The era of generic, one-size-fits-all content is over; to stay competitive, brands must leverage emotional storytelling powered by real-time data and AI.
Sonic branding isn’t just about creating a sound that works in an ad; it’s about building a sound that becomes synonymous with your brand. The potential is enormous — when done right.
To creative teams and brands aiming for better performance: next time you’re working on a multi-channel campaign, challenge yourself to view each asset through the unique lens of its respective platform.
If your event ends with the audience focussed on a big screen, ditch the generic PowerPoint. Invest in on-brand, purpose-driven content that’s visually striking and make sure your speakers and production is well-prepared.
People want brands with personality because they are craving the real and the human. In the increasingly technological age, our humanness is the antidote and people feel that. Let your humanness shine through, maximally.
People love good causes, and the commercial sector sells good causes fast. If you’re in the business of causes and work for the third sector, it’s time to steal a few tricks. Causes win when we make people care about them, and for the sake of the world, it matters that causes win.
Capturing attention requires cross-organization collaboration and teams that think bigger, make better content, and ensure it’s delivered through the right channels to engage audiences. After all, engaging audiences is the ultimate goal—and what matters to a company’s bottom line.
A strong brand has understood what it stands for as well as what it stands against. But that doesn’t mean being brave and remaining true to a belief system is easy for a brand to do.
The reality is that while genuine scaled alternatives can deliver equal or often better campaign performance, we still have to fight harder to convince brands to diversify their investment – this is another reason why creativity is thriving, as we look to go the extra mile to deliver value and impact for our customers.
It’s universally accepted that winning a LION is akin to winning an Oscar in our industry. We love ‘em. We want ‘em. And yes, mine got me a better job.
The influence of Gen-Z will only grow, both in economic terms and cultural impact. For marketers, the challenge is to adapt and innovate continuously to meet the expectations of this digitally forward generation.
Booker’s distinctive archetypes are still alive and well, forming the backbone of stories that, as humans, we love to tell. And that means in B2B, they’re the perfect framework to build campaigns that get seriously good results.
If your brand has never considered audio branding, now is a good time to start. The power of sound is undeniable.
Storytelling is a crucial part of any content marketing strategy in any medium. While some logic factors into decision making, consumers can be hooked by a great story.
By asking yourself probing questions when you write, you can deliver true thought leadership, rise to the top of a social feed or cluttered inbox, and capture the attention of your recipients in a meaningful and impactful way.
Successfully bridging the gap between traditional and modern search advertising strategies requires an understanding of the unchanged core principles while embracing new technologies and consumer behavior trends.
Knowing that performance ads try converting you on the spot, when was the last time reading ‘click here now’ made you feel something, or admire the brand?
Getting sonic branding right really matters, especially on Hollywood’s biggest night. In the world of compressed attention there’s never been more at stake.
This International Women’s Day, I wanted to reflect on my story. It’s the story of how I overcame a car accident, a divorce, nine surgeries and a lot of pain and heartache.
Promotional products remain a potent tool in the marketing mix, thanks to their unmatched reach and cost-effectiveness. However, as consumer expectations evolve, so too must the strategies surrounding these products.
Problem-solving could be the soul of the story. Or it could simply be a complex tale that involves a variety of angles meant to show the ways a brand can deliver what its audience wants and needs.
What is required to succeed in this era is not a passive investment in story, or media, production. What’s required to succeed is a total transformation of your business into an agile, storytelling-first operation.
The biggest sports event of the year – the NFL’s Super Bowl – isn’t just for die-hard football fans. It’s also a coveted, celebrated event for the advertising and creative community around the world.
In an increasingly crowded and fast-paced social media landscape, leveraging pop culture in your social media content can be a powerful tool to help you and your brand stand out from the competition.
Once you find the influencers who have a natural connection with your brand, the real challenge begins: recruiting them.
As sonic branding has become more recognized for its strengths, we no longer need to start with defining what sonic branding is and its potential to flex across a brand’s entire ecosystem.
