It’s safe to say that 2021 hasn’t been the year anyone expected. Yet again, designers and brands are responding to shared global challenges, but there are distinct undercurrents of revival, possibility and a tentative optimism happening in visual culture. From expressive typefaces that communicate far beyond words to retro color palettes and playful nostalgic nods…
I would love tech companies to get better at pitching to agencies. Brands are always looking to gain the edge over their competitors, and ad agencies are forever looking to update their operating model. This means that the partnership opportunities presented by startups, emerging platforms and frontier tech become more tantalizing. But I’ve sat through…
Preparing for a trip to the Consumer Electronics Show has always been a daunting proposition–even in pre-pandemic times. This year, the question many of us are asking is: How do you get the most out of a show that attracts hundreds of thousands of companies and attendees when it may be your first live event…
No matter the category or executive team, brands and gaffes go together, especially when dealing with employee layoffs. But how these companies respond publicly can be better or worse than the initial act–assuming they even know how to properly structure an apology. Last week, Better.com CEO Vishal Garg laid off several hundred employees over Zoom,…
In early 2020, my team was getting ready for the launch of Canela.TV, one of the first streaming platforms to be focused entirely on U.S. Hispanic audiences. We had spent months preparing for this moment, building out the back-end technology while recruiting advertisers to help us launch this new venture. And then the pandemic hit….
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the past two years have caused pretty much everyone to take their well-being much more seriously. And they want to know that their favorite brands are taking it just as seriously. Think about the myriad of tools, products and apps we have available to assist us in forming…
“The work” and “the grind” have become synonymous–so much so that when students are learning about advertising as a career option, they’re being taught less about the job’s day-to-day and more about the obstacles they’ll face. The focus has shifted from how to produce “the work” to how to suffer through “the grind” to meet…
It’s no secret that the nature of the U.S. workforce is rapidly evolving. There is increasing pressure from constant and accelerating change, combined with talent migration dynamics unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it has created a reckoning as companies must reconsider how work happens in order to compete for the best and brightest talent….
I am a 20-year veteran of the marketing communications industry, with a career-long focus on helping to elevate social and environmental issues. Since resigning from my role as executive vice president at Edelman in 2015, I have continued to collaborate with large agencies but watched with an increasing sense of unease as the problems that…
2020 undoubtedly had an impact on you in some shape or form. Perhaps you had career momentum and were continuing to build on you; perhaps you were already a rockstar employee, teammate, respected leader, parent, son, neighbor or a passionate marketer grinding towards what could be next. Regardless of your life stage, you were a…
When I first told people I was pursuing my nonprofit full time after graduation, the common response was: “Why would you want to work for a nonprofit? You won’t make any money.” I usually replied: “It’s not about the money. I’m doing this to change lives.” Though I tried to brush it off, the thought…
Restaurants, grocers and retailers of all kinds this year have been dealing with a scarcity of products in the supply chain due to a lack of everything from labor to shipping containers and air-freight capacity. These ripple effects, of course, are rooted in the pandemic, which has hiked food prices for eateries and grocery shoppers…
If you’re engaged in brand building, you’ve probably wrestled with the selection of metrics to measure advertising’s impact on your objectives. Most marketers choose brand awareness to broadly measure effectiveness, but mental availability is another important metric that should be considered. Mental availability is the propensity of a brand being noticed or coming to mind…
Subscription boxes like BirchBox and Barkbox are all the rage these days–and not just among us humans. My dog Bear jumps for joy when his Bark Box comes through the door. In fact, a 2020 survey by CouponFollow found that one-in-five shoppers purchased via a subscription box during the lockdowns, and McKinsey now estimates the…
As the end of another year approaches, premium retail brands continue to navigate a new post-Covid era that sees the luxury market in an unprecedented state of cultural scrutiny. The fundamental definition of what luxury means remains unchanged: quality, heritage and a desire for something beautiful. But over the past 20 months, amid the urgency…
Consumers at Christmastime essentially want two things: to consume and to feel good about it. And with an entirely new patch of grey hairs dedicated to the pandemic, we’re all in desperate need of a bit of feel-good positivity this year. So it’s little wonder that we’re seeing a flurry of cause-driven advertising hit our…
With Breast Cancer Awareness month behind us for another year, it feels like a good time to look at one of the major obstacles preventing early diagnosis. According to behavioral research conducted by U.K.-based breast cancer charity Coppafeel and creative agency Common Collective, the No. 1 barrier to breast self-exams is body shame. Here we…
Organizations across the country pledged over $50 billion after George Floyd’s murder in order to take an active role in dismantling systemic racism. Economic equality (with a focus on mortgages), education, health and culture were some of the biggest areas of investment. And one of the most overlooked areas for investment: Black entrepreneurship. Specifically giving…
A show twice as big as the Super Bowl is spinning off into the U.S., but what can marketers learn from their European colleagues who have struggled to make the most of it for decades? The American Song Contest is coming to NBC in the Spring, but while it is a new show for American…
Richard Branson famously called U.S. vacation policies “something of a disgrace” and I agree. Compared with the rest of the world, the U.S. stinks at providing paid leave, and when it is given, Americans are bad at taking it. Employees historically cite guilt, employer pressure, and trouble unplugging as reasons for not taking vacation. In…
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