGI – Artificial General Intelligence Theoretical AI that can perform any intellectual task a human can do.
14. ANI – Artificial Narrow Intelligence AI focused on a single domain or task (e.g., chatbots, recommendation engines).
15. API – Application Programming Interface Rules and protocols enabling applications to communicate and integrate.
16. DNN – Deep Neural Network Neural networks with multiple layers, used for complex pattern recognition.
17. CNN – Convolutional Neural Network Used for processing visual data like images.
18. RNN – Recurrent Neural Network Designed to recognize sequences (e.g., text, time series) by retaining memory of past inputs.
19. LSTM – Long Short-Term Memory A type of RNN that captures long-term dependencies in sequential data.
20. FNN – Feedforward Neural Network Basic neural network with a one-directional flow of data.
21. MLP – Multilayer Perceptron A class of feedforward neural networks with multiple layers.
22. GAN – Generative Adversarial Network Two networks compete to generate highly realistic synthetic data.
23. RL – Reinforcement Learning Learns optimal actions via rewards and penalties over time.
24. RLHF – Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback Enhances RL with human input to align AI with user intent.
25. KNN – K-Nearest Neighbors Classifies data based on its proximity to known data points.
26. SVM – Support Vector Machine Classifies data by finding the best boundary between categories.
27. LDA – Latent Dirichlet Allocation Discovers topics in large text datasets.
28. TF-IDF – Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency Weighs how important a word is in a document versus a corpus.
29. XAI – Explainable Artificial Intelligence Designs AI to be interpretable and transparent.
30. AIOps – Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations Applies AI to automate IT functions like monitoring and root cause analysis.
31. AIoT – Artificial Intelligence of Things Integrates AI with IoT to enable smart automation.
32. IoT – Internet of Things Connected devices communicating over the internet, often powered by AI.
33. SaaS – Software as a Service Cloud-based applications, often incorporating AI features.
34. PaaS – Platform as a Service Cloud platforms offering tools for AI development and deployment.
35. TTV – Time to Value AI accelerates outcomes, reducing the time to business impact.
36. SOTA – State of the Art Describes the most advanced AI techniques or models available.
37. GPT – Generative Pretrained Transformer Foundation model architecture for natural language generation.
38. BERT – Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers Transformer-based model that understands context in both directions.
39. CDP – Customer Data Platform Centralizes customer data for better personalization and targeting.
40. DCO – Dynamic Creative Optimization Uses AI to adapt creatives in real time based on user context.
41. LTV – Lifetime Value Predicted customer revenue, often modeled with AI.
42. CLV Prediction – Customer Lifetime Value Prediction Forecasts the value of customers to guide investment.
43. CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost AI helps optimize CAC by identifying high-value prospects.
44. CRM-AI – AI-Enhanced Customer Relationship Management Predicts churn, segments audiences, and improves outreach.
45. MTA – Multi-Touch Attribution Uses AI to assign value across marketing touchpoints.
46. MMM – Marketing Mix Modeling Statistical modeling, enhanced by AI, for budget allocation.
47. RTB – Real-Time Bidding Algorithmic buying of ad inventory based on user data.
48. CVR – Conversion Rate Optimized by AI for better campaign performance.
49. ROAS – Return on Ad Spend AI maximizes ROAS through real-time optimization.
50. A/B/N Testing – Multivariate Testing AI scales testing across multiple variants.
51. SEO-AI – AI for Search Engine Optimization Enhances keyword strategy, SERP performance, and content relevance.
52. AutoML – Automated Machine Learning AI systems that build other AI systems with minimal human intervention.
53. Few-shot Learning A model’s ability to learn from a very small number of examples.
54. Zero-shot Learning Model infers tasks it hasn’t been explicitly trained on.
55. Fine-tuning Adjusting pretrained AI models for specific tasks or datasets.
56. Embedding Numerical representation of words, phrases, or items used in ML models.
57. Tokenization Breaking down text into pieces (tokens) for NLP processing.
58. Bias Mitigation AI techniques designed to reduce unfair bias in outputs.
59. Data Drift Changes in model input data over time that can degrade AI performance.
60. Hallucination When a generative AI model produces factually incorrect outputs.
61. Prompt Engineering Crafting effective inputs to elicit desired responses from AI models.
62. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Combines search with generative models to improve factual accuracy.
63. Synthetic Data AI-generated data used to train models when real data is scarce.

