Imagine that you are a retail store manager who has an oversupply of hot dogs. To boost sales, you decide to create an 'outdoor barbeque' display by placing a variety of complements (e.g. condiments, buns, napkins, plastic forks, and beer) on top of the case containing the hot dogs. 

Would such a strategy be successful at attracting shoppers to view the hot dogs? If so, how should you design the display of complements to maximize shopper attention?

Would you have recognized the hit-potential of Dua Lipa before it was cool? Or Drake? 

Most probably, you won’t. As you know, there’s a lot of money going round in the music industry. But the question remains how much is invested efficiently, as this can only be addressed when the song is a few weeks in the air. But what if we would have the power to predict what song will be in the charts for weeks, which everyone will be humming and thus which song is the blockbuster of the month and the cash cow of the record label?

Recent research by Unravel Research has done exactly this. But first, let’s explain the theory behind the story. 

From Kodak to Coca-Cola. And from KitKat to Kool-Aid. Over the years, many brands have been born with the letter -K as their first phoneme. This preference among branding practitioners was so apparent that Schloss (1981), who was first to quantify the overrepresentation of the letter K, has dubbed his linguistic discovery the “K effect”. 

Is there something magical about the letter K that made it the phoneme of choice among brand creatives? Should new brands adopt it as well, or is it wiser to avoid it nowadays? And how did the K effect fare in recent years? Recently, a new study has been conducted to see whether K has held its ground in 2021.

We all know stories that show us a conflict followed by a solution. These are called reversal stories.Conflict reversal stories in advertising can help consumers understand product benefits. The stories present obstacles and solutions that consumers themselves might identify with. → If consumers can connect with the story, they can connect with the brand. However, when the conflict in such a story is for example a hurricane, this has a more positive effect on products like furniture or clothing than it would have on experience products like a pain killer. Want to know why? Then read our latest article!

A lot has been said and written about the current COVID-19 pandemic and we’ve learned much from it. In the past year, great advances have been made in fields such as healthcare, hygiene, viral transmission and governmental responses to crises. Keep reading to find out the lessons we learned which can turn out to be a great advantage for governmental institutions and businesses in all sectors!