Bruce Fletcher Hall
On January 7, 2012, Bruce Hall, Ph.D. died at Duke University Hospital after a long, courageous battle with cancer. He was 64.
Bruce was a partner at Howard, Merrell & Partners. Since 1996, he led the market research and consumer insights practice at the agency and was respected worldwide as a thought leader in the market research industry. In recent years at the agency, he pioneered new theories of the role of emotion in decision making, particularly in regards to purchase behavior and response to advertising.
A gifted individual with an eclectic range of consumer research and psychological interests, Bruce challenged conventional thinking with new insights on how unconscious emotional responses to advertising drives purchase behavior.
He published many articles on marketing, marketing research and economics. His world-renowned expertise in the field of emotional engagement of brands went far beyond conventional understanding and into the psyche of a brand. In 2001, Bruce pioneered the theory of the true role emotion plays in consumer decisions, and the Journal of Advertising Research published a piece, “A New Approach To Measuring Advertising Effectiveness,” about it.
Around 2004, Bruce was part of a blue ribbon panel in an Advertising Research Foundation project named “Measuring Emotional Response to Advertising.” This ongoing research develops conduits and methods by which marketers worldwide can better measure consumer insights to create better advertising.
“Bruce was known among his co-workers for his laser wit and extraordinary intellectual bandwidth,” said Jim Cobb, president and CEO of Howard, Merrell & Partners and a close personal friend of Hall. “His passion for uncovering real consumer insights is a material loss to the research industry. We will miss him, and are enormously grateful that his breakthrough work is a permanent part of the DNA of our company.”
His 30-year career spanned Ivy League teaching of economics and statistics to senior positions in corporate market and consumer research. Bruce’s professional experience included a wide variety of industries, from banking and finance to packaged goods, travel and tourism. He conducted market and consumer insights research for such magnet brands as MasterCard, the U.S. Army, Fujitsu, Butterball, Cordura, Sam Adams, BASF, BB&T, MacGregor and SAS.
Prior to joining the agency, Bruce was with the Amoco Oil Company as the manager of trends and futures and spent eight years as a research executive at Quaker Oats Company. From 1983-1986, he was a Fellow of the Institute for Current World Affairs. Prior to that, he spent seven years as an assistant professor of consumer economics at Cornell University. His research interests included advertising, the application of biometric methods to marketing, and innovation and new products.
Bruce studied food and agriculture in East Europe, food retailing in New York State, farming in California and consumer behavior in every part of the United States. Hall achieved a global reputation as a student and interpreter of how consumers make decisions.
Earning a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, Bruce received his Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Antioch College.
New Work – A Scantily Clad Ad
Most people know CORDURA® fabrics as the stuff that brings durability to backpacks, outdoor gear and luggage. But they also make a whole bunch of fabrics perfect for apparel. Fabrics that feel good on the body. So showing lots of skin seemed perfect for this campaign.
New Work – Big Time Waste Reduction
We just completed a set of wall clings for Georgia-Pacific Professional and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Together, they’re doing their part to reduce the amount of waste created by the millions of travelers that go through Atlanta each year. So we did our part by making these cool clings. Look for them in the H-J washrooms next time you’re passing through.
The Art of Storytelling
We don’t often realize the advertising industry is an intrinsically complex-natured place. Too many times do we attempt to “dumb things down” so that the essence of an idea, or concept, comes through without a hitch. We attempt to make things as simple as possible in order to get our “value proposition” in the right place. We make things simple in order to drive ROI. We make things simple to get better conversions on our landing pages.
As marketers, advertisers, creatives, and interactives we sometimes overlook one of the most beautiful aspects of what we love doing. As we keep delving into more data and more statistics in order to drive a bottom line, we forget to tell a story!
Worst Ad in America – 2011
According to the readers of Consumerist magazine, the worst ad of 2011 is Luvs Diapers’ “Poop, There It Is.” Can’t say I’m too surprised. There’s something about competitive pooping that’s a bit disturbing to me.
So, one might say that Luvs really sh*t the bed on this TV spot. Or did they? It might not be the most liked ad out there, but it’s drawing plenty of attention. The brand is getting a lot of publicity. Hey, it made its way on this blog, and I assure you, it’s been posted on plenty of other sites too. That raises the old question, is bad/annoying advertising effective? Will Luvs’ stinky commercial move diapers off the shelf? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
The Future of Online Video
I’ll be heading to the Internet Summit today and have been researching some of the panels I’ll be attending. One in particular I find very exciting is Online Video. Most of our clients are asking for video and we’ve been working to find outlets to share their message. Forrester Research shows that by 2012, $7.1 Billion in advertising will be spent in the online video environment. This makes perfect sense if marketers are watching the increase in online video consumption.
3 Ways to Push For Change
A couple weeks ago I had the luxury of attending the American Advertising Federation – RDU presentation with Rick Boyko. As the former Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather, Boyko currently heads the VCU Brandcenter. Since arriving at VCU, Rick Boyko has made more changes in the past six years than the Brandcenter has had in its entire existence. More »
Weekly Wrap Up #10
It has been another action-packed week here in Raleigh, and another Friday means another weekly wrap up. This week had a lot of great stuff floating around, so here are 5 links for you to check out!
1. Heinz builds on QR code success with new cause-marketing effort
The new 20oz Heinz Ketchup bottles now have a QR code to support the Wounded Warrior Project. With over 1 Million scans from their previous QR code campaign, the expectation for the current project is to have consumers scan the code and be able to send a “Thank You” to soldiers from as part of the Wounded Warrior project, as well as to “Like” the Heinz Facebook Page. For every “Like” or “Thank You” sent, Heinz will donate $0.57 up to a total of $200,000. If you want to read the full article you can find it at Mobile Marketer.
Letterpress and Old No. 7
Awesome letterpress guys Yee-Haw Industries did some posters for Jack Daniel’s. With some Jack Daniel’s. I’ll drink to that.
Amazing pencil drawn animation
This artist is taking the moving picture game to another level in this amazing pencil-drawn animation filled with lots of talent, lots of running and cameos galore. His name is Qwaqa.
