THE MOST POPULAR ADS ON U.S. YOUTUBE IN 2022

20. 1. 2023 The US YouTube has published its ten most popular ads for 2022, including videos from Amazon and BMW USA, as well as trailers for new movies and TV shows. Amazon Amazon's 90-second spot stars Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, who humorously show what would happen during an average day if Alexa could read minds. The final point is that this is definitely not a good idea. The ad was handled by creative agency Lucky Generals and media agency IPG - Rufus.

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AS A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY? 2023 DOESN’T HAVE TO CRIPPLE COMPANIES, BRAND LOYALTY AND A TOUCH OF EMPATHY ARE THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

5. 1. 2023 Analysts around the world predict a challenging year for business. According to them, the past year was essentially a warm-up and the cost of living crisis will only become fully apparent in the coming months. This will undoubtedly be a challenge for marketers in all sectors, but there are also words of comfort and encouragement that we can add - while the world faced an unprecedented situation during the pandemic, the cost of living crisis is not something we have no historical experience of. There was a similar situation in 2008, and it provided a lot of lesson that we can apply now. Marketing and advertising experts even claim that the crisis is an opportunity to make an established brand even stronger. The key to this is strategies that do not abandon marketing in favor of a short-term performance boost.

THE GLOBAL TV GROUP GUIDELINE: LESSONS FOR ADVERTISING IN A RECESSION

5. 1. 2023 Around the world there is no escaping the talk of a looming recession, and marketers everywhere are facing pressures to reduce advertising costs. However, research consistently shows – and experts continue to advise – that cutting ad spend comes at a high cost to brand health and long term business results.

MARK RITSON: HOW BRANDS CAN SURVIVE THE RECESSION AND EMERGE STRONGER

4. 1. 2023 One of the most comprehensive studies on recessions shows that only 9 percent of companies emerge from a recession in better shape than they entered it. What does this mean for marketers, and how should they behave during a recession to get their company out of it in the best shape possible? Mark Ritson, professor of marketing, and Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer of System1, talked about this during the "Ritson on recession" webinar.

FROM ADVERTISEMENTS TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. HOW HAS ADVERTISING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC CHANGED IN 30 YEARS?

27. 12. 2022 The creation of advertisements has changed fundamentally over the past decades, as has consumer perception of them. So what are consumers receptive to most now? And how are marketers making their jobs easier with AI?

REFLEX’S PICK: THIS YEAR’S CHRISTMAS ADS, WHICH ARE A TRULY BIZARRE SPECTACLE!

24. 12. 2022 Christmas commercials have somehow become part of our Christmas experience. From the time I was a little boy, Santa relied on Home Credit and then hopped on a Coca-Cola truck and took off around the world. New Christmas commercials are made every year. But not every year they succeed. They're a pretty specific genre that either has to move or entertain, ideally both, and you have to accept that not every year is a holy day. Even so, the editors of Reflex managed to find some really good pieces. Watch with us!

CZECH CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGNS WANT TO AVOID CLICHÉS

23. 12. 2022 Many Christmas campaigns on the Czech market have in common an effort to avoid clichés or sentimentality.

BABY JESUS OR SANTA CLAUS? HOW CZECH CHRISTMAS ADS DIFFER FROM FOREIGN ADVERTISING

23. 12. 2022 Advent marks the beginning of a period when advertisers’ budgets are releasing larger sums of money into TV marketing. This is driven not only by the desire to thank their customers and wish them a prosperous new year, but also by the motivation to catch up with sales targets in the fourth quarter. According to statistics, investment in Christmas advertising rose by a billion in 2021 compared to the previous year. In recent years, many online retailers have joined traditional brand advertisers. TV advertising is valued by consumers as a great source of inspiration for Christmas shopping and also tops the charts in terms of relevance of recommendations and trust in the quality and value of products. In recent years, Christmas campaigns have also often been an unofficial competition to see who can film the spot that captures the audience’s heart, sticks best in their mind or (even) goes viral. TV ADVERTISING IS THE MOST CRUCIAL IN INFLUENCING CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR According to RTU, Christmas advertising has a big influence on what gifts people buy for their loved ones. According to research by Nielsen Admosphere, almost two-thirds of Czechs are influenced by Christmas advertising and the percentage of women is higher than men. Of course, with the popularity of social networks, customers are also inspired by other platforms, but they are only third on the scale. In the second place there’s the good old fashioned 'word of mouth', i.e. a recommendation from someone we know. But TV spots are still the best advisor when deciding on a gift for our loved ones. CZECH CHRISTMAS ADVERTISING HAS ITS SPECIFICS Most of the Czech commercials have one factor in common - fun. In the past, brands were often afraid to go down this route, but this tendency has been visibly modified in the Czech environment in recent years, and the domestic scene is gravitating towards funny ads. Czech creatives are not too keen on theatrical film environments and deeply moving advertising. Maybe it is due to a different culture or a limited budget, but as the creators of the 2006 spot for Vodafone with Petr Čtvrtníček proved, even with a small budget, Czechs can make funny and functional advertising that then goes viral on the Internet. NARRATIVE COMMERCIALS LIKE THE BRITISH ARE RARELY SEEN IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Although Czech advertising (not only Christmas advertising) is to some extent influenced by foreign countries, it still keeps the Czech distinctive mentality at the forefront. Unlike the Czechs, British marketers try to create mostly touching and emotional content for Christmas. The preparation, execution and processing of advertising, which relies primarily on the story and the overall atmosphere, requires precise execution as well as a high budget. To make commercials such as those created by John Lewis, a legend of Christmas advertising, is a very high standard in terms of Czech budgets. Although it is not impossible, domestic filmmakers more often bet on easier (cheaper) forms of the concept.

