The Role of Advertising in Word of Mouth

Ed Keller and Brad Fay

The article discusses the relationship between advertising and Word-of-Mouth (WOM). New empirical data collected by the authors over a three-year period, from their weekly TalkTrackR survey (a nationally representative U.S.

The Role of Advertising in Word of Mouth

Ed Keller and Brad FayThe Keller Fay Group

INTRODUCTION

One of the seminal studies in mass communications was conducted in 1944 by Columbia University Professor Paul Lazarsfeld. “The Decatur Study,” as it came to be known, was conducted among women and sought to understand the role of media and of individuals who influenced recent consumer decisions. The study focused on four categories: “daily household marketing,” fashion and beauty, movies, and politics. It found that mass communications campaigns often fail to meet expectations because of “selectivity” in exposure and perception...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands