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Armstrong, J. Scott. (2011). Evidence-Based Advertising: An Application to Persuasion. International Journal of Advertising, 30(5), 743-767
Complex phenomena such as advertising are difficult to understand. As a result, extensive and repeated testing of diverse alternative reasonable hypotheses is necessary in order to increase knowledge about advertising. This calls for experimental studies: laboratory, field, and quasi-experimental studies. Fortunately, much useful empirical research of this kind has already been conducted on how to create persuasive advertisements. Read more

Five Principles of EBM

  1. Face the hard facts, and build a culture in which people
    are encouraged to tell the truth, even if it is unpleasant.
  2. Be committed to "fact based" decision making -- which
    means being committed to getting the best evidence and
    using it to guide actions.
  3. Treat your organization as an unfinished prototype --
    encourage experimentation and learning by doing.
  4. Look for the risks and drawbacks in what people recommend
    -- even the best medicine has side effects.
  5. Avoid basing decisions on untested but strongly held beliefs,
    what you have done in the past, or on uncritical "benchmarking"
    of what winners do.