There’s a new Executive Vice President of Advertising Effectiveness at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), according to a Mediapost report. It’s Robert Woodard, former VP of Global Consumer and Customer Insights at Campbell Soup Co. The soup firm received quite a bit of publicity when they redesigned their iconic cans using neuromarketing analysis, among other tools.
Woodard was a major participant in ARF’s neuromarketing standards effort, and also spent time in a senior slot at Coca Cola.
It’s good to see ARF continuing to focus on advertising effectiveness. There is far too much money spent on ads that simply don’t sell product or build brands in any meaningful way. And, it seems, Woodard has a healthy respect for neuromarketing.
Wow, the can redesign based on neurscience is awesome!
Yes, I concur: the ad world has long resisted any equation between their efforts and returns, claiming that there are too many factors involved to make efforts accountable to clients. But think about it: what would it be like to have a job without accountability for results? Nice work, if….. As a cultural analyst, I would be a very bad agency client, insisting on knowing why I was being asked to subsidize agency awards with my dollars, instead of accountable work that can explain itself in terms of the buyer’s, not the agency’s, agenda.