Final Thoughts

AI is evolving fast. Staying fluent in its terminology is no longer optional — especially if you’re in marketing, tech, or leadership roles. So I hope you found this list useful!

Also I’m sure I missed a few important acronyms – if that is the case, just let me know and I will add them!

The post From AGI to GPT: The 50+ Most Essential Acronyms in AI Explained first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

Are you fishing in the same pond as everyone else?

In today’s data-driven marketing world, focusing only on the active 5% of buyers – the “in‑market” segment – may feel efficient. Yet, research from Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and WARC shows this is a common trap. By ignoring the dormant 95%, marketers risk long-term growth and missing future revenue!

The 95:5 insight: Only 5% of buyers are active now

Ehrenberg‑Bass Institute introduced the “95:5 Rule,” highlighting a simple truth: at any moment, only about 5% of your target audience is in-market, while 95% remain dormant. For example:

• Many B2B services have repurchase cycles of 2–5 years.
• Only ~20% of clients are actively shopping over a year, ~5% each quarter (warc.com).
• Advertising often reaches people who won’t repurchase until months or years later .

That means most marketing efforts appear “inefficient”—but this is not reality… And it is not only B2B. WARC confirms that the 95:5 Rule applies across industries, including luxury retail and FMCG. It’s a heuristic – not a hard law – but a powerful insight into purchase dynamics.

Marketers like Tyrona (Ty) Heath from LinkedIn’s B2B Institute emphasise that ads work by building memory – triggered later when a buyer enters the market.

The “95/5 Rule” highlights that only about 5% of your potential customers are actively looking to buy at any given time, while the remaining 95% are not currently in the market

Why this matters: advertising drives memory, not persuasion

Traditional logic sees marketing as persuasion—using ads to nudge buyers down the funnel. But Ehrenberg‑Bass flips this view. Since most people aren’t buying now, ads work by building memory links, not prompting immediate purchase

John Dawes explains that ad impressions accumulated over time ⏤ even when the buyer isn’t in-market ⏤ increase the chance of being remembered when it matters. Ty Heath reinforces this, noting that buyers choose the brand that comes to mind first—so it’s essential to establish those category entry points early.

The cost of fishing in the same pond

So what does it cost? (this is where the CFO normally wakes up ). You can put it like this: Relying exclusively on in-market leads AKA the 5% has three downsides:

1. Escalating costs: As demand signals become crowded, CPA/CPL keeps rising.
2. Limited differentiation: Everyone targets the same 5%, leading to commoditised competition.
3. Low mental availability: Brands absent from buyers’ memories risk being ruled out during future purchase windows.

Broadening the client base: What to do?

So as a marketer what do you do if you wan’t to capture long-term growth? You can start by integrating the short term and long term strategies i.e.:

1. Objective-Focused-Tactics to Capture current demand In‑market (5%) i.e. Paid search, retargeting, lead gen campaigns, intent data
2. Build future demand to capture “Out‑of-market (95%)” target audience through brand advertising (awareness and creatives that builds brand memory), thought leadership, broad-reach media, category entry points (e.g., “When X happens, think of us”) etc.

