What Craft Beer Can Teach Your Brand About Storytelling

17 April 2013

Why are craft beer companies so great at telling their stories? Simple: because these scrappy upstarts actually have stories to tell—often they were built from the ground up on the basis of those stories. Companies like Stone Brewing Co. and …

Is Foursquare Becoming the Perfect Local Ad Platform?

25 July 2012

Local merchants that’ve ignored location-based check-in platform foursquare have just been handed a serious reason to get on board: Local Updates, the first-ever way for merchants large and small (all one million of them, currently) to communicate directly with their …

Adios, Middleman: The Rise of Direct-to-Consumer Platforms

25 April 2012

Turning a great idea into a reality is getting easier by the minute. Small businesses and individuals can pitch, barter and sell straight to the masses. The audience is connected directly to the creator, sans middleman. With the help of …

Staying True to the Story: Where ‘The Lorax’ Went Wrong

28 March 2012

It’s been weeks. Why haven’t I gone to see the movie adaptation of my favorite childhood story, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax? It wasn’t the trailers or previews, but rather the antics of Universal Pictures’ marketing department and their eagerness to …

Facebook’s New Premium Ads: A Huge Mistake?

07 March 2012

At last week’s first-ever Facebook Marketing Conference (fMC for short), Facebook officially announced the integration of four new products into their advertising model. These additions represent the most invasive placements on the social networking site yet. For the first time, …

Three Ways the Second Screen Is Shaping the Future of Television

23 February 2012

Have you heard of the second screen? If not and you’re a marketer of media, you’d better listen up and learn fast; a number of television networks and individual programs have started taking this concept seriously and are, as a …

Crowdsourced! Eight Ways to Involve Your Most Important Allies

01 February 2012

Brand-hatched crowdsourcing is nothing new. But constructive crowdsourcing with usable output? Crowdsourcing that evokes a palpable sense of togetherness? That’s new. Steps being taken by nimble branders like Warby Parker and Betabrand to engage (and we mean really engage) fans …

Getting Hairy For Charity: The Waxed Promise of Movember

23 November 2011

Movember. Manliest of all months, this philanthropic sensation has made its mark by having men around the world pledge, for one month, to grow the ultimate icebreaker and conversation starter: a sweet ‘stache. Since its inception in 2003, $178 million …