Think about where you are investing in advertising today. How much–if any–of that translates to an audio world? If you are feeling worried, you are not alone. A relatively new frontier in advertising, the use of sound to reinforce and extend brand identity is just on the cusp of widespread adoption. That means it’s time…
Let’s face it–2019 is not an easy time to be a marketer. As a result of both cultural and consumer shifts, brands spanning industries and categories are facing the same three business challenges: cultural tension, changing behaviors and insatiable appetites. Your brand’s values are under a microscope There’s an overwhelming trend among consumers to interact…
I have always loved sports. As a fan, I am a passionate New Orleans Saints fan (and yes, I’m still bitter about the NFC Championship call) and Kentcuky Wildcats basketball enthusiast. Growing up in Kentucky, I played basketball from age four through high school. I remember spending hours in the gym every summer, just me…
Humans are social beings by nature. We love to communicate and have figured out more than enough ways to always be in touch. This year for the first time ever, a majority of the global population will be digitally connected. And let’s face it: The expectation to be available and connected has become a bit…
With venture money steadily flowing into early and mid-stage product companies, the conversation around DTC brands has never been louder or more divisive. While new startups touted as the “Casper for X” or the “Warby Parker for Y” continue to crop up at high velocity, the conversation has begun to shift, and the headline now…
The gravitational pull of commoditization should be on the mind of every brand marketer, even those who manage the most innovative and disruptive brands in the world today. Often thought of as a concern for only the most ubiquitous products and services, the effect of commoditization doesn’t discriminate, impacting the dynamics of every market, industry…
Recently, Payless revealed that it will soon be closing all of its 2,500 shoe stores. It wasn’t the most earth-shattering news, but seeing the story reminded me of their Palessi stunt back in November. For some reason, many marketers think it’s really cool to trick consumers into thinking that they’re enjoying a high-end product when…
A recent report that live streaming mega-star Ninja aka Tyler Blevins might have as many as 4 million duplicate followers across Twitch, Facebook and YouTube proved less than a bombshell. Loyal fans of gamers are mostly male between the ages 18 to 34 and are likely to follow the same celebrity across multiple platforms. To…
If you’re tuned in with the media industry, you’ve likely heard that we’re in the post-TV era. Many consumers are cord-cutting by canceling the video portion of their cable subscriptions in favor of streaming services. I want to let you in on a secret: Television is most definitely not on the brink of extinction, and…
Cannes Lions Health was created to celebrate life-changing creativity. The expectation is clear, and the bar is decidedly higher than most other award shows. And in the pharma category, we’re faced with so many hurdles to create world-class creative. It isn’t easy. Our clients are more conservative. The system is heavily regulated, built to take…
Ever wonder how your iPhone recognizes your face and even attempts to recognize people in your photos? Much like how a human brain processes images, a computer is trained to process images like a human would. Image recognition, a subset of computer vision, was born out of a summer research project in 1966. The original…
Women are increasingly demanding a seat at the table. This cultural shift means marketers need to rethink female representation in their marketing to general audiences, particularly as they use music to engage consumers. Consider the data on music’s gender gap. Only 9 percent of the 899 individuals who were nominated for a Grammy Award between…
With the upfronts and NewFronts seasons in play, the fact that traditional and digital media have reached parity in ad spend is thrown into stark relief. As consumer behavior has shifted digital-first, ad dollars are also beginning to make major shifts. However, in TV and digital video, we’re still seeing discrepancies. Despite diminishing viewer time…
The lines are finally blurring between NewFronts and upfronts. From Hulu’s new ad format targeted at binge watchers to YouTube’s move to make its original content free and ad-supported to Xandr’s new marketplace for premium video, this year’s presentations show that the convergence of digital is upon us. Advertisers are grappling with the challenge of…
Over the past year, brands have been breaking down barriers in the content marketing sphere and finally allowing creativity to take center stage. Moving away from the foundational, basic interviews, conferences and status report-style videos, brands have been experimenting with the likes of documentaries, feature-length movies and interactive episodic content, transforming their marketing efforts from…
While on the surface it may seem like podcasters and social media influencers have very little in common (namely, we can’t see podcasters or what they are eating or how cute their pet is), there may actually be a great deal we can learn from the early days of influencer marketing to help brands make…
Celebrity endorsement of wellness trends truly jumped the shark with the news that the wholesome lifestyle guru Martha Stewart plans to link with leading cannabis company Canopy Growth to develop and market a range of CBD products. There was no medical professional in sight. In the past month alone, we’ve been worrying whether the ketogenic…
Compared to today, the physical world of the future will be planned without much guesswork involved. It will be developed in an inch-by-inch fashion, thanks to 3D mapping startups like Fantasmo, Matterport, Deepmap, Velodyne Lidar and Netradyne. 3D mapping (also called projection mapping or spatial augmented reality) is a technology that projects a two-dimensional or…
One look at YouTube’s latest brand safety scandal and it becomes clear that marketers still face hard decisions when it comes to avoiding the brand-busting landmines littering the advertising landscape. With social, mobile and video ad spend approaching $100 billion and 90% of mobile video ads alone being transacted programmatically, the rapidly expanding digital ad…
Graduation season is upon us and it’s an important time of the year to pause and celebrate those coming to the end of an academic chapter. But for those who are not recent grads, spring can provide us with an opportunity to reflect on our own careers, what makes us happy at work and keep…
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.