And if you are still struggling with where to start or want to dive a bit deeper, here are a few “real-world frameworks” that supports combining and broadening your strategy:

• Binet & Field’s 60:40 rule: Recommend allocating ~60% of budget to brand-building and 40% to activation. Many B2B brands reverse this—and lose long‑term impact.(warc.com, marketingscience.info)
• Category Entry Points: Brands must appear across many relevant contexts. More entry points = broader mental availability and easier access when need arises (earnest-agency.com).
• Double Jeopardy Law: Smaller brands suffer twice: fewer buyers and less loyalty. Building memory among the 95% reduces this effect over time (en.wikipedia.org).

And don’t forget: Measure brand health, not just sales. Track metrics such as unaided recall, mental availability, and brand salience + monitor whether your brand is top-of-mind when buyers enter the market.

Tactical playbook: So how do you action this today?

1. Audit your client base: Segment buyers by purchase cycles to identify the true size of “in-market” at any moment. Note: if your category cycle is shorter, shift budget accordingly!
2. Rebalance media investments: Set aside ~60% for long-term brand reach; 40% for demand capture (different industries have small skews either way…)
3. Define category entry points: Map typical purchase scenarios (e.g., “when my fridge is empty”, “my car breaks down”) and anchor your messaging accordingly.
4. Activate throughout the funnel: Pair brand campaigns (talking to the 95%) with performance tactics for immediacy.
5. Track mental availability: Use brand health tools to measure recall and associations among dormant buyers.
6. Iterate and learn: Always keep on learning and innovating i.e. adjust in/out-market splits based on data

The payoff: Growth!

By broadening your client base:

• You reduce dependency on intent-targeted audiences.
• You increase brand salience and emotional connection.
• You grow pipelines that don’t just fill quickly—they sustain.
• You improve valuation—since broad mental availability fuels brand equity and future cash flows

Net net: The 95:5 Rule isn’t a neat formula—it’s a strategic lens. It calls on marketers to fish beyond tomorrow, expanding the brand to reach its future buyers; to drive sustainable growth, you need to balance your hunt for the 5% in-market right now with casting your net wide across the 95%!

List of Sources:

1. Ehrenberg‑Bass Institute – The “95:5 Rule” highlights that only ~5% of B2B buyers are in-market at any given time; 95% are out-of-market and ad effectiveness depends on building memory markers for future purchases (business.linkedin.com, marketingscience.info).
2. WARC – Confirms the heuristic nature of the 95:5 Rule: ~20% of buyers in-market annually, ~5% quarterly, stressing the importance of brand reach beyond active buyers (warc.com).
3. LinkedIn B2B Institute (Ty Heath) – Emphasises ads create lasting impressions. The manager who bought an Aston Martin did so years after first seeing an ad, supporting the need to build memory early (business.linkedin.com).
4. WARC / Binet & Field – Advocates for balanced investment in brand health and category entry points, relevant to out-of-market buyers (warc.com).
5. Ehrenberg‑Bass “How B2B Brands Grow” report – Covers the 95:5 Rule, Double Jeopardy, and the power of mental & physical availability (marketingscience.info).

The post The 95/5 Rule: Why Future Buyers Matter More Than Current Leads! first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

Having worked in the digital advertising industry for +20 years these acronyms have become second nature to me. However, I understand that for people who are either new to the industry or simply don’t work with marketing on a daily basis, digital advertising acronyms can often seem like a cryptic code that needs deciphering

Therefore I create this overview of the 50 most used digital advertising acronyms hoping to create a clear guide for anyone looking to enhance their digital advertising acumen – here goes:

1. CPM – Cost Per Thousand Impressions

CPM measures the cost of 1,000 ad impressions on a webpage. It’s a staple metric for gauging the expense of displaying ads, enabling advertisers to evaluate cost efficiency across different platforms.

2. CPC – Cost Per Click

CPC denotes the price paid for each click on an ad. This metric offers a direct insight into the cost-effectiveness of driving traffic to a desired digital destination.

3. CPA – Cost Per Acquisition

CPA is the cost incurred for acquiring a customer or converting a visitor into a customer. It’s critical for assessing the financial viability of digital advertising campaigns.

