2016 William F. O’Dell Award

Oliver J. Rutz and Randolph E. Bucklin have been selected as the recipients of the annual William F. O’Dell award for their article “From Generic to Branded: A Model of Spillover in Paid Search Advertising,” which appeared in the February 2011 (Volume 48, Issue 1) issue of the Journal of Marketing Research.

?The award honors the JMR article published in 2011 that has made the most significant, long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology, and/or practice. The O’Dell award committee—which comprises Susan Broniarczyk (chair), Scott Neslin, and  Eitan Muller—applauds the nominees for excellent articles that were all worthy of the award.

Ultimately, the article was selected because of its impact on academia, practice, and policy as is demonstrated by the following statement from the committee:

“Rutz and Bucklin (2011) was selected by the O’Dell Award Committee for its significant methodological and marketing practice impact on Internet paid search advertising. Paid search is a major advertising channel and decisions regarding bids on generic vs. branded keywords are made every day. The paper has important implications for practice that often relied upon the “last-click” metrics provided by search engines.  For example, using this criterion, the authors found that the apparent cost-per-conversion for a major US hotel chain on Google for branded keywords (e.g., Hilton) was $3 versus $55 for generic keywords (e.g., hotel).   However, building off the purchase funnel, the authors demonstrated that the generic keyword (e.g., hotels Los Angeles) was influential early in the purchase process, introducing a consumer to the branded option (Hilton Los Angeles) which would then later be directly searched using branded keyword (Hilton Los Angeles) when the consumer was ready to buy and convert.  This committee felt that the paper made an important statement about the spillover of generic to branded keywords and was a neat application of theory to practice.  Further the committee was impressed by the sophisticated and accessible Bayesian Dynamic Linear Model to account for spillover.  The paper’s core idea arguing against last touch attribution for the branded key word presaged today’s attribution modeling movement assessing influence when buyers are exposed to ads across multiple internet media.  Additionally, the paper is highly cited in the top marketing, operations research, electronic commerce, and economics journals.” 

 The award is presented annually at the Summer AMA Conference.

The Finalists for the O’Dell award are as follows:

·       “The Value of Social Dynamics in Online Product Ratings Forums,” Wendy W. Moe and Michael Trusov (Volume 48, Issue 3, June 2011).

·       “Online Social Interactions: A Natural Experiment on Word of Mouth Versus Observational Learning,” Yubo Chen, Qi Wang, and Jinhong Xie (Volume 48, Issue 2, April 2011)

·       “Network Effects and Personal Influences: The Diffusion of an Online Social Network,” Zsolt Katona, Peter Pal Zubcsek, and Miklos Sarvary (Volume 48, Issue 3, June 2011).

·       “Complicating Choice,” Rom Y. Schrift, Oded Netzer, and Ran Kivetz (Volume 48, Issue 2, April 2011)

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