When different researchers using different techniques arrive at the same conclusion, the authority of that conclusion is enhanced. So I am pleased to see that that some new neuroscience research has reached the same conclusions that Millward Brown arrived at decades ago through traditional consumer research.

The new research, funded by the U.K.’s Thinkbox and reported in Marketing Week, offers a fascinating parallel to learning gleaned over the years from Millward Brown tracking and pretesting.  Here is just one of the findings from the Thinkbox research and how it fits with Millward Brown’s learning.

Because I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, I missed seeing the first airing of Google’s new  TV ad. Instead I saw it for the first time as part of a presentation by Karen Tsay at the Consumer Insights Conference hosted by the Yale School of Management a month ago. Karen said she had no idea why Google was running the ad, but something else she said suggested a good reason to me. Microsoft’s Bing is now the default search engine on Dell computers.  Maybe Google has finally realized it needs advertising after all.

Recently Google Alerts brought me a link to Headlight, a blog on digital and automotive trends from Razorfish. There I found a post promoting a new metric for measuring brand equity, titled, “The new brand bealth metric: Your SIM Score.” The “Brand Bealth” metric is based on social media influence.  I see some real issues both with the post and the metric, and they go way beyond the fact that the title is misspelled.

Razorfish introduced its SIM (Social Influence Marketing) Score in July 2009. Since then, the article states,

A few weeks ago, there was a furor in the media and on blogs when it was learned that GM had asked employees to refer to “Chevrolet” rather use than the familiar and diminutive name “Chevy.” In a recent Autobeat post, David Welch refers to GM’s desire as “corporate silliness.” He goes on to state, “The fact is, GM may legally own its brand names, but the company doesn’t own the Chevrolet or Chevy names in the popular imagination. “

If you have been reading the industry news in the United States, you will see that TV is back in favor. Spend is up, upfront CPMs are higher and - shock, horror - research finds that TV still drives word of mouth. Meanwhile there have been several articles that suggest that marketers are still scratching their heads when it comes to social media. Hopefully the increase in TV spend does not signal a return to the familiar over the new, because TV and social media are complementary to each other, not replacements.