4. CTR – Click-Through Rate

CTR represents the percentage of viewers who click on an ad out of the total who see it. This metric is essential for evaluating ad effectiveness and audience engagement.

5. ROI – Return on Investment

ROI measures the profitability of an investment, providing a clear picture of the returns generated from digital advertising expenses. It’s crucial for justifying marketing spend.

6. ROAS – Return on Ad Spend

ROAS assesses the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. It’s a nuanced metric that helps optimize advertising efficiency.

7. DSP – Demand Side Platform

DSPs enable advertisers to buy ad inventory across multiple platforms efficiently, optimizing the purchasing process through automation and data analysis.

8. SSP – Supply Side Platform

In short SSPs allow publishers to manage and sell their ad inventory, maximizing revenue through dynamic pricing strategies.

9. DMP – Data Management Platform

DMPs collect, organize, and analyze data from various sources, empowering advertisers with insights to refine targeting and personalize campaigns.

10. CRM – Customer Relationship Management

CRM systems manage company interactions with current and potential customers, leveraging data analysis to improve business relationships and drive sales growth.

11. SEO – Search Engine Optimization

SEO involves optimizing website content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results, a fundamental tactic for driving organic traffic.

12. SEM – Search Engine Marketing

SEM refers to paid search advertising, a key strategy for increasing search visibility through paid ads on search engines like Google.

13. KPI – Key Performance Indicator

KPIs are measurable values that indicate how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. In digital advertising, KPIs guide strategy and operational improvements.

14. PPC – Pay-Per-Click

PPC is a model of internet marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. It’s synonymous with CPC, emphasizing the action of clicking.

15. CMS – Content Management System

A CMS is a software application or set of related programs used to create and manage digital content (WordPress is an example). CMSs are crucial for marketers to publish, edit, and modify content on a website without needing specialized technical knowledge.

16. SMM – Social Media Marketing

SMM utilizes social media platforms to promote products or services, engaging with a targeted audience to build brand awareness and drive sales.

17. UX – User Experience

UX focuses on the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or application, aiming to enhance user satisfaction and design efficiency.

18. UI – User Interface

UI, closely related to UX, refers to the aesthetic elements through which users interact with a product, emphasizing ease of use and functionality.

19. GA – Google Analytics

GA is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, providing insights into user behavior and website performance.

20. HTML – HyperText Markup Language

HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser, foundational to the creation and structuring of web content.

21. VTR – View Through Rate

VTR measures the percentage of users who view an ad but do not click on it, yet later visit the advertiser’s website or take a specific action. This metric helps gauge the indirect impact of display and video ads on consumer behavior.

22. LTV – Lifetime Value

LTV predicts the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. Understanding LTV is crucial for developing strategies to acquire, retain, and maximize the value of customers over time.

23. CTA – Call To Action

A CTA is a prompt on a website that urges the viewer to take a specific action, such as “Call Now” or “Sign Up.” CTAs are pivotal in converting visitors into leads or customers, driving the audience towards the desired outcome.

24. PV – Page Views

PV indicates the total number of times a page (or set of pages) on a website has been viewed. This metric is essential for understanding content reach and website traffic patterns.

25. ATF – Above The Fold

ATF refers to the portion of a web page visible without scrolling. Content placed ATF is critical for engaging visitors, as it’s the first thing they see upon landing on a page, influencing their initial impression and actions.

26. MFA – Made For Advertising

MFA websites are designed primarily to earn revenue from ads displayed on the site. These sites often have minimal content, which is usually of low quality or aggregated from other sources, with the primary intent of generating ad impressions rather than providing valuable information to visitors.

27. SERP – Search Engine Results Page

SERP refers to the page displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user. The layout, content, and ranking of these pages are critical for driving organic traffic to a website.

