A recap of The Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) annual convention, re:think 2011. Presentation was given by Geoffrey Precourt, U.S. Editor-WARC, Editor-in-Chief-Journal of Advertising Research & Douglas West, Professor of Marketing-University of London, Executive Editor-Journal of Advertising Research.

2. A Look Back Over the Last
Three Days
Geoffrey Precourt Douglas West
U.S. Editor Professor of Marketing
WARC University of London
Editor-in-Chief Executive Editor
Journal of Advertising Research Journal of Advertising Research

3. Monday March 21st
• “25 years ago 2 mobiles for 1000 people, today
2000 phones for every 1000 people in the world”
• “Online research is often like combat fishing
in Alaska during the salmon season”
• “Research is not about providing insights,
it’s about provoking transformation”
• “If you don’t like change you are going to like
irrelevance even less”
• “Research has moved from observer, measurer
and integrator to navigator and reputation guardian”

4. Monday March 21st
• “I would kill the notion of impressions as a
meaningful measure, I am more focused on
expressions”
• “Market research is like a lego box. We’re now less
focused on the bricks and more focused on building”
• “The harder you work on the business strategy the
easier everything else is”
• “Apple = simplicity”
• “Nothing communicates more meaning than a 30
second TV spot”

5. Tuesday March 22nd
• “I’ll have what she’s having”
• “I’d love to tell you the way to solve every
problem is to take a very long warm shower”
• “FourSquare puts small business advertising
in the hands of customers”
• “Whatever media you use, it doesn’t matter
without great creative”
• “FourSquare and Groupon wouldn’t exist
if we were all individual in our choices”

6. Tuesday March 22nd
• Four revenue models:
– Sell a device or product (e.g. Apple)
– Sell a service or content (Film industry)
– Revenue from advertising (Television)
– Revenue from donations (PBS, Wikipedia)
• “Age is a poor surrogate for purchase behavior”
• “There is no M = MC squared equation”
• “People say no … then they do yes”

7. Tuesday March 22nd
• Sir Martin Sorrell – opportunities for the industry
• Shortage of Talent – “criminal neglect” of
developing talent across advertising and
marketing industry
• The Web – “disintermediating” legacy businesses

8. Wednesday March 23rd
• “We have become a nation of numbers”
• “Melting pot – salad bowl – parfait”
• “Randomized trials are the gold standard”