As the youth sports industry continues to increase in popularity and value, it’s time for brands to leverage the untapped spending power of parents
In my years managing talent, there were a few simple principles that I learned that have been valuable to my work in the social impact space. And it becomes even more critical in the social impact space where we’re asking influencers, creators and celebrities to give their time for free.
In my more than thirty years of working in Public Relations, it’s become common to work with clients who, despite the fact that they are hiring me, really do not know what I do.
If nostalgia makes sense for your audience, brand, and campaign, the final step is to be conscious of what wasn’t great about the era or moment you’re tapping into, as well as what was.
Evolving from user-centricity to humanity-centricity in our design processes is imperative for a sustainable future.
Investing in identity-powered marketing is important – but it’s only part of the equation for creating great customer experiences.
Gen Alpha will inevitably dismantle the building blocks that built TikTok in the same way that Gen Z relegated GIFs to Slack and family group chats.
In today’s rapidly evolving influencer marketing landscape, the ability to stand out requires a blend of innovation, community engagement, psychological insight, and the timeless power of storytelling.
An influencer-first ad strategy isn’t just a shift in marketing tactics; it’s a shift back to good, old-fashioned storytelling and relationship-building.
Savvy audiences know meaningless puff content when they see it, and more than ever, are demanding authenticity.
Once marketers and advertisers understand their audience’s activities across various digital domains, including things like social media, streaming, gaming and shopping apps (and TikTok of course!), they can use this intelligence to capture waning attention in the most effective way possible.
By Megan Allinson, Integrated Marketing Director at BKM Marketing While the age of digital media…
Creators are playing the role of virtual sales-floor associates, not only promoting products, but reviewing and testing them, and letting customers know about discounts through entertaining, relatable content that viewers engage with and share, further extending reach.
By investing in iCommerce, brands are interacting in a more engaging and collaborative way. This drives deeper customer engagement, which then fuels higher conversions, new revenue streams and improved ROI within this new set of behaviors for GenZ.
By harnessing the power of creative design, storytelling and innovation, coupled with seamless functionality, businesses can deliver exceptional user experiences that drive conversions, foster brand loyalty, and ultimately lead to long-term success.
We caught up with Ryan Stewart, Head of Publisher Acquisition at MGID, to find out about his role, and his approach to facing these challenges head on.
As audiences have grown more fragmented across channels, brands are looking for more efficient and effective ways to connect and engage with them.
A more transparent relationship leads to trust and ensures influencers feel appreciated.
In an AI world saturated with artificially generated content, relatable human experiences will be one of the few things able to cut through the noise.
Despite the rise of competitors, YouTube remains the dominant platform for influencer marketing programs. Here’s why brands ought to look at YouTube as a key part of their influencer marketing strategy.
Success in the new media and advertising reality is going to require brands to break things—patterns, siloes and, overall, conventional thinking.
By leaning into comedy, into creativity, our industry has an opportunity to drive the direction of culture, something that advertising, at its best, has always done.
With constant shifts and changes in social media, creators face challenges when they over-rely on a single platform for showcasing and monetizing their talents.
By Pete Jackson, Head of Planning at Trouble Maker You’ve just spent a king’s ransom…
Creativity has always been our strongest weapon, but was pushed to the periphery during the era of ‘cookie-based’ programmatic targeting.
When it’s handled effectively, content marketing shouldn’t just take money. It can make money for your organization, too.
In a rapid-fire market where trends evolve by the second, beauty brands are continuously faced with the pressure to evolve alongside their environment. But how do companies know when it’s time for a brand reinvention?
Photo: Igor Alecsander/Getty Images By Samuel Malave Jr, Creative Insights Manager, iStock and Getty Images…
There’s only one way to grab hold of Gen Z: provide good experiences and then amplify those offerings within the language of social media.