28. CPV – Cost Per View

CPV is a pricing model in video advertising where the advertiser pays for each view or interaction with a video ad. This metric is vital for campaigns focusing on video content, providing insights into the cost-effectiveness of video ad placements.

29. CR – Conversion Rate

CR measures the percentage of users who take a desired action after interacting with an ad or website, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. High conversion rates indicate effective advertising and website design.

30. GDN – Google Display Network

GDN is a network of websites that allow space for Google Ads. It’s an extensive network offering advertisers a wide range of ad formats and the ability to reach audiences across the internet with targeted advertising.

31. RTB – Real-Time Bidding

RTB is a digital ad buying process that allows advertisers to bid on ad inventory in real-time. This process enables advertisers to purchase ad impressions on publisher sites or apps through automated auctions, maximizing the efficiency of ad spend.

32. PMP – Private Marketplace

PMP is a type of programmatic advertising where specific ad inventory is made available to a select group of advertisers through an invitation-only marketplace. This arrangement offers more control over where ads appear and who sees them.

35. eCPM – Effective Cost Per Thousand Impressions

eCPM is calculated by dividing total earnings by total number of impressions in thousands. This metric offers a more accurate reflection of the revenue generated per thousand impressions, accounting for various monetization methods.

36. IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau

The IAB is an organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. It plays a critical role in shaping digital advertising practices and policies.

37. OTT – Over-The-Top

OTT refers to content providers that distribute streaming media over the internet. This acronym is significant in digital advertising for targeting audiences through platforms bypassing traditional cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms.

38. VOD – Video On Demand

VOD services allow users to select and watch video content on demand, rather than at a scheduled broadcast time. In digital advertising, VOD platforms represent valuable channels for placing targeted ads within premium content.

39. CPL – Cost Per Lead

CPL measures the cost of generating a lead, reflecting the investment required to attract a potential customer who has shown interest in a product or service. It is a crucial metric for evaluating the efficiency of marketing campaigns focused on lead generation. (Similar to CPA)

40. SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics

SVG is a graphic format based on XML for describing two-dimensional graphics, both static and dynamic. In digital advertising, SVGs are valued for their scalability and quality, ensuring that graphics look sharp across all devices and resolutions without increasing file sizes, enhancing ad visuals and user experience.

41. CDN – Content Delivery Network

A CDN is a system of distributed servers that deliver pages and other web content to a user based on their geographic locations. In digital advertising, a CDN can improve ad load times and user experience, impacting ad performance.

42. QR Code – Quick Response Code

QR Codes are machine-readable optical labels that contain information about the item to which they are attached. In advertising, QR codes can connect physical ads to digital experiences, driving engagement and conversions.

43. UGC – User-Generated Content

UGC refers to any form of content, such as text, videos, images, reviews, etc., that has been posted by users on online platforms. In digital advertising, leveraging UGC can boost authenticity and engagement.

44. API – Application Programming Interface

An API is a set of rules and definitions that allows software applications to communicate with each other. APIs are crucial in digital advertising for integrating various platforms and tools, enhancing campaign management and analytics.

45. MVP – Minimum Viable Product

In the context of digital marketing and product development, MVP refers to the product with the least amount of features needed to attract early adopters and validate a product idea early in the product development cycle.

46. CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization

CRO is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action. CRO strategies involve understanding how users move through a site, what actions they take, and what’s stopping them from completing your goals.

47. CLV/CVL – Customer Lifetime Value

Revisiting the importance of understanding the long-term value of a customer, CLV (or CVL) helps businesses strategize on customer acquisition and retention based on the projected revenue a customer will generate during their relationship with a company.

48. SAAS – Software as a Service

SAAS is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. In digital advertising, SAAS solutions range from CRM systems to analytics and marketing automation platforms.

49. PWA – Progressive Web App

PWA refers to a type of application software delivered through the web, built using common web technologies including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. PWAs are intended to work on any platform that uses a standards-compliant browser, offering an app-like experience.

