Why Context is the Most Undervalued Aspect of Marketing

Original concepts and content creation are important but they never exist in a?vacuum

People who work in ad agencies put tons of creative energy into coming up with original concepts, writing engaging copy, and designing eye-catching visuals. But that’s only half the job. What they usually miss out on is the context in which their ads appear. They have delivered the baby, nourished it to maturity, and then sent it out to do its best. But after that, they have no clue what their offspring gets up to.

Context is the hardest thing for advertisers to control and yet I’m convinced it’s the most under-valued aspect of creating an impact. So, what exactly do I mean by context?

“How” is the critical?question

Let’s simplify things:

1. The ad itself is the Who, What, and Why.
2. The media buy is the Where and When.
3. The context is the How.

But the “How” can be tough to pin down.

How is an ad being consumed? I’ll share some relatable examples:

A person who corresponds perfectly to the target consumer for a car might be exposed to a creative, beautifully crafted ad for that car while scrolling on their phone with two kids fighting in front of the TV where the ad is playing.

That’s the context.

A driver sees a billboard for a real estate firm while tired and stressed about their mortgage on their long commute home. Oh yeah, and talk radio is playing. And it’s raining.

That’s the context.

A new mother who is worried about the world her children will inherit sees a banner ad for beauty products on a news website beside photos of war and climate catastrophe.

That’s the context.

But what makes context so important when it comes to marketing (and communication in general)?

How we are influenced by an advertisement depends as much on its context as its?content

Why does context matter so much? It comes down to very basic human psychology regarding location and association.

Our brains evolved to create memories by linking emotions with locations. These locations are positive (“Go there?—?you might find food!”), negative (“Stay away from there?—?you might get killed!”), or neutral (“Chill, bro.”).

This sounds obvious for our ancestors on the savannah two million years ago, but these neural pathways are so powerful that they might work in the exact same way in the modern world when we’re in virtual “locations”.

So, if a consumer visiting Twitter or Facebook experiences outrage and hate, those emotions might transfer to any brand advertised on those platforms. Conversely, if The Economist is associated with calm analysis, the positive emotion of a predictable, rational world might also transfer to advertiser content on the website.

It has also been demonstrated that we are susceptible to a cognitive bias known as the mere association effect, which, in scientific terms, is the implicit transfer of meanings or affect from logically unrelated stimuli. In other words, we just can’t help transferring meaning and emotion between different items that are presented in the same context.

Last November it was revealed that ads by Apple and Oracle appeared on Twitter/X next to antisemitic material. Ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal, and others were shown next to white nationalist hashtags. These and other major advertisers have canceled campaigns on Twitter/X, leading to an Elon Musk toddler meltdown. What are these companies’ CMOs worried about? Brand safety. Why? Because they know how important context is.

Cognitive psychology researchers have been aware of the context effect for some time. You might find yourself thinking as you read this, “Of course nobody wants an ad to appear in a negative context!” And yet billions of dollars annually are poured into media that provide a negative context for advertisements. It’s almost like an addiction. Marketers know this stuff is bad for brands but can’t seem to help returning to these toxic media environments.

Are there examples of positive contexts?

Let’s take podcasts. By definition, podcasts are an intimate medium with a focused, willing audience. But that’s not why I’m bringing them up. In a recent episode of his popular Prof G podcast, NYU Stern School of Business marketing professor Scott Galloway discussed the extra boost that podcast ads receive when read out by the host, noting that:

“Host readovers get twice the CPM of inserted ads. People listen: 70 to 90 percent don’t skip.”

Imagine how powerful that is… It’s so easy to skip an ad on a podcast and yet the vast majority of listeners don’t. A host-read ad lacks the creative frills of an agency-produced commercial with a professional voice-over and catchy jingle, yet it outperforms the agency ad by miles, and this is due to the context in which it appears.

To be clear: I’m not advocating for marketers to abandon traditional advertising, I’m providing an example of where context makes a concrete difference to ROI.

So what’s the takeaway here? How can context be better leveraged?

1. Media properties that provide positive contexts for brands to appear in need to find ways to identify and measure these benefits and demonstrate ROI to advertisers who have become hooked on SEM and social media ads
2. Ethnographic data or research can uncover powerful cultural contexts
3. Media buyers who focus on numbers would serve their clients better by paying more attention to context. And their plans should be held to account for brand performance
4. Placement in advertiser-owned media boosts control over context and should be leveraged more
5. Advertising agencies should explore ways to incorporate real-world audience contexts into the creative process

To wrap up, here’s a fun example of how powerful the mere association effect can be. My latest novel is coming out this spring. Imagine a book blurb that says:

John B. Dutton is not a New York Times bestselling author.

The placing of my name in context with the famous NYT brand should have a positive impact on my own credibility, even though the claim I’ve made is framed negatively.

Crazy but true! I’m even considering running A/B tests with some online ads. And if I do, I’ll let you know whether context is indeed king.

Want more articles like this? Follow me on Medium, or read my Discomfort Zone newsletter on Substack every second Thursday. This article was written without artificial intelligence. #zeroAI