Publications

2008
Working Paper

CPC/CPA Hybrid Bidding in a Second Price Auction

By: Benjamin Edelman and Hoan Lee

We develop a model of online advertising in which each advertiser chooses from multiple advertising measurement metrics—paying either for each click on its ads (CPC), or for each purchase that follows an ad-click (CPA). Our analysis extends classic auction results by... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Measurement and Metrics; Quality; Mathematical Methods; Web Sites

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18 Sep 2013
HBS Seminar

Steven Tadelis, University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business

27 Jul 2017
News

The Revolution in Advertising: From Don Draper to Big Data

September 1988 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Suzuki Samurai

By: John A. Quelch

Suzuki and advertising agency executives are debating the product positioning and accompanying copy strategy alternatives for the Suzuki Samurai prior to its U.S. introduction. View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Advertising Campaigns; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; Japan; United States

November 2021
Article

Ratings, Reviews, and the Marketing of New Products

By: Itay P. Fainmesser, Dominique Olié Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study how user-generated content (UGC) about new products impacts a firm's advertising and pricing decisions and the effect on profits and market dynamics. We construct a two-period model where consumers value quality and are heterogeneous in their taste for the new... View Details

Keywords: Online Reviews; Product Ratings; Social Networks; Word Of Mouth; Pricing; User-generated Content; Advertising; Product Marketing; Price; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Social Media

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May 1990
Case

PepsiCo and Madonna

By: John A. Quelch

In 1989, PepsiCo withdrew an advertising campaign featuring Madonna following complaints from religious groups regarding the content of a Madonna video. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Religion; Advertising Campaigns; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

May 1975 (Revised May 1982)
Case

Southwest Airlines (C)

Southwest Airlines, a small intrastate carrier, has just completed its first year of operations in June 1972 and management is debating what advertising and promotional strategy to adopt for the future. Southwest has successfully broken into a market dominated by two... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; United States

28 Aug 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency HerdBuoys in South Africa in 1991, explains how advertising was entirely controlled by white people in apartheid South Africa, who defined how Black people were presented in the media, and how he... View Details

05 Jul 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Buying the Verdict

Keywords: by Lauren H. Cohen and Umit G. Gurun

31 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Marketing’s Conventional Wisdom

HBS associate professor Youngme Moon teaches the MBA elective Consumer Marketing and several Executive Education marketing courses. With her research and course development work focusing on innovative consumer-marketing strategies, she is the author of numerous cases... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

26 Jun 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency in South Africa, describes how while working in advertising during the last years of the apartheid regime, he sought to educate White people... View Details

December 2009
Article

How to Combat Online Ad Fraud

By: Benjamin Edelman

Online advertisers frequently fall victim to dishonest, tech-savvy publishers. Here's a sampling of common scams with some advice on how to outwit their perpetrators. View Details

Keywords: Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Online Advertising; Ethics; Marketing; Behavior

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May 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Quigley-Simpson & Heppelwhite: The Ad Agency Model in the Age of AI

By: David C. Edelman and James Barnett

In October 2022, Quigley-Simpson & Heppelwhite CEO Carl Fremont considers how the advertising agency will integrate artificial intelligence tools into the business. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Strategy; Advertising Industry; United States

July 1997
Case

Earle Palmer Brown (A)

The CEO of one of the top 25 advertising agencies confronts major changes in the marketplace. He chooses to reengineer the firm. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Industry Growth; Advertising Industry

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April 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Raksul

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Masahiro Kotosaka, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Raksul, 2018 Forbes Japan "Startup of the Year," ran an e-commerce platform drawing upon thousands of individual suppliers. Launched as a business-to-business printing services marketplace, Raksul had recently expanded to operate both a logistics/delivery marketplace... View Details

Keywords: Marketplace Design; B2B; Platform Strategy; Printing; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Logistics; Advertising; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; E-commerce; Web Services Industry; Japan

02 May 2013
HBS Seminar

Thales Teixeira, Harvard Business School

04 Feb 2020
Video

Ranjan Kapur

Ranjan Kapur, the former India country... View Details

22 Jan 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Competing Ad Auctions

Keywords: by Itai Ashlagi, Benjamin G. Edelman & Hoan Soo Lee; Advertising

December 1980 (Revised September 1987)
Case

Francis, Berther and Alfreed

At a large advertising agency, a campaign for a major account develops problems at the last minute, and the campaign must be redone. The management supervisor must determine what went wrong, who was to blame, and what to do about it. View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Advertising Campaigns; Advertising Industry