50. SOV – Share of Voice

SOV refers to the amount of the market your brand owns compared to your competitors. It’s measured as the percentage of total advertising in a category spent by one brand. It’s a key metric for understanding brand visibility and presence in the market.

And here comes the bonus acronyms thanks to feedback from you:

51. CMP – Consent Management Platform

CMPs are systems designed to allow websites and apps to manage the consent of their users, especially regarding cookies and data collection practices. In the realm of digital advertising, CMPs are essential for complying with data protection regulations like GDPR, ensuring that user data is collected and processed legally and ethically.

52. DAI – Dynamic Ad Insertion

DAI refers to the technology that allows for the insertion of ads into video content in real-time, based on viewer data. This technology enables advertisers to serve personalized ads to viewers across different platforms, including live streaming and on-demand video, enhancing relevance and engagement.

53. CTV – Connected TV

CTV involves the use of internet-connected televisions to stream digital video content. In the advertising context, CTV offers a valuable channel for reaching audiences with precision targeting, bridging the gap between traditional TV advertising and digital strategies.

54. HbbTV – Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV

HbbTV is a global standard for the integration of broadcast and broadband services for connected TV and set-top boxes. For advertisers, HbbTV offers opportunities to engage with audiences through interactive advertising, enhanced content discovery, and personalized viewing experiences.

55. AVOD – Advertising-Based Video On Demand

AVOD platforms provide free video content to viewers, supported by advertising revenue. This model allows advertisers to reach broad audiences, offering a counterpoint to subscription-based services by integrating ads into content streams.

56. OLV – Online Video

OLV encompasses any video content watched or available on the internet, including social media videos, streamed TV shows, and user-generated content. For digital advertisers, OLV represents a diverse and expansive medium for engaging with target audiences through rich, visual storytelling.

The key test for an acronym is to ask whether it helps or hurts communication – Elon Musk

I’m sure I missed some, but for me this was 50 of the most used acronyms within digital advertising – let me know in the comments below if I missed some crucial ones!

The post Navigating The Digital Ads Space: Your Guide To The 50+ Most Crucial Acronyms first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

Alphabet (Google) experienced a 9% increase in full-year revenue to $307 billion, with significant contributions from advertising revenue. Google’s ad revenue, especially from YouTube and Google Search, has been a key driver. YouTube’s ad revenue reached $9.2 billion by the end of 2023, showcasing the platform’s strong momentum in attracting advertisers. YouTube reached 2.7 billion active users in 2023, solidifying its position as one of the most popular applications globally, only trailing behind Google and Facebook in terms of overall usage​. Google Search remained the largest contributor to revenue growth, underlining the effectiveness of Alphabet’s advertising products in capturing market demand​​. The year also saw Google focusing on investments in AI, which have significantly boosted search and subscriptions, achieving $15 billion in annual revenue since 2019.

Microsoft broader revenue growth to $62 billion, up 18% from the previous year and includes contributions from its advertising platforms. Microsoft’s LinkedIn and search advertising businesses are part of its diverse revenue streams and search and news advertising for the quarter was up 8%, a positive sign in light of recent innovations to its AI-powered Bing chat, which introduced new ad formats in March of last year. Linkedin user base also crossed the 1B mark across 200 countries worldwide! And generally the company has been at the forefront of integrating AI across its product offerings, marking a pivotal year with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the launch of innovative A.I. products, thereby solidifying its position in the cloud and AI domains​.

Snap – in 2023, Snap Inc. announced a pivotal transformation in its advertising business while expanding its global community to 414 million daily active users. The company’s revenue slightly increased YoY to $4.606 billion, with a net loss of $1.322 billion, showing an improvement from the previous year. Snap introduced innovative advertising and product features, including Snapchat+ reaching over 7 million subscribers and launching new AI-powered features for enhanced user engagement. Their augmented reality platform saw significant growth, with over 350,000 AR creators developing nearly 3.5 million AR Lenses. They now have over 800 monthly active users on their platform.

