What the Latest Move by Google on Cookie Deprecation Really Means for Marketers

Last month, Google made another announcement about its road map toward deprecating third-party cookies from Chrome. It’s not the first time this year that Google dropped a major announcement about its identity strategy; in March, the company announced it would not support industry-unified IDs for ad buying. The rest of the industry is left having…

How Deep Learning AI Can Transform Challenger Brands Into Cutting-Edge Leaders

Finding and retaining new customers is the lifeblood of any business. A lot of people think that all you need to succeed is a great idea, and the customers will follow. However, as anyone who has attempted to start their own business can tell you, the reality is a lot more complicated than that. Without…

Why Companies Need to Take the Lead in the Plastic-Free Movement

It’s no secret that there’s been an enormous cultural and consumer reckoning with our plastic usage. According to some estimates, roughly 8 million metric tons of plastic makes its way into the ocean every year, and by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the water. Even in the face of these alarming…

Brands Must Step Up at the Olympics as Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Advocates

When it comes to our workplaces, we encourage individuals to speak up. Yet many of us are bystanders watching things happen. The bystander effect can also be true of brands. When systems and processes are broken, there is a huge opportunity for brands to step up as diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) advocates. With the…

Marketers Must Determine What the Future of Work Will Look Like for Their Organization

The pandemic has tested the corporate cultures of companies everywhere. During the initial months of the crisis, leaders quickly realized whether their cultures were strong enough to withstand the new work from home paradigm and sustain staff during the months that turned into over a year of isolation. Leaders had no precedent for how to…

What Marketers Can Learn From TikTok and Dating Apps About Loyal Customer Relationships

Over the next five years, the global marketing industry is forecasted to grow by 19%. By 2026 brands are expected to spend $66 billion annually on data, technology and new analytical approaches to convert shoppers into buyers, up from $27 billion in 2021. This conversion funnel obsession has inadvertently confounded brand marketer’s single most important…

Building the Right Mar-Tech Stack for Your Organization

The marketing technology landscape has changed dramatically over the last seven years. Back in 2011, there were around 150 marketing technology platforms. Today, we’ve got thousands of marketing tools and platforms that sit across various categories–advertising optimization, data tracking and management, integration tools, customer relationship management, email marketing, chatbots, etc. Not only do businesses need…

4 New Rules for Handling Business as the Pandemic Changes Everything We Once Knew

New business is the lifeline of an agency. This is even more true during the pandemic when everything that worked in the past flipped upside down. And now, to win new business, it requires a new approach and new way of seeing things. Business development is full of energy and excitement, headaches and heartbreaks–a lot…

4 Ways to Leverage the Intersection of Brand and Response Advertising

For years, certain media channels have been designated to different communication strategies. Some channels were considered better at driving brand awareness while others were better at closing a sale. However, due to improvements in measurement, technology and data, the upper and lower parts of the funnel have merged. Now, channels that were considered only for…

Data Use by Brands Is Misunderstood—and It’s Time for Brands to Speak Out

Even before the pandemic forced more of our day-to-day lives online, people were becoming more conscious of the use of their data. In addition to this, more critical voices are calling it an unnecessary intrusion that offers people little value in return. That suspicion is at least partially the result of widespread confusion. A Pew…

Speculation Around Indie Agency Engine’s Sale Leads to Questions of Who Might Buy It—and Why

It’s been a funny century for the marketing and communications industry: the rise of holding groups, consolidation, startups, digital disruption, even a pandemic, the effects of which we cannot yet even begin to analyze let alone understand. In the tumultuous 20 years so far, many names have come and gone. Once-mighty agencies have been subsumed…

Brands: You Don’t Know Who Your Customers Are—and It Shows

The nation feels so close to recovery. With each passing day, the events of 2020 feel more distant. As the nation reckoned with political disconnect, racial tension, economic plight and a global pandemic, brands wrestled with how to stay relevant. Eighty-nine percent of brands reported they were impacted by Covid-19, which led to pulling, pausing,…

Brands Must Wake Up to Their Responsibilities and Stop Lagging Behind on Climate Action

The G7 summit left us with plenty of ambitious statements and promises on climate change from world leaders but little in the way of funding campaigners say they need to support developing countries dealing with the climate emergencies. And despite the focus on climate action during the summit, the U.K. contingent arguably provided some very…

3 Tips for Transforming Your Organic Brand Social Accounts to Create More Value

As brand social media continues to evolve, the trope of “the intern runs the account” is in the past. Now brands are looking for ways to manufacture a tone that seems like an intern is running the account. Sometimes this results in massive success, and other times this is a beautiful disaster. Below are three…

Brands Need to Connect With the LGBTQ+ Community Over More Than Just Sexuality and Gender

As we reflect back on this past Pride month, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Flags. Rainbows. Parades. But is that the only reflection of the LGBTQ+ community? Of the people you know, or the person you are? As someone on the inside looking out, I can say it’s not a full…

How the Pandemic Left the Door Open for Brave Brands Ready to Scale

Over the last few weeks, the U.K. ad industry has been buoyed by forecasts of a major post-pandemic bounce. One prediction by GroupM estimates that the U.K. ad market will grow by a whopping 24% during 2021, with the global market set to jump by 19%. As advertising is always a reliable barometer of economic…

If You Believe Advertising Works Then Don’t Argue Against the UK HFSS Ad Ban

Presenter Vanessa Feltz’s BBC Radio London researcher messaged me last week asking whether I’d be happy to give an industry insider response on-air to the news that, in an effort to curb childhood obesity, the British government had enacted a new watershed TV and online ban on high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food advertising….

Behind the Scenes of Cannes Winner ‘Womb Stories’ and Its Masterful Framing of Womanhood

When me and my creative partner Nadja Lossgott were given the brief by Libresse and Bodyform to push against the taboos and stigmas that continue to hold women back when it comes to the intimate details of their health, we were also told to keep it simple. This time around, we dove deeper under women’s…

The British Ad Industry’s Fight Over HFSS Digital Ban Isn’t Over

‘Junk food giants will be banned from advertising online’ ran the front page of The Times yesterday morning and, in that sense, the British government has achieved what it set out to do. The news of the high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) foods online ad ban has grabbed front-page headlines, made a splash and–on…

Why Advertisers Were Right to Boycott New British Channel GB News

Top brands are right to pull their ads from GB News, Britain’s controversial new “anti-woke” current affairs TV channel which launched this month. Unfortunately, a number of high-profile brands including Ikea, Grolsch beer, Nivea and cider maker Kopparberg, only made this decision after receiving complaints across social media from vocal customers objecting to their apparent…