The Marketing Architects

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 question whether paying Google to show up for your own brand name creates new sales. They dig into field experiments showing branded search ads mostly take credit for purchases brands would have won anyway.

Topics covered:   
[01:20] "Do Brands Need Search Advertising?" 

[01:50] Do you click the paid result or the organic one? 

[02:25] Nine field experiments across eight D2C brands 

[03:40] Turning off branded ads: zero effect on sales in 20 tests 

[04:35] The fake mattress brand experiment 

[05:30] Where to move your search budget instead 

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

Resources: 
Beknazarova, I., Cohen, J., Driesener, C., Hartnett, N., & Bellman, S. (2027). Do brands need search advertising? Journal of Business Research, 218, 116485. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116485 
 

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

By October, a quarter of shoppers are already hunting for gifts. That's 15 million more people than two years ago. If you wait until Q4 to launch your holiday campaign, you're late to the race. 

This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob unpack our 2026 holiday shopper trends report. They explore why trust can't be built in six weeks, how B2B brands should approach stretched year-end buyers, and what AI shopping means for this season. Plus, learn how to measure always-on investment and hear the team's favorite holiday commercials.

Topics covered: 
[00:30] Holiday anticipation now starts in June 

[03:45] Why trust can't be manufactured in six weeks 

[06:45] B2B buyers are holiday shoppers too 

[09:15] ChatGPT's conversion rate and AI shopping agents 

[14:50] Share of voice when the room is quiet 

[16:00] Measuring the impact of always-on investment 

[21:45] The team's favorite holiday commercials 

 

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

Resources: 
2026 Marketing Architects Report: https://na2.hubs.ly/H083tlz0
 

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 new research testing whether AI-generated ads can stand in for real production during pretesting. They cover what two studies found about recall, brand attitude, and brand choice, why disclosure didn't move the numbers, and the screening step marketers shouldn't skip.

Topics covered:   
[02:10] "Pretesting with AI-Generated Static and Video Ads" 

[02:35] Why pretesting matters before you spend production money 

[03:00] Inside the two studies 

[04:35] Zero meaningful difference in recall, attitude or brand choice 

[05:05] Telling people an ad is AI changed nothing 

[06:30] Where AI pretesting still has limits 

 

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

Resources: 
Bellman, S., Ourradi, S. A., & Varan, D. (2026). Pretesting with AI-generated static and video ads. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-67219-0 

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

Saatva grew to more than $150 million on one channel: non-branded search. Then hundreds of competitors flooded the mattress category and costs skyrocketed.

This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Saatva CMO Joe McCambley to talk about what happened next. Joe explains the statistically significant relationships he tracks between channels, why $200,000 a month in podcast advertising moved branded search within weeks, and how a WARC-led curriculum got his board comfortable with upper funnel spend. Plus, hear why he'd rather blanket the universe than target individual consumers.

Topics covered: 
[03:30] The physical laws that predict brand growth 

[07:00] What forced Saatva up the funnel 

[15:00] Owning restorative sleep in a crowded category 

[18:45] How the Olympic sponsorship came to be 

[23:15] What marketers should look for in a CEO 

[29:00] Mining 150,000 sales calls with AI 

[32:15] Joe's most contrarian marketing opinion 

 

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

Resources: 
2026 ClickZ Article: https://clickz.com/saatvas-cmo-on-how-the-la28-games-bet-paid-off/273219/ 

Joe McCambley's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemccambley/  
 

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 why five analysts can hand you five different ROI numbers for the same campaign. They explain why averaging those numbers hides the truth, and how to match your measurement method to the size of the decision in front of you.

Topics covered:   
[01:40] "Making Effectiveness Work" 

[02:20] Three ways to measure ad effectiveness 

[02:40] Why triangulation is a trap 

[04:10] Test and learn can more than double returns 

[05:15] Long-term ROI was 2.2 times the 12-week read 

[05:45] The case against last click attribution 

 

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

Resources: 
Duckworth, S., Charles, N., & Stoddard, D. (2024). Making effectiveness work. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/effectiveness/ipa-effectiveness-conference-2024/making-effectiveness-work 
 

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