Apple, primarily known for its product sales, has seen its Services unit (which includes the App Store, Apple Music, and advertising through the App Store Search ads) achieve a record high of $23.1 billion in revenue for the December quarter. This unit’s growth signifies the increasing importance of services and, indirectly, advertising-related revenues to Apple’s financial health​​.

Amazon reported a quarterly revenue of $169.9 billion, up 14% year-over-year, with its advertising business becoming a significant growth lever. In the fourth quarter, Amazon generated $14.7 billion in ad revenue, up 26.7% from the previous year. This growth reflects Amazon’s effective leverage of its e-commerce platform for advertising, offering advertisers access to a vast consumer base​​. It is also an indicator of how advertisers are investing more in retail media vs. previous years. Amazon’s focus on expanding its AI initiatives and leveraging its massive audience for advertising has been a key growth driver​

Meta saw its quarterly revenue jump to $40.1 billion, up 25% from the previous year, with a notable increase in ad revenue. Meta’s advertising strategy has been focused on its family of social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The company’s aggressive cost-cutting and strategic shift towards AI are aimed at enhancing ad product effectiveness and driving revenue growth​​. As of December 31, 2023, Meta reported having 3.98 billion monthly active users (MAP) across its platforms, marking a 6% year-over-year increase. Daily active users (DAUs) on Facebook alone were 2.11 billion on average for December 2023, showing a 6% increase from the previous year. Monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook reached 3.07 billion, a 3% increase from the previous year! The company’s aggressive cost-cutting and strategic shift towards AI are aimed at enhancing ad product effectiveness and driving revenue growth.

So what are the implications for marketers and the advertising industry in 2024?

These financial performances underscore the strategic importance of advertising revenue and products for tech giants. Alphabet’s dominance in search and video advertising, Microsoft’s AI-enhanced advertising solutions, Apple’s growth in services, Amazon’s e-commerce-based advertising, and Meta’s social media advertising reflect each company’s unique approach to capitalizing on digital advertising trends (with Snap pushing the AR agenda). The emphasis on AI and technological innovation across all of these companies suggests a continued evolution of advertising strategies to drive future revenue growth.

For advertisers, the expansion into AI and other emerging technologies presents lucrative opportunities for targeted and personalized marketing campaigns. The advancements in AI, in particular, are poised to offer advertisers improved efficiencies and effectiveness in reaching their desired audiences.

Moreover, the sector’s positive financial outlook suggests a resurgence in the advertising industry, fueled by a return to cautious optimism among advertisers following a period of macroeconomic uncertainty in 2023. This shift is anticipated to result in an increase in ad spend, as brands seek to capitalize on the improving market conditions.

However, the trust factor remains critical. Last year’s challenges within the tech sector have left some advertisers wary. It is incumbent upon these platforms to demonstrate their commitment to transparency and control, ensuring that advertisers can invest with confidence in their ability to deliver tangible results without compromising on integrity in 2024.

The post Unpacking 2023’s Tech Earnings: What The Numbers Mean For Advertisers first appeared on Copenhagen INK.

Why is social media activation critical to business success?

First let me just address why employee advocacy, social selling and social exec thought leadership programs is not just an option; it’s a strategic imperative for businesses (especially B2B) seeking sustained growth and influence. Here are four compelling reasons why social activation included in your marketing and brand strategy:

