Reza GHAEM-MAGHAMI

Some of the most important decisions in advertising happen in the first few seconds. This week on The Marketing Architects Podcast, we discuss the study “Neural Signals of Video Advertisement Liking: Insights into Psychological Processes and Their Temporal Dynamics” by a big team of smart people: Hang-Yee Chan, Maarten Boksem, Vinod Venkatraman, Roeland Dietvorst, PhD, Christin Scholz, Khoi Vo, Emily Falk, and Ale Smidts. Using fMRI data from 113 participants across two countries watching 85 video ads, the researchers mapped which parts of the brain lit up and when. Here's what they found: - Within just three seconds, emotional and memory responses were already predicting whether people would like an ad. - As the ad unfolded, social cognition (how we process characters’ intentions and feelings) became a stronger driver of liking. - Social cognition in the brain predicted how the general public would feel about an ad better than surveys alone! Our brain doesn’t experience an ad in one way. We feel first, then we understand, then we evaluate. So don't bet everything on your ending. Audiences are making up their minds almost instantly. The opening of your ad is an opportunity to capture attention and build momentum that carries through. AKA if you wait until the end of your TV commercial to reveal your brand logo for the first time... you might be too late! Links to the podcast and the study are in the comments! 👇

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Netflix Global Engagement: 7 Strategic Takeaways I can’t share the full deep dive, but here are some key takeaways from a data-backed look at Netflix’s first-half 2025 engagement report — spotlighting what’s truly driving viewership, and the halo effect that matters for streamers, marketers, and licensees alike. 🔹 Prestige Drama = Impact Multiplier Adolescence became a cultural flashpoint, generating 550M+ hours viewed and sparking global conversation. ⌙ Strategy: Prioritize high-impact limited series with emotional clarity and social relevance. These shows fuel awards buzz, editorial coverage, and TikTok-native virality. 🔹 Kids IPs Are Quiet Powerhouses While prestige dramas grab headlines, it’s family franchises that drive retention. PAW Patrol, CoComelon, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Gabby’s Dollhouse, Ms. Rachel, and Kung Fu Panda quietly dominated with consistent, repeatable engagement. ⌙ Strategy: Treat these IPs as evergreen. Support seasonal refreshes, hybrid formats, and merchandising pipelines. Prioritize high repeat value, preschool utility, and global familiarity. 🔹 Local Originals Can Travel — With Support Korea, UK, and LATAM titles excelled when marketing matched quality. Squid Game S2 led the charge globally, but regional breakouts proved that universal emotion can beat universal brand. ⌙ Strategy: Localize early. Tap native-language creators on TikTok and YouTube. Build discovery loops between regional and global IP. 🔹 Hype Before Launch > Afterthought Buzz Breakouts peaked in conversation before Week 1. ⌙ Strategy: Start early. Roll out teasers, Q&As, and social drops 3–4 weeks ahead. Use Discord, Reddit, and trailer remixes to seed conversation before release day. 🔹 Merch: Think Beyond Toys Squid Game and Wednesday reignited fashion-forward fandom. K-Pop: Demon Hunter showed boosted cross-category interest — not just logos. ⌙ Strategy: For mature titles, explore advocacy partnerships or nonprofit licensing. For genre and kids IP, think fashion capsules, digital drops, and crossovers in Roblox, Fortnite, and mobile gaming ecosystems. 🔹 Use a Heatmap Index to Greenlight Smarter Anime and animation consistently over-perform. Comedy under-delivers relative to volume. ⌙ Strategy: Use a heatmap. Spot under-programmed, high-yield categories — like kids animation, tween action, and non-English thrillers. 🔹 Live Events & Spectacle = Cultural Attention Engines From The Roast of Tom Brady to WWE to sports doc drops, Netflix’s pivot to live and eventized formats is driving cultural share of voice. ⌙ Strategy: Treat these as marketing-first content. Anchor around calendar moments, activate real-time X (Twitter) and TikTok strategies, and follow up with behind-the-scenes bonus formats. Build ritual, not just runtime. 💡 Final Thought Franchises headline the charts — but it’s the breakout originals, globally rooted stories, and under-the-radar family IPs that keep the engine running. #Netflix #Streaming #Media #Licensing

