In the volatile world of cancel culture, who holds the power to make amends? Mistakes are bound to happen now and again; some are more forgivable than others. Recently, soda brand Poppi faced a lawsuit alleging its gut health claims are falsely advertised. The brand is trying to make a comeback from the allegations, saying…
As a child of the ’80s and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, every June I get a bit nostalgic. I get to observe my LGBTQ+ friends and broader network be a bit more themselves and unabashedly queer. And they do this, consciously or unconsciously, because it’s Pride Month and rainbows are popping up…
The next 6-to-12 months present marketers and brands with a potent concoction of phenomena that are sure to, at a minimum, cause shifts in media economics and, at a maximum, completely upend entire advertising programs and their measurement models. Add to the mix the emotional instability these events cause in us as consumers, and we’re…
Oracle Advertising’s recent news that it’s shuttering its business is a notable milestone in the ongoing disruption and transformation of adtech and martech. Despite their many acquisitions, Oracle failed to integrate these pieces into a marketing cloud stack that worked at a level that could compete with the likes of Adobe or Salesforce. Oracle faced…
As a CFO in the advertising industry, the one constant that I’ve come across is change. Maybe it’s a recency bias, but the past few years have been seemingly more volatile than at any point I can remember. The challenges have been harder and more ill-defined, the answers weren’t straightforward and the outcomes have been…
For the first time in my 14 years in a row attending Cannes Lions, I spent most of the first half of the festival in the bowels of the Martinez, sitting in conference rooms, some without any windows. But it was pure joy because we had the good fortune of having to prepare for Titanium,…
The burgeoning national political season isn’t just about campaign promises and competing candidate agendas: It’s about advertising. According to Forrester Research, 82% of B2C marketing executives in the U.S. have concerns about marketing their brands during this year’s presidential election cycle. Advertisers, publishers and platforms will face additional challenges as an even greater deluge of…
In case you haven’t heard, society is on the brink of collapse thanks to artificial intelligence. We’ve all seen the doomsday headlines: “AI will steal our jobs,” “AI is ruining our relationships,” “AI will destroy the world” and, my personal favorite, “AI is the end of brands as we know them.” Technology, it seems, has…
CANNES, France–The brightest young minds of the advertising world come together each year for the Cannes Young Lion Competition. This year, we asked the two participants representing Team USA, Rachel Findlay and Jessica Nugent, to share their experience. Day 1: We’re in Cannes Between the hot sun and the beauty of the Croisette, the Cannes…
Despite 2023 being viewed as a year of evolving international turmoil, we are seeing a stabilization of the global issues that matter most to people globally and in the U.S. “Poverty, hunger and homelessness” is the most important issue for people worldwide according to Revolt’s annual index ranking of the 50 issues that matter most…
CMO tenure is declining with a median life cycle of about 28 months. But two years is exactly when brand marketing gets exciting, making it a disappointing time to say goodbye. This high turnover comes down to two types of movement. The first is when CEOs and boardrooms are preoccupied with KPIs that don’t necessarily…
I don’t seek the spotlight and I never felt held back by my identity. Yet I am still reminded every day of the harsh reality of prejudice and discrimination our community continues to face post-pandemic. This has changed how I view my own identity and the importance of visibility and representation. It’s why I’m sharing…
At the start of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Starbucks announced its summer release of new fruit drinks: bright blue Starbucks Refreshers with raspberry-flavored “pearls” at the bottom of the cup. The brand says it drew “inspiration from drinks around the world, especially East Asian beverages with boba or pearls that have been popular…
In 2018, a Black-owned small business accomplished an incredible feat on Black Friday by selling $1 million of cosmetics in less than 90 minutes. The Box of Crayons product was also featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things list… twice. Founder Raynell “Supa Cent” Steward has since built a $50 million cosmetic brand without traditional marketing support….
We’ve grown accustomed to accepting wildly overdesigned and unnecessary packaging because brands want their products to stand out on the shelf–and, perhaps inspired by politics, because the one who shouts the loudest gets the most attention. In reality, consumers have shifted their decision-making criteria about product purchases to include more than efficacy and cost. We…
At this year’s TV upfronts, one of the leading players in streaming opened its event with a video set inside its app’s instantly recognizable user interface. One after another, familiar TV characters and talent appeared on screen to flex an impressive catalog of IP across comedies, dramas, theatrical film, news, reality and live sports. But…
“Market dislocation”–though a term most often reserved for economists and Wall Street analysts, it could aptly describe the state of online identity today. Recent reports suggest that Apple and Google are considering removing the IP address from their respective devices’ and platforms’ reporting. This move, which also nods to regulators and privacy advocates, comes on…
In 2021, when I was 37, I became a first-time car owner, first-time homeowner and first-time parent within a three-month span. After nearly two decades spent living in wildly expensive cities and focusing on my education and career, a global pandemic ushered in the rise of remote work and allowed me to move out of…
Casual dining classic Applebee’s recently enjoyed a clear and positive brand mention in the finale episode of reality TV juggernaut Vanderpump Rules, wherein the group heads to San Francisco for a glamorous evening celebrating a close friend’s business launch. The magical earned moment happened when spotlight star Ariana Madix and a subsection of the partygoing…
Casual dining classic Applebee’s recently enjoyed a clear and positive brand mention in the finale episode of reality TV juggernaut Vanderpump Rules, wherein the group heads to San Francisco for a glamorous evening celebrating a close friend’s business launch. The magical earned moment happened when spotlight star Ariana Madix and a subsection of the partygoing…
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