On 7/22/2020 the first post was posted on the Instagram science channel “Brückenbau Marke” (@prof.baumgarth). Since then, we have published (thanks especially to my two team members Cosima Kaibel and Liho Wichert round 200 episodes, gained 60+ testimonials as supporters, extended the channel in the print magazine Markenartikel, held many talks and webinars, talked about the idea and the channel in podcasts as well as gained 1400+ followers on Instagram and over 300,000 views on LinkedIn. Always with the goal of transferring brand science from the A- and B-journals into brand practice. Because the motto still applies:

“There is nothing better for brand practice than good brand science”.

The book chapter When Fake Becomes Real: The Innovative Case of Artificial Influencers by Carsten Baumgarth, Alexandra Kirkby and Cosima Kaibel has recently appeared in the publication Creativity and Marketing. Classic influencers are real, human, people. However, there is now a rise in fake, artificial influencers occupying the same online space with their own profiles, as marketing is important for influencers, so if they have a website, using companies like SEO Sydney can help them improve their ranking.

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Our book chapter provides a definition of Computer-Generated Influencers (CGIIs) and provides a first detailed classification having analyzed the top 20 CGIIs from 2019. The chapter further provides case studies looking at some of the most successful brand collaborations across industries including the luxury, home and interior, service, people and fashion.

Prof. Baumgarth is also a member of the main jury of the B-to-B Effie in its 40th anniversary year.
The winners will be awarded on 25 November 2021 in Leipzig.
More info: www.gwa.de/effiegermany

Artificial intelligence has the capability to translate not only short texts, but also entire papers. We put the AI translator “DeepL” to the test and translated our entire updated book chapter “Ende des KI Marken Winters” from German into English. The results showed DeepL to be surprisingly accurate with only 1.6 % of all words being corrected by a native speaker. Although not entirely fluent in all areas, words or sentences were only changed if, for example, the word selected by the AI was incorrect, or if a sentence was translated in such a way that the original meaning was lost or would be confusing to the reader. This was in order to show accurately and transparently the tools capabilities. You can download the issue here.

Last year we launched B*Lab Reports, a working paper series that presents the latest research that we undertake. In this issue, we publish the best papers of master students taking the “Advanced Brand Management” course at HWR Berlin. Issue 2 from the summer semester 2020 is now available online, covering the topics of brand coolness, Instagram influencer marketing, cost transparency and crisis communications strategies in the times of COVID19. You can download the second issue here.

As a small contribution to support live art in the existence-threatening pandemic, Prof. Baumgarth, with the support of the Magic Circle of Germany (MZvD), conducted a study on the effects and survival strategies of professional magicians in November 2020. Over 180 magicians participated in the study. The study showed, among other things, that the artists lost on average more than 80% of their income in 2020 due to the pandemic and also that they do not expect the situation to recover until 2022. The full study can be downloaded here (only in German).

Brand Science and Brand Practice should benefit each other. However, in reality they are moving away from each other. Studies show that practitioners are not familiar with academic journals – the main channel of Brand Science communication.

There are several reasons for this such as the decreasing relevance of science through the increasing focus on micro problems as a result of the „Publish-or-Perrish“ mentality. Additionally, the methodologies described in journal articles are often hard to understand and last but not least there is a sheer overload of information with around 6000 journal articles being published on Marketing every year.

Prof. Baumgarth has been trying to close this gap for years through an intensive collaboration with practitioners and innovative formats (e.g. the Pop-up Exhibition „Farbrausch trifft RAL 4010“).
His latest project is the Instagram channel „Brückenbau Marke – Wissenschaft trifft Praxis“. Via the Instagram-Account prof.baumgarth Prof. Dr. Baumgarth shares interesting and practicable insights into brand science. He vividly and accessibly explains relevant journal articles especially for practitioners and students.

He presents the major classic articles among them Aaker, Keller and Fournier as well as „newcomers“ written in 2019 and 2020 together with cases explaining concepts using well-known brands and news from B*lab – research he and his team are involved in.

By now, his channel counts about 400 followers. If you would like to find out more about his motivation, and the function of the channel, you can find an interview in markenartikel and a blog post on the brand blog by Dietrich Identity.

We invite you to get to know the channel and to follow, like and share!