No one connects with an influencer’s audience better than that influencer. For students of old-school marketing and advertising, it might seem odd to include someone who gained 20,000 TikTok followers by posting cat videos as part of a marketing campaign. But no one else reaches those 20,000 followers in that way, and about that topic,…
For two straight years, we watched ecommerce sales boom as a result of rapidly changing consumer buying habits. And as a result, the 2021 Q4 shopping season saw several brands and platforms testing live shopping to further enhance the online shopping experience. In 2019, live shopping generated approximately $60 billion in total global sales, with…
For as long as people have browsed the Internet, advances in ad tech have made it easier for advertisers to reach their intended audience with ads. But that unfettered growth in targeting and data collection ultimately led to this point in time where privacy advocates and governments are clawing that capability back. Facebook’s recent less-than-stellar…
In January 2022, I had a miscarriage at 10 weeks along. The farther removed I get from that horrific month, the more I’ve opened up to others. The more people have told me they’ve been through it too. In the first few days after getting the news, my social media feeds were still filled with…
Like clockwork, every November our screens are flooded with Christmas ads. $2.5 billion is spent on holiday advertising in the U.S. alone, making Christmas and all its traditions a well-known household topic. Advertising has the power to bring that level of understanding and cultural awareness to something, even if you don’t celebrate it. So why…
The billionaire Elon Musk has bought Twitter. As an outspoken freedom of speech proponent, Musk has frequently criticized Twitter’s moderation and the way he believes Twitter to limit freedom of speech at the expense of global society. His purchase of Twitter and its becoming a private company begs questions about the future of the platform,…
On April 30, the subscription-only streaming service CNN+ will shutter for good. In what incoming CNN chief Chris Licht called a “uniquely shitty situation,” the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery raised the white flag on three-week-old CNN+ before letting it be routed in the streaming wars. Uncoincidentally, Netflix announced two days prior that it lost…
From forest fires to floods, climate change continues to accelerate. Consumers’ need for environmental commitments from businesses is essential now more than ever. A 2019 survey by Hotwire states that 47% of global internet users have ditched products and services from brands that violated personal values. Businesses need to rethink their strategies and play their…
These days, there is no shortage of headlines when it comes to the climate crisis. More and more people in experiential marketing feel compelled–and empowered–to become sustainability champions, due to their proximity to the big brands and insights into the younger, eco-conscious consumer base. Luckily, the opportunities to effect change are endless. Here’s what you…
If data is the new oil, then first-party data is a crypto farm sitting atop an oil field. Like all valuable commodities, though, first-party data is not evenly distributed. There are the “haves,” like publishers requiring authentication, onboarding data entities and walled garden platforms. There are the “have-nots,” like most brands, third-party data providers, publishers…
The future is zero- and first-party data. Audiences must regain a central role in the digital advertising ecosystem. But the industry is facing one of its biggest challenges to date, and it’s not on the technical and regulatory fronts. There is a clash between the need to regain credibility by embracing society’s expectations around privacy…
From a legalization standpoint, the cannabis industry is undergoing a sea change, as state after state moves forward with legalization and decriminalization efforts. Seemingly every day, new cannabis players emerge on the scene, all vying for their plot of land in the so-called “green rush.” But here’s the thing: Nearly every cannabis company today is…
These days, marketers and agencies using self-serve tools to buy and trade media are under a lot of pressure to deliver incredible results on smaller and smaller budgets. Manual optimization only compounds those difficulties–it takes forever, it is inconsistent and it is not scalable. However, with deep learning, marketers can free themselves from most of…
In 2020, like our personal and professional lives, everything about the TV upfront changed. The combined impacts of the pandemic and the shift away from linear television to streaming have primed the industry for change. Or it certainly felt that way, as many believed we would see a rethink of how tens of billions of…
Take a trip down memory lane with me, when not too long ago, brands owned themselves. Taglines communicated tangible value, consumers bought products and services–and that was that. Purpose-driven marketing has its moment Enter social media, Gen Z and brand purpose as forces for collective good. Brands shift from belonging to themselves to belonging to…
It’s no secret that brands have been using first-, second- and third-party data to deliver more personalized advertising experiences for customers. And for the most part, surveys show customers appreciate it. But all those customized Amazon pop-ups and Netflix entertainment recommendations consumers receive every day could soon fall victim to their own success. This is…
With the 2021-22 NBA regular season coming to an end and teams getting ready for the playoffs, there’s an overlooked story that needs to get told: A story about a team and a city that has been somewhat neglected for the last decade. A story about the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons aren’t making the playoffs…
We are used to seeing brand partnerships where brands with shared values come together to broaden their reach and maybe cachet. However, what we have seen more recently are brand collisions and mash-ups, where on the surface, it’s not as obvious as to why they’ve come together. Perhaps when thinking about potential collaborations, shared brand…
As the calendar turns to April, advertisers and publishers turn their attention to the all-important upfront season. Of course, CTV disruption and the rise of digital channels make every subsequent upfront more important. CPMs in TV, including CTV, continue to rise, especially for advertisers working with streamers and the NewFronts. This added complexity and the…
The PR person for a beloved brand once pulled me aside and scolded me for a tweet I’d posted on an agency account about our work for them. The issue was the word “created.” “You didn’t create this,” she said, pointing at the house-sized structure we’d conceived of, designed and built for them. “You need…
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