ARF Insights: Journal of Advertising Research Assesses 50 Years of Advertising Research with Special Anniversary Issue
A comprehensive assessment of 50 years of advertising research was the subject of a highly anticipated special issue of the Journal of Advertising Research, sponsored by Millward Brown, which was published March 20, 2011, with selected articles available to free download at www.warc.com/jar50sample. Tracing the maturation of advertising as an increasingly sophisticated discipline, the 50th Anniversary edition included articles by leading scholars and practitioners who survey the seminal thinking that has contributed to the evolution of the marketing profession.
The Journal’s50th Anniversary coincides with the 75th Anniversary of its parent organization and publisher, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). The ARF celebrated the two milestones with a comprehensive array of events, speakers, publications, research and insights – all designed to help marketers make smarter decisions about how to deploy their resources and connect with consumers more effectively in the future.
For the special issue of the Journal,its editors invited 40 internationally renowned scholars and industry leaders to author articles identifying the major insights gleaned from thousands of advertising research studies across the entire marketing landscape. The resulting editorial content covered 14 key areas of focus. These range from research on specific media platforms, like print, television, the Internet and mobile; to research on broader marketing issues, like globalization, cross-media synergy and user-generated content; to articles that assess the primary research methodologies – qualitative and quantitative – as well as the more recent area of online research.
Anchoring each contributed article is an excerpt from a seminal paper, which the author felt definitively advanced knowledge about the advertising discipline. In addition, accompanying many papers were commentaries from seasoned marketing professionals, who provided practical observations about the impact of research on real-world marketing challenges.
In reviewing 50 years of advertising research, articles in the Journal’sspecial issue pointed out important trends, for example how print advertising has become more visually focused over time, with documented emotional effects beyond the rational / cognitive ones. A surprising insight about TV advertising recall, according to the Journal author who surveyed the field, is that it has little connection to sales effect.
Other articles covered the emergence of the global consumer; research findings across 15 years of interactive advertising; and early insights from mobile advertising research, most of which, to date, has been conducted in Asia and Europe.
For more information on the Journal of Advertising Research’s special issue, visit the official ARFRe:think 2011 Convention website.