By Danny Shepherd, Co-CEO of Intero Digital Influencer marketing has become a popular strategy for…
Marketing teams have many of the same challenges wherever they work, but looking across the divide and communicating every now and then will ease difficulties each sector thinks they are facing alone.
Measuring learning outcomes via tactics like influencer surveys, audience polls, and multivariate testing uncovers valuable qualitative insights for brands.
With TikTok’s ad revenue set to increase, it’s clear that this platform will have staying power among brands and marketers.
Newest iteration of the campaign features NHL phenoms Matty Beniers and Jack Hughes and shines a light on authentic fans pushing the envelope in their sports.
The tools exist for brands and marketers to analyze and understand the impact of their advertising campaigns.
To get a sense of the challenges of rebranding, we hit the (virtual) streets to hear from leaders in adland about their thoughts and experiences.
All stories have a beginning, middle and end. The trick is to rethink these terms as setup, confrontation (sometimes conflict), resolution…and that’s pretty much it.
Direct mail is a marketing stalwart, and in 2023 it has a fresh identity as a channel that delivers personalized, valuable content throughout the customer journey.
A social-first strategy can provide an opportunity for a brand to cultivate a meaningful relationship with their most passionate customers.
The campaign will run on TV, social, radio, print, and out of home in the 21 countries and jurisdictions in the Caribbean and beyond.
Retail brands will need to embed digital-first strategies within their business to ensure they build lasting relationships with customers.
Effective planning early on in the creative process will help marketers take full advantage of the channel’s opportunities to come to life in the real world with all the engaging capabilities of digital.
For the first time, quality content is prioritised over subscriber count. Virality is no longer for the titans.
Relationship rigor is taking the qualities that make your strongest relationships and using them to win new ones.
In Bulk’s newest campaign, You vs You, the creative team wanted to spread the message that nobody is perfect.
The debate pitching global against local teams is unlikely to go unresolved, but ultimately it misses the point.
Women 50+ account for roughly half of cosmetics, skin care, hair care, and personal care product usage.
It’s essential that the brand voice and guidelines include all stakeholders in the organization who have customer-facing responsibilities.
Here are some best practices for creating high-performing, people-first content that delivers exceptional value to readers
Meeting consumers in the moment with personalised advertising will allow brands to take advantage of this big-ticket event and score big.
Human-centered approaches to content through relevant and person-specific experiences will drive the industry forward.
By applying the curiosity lens, marketers can understand what drives consumer behaviour, and use the insights to bring brand stories to life.
And as the number of people who consume traditional media keeps declining, it’s giving small businesses greater opportunities to reach younger and more diverse audiences. Their next generation of customers.
That’s the best thing about rewriting the startup marketing playbook. You get to start from scratch—tabula rasa.
By Alyssa Patzius, COO of Influence & Co., When it comes to PR and content…
With a relentless focus on great user experience – taking in the many nuances that this entails – a more discerning form of standardization lies in reach.
We hope this brings the case and its related issues to a wider audience. VayNoire is eager to take on any future projects which tackle the issues faced within society by the Black community.
As customers increasingly choose to transact and interact with brands online, building the trust of communities is vital.
TikTok Time Is Here, Happiness and Cheer. Fun for All That Children Call Their Favorite Time of Year
While “try-hard” content is costly, it’s also not always effective—so leave it behind. Lean into that holiday joy.
Respectfully wander through the New Jersey Pine Barrens’ forests to find a surprising variety of scenery, habitats and species in this island of biodiversity, but you won’t encounter the Jersey Devil.
To explore the future impact of transformational changes in the creative realm, Google is partnering with Contagious, Benedict Evans, Bain & Company, and 25 industry trailblazers on the Open Creative Project
So, let’s stop where I started. Customers are hungry – starving in fact – for new kinds of experiences from the brands that they interact with, but instead of hearing “I want my MTV”, we should all hear “I want relevant content now, ASAP, immediately, please”.
