The Marketing Architects

This week, we're resharing a favorite episode from the archive. Enjoy, and we'll be back with new content next week!

Our hosts are joined by Nick Asbury, creative writer and author of The Road to Hell: How Purposeful Business Leads to Bad Marketing and a Worse World. Nick challenges brand purpose, arguing it produces formulaic campaigns while the research supporting it is fundamentally flawed.

Topics covered:
[04:00] How the 2008 financial crash sparked the purpose movement
[12:00] The real story behind Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign data
[18:00] Why for-profit companies lack social license to lead causes
[21:00] Nick's crowdsourced fact-checking of Cannes award entries
[26:00] Debunking the Gen Z purpose myth after the 2024 election
[29:00] What respectful marketing looks like without purpose 

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.

Resources:
2024 MarketingWeek Article: https://www.marketingweek.com/good-intentions-lead-to-bad-marketing-why-purpose-is-missing-the-mark/

Nick Asbury’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-asbury/
 
Nick's Substack: https://nickasbury.substack.com/

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According to WARC, TV drives more sales impact than Facebook video and YouTube. GOVX proved the research to be true, growing orders alongside TV impressions.

Recorded live at CommerceNext 2026, this bonus episode features Marketing Architects Chief Strategic Growth Officer Stacey Hawes and GOVX Chief Brand Officer Aaron Pelander. They tackle one of marketing's toughest challenges: proving TV's impact when its biggest effects don’t show up for months after launch. Aaron shares how GOVX moved from a performance-only mindset to a 60/40 split between brand and performance budgets, and why that shift unlocked new growth. Marketers will also learn which metrics matter and why relying on just one measurement model leaves value on the table.

Topics covered:[00:00] Kicking off the session at CommerceNext 2026
[03:00] Why TV remains one of the hardest channels to measure
[06:00] Short-term metrics for tracking TV's immediate impact
[08:00] Long-term measurement: brand lift, MMM, and incrementality testing
[11:00] Inside GOVX’s mission and its path to TV
[13:00] GOVX’s shift to a 60/40 brand and performance budget
[16:00] GOVX’s results after partnering with Marketing Architect

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. 

In this episode, Elena and Rob explore why packaging redesigns so often backfire, and what actually drives shoppers to pick a product off the shelf. 

Topics covered: 
[01:21] "The Packaging Redesign Modernization Dilemma" 
[03:06] Why redesigns are an expensive, common gamble 
[05:35] Does looking more modern actually boost sales? 
[06:17] Why familiarity beats likability at the shelf 
[07:31] When a redesign makes sense, and when it doesn't 

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.

Resources:  
Caruso, W., Romaniuk, J., Page, B., & colleagues. (2026). The packaging redesign modernisation dilemma: The relationship with familiarity, likeability, and its effect on purchase intent. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Concern over short-termism has more than doubled in three years, from 25% of marketers calling it the biggest industry issue in 2022 to 55% in 2025. And yet, budget allocation has barely moved.

This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob dig into why the say-do gap persists in media planning and what it looks like to build a mix based on marketing effectiveness principles instead. They walk through the 60-40 rule and how to make it your own, what warning signs signal a brand is over-indexed on performance, and why channels like TV and audio earn a closer look when competitors are busy piling into the same digital placements.

Topics covered:
[01:00] The say-do gap and why marketers keep doing what they know doesn't work
[05:22] What rebalancing toward brand building looks like in practice
[07:27] Warning signs your brand is over-indexed on performance
[10:00] How to use reach to grow beyond your existing customers
[12:28] Using share of voice to find channel opportunities your competitors have missed
[14:08] Linear vs. CTV: how to use each as a distinct strategic tool
[17:46] Building a measurement approach that captures both short and long-term impact

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.

Resources: 

2026 WARC Article: https://www.warc.com/en/article/whats-stopping-cmos-investing-in-brand-building-9ceffeb68530467cb3ecc12959e94670

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.

In this episode, Elena and Rob dig into a direct experiment comparing TV and YouTube advertising to find out which format drives more attention, stronger emotion, and better brand memory.

Topics covered:

•    [01:40] "TV versus YouTube"
•    [02:00] How the study was designed
•    [03:46] Which platform captures more attention?
•    [05:56] The serial position effect and ad memory
•    [06:36] Your body remembers ads your brain forgets
•    [08:20] What this means for your media mix

To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.

Resources: 
Weibel, D., di Francesco, R., Kopf, R., Fahrni, S., Brunner, A., Kronenberg, P., Lobmaier, J. S., Reber, T. P., Mast, F. W., & Wissmath, B. (2019). TV vs. YouTube: TV advertisements capture more visual attention, create more positive emotions and have a stronger impact on implicit long-term memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 626. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00626

Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.