BASF investigated the role that different polymer design factors have on adhesion to identify a solution that will successfully adhere to chalked paint, fresh wood, aluminum, galvanized steel, cold rolled steel, and alkyd paint. This paper explores the impact that hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity balance, molecular weight, particle morphology, and glass transition temperature of aqueous polymer particle dispersion has on multi-substrate adhesion. It also covers specific examples of flat and semi-gloss formulated coatings achieving superior multi-substrate adhesion, while simultaneously delivering overall excellent performance in other key attributes such as dirt pick-up resistance, surfactant leaching, and tannin blocking among others.