Brands can see far beyond the creative horizons of the past, generating boundless worlds and stories. The only restriction will be the limits of our imagination.
Brands are waking up to the power of podcasting to reach new customers and create more leads. The sheer quantity of frequent listeners is a major factor.
There’s a new way to look at influencer marketing that we see in the data, and it starts with recognizing the difference between ‘influentials’ and ‘influencers.
For brands, emotions present an important opportunity to engage the audience, and creating an emotional connection is vital to attracting both customers and employees.
At a time of unprecedented disruption, publishers face many challenges; but they also hold the trump card of storytelling par excellence.
Wilderness, the global social agency, was tasked with helping Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) attract a European wide audience to rent the new Bond movie to watch at home, rather than going to the cinema.
We don’t need to allow curse-like fears to hinder the dreamers of our industry. Marketers are all creative people, so let’s act like we truly care about creativity.
With a significant number of people using mobile devices and tablets, we’re starting to witness an acceleration in innovations and increased popularity of online streaming.
Digital has changed the publishing industry but there is still an important place for print.
Someone somewhere in your personal or business network is an engineer. Have a chat with them about what they’re working on. Compare notes on how they get stuff done. Ask them what they think the metaverse will be for.
These are only two examples of how today’s global brands have been met with a timely and difficult marketing decision – with each choosing a path that led them to either cheers or jeers on social media.
The action on the field during the big game between the L.A. Rams and Cincinnati Bengals was matched only by the advertising contests that played out during the commercial breaks.
Talk to any mobile app marketer who has run a launch plan and you’ll hear stories of one-day surges and topping the App Store charts, only to be left with the disappointing reality that such a surge of users is rarely—if ever—sustainable. That appears to be the case for Coinbase, as well.
There is a unique opportunity for marketers to connect with their customers and drive greater engagement this Winter, as sport is a topic that resonates with so many – whether you’re watching, participating, or attending events.
Decisions based on insight and understanding of consumers the brand wants to connect with – consistently asking, “Will this execution work for them?” – reduces subjectivity and ultimately builds efficiency into the creative process.
To meet consumers expectations now, brands need to deliver one-to-one experiences across channels that meet customers where they are in their journey. A “Connected Marketing” approach gives brands the capability to do this.
Whether you are a nonprofit, an individual, or a company looking for ways to give back, here are a few best practices as we collectively seek to give back and teach what we know.
Before you finish your list of New Year’s resolutions, add a couple about brand language. Write in a way that’s simple and inclusive – and rise to the challenges of 2022.
TaylorMade and Zambezi, with the help of three of the top ten players in the world: Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, and Rory McIlroy, take viewers on a VFX-guided tour of the last 40 years of TaylorMade innovation.
Each media channel faces individual challenges, in addition to the re-appearance of out-of-home activities. But some principles can be applied across the board to retain or win back customers.
TikTok is building out new creative solutions and ad formats for brands at a lightning pace, including live shopping. With a seamless link added to the video, this could help guide users to purchase products more easily.
From a branding perspective companies will need to show accountability and prove they are acting on the changes they promised to make in 2021.
By getting in on the ground, advertisers can build strong relationships with publishers and other players while helping to build the foundation that many others will soon discover.
The continued growth of smartphone and smart speaker ownership solidifies digital audio as a growth opportunity advertisers would do well to take seriously.
Video in DOOH can drive brand awareness and even performance that isn’t possible elsewhere, precisely by virtue of existing someplace meaningful in the physical world. Here are some factors to consider, however, for advertisers that want to get the most out of it.
By replacing third-party data with first-party counterparts, advertisers are presented with tools that are more potent than ever. From CTRs to conversions and even difficult metrics like retention and attention, contextual ads have seen advertising KPIs soar across the board.
If you want to generate deeper positive consumer sentiment (and committed action) year-round, make a sustained investment to activate your brand strength around shared values with your consumers. You’ll see it delivers meaningful business value, while impacting the lives of your consumers and communities.
