FIVE MARKETING TRUTHS: RITSON AND SHARP REACHED A CONSENSUS IN CANNES

23. 6. 2026 | 9 min read Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp are among the most prominent and most frequently cited figures in contemporary marketing. At the Cannes Lions festival, their rare joint appearance was based on a simple premise: given that they are known for frequently competing against one another, are there any issues on which they can actually agree?

MARK RITSON: WHAT REALLY DETERMINES THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ADVERTISING CREATIVE

11. 5. 2026 | 9 min read Is there a formula for effective advertising? During his presentation at the Media, Marketing & Effectiveness conference, Mark Ritson offered his perspective on the subject. He combined data from System1 and Effie with research by Paul Dyson to demonstrate why some campaigns perform many times better than others. He argues that successful advertising rests on three key principles: emotional impact, instant brand recognition and the ability to work over the long term. He also challenges a number of modern marketing habits, from an obsession with constant change to the underestimation of television as a brand-building medium.

MARK RITSON: CZECH MARKETING KNOWS WHAT TO DO AT CHRISTMAS. BUT IN JANUARY, IT FORGETS.

4. 2. 2026 | 8 min read Marketing expert Mark Ritson focused his commentary on Czech Christmas campaigns and how January campaigns are failing.

HOW CAN ADVERTISING RECAPTURE ITS APPEAL AND DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS? BESIDES CREATIVITY, THE KEY FACTORS ARE EMOTION, DISTINCTIVENESS, AND CONSISTENCY

19. 12. 2025 | 6 min read New research by System1 and Effie Worldwide shows that advertising is losing effectiveness. However, the study also reveals how effectiveness can be increased again. While outstanding creative is one of the essential prerequisites, it is not enough on its own. Advertising needs to return to three simple yet often neglected principles: emotion, distinctiveness and consistency, according to a webinar entitled The Creative Dividend.

MARK RITSON AT THE VISION 2025 CONFERENCE: TELEVISION ADVERTISING OUTPERFORMS DIGITAL IN KEY AREAS – EMOTION AND ATTENTION

20. 10. 2025 | 6 min read In an inventive presentation, Mark Ritson channels Steve Jobs, presenting an alternative reality in which television and television advertising are only being invented today. This stylisation has a single aim: to show how dramatically we underestimate a medium that we have long had at our disposal, and to highlight the fundamental advantages that television advertising offers over everything we now label as “modern digital marketing”.

MAKING A MARKETER 2: MARKETING HAS A MARKETING PROBLEM

29. 10. 2024 | 3 min read The Marketing Festival team has released Making a Marketer 2, a documentary featuring luminaries from the current marketing scene.

RITSON’S 10-STEP GUIDE TO ‘STAND ON THE SHOULDERS’ OF ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS GIANTS

3. 10. 2024 | 9 min read We’ve entered a golden age for advertising effectiveness, but not enough marketers are taking advantage of all the work done by the giants of the field, says Mark Ritson, speaking at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing.

RITSON’S TOP 10 MARKETING MOMENTS OF 2023

29. 12. 2023 | 5 min read From Barbie’s brand extension and the Bud Light controversy to Tesla’s price drop and the rise of AI, Marketing Week’s trusted columnist reveals his biggest marketing moments of the year.

CONSUMERS DON’T GET TIRED OF ADS, ONLY MARKETERS DO

8. 12. 2023 | 14 min read Data shows there’s no such thing as advertising ‘wear-out’, so save your new campaign budget and spend it on making your current ads effective for longer.

BRAND-BUILDING ADS BOOST SHORT-TERM SALES, AND NOW YOU CAN PROVE IT

1. 2. 2023 | 19 min read Ten years since The Long and the Short of It was published, new evidence shows that while sales-driven ads deliver few long-term effects, brand advertising achieves both.

BRAND-BUILDING ADS BOOST SHORT-TERM SALES, AND NOW YOU CAN PROVE IT

1. 2. 2023 | 19 min read Ten years since The Long and the Short of It was published, new evidence shows that while sales-driven ads deliver few long-term effects, brand advertising achieves both.

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 | 12 min read 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 | 1 min read 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 | 3 min read 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.

RITSON’S RECESSION PLAYBOOK: 9 STEPS MARKETERS SHOULD TAKE TO SURVIVE THE DARK TIMES AHEAD

21. 6. 2022 | 15 min read From retaining a long-term view and the importance of excess share of voice to making strategic changes to positioning and saying no to failure, Mark Ritson spells out how brands can navigate recession.

RITSON: DON’T STOP CAMPAIGNS IN RECESSION, YOU WILL INCREASE MARKET SHARE

23. 9. 2020 | 3 min read It is advisable to retain communication activity, especially in a recession, as it is important for a brand’s market share. This is a message conveyed to marketers by Mark Ritson.

REPORT: TV ADVERTISING STILL REIGNS SUPREME WHEN IT COMES TO INFLUENCING BUYERS

22. 7. 2020 | 4 min read It’s the industry debate that simply won’t go away – the effectiveness of TV advertising. The digital camp protests that telly’s best days are behind it, while others (arguably headed by Professor Mark Ritson) argue there’s plenty of life in the old dog yet.

IF YOU’RE IN MARKETING, NOW IS A TIME TO SPEND, NOT BEND

6. 4. 2020 | 6 min read There are very few upsides for anyone right now. A record number of companies, big and small, find themselves just weeks from insolvency. Employees are being let go in record numbers. And the media is collapsing as advertising dries up and a long, difficult and painful ­recession lumbers into view.