CHRISTMAS ADS 2022: HOW BRANDS ARE CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAY SEASON

16. 12. 2022 Every year, Christmas comes early for brands as they race to debut their holiday ads before the peak shopping period begins. 2022 is no different, and advertisers have officially started stepping into Christmas by bringing a bit of festive cheer to screens.

TYPICALLY CZECH CHRISTMAS. IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, HOLIDAY ADVERTISING IS HANDLED DIFFERENTLY, THE CREATORS ARE NOT AFRAID OF CONTROVERSIAL HUMOUR OR SERIOUS MESSAGES

8. 12. 2022 Czech Christmas ads are a category in themselves. It’s quite possible that abroad they would look in disbelief and awe at, for example, a Kofola pig, while for us the ad is the epitome of Christmas spirit. Of course, Czechs are no strangers to classically emotional and serious spots, and even excel at them. But the big domestic specificity is the fact that the most memorable advertising achievements are largely humorous pieces. Even so, they combine what we always look forward to at Christmas. The two categories then complement each other beautifully on the screen, creating a commercial mix that suggests that Christmas really is just around the corner! THE UNDYING LEGEND: KOFOLA - THE GOLDEN PIGGY Even Czechs have their own advertising that de facto heralds Christmas. Just as the UK has their John Lewis, we have our wild boar, but it lacks something to the golden one. The legendary Christmas advert doesn't seem to have aged at all since 2003, when it first appeared on TV screens. Unlike John Lewis, who year after year comes up with new original spots exquisitely rich in narrative, this domestic gem has made do with a few basic remasters and adaptations over nearly twenty years. The spot brilliantly combines honoring popular Christmas traditions with typical Czech situational humor. The main role here is played by the superstition of the golden pig that appears to those who fast on Christmas Eve. The popular catchphrase "No, I don't have to, I can see it already." is proof that this superstition can take on a whole new dimension when you go into the woods. This year, however, the re-launch of the ad will have a sad touch - on 1 November, its author Robert Peňažka died after a long illness. But for this achievement alone he will certainly never be forgotten, even though he himself admitted that no one expected the ad to become such a success. "With Kofola, the intention was not to create a legendary campaign at all, but to come up with a good Christmas campaign. That's the main ingredient. If you do it right, it will pay off and it has a chance to become a legend," he recalled in 2020. Well, in this case, he succeeded brilliantly.

TV GRP VOLUME STILL AT LAST YEAR’S LEVEL

7. 12. 2022 Czech TV stations delivered a comparable volume of in the first eleven months of this year as in the same period a year ago.

CHALLENGE EVEN FOR THE BEST MARKETERS. WHY DOES A GOOD TV AD NEED TO GRAB THE VIEWER’S ATTENTION?

14. 11. 2022 Does it ever happen to you that while watching a commercial break on TV, an ad sticks in your mind so much that you have to think about it the next day? Or that you completely forget the “skip-ad” button when watching an ad before an online video? That is exactly the kind of situation where the real marketing experts rub their hands with satisfaction. They have just managed to grab your attention, which is an extremely difficult discipline that challenges even the most renowned brands. Is there any manual on how to tackle it with honour and create an ad that will become a viral hit?

MEDIA CLUB USES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO DISTRIBUTE TV CAMPAIGNS

7. 11. 2022 Media Club deploys artificial intelligence to optimise TV campaigns. this enables it to better tailor client campaigns to 25 defined target groups.

WHY E-COMMERCE BRANDS ARE FLOCKING TO TV

31. 10. 2022 TV is experiencing a surge in spend from online-born businesses. The findings from Thinkbox’s TV playbook explore when to know the time is right to use TV advertising, its impact on online performance, and how to go about getting your online business on TV.

THE MYTH OF “UNNECESSARY” MARKETING. WHY DOES IT PAY FOR COMPANIES TO INVEST IN PROMOTION IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC RECESSION?

27. 10. 2022 When the harsh reality of an economic recession hits companies, most of them tend to respond somewhat schematically according to the established rules of business logic. However, the more statistical data we have, the more clearly we see that these rules may not be as logical as they may appear at first sight. While in a worsening economic climate CEOs are cutting what they consider “unnecessary” costs - with advertising and marketing traditionally being the first to be cut - marketing experts advise exactly the opposite approach. Experts agree that you can advertise your services and products happily during a boom, but you absolutely must advertise during a recession. Why don’t companies realise this? INFLATION DOES NOT HAVE TO BURY MARKETING COMPLETELY We can draw useful data from an examination of the market response to the economic recession of the early 1980s. Just like today, it was triggered by the global energy crisis - at that time it was caused by the Iranian Revolution. As a result of that geopolitical upheaval, the price of oil began to soar. Later, this period became known in history as the ‘oil shocks’ that drove already high inflation in the Western world into double digits. Historians agree that this was the biggest economic crisis since the Second World War.

NICE CONTENT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR EFFECTIVE NATIVE ADVERTISING

5. 10. 2022 The best brand studios of native advertising should definitely not lack marketing experts, says international speaker at this year’s Seznam forum, Jesper Laursen.

HOW ADVERTISING CREATIVE STRATEGY IMPACTS SALES

24. 9. 2022 Contagious digests the most interesting and relevant research from the world of advertising and beyond, because there’s just too much to read and too little time.

UNDERSTANDING THE CREATIVITY OF CANNES WINNERS

16. 9. 2022 Most of the Cannes Lions award-winning campaigns share a similar anatomy, says Neuro-Insight’s Peter Pynta: they lean on the art of storytelling and build creative tension to light up the brain’s emotional centres and drive memorability.