2024 JAR Research Priorities
JAR’s 2024 Research Priorities list was developed in close consultation with the advertising industry. Leveraging data from ARF member surveys and ARF and WARC research studies, we also conducted interviews with advertising professionals representing different areas of the industry. We am extremely grateful to everyone who took the time to share their feedback. The result is a comprehensive list of topics and areas where the advertising industry is keen to see new academic research.
RETAIL MEDIA NETWORKS
Without a doubt, this is a red-hot area for the industry. Growth of retail media networks is soaring, yet there remains little research on the topic. For advertisers, optimally integrating these networks with other advertising efforts remains unclear. Choosing which advertising network(s) is also a challenge, compounded by the fact that each net-work uses slightly different metrics. More broadly, practitioners are uncertain as to the extent to which advertising on a retail media network should be seen as driving broader brand awareness, versus providing support for sales at that specific retailer.
GENERATIVE AI
ChatGPT propelled generative AI into mainstream conversations, sparking tremendous interest in changes this new technology might offer. Adver-tisers are no exception, and there is a clear thirst for insights on how generative AI can be used by marketers, as evidenced by a JAR call for papers on the topic (see https://www.journalofadvertisingre-search.com/content/call-papers for details).
Generative AI and Creative
Given advertising’s visual nature, one set of ques-tions revolves around AI’s ability to generate images and ad copy. Will it “raise the floor” for all advertising, enabling smaller advertisers to use higher quality creative that only much larger advertisers could typically afford? Or will gen-erative AI merely enable more advertising to be created, leading to even more noise for consum-ers? Given generative AI’s potential to drastically reduce production costs, will it enable more adver-tising ideas to be actioned and potentially change agency workflows? How can humans effectively collaborate with generative AI?
Generative AI and Market Research
Generative AI is being applied to help with ques-tionnaire design and translation, potentially reducing the barriers and costs to doing quality market research. More surprisingly, custom generative AI models are being devel-oped that can respond to surveys as consumers would. Such syn-thetic or simulated panels are a novel way to overcome many of the challenges and costs involved in participant recruitment. While promising, it’s unclear how reliable or accurate these models are, or which topics and questions they are best able to answer. The ARF is spearheading important research in this area, but more cer-tainly is needed.
Generative AI and Trust
The ability of generative AI to create images, text, and data that can appear indistinguishable from human-created content raises important questions around trust. To what extent do consumers care if content they are consuming is partially—or even wholly—created by AI? With market research, how can we know if the data we are getting are human derived? What new tools and mechanisms can we use to detect and authenticate human ver-sus AI-created data? More broadly, how will consumers and the industry respond to what will likely be a growing proliferation of AI-generated content and data? Particularly prescient in an election year, will mis information continue to accelerate? If so, what will consumers trust and why?
ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS
Several industry experts I spoke to called for greater research into the effectiveness of advertising creative and media. What makes for more effective creative, and what factors influence this? How can creative attributes be better encapsulated within MMMs? How can an advertiser know which of the leading strategies for media spend works best, and why? Likewise, what split between short-term and long-term advertising effects should be pursued? And how can those effects be best measured?
ATTENTION
Attention remains an important issue, with specific calls for research helpful in adopting common metrics and best practices. Here, the ARF is playing a key role by bringing the industry together and providing objective comparison of many providers. Additional research is still needed, though.
AR/VR AND SPATIAL COMPUTING
Interest in the metaverse slowed down during 2023, but Apple’s release of the Vision Pro headset might reignite interest in this category. Research continues to build in this area (watch for arti-cles from our Special Issue on Immersive Advertising later this year). There is certainly space for further investigation, however, especially as non-gaming use of AR/VR is likely to expand with Apple’s headset. Industry experts recognize these new technologies likely represent the future of computing but could take up to a decade to become mainstream.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
Everyone I spoke with indicated continued support for DEI efforts, but at the same time recognized that headwinds on many organi-zations’ efforts increased during 2023. Some reports indicate that a trend of increasing diversity in advertising reversed last year; a legal challenge made organizations leerier of diversity-based hiring; and several brands suffered strong retaliation from consumers who did not support their diversity efforts. Better understanding the diverse responses to diversity, as well as insight into how to navigate often opposing views, is needed.
PROSOCIAL ADVERTISING
This topic continues to be important for advertisers. Even with the impressive set of research present in this special issue, there remain many areas where more research would be helpful, as Marla explains in her essay.
INTEGRATING AND DOUBLE-CHECKING
Echoing two of last year’s themes, desire remains strong for articles that integrate and synthesize what is currently known in an area. Additionally, there continues to be demand for research that confirms, extends, or updates existing models and frameworks used in advertising.
I trust that JAR’s 2024 Research Priorities will inspire readers and pique researchers’ interest. As always, I look forward to your feed-back regarding what is covered in this year’s list or any potential omissions.