The Marketing Architects

Cannes debuted a new award for creative consistency this year. 73 brands entered. Just two won.

This week, Elena, Angela, Rob, Catherine, and Nikki unpack what actually happened at Cannes versus what just made headlines. The team shares why intelligence-gathering, not glamour, is the real reason to attend, and how AI is quietly reshaping ad tech products behind the scenes. They also weigh in on where live sports, retail media, and creator marketing genuinely fit into an effectiveness-driven strategy versus where they're overhyped. Marketers will walk away knowing which Cannes trends deserve real budget attention and which are just award-show noise. 

Topics covered:
[02:00] Why Marketing Architects decided to start attending Cannes
[04:00] The real gap between Cannes glamour and the actual work
[13:00] How AI is quietly reshaping ad tech products
[14:00] Live sports as a growth opportunity, not a silver bullet
[17:00] Why competing streaming platforms are all facing the same challenges
[21:00] Retail media and creator marketing: tools, not full strategies
[24:00] Cannes' new award for long-term creative consistency

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

Resources:
2026 The Drum Article: https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/andrew-tindall-what-ritson-and-sharp-got-right-and-wrong-at-cannes

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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 break down why proving ad ROI is far harder than most marketers assume, even with millions of dollars and millions of customers. They also unpack why the Super Bowl might be the hardest ad buy of all to measure.

Topics covered: 
[01:00] "The Unfavorable Economics of Measuring the Returns to Advertising"
[02:00] Why the spirit of ROI gets abused
[03:35] Why customer spending is too noisy to spot small ad effects
[06:00] How targeting bias can inflate results by 30 times
[07:00] Why the Super Bowl isn't a coupon, it's fame
[09:00] Could anyone actually solve the ROI theorem?

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

Resources: Lewis, R., & Rao, J. (2015). The unfavorable economics of measuring the returns to advertising. The Economic Journal, 125(585), 1–27.  

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84% of the time, buyers choose a brand that was already on their radar before they ever started shopping. So why do so many marketing budgets only chase the people ready to buy today?

This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob talk with brand strategist and author James Hurman about his new book, Future Demand. James breaks down why brands hit a growth ceiling when they lean too hard on performance marketing. He also explains why feelings outlast facts in memory, and why that changes which channels deserve your investment. Marketers will leave with a clearer case for building demand among tomorrow's customers, not just converting today's.

Topics covered:
[05:00] Defining current demand versus future demand
[07:00] Splitting budgets 50/50 between brand and performance
[12:00] Why American marketers lag on brand-building principles
[18:00] Measuring future demand through brand tracking
[22:00] Why feelings outlast facts in memory
[26:00] The case for creativity in earning attention
[35:00] James's own future demand brand: Land Rover

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

Resources:
Resources: 2021 WARC White Paper: https://www.warc.com/the-rise-of-digital-commerce 2026
Future Demand Book: https://futuredemand.com/ 
James Hurman’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshurman/

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 what triggers the personalization backfire effect and why the same ad can feel helpful one day and invasive the next. 

Topics covered:[01:20] "Triggering the Personalization Backfire Effect: The Moderating Role of Situational Privacy Concern"
[02:45] How the study tested three levels of ad personalization
[04:27] When more personal data actually hurts performance
[06:10] Privacy sensitivity isn't a fixed personality trait
[07:10] Contextual targeting vs. identity-based targeting

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

Resources:
Kim, H., & Han, S. (2025). Triggering the personalization backfire effect: The moderating role of situational privacy concern. Behavioral Sciences.

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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/

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