What’s the Purpose of Advertising: To Entertain or to Sell?

I used to love the E*Trade commercials with the talking babies. They were cute, clever, and they made me laugh. In fact, every time I see one—regardless of how many times I’ve seen it previously—I laugh. I liked them. They were well done. They had good production values. They were clever.

But, did they work from an advertising standpoint? Continue reading “What’s the Purpose of Advertising: To Entertain or to Sell?”

How Did We Do on Our 2010 Predictions? A Look Back as We Approach 2020

This is the time of year for predictions and, as we approach a new decade, we thought we’d take a look back at the last decade to see how well the predictions we made then have held up. Here’s what we said then, where we are now and what we predict for 2020. Continue reading “How Did We Do on Our 2010 Predictions? A Look Back as We Approach 2020”