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Strategy in the Age of the "Tyranny of the Urgent" “The tyranny of the urgent has replaced the luxury of the strategic.” — Fortune 100 Strategy Head, McKinsey Roundtable If the world is now obsessed with organizing itself around the urgent- where has thinking gone beyond the big consultants? Below is a grid that attempts to map out where corporate thinking lives today. Some of it resides with the CEO/Strategists who share their big picture views of the world and use it to steer and navigate their organizations. There are "Substack Strategists" - a group who have influence because they make sense of all the signals around them - there are a new breed of Boutiques - many using AI and there are internal groups- think tanks, data units etc- one of the most interesting ones in development is the LVMH unit that is using AI to help inform brand thinking and decision making for its "Maisons". This is a fast-track initial stab that outlines the new emerging landscape, but warrants deeper investigation. Comments, thoughts and additions are most welcome.

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The age of the agent is ending. Marketing agencies are no longer just service providers — they’re becoming purveyors of solutions, platforms, capabilities, and outcomes. As AI, consolidation, procurement pressures and the rise of new independent competitors reshape the industry, agencies pivot from selling time to selling products, technology, data, and consulting along with traditional services. In 2026, expect this to accelerate among enterprise and large PE-backed firms, while specialists double down on a pure agent proposition. CMOs and heads of media must reimagine partner rosters, redefine how to attain and measure value, and reignite growth using the multiple business modes agencies offer. Welcome to the age of the purveyor. Read my latest blog to better understand this shift beyond agency. #ForresterPredictions #Marketing #AgencyTransformation #CMO Mike Proulx Keith Johnston Emily Collins Kelsey Chickering Chuck Gahun Shynise McElveen https://lnkd.in/eH3Qz-KV

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If the insights industry went on vacation for the first two weeks of August ... it came back this week in a big way. Here's everything you might've missed since last Friday: 🚀 AI & Tech: - quantilope opens its quantilabs R&D hub to clients. - Cint unveils “Luci” AI research assistant. - Livepanel’s AI generates open-ended responses. - Definite raises $10M for its AI analytics platform. 📊 B2B MR: - Streetbees files to appoint administrators. - NielsenIQ posts 5.7% growth and trims debt post-IPO. - Polestar lands $12.5M and ex-telecom CEO as Chair. 💰 M&A & Partnerships: - The DRG merges into consultancy Cortico-X. - IQVIA and Veeva Systems settle feud & partner up. - MSQ rebuffs S4 Capital Group merger rumors. - Circana closes Nielsen’s MMM unit buy. 🔄 Org Changes: - New global CEO at Ipsos (Accenture’s Jean Laurent Poitou). - Smart Data Foundry hires Chief Data Scientist. - Human8 names new Australia director for APAC growth. 🎧 Expert takes: - Rep Data’s Steven Snell on tackling tech-enabled survey fraud. 🤖 Did the robots and I miss anything big? Share it below. 🔗 Read the full twir recap in the comments. 📬 Want twir sent straight to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter. 📣 Got some upcoming industry news to share? DM me for inclusion in an upcoming episode. 💡 About twir: twir is your weekly digest of market research news, insights, and emerging trends. Leveraging AI, we scan leading industry sources to distill the essential developments shaping the world of research. Every week, twir evolves—learning and building a richer perspective on industry shifts.

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Creative effectiveness is a red herring. Between Andrew Tindall’s Compound Creativity, Mark Ritson’s Creative Dividend, and Peter Field’s Crisis in Creative Effectiveness, the ad-intelligentsia have spent years preaching the gospel of “great creative.” Is it bollocks? Not entirely. But it serves to hide the reality that media planning is the true lost art. Yet effective media planning and investment decisions weigh heavier on brand success than creative brilliance can. It’s not a fashionable truth. But it needs to be told. Don’t let the intelligentsia bury the real levers of effectiveness. And they are rooted in media decisioning. (inspired by recent exchanges with Jon Bradshaw and Spreadsheet Jedi, Dale W. Harrison) #MarketingEffectiveness #MediaPlanning #CreativeEffectiveness #AttentionEconomy

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