In the early 2000s, marketers thought TV was destined to follow print media. TV was over. Online engagement was growing by double digits, investments in digital media were skyrocketing and the new age of big data was upon us. But TV never died. Despite early doom and gloom predictions, TV continues to be one of…
After buying Twitter for $44 billion earlier this year, world’s richest man Elon Musk seems to have cold feet and is using the issue of bots on the platform as a convenient excuse to exit the deal. Musk is citing material breach as the reason he should be released from the deal. He’s saying there…
Recently, you may have noticed that there has been yellow as far as the eye can see and suits in every cinema. Minions, Minions everywhere. It’s been a minute since we’ve seen a cinematic success of this magnitude and a marketing bonanza of equally epic proportion. Mega marketing budgets and expansive (almost endless) partnerships are…
The long wait for fans of The Umbrella Academy is finally over. Netflix released Season 3 of this hit series, which centers on a dysfunctional family of superheroes. The siblings reunite to solve the mystery of their father’s death (and, of course, stop an imminent apocalypse). The comic book industry has been criticized over the…
We are well and truly living in a subscription economy. From paywalled news to scheduled grocery orders and even monthly underwear deliveries, there is a subscription service for just about everything. The New York Times recently passed 10 million subscribers, a shining example of subscription success for publishers. Furthermore, as the deprecation of third-party data…
Within the advertising and marketing spaces, diversity attracts increasing attention. In fact, when there are practices that negatively impact people from underrepresented backgrounds, the calls for adding “diversity” become amplified. But we can’t consider issues of representation without exploring power imbalances. According to a November 2021 report, marketing is more ethnically diverse than ever at…
Cannes used to be the annual procession of Adland’s finest to a privileged corner of the Riviera to recognize the best work and strongest ideas of an industry with the potential to affect huge societal change. In recent years, it has become mostly associated with too much wine and too little actual effect on the…
At some stage earlier this year, a Greenpeace planner (presumably) whipped together a brief. Get: Sun-kissed agency owners and network bosses. To: Stop working with fossil fuel companies. By: Showing that fossil fuel is killing the planet, and any agency assisting with that crime should be made to feel complicit. Budget: The cost of an…
During a week of anxiety for many women in the United States, Victoria’s Secret launched its latest campaign devoid of angels, glamour and wings. Instead, it featured us, mere mortals, with a promise of advocacy and commitment for us “real” women to be the ones defining what beauty is. Once aspirational and the standard for…
It’s 6 a.m. on June 1. Your alarm rings. Just like any other day, you reach for your phone to get up to speed on news from the world. From social media posts to shopping websites, rainbows have colored your screen to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. It’s the world of retail consumerism we live in,…
I’m a gay man. A gay CEO, to be clear. This wasn’t always the case: I rose to my current position as CEO of a 175-person brand experience agency while leading a straight life with my wife and two children. This part of my life is not super comfortable to share. I understand the widespread…
This was the first time in three years that the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been held in person. With Covid-19, the festival created Lions Live, a free online series of webinars and talks to help share the knowledge, insights and trends impacting the field. This was also where they provided free access…
Recently Anheuser-Busch gave us something to sip on: They announced that they’d be ending their 34-year run as the Super Bowl’s exclusive alcohol advertiser. This comes just a few short weeks after Pepsi announced they’d be ending their decade-long sponsorship of the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The Super Bowl is, in many ways, as much…
As we enter the nascency of Web3, we’re able to take stock of how the history of technology has gatekept groups of people from participating in its evolution, limiting the ingenuity that comes from diverse points of view tackling the same problems. Inclusion isn’t just an altruistic goal, but one that advances our ability to…
Goodbye to the daily croissants and cappuccinos. To the hot South of France, matched only by the Fortune 500 brands. To the parade of boats on yacht row and the promenade of brand beaches opposite the Croisette. I’m back to reality. There isn’t a “chief” in my title, though I was honored to be asked…
CEOs have a growing influence on culture and therefore have a growing responsibility to pave a path forward for future leaders, to shape policies for change. If you look at the lifecycle of a consumer, you’ll realize that their loyalty to a brand has the potential to surpass the tenure of a CEO at that…
Advertising education was once perversely simple. Developing talent meant wrangling students to good print ideas, maybe a storyboard, then tissues, feedback, more feedback, comps, printing, foamcore. The goal was: How can we make work that sells while looking clever at the same time? Sublimely na?ve, sadly irresponsible in hindsight. As in most of 21st century…
“Don’t tell my mother I’m in advertising–she thinks I play the piano in a brothel.” Jacques S?gu?la–the “S” in Euro RSCG–humorously wrote this for the title of his autobiography. It’s one perspective, but what if your parental figure actually worked in the industry? I asked the question on LinkedIn and discovered a whole world of…
For many of us, the painful memories of slashed budgets and job cuts from 2020 were still fresh in our minds when a wave of layoffs hit companies like Netflix, Coinbase, Wells Fargo and Carvana last month. Now, these companies say they will focus on profitability over revenue growth–i.e., more hiring freezes and layoffs. But…
As a proud geriatric millennial who prefers the IRL over the URL, I am frankly too tired to learn something new. Being the mom of two toddlers in year three of a pandemic has stolen from us so many IRL moments. Yet, systemically, IRL isn’t set up for a lot of acceptance. But we know…
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