1. Strong Employer Branding: A well-executed social activation program enables you to highlight your company’s achievements, employee testimonials, and workplace initiatives supporting talent acquisition. By showcasing the positive experiences of your workforce, you create a compelling narrative that attracts top talent and strengthens your employer brand.
2. Cost-effective Thought Leadership: Social media provides a cost-effective platform to share valuable insights, industry trends, and expert opinions. By consistently delivering thought-provoking content, you can establish your brand as a voice of authority in the market, attracting customers who seek trusted sources of information.
3. Showcase Authentic and Relatable Culture: Social activation allows you to communicate your brand’s vision, values, and initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Sharing employee stories and highlighting your commitment to a positive workplace culture not only resonates with your audience but also fosters a sense of authenticity and relatability.
4. Reduce Algorithm Dependency: Overreliance on social media algorithms can hinder the organic reach of your content. Encouraging employees to actively participate in social activation and share company updates is a simple and consistent approach to boosting your content’s organic reach. By harnessing the collective reach of your team, you can overcome algorithm limitations and ensure that your message reaches a broader audience.
5. Sales, new opportunities and new leads: Last but not least, social media activations as I will dive into below can also help drive sales, new opportunities (i.e. speaker engagements or ) especially via social selling initiatives (more below).

Employee Advocacy Programs: Harnessing the Power of the Collective Voice

So with that out of the way let’s dive into employee advocacy programs in more details. These programs empower your workforce to become brand ambassadors and share your company’s message with their networks. When executed effectively, these programs offer several key benefits:

• Amplified Reach: Your employees’ combined social networks can extend the reach of your brand far beyond your official channels, tapping into a wider and more diverse audience.
• Credibility and Trust: People trust pople and recommendations from individuals they know over traditional advertising. Employee advocates lend authenticity and credibility to your brand’s message.
• Enhanced Engagement: Employees who participate in advocacy programs often experience increased job satisfaction and engagement (feeling proud of sharing great things about their company and receiving positive responses), leading to higher productivity and retention rates.

Also, when thinking about employee advocacy programs think about social selling. One thing is enabling your employees to share stories, but social selling, especially for the B2B sales teams, uses social media use actually sell! Specifically it helps identify and nurture leads, build relationships, and ultimately drive sales. By equipping your sales team with the tools and knowledge to engage in social selling, you can:

• Build a pipeline of warm leads: Engaging with prospects on social media platforms allows you to identify potential customers who have already shown interest in your industry or products.
• Personalize the sales process: Social media provides valuable insights into your prospects’ preferences and pain points, enabling you to tailor your approach.
• Establish thought leadership: Sharing valuable content positions your sales team as industry experts, fostering trust and confidence in potential customers.

It’s important to think about social selling in the context of employee advocacy as it can yield great results for your business!

Executive Thought Leadership Programs: Elevating Your Brand’s Voice

Your company execs are a key asset, but often markters forget this… In today’s competitive landscape, brands should increasingly turn to their executives as thought leaders to drive industry conversations and boost brand recognition. The reason? Implementing executive thought leadership programs can yield great results:

• Brand Authority: By positioning your executives as industry authorities, you elevate your brand’s reputation and influence in the market.
• Trust and Credibility: Thought leaders are trusted sources of information. Their insights and expertise can greatly influence customer decisions and build trust. (and often when you analyse where social engagement with your brand comes from it is your execs!)
• Attracting Talent: Demonstrating thought leadership not only attracts customers but also top talent who want to be part of an innovative and forward-thinking organization.
• Employee Engagement: When employees see their leaders actively engaging in thought leadership, it fosters a sense of pride and engagement within the organization.
• Industry Partnerships: Thought leadership can open doors to valuable partnerships and collaborations within your industry including speaker engagement and journalists reaching out.

It’s essential to remember that success in these endeavors requires a well-structured strategy, ongoing training, and a commitment to authenticity.

In conclusion, social media programs enables brands to build strong employer brands, establish thought leadership, showcase authentic cultures, and reduce dependency on algorithms. You harness the collective power of your employees and position your executives as industry thought leaders to drive revenue, enhance brand reputation, and foster lasting customer relationships.

Image credit: Midjourney and me

The post Unlocking B2B Business Growth: The Power of Employee Advocacy and Executive Thought Leadership Programs on Social Media first appeared on Copenhagen INK.