We’ll be talking about  how web technologies have expanded the role accountable advertising in class Wednesday. Here is a good background article on the topic from the New York Times.

We talk a lot in class about how marketers are always switching between analytical and creative thought. The two articles demonstrate that exercise with respect to evaluation of advertising. The first article (free ebook actually), from the Ad Contrarian, gives a mix of the soft and hard logic behind advertising and branding.  The second, a research paper from Carnegie Mellon, presents a very rigorous analysis of how advertising and branding can shift the price demand curve. You need to absorb both to be a good marketer. Figure out why you’re advertising (shift the demand curve) and then determine how to do the advertising (get creative).