Twenty years have passed since Hagrid and Harry began one of cinema’s greatest adventures. The eight movies since have grossed almost $8 billion in box office revenue alone, confirming Harry Potter as one of the most significant – and successful – franchises of our age.
Consumers expect highly relevant content and brand experiences while also demanding more digital privacy. Enter enriched visual hypertelling, a creative storytelling approach fueled by first-party data.
Never before has the importance of context been clearer than over the past couple of years.
NFTs. The metaverse. 3 Tips for Marketing in a 3D Business World
Ok, so we’re not saving lives, but if I’m selling you a hamburger, you’ll know you’re being sold a hamburger. Terms and Conditions apply.
While consumers are out and about in droves and driving around at, or above, pre-pandemic levels, COVID has permanently shifted consumer behaviors, and thus, brands must shift how they are planning and allocating media.
Head of Shutterstock’s Rights and Clearance department, Corky Balch, discusses the legality of using famous faces for your next campaign.
Which colors work best on screen? How many people should you cast? The answers are…
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has proclaimed the week starting October 11 as New York Digital Signage Week. While it’s true that out of home was impacted more than other ad mediums over the past 18 months, the sector has rallied back steadily.
After spending months indoors and consuming in-home digital media at a colossal scale, the reopening of hospitality and event venues is bringing back eyeballs to public spaces.
Visiting in-laws in heartland Ohio showcased an important reminder about media trends: political messaging is 24/7 even in non-election years.
Brands are constantly battling for the attention of their audience. This is quite a challenge as there is an incredible volume of content bombarding consumers each day, every day.
The essence of brilliant storytelling through a visual medium is the ability to transport and immerse the audience in the moment, by painting a picture of a place, people and possibilities that invoke all your senses – the art of great storytelling forms the bedrock of our creative industry.
Box offices are reopening and studios are shooting again, but the time Americans spent at home has likely changed media consumption forever.
Seeing marketing as the sole arbiter of video content or framing video as the new broadcast equivalent to meet the demands of CTV misses the point.
A half-century ago, small-town startup Daktronics made an electronic wrestling scoreboard that became synonymous with the sport. Now Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT) lights up the world.
Content marketing is, however, the most sustainable way to grow demand and a loyal audience. If you’re in need of immediate results, content marketing is not for you. But if you’re after long-term success and growing your audience base, you’ve found your match.
Over the years we’ve heard lots of debate about the viability of email. As social media steamrolled onto the scene, many people in the industry even wrote email off as “dead,” proclaiming that social would make email irrelevant, especially for younger generations.
Tourism analysts see hopeful signs in theme park bookings, airline traffic, and more. Leisure travel is recovering first, ahead of business trips, experts say.
Covid-19 exposed African American beauty salons and barbershop owners to more than a virus: It exposed how important these businesses are to the Black community.
When President Joe Biden visited Pittsburgh to pitch his infrastructure bill, environmentalists urged him to “Go Big” on Covid recovery. Their media platform: billboards.
Like any other part of the communications landscape, barter agencies have had to adapt tactics and strategies to keep pace with these larger shifts—and some have done better than others.
To align with new habits under lockdown, budgets have been shifted into more mobile-friendly digital media. Traditional channels have taken a hit. But consumers still value traditional ads, and brands would be unwise to assume they’ve become stale.
Global online video views are at an all-time high and rising 100% every year. The widespread accessibility of high-speed internet allows users to watch live and on-demand videos more than ever before.
The privacy bubble is starting to burst and advertisers and marketers alike are quickly pivoting their efforts to include Audio OOH technology in their marketing strategies to reach customers in a privacy-conscious world.
We sat down with Jennifer Allen, COO of handsome, to discuss the rise of digital creative during COVID, the dangers of ‘too much’ digital, and the present and future of omnichannel.
Back in March 2020 when the pandemic first forced businesses to shift to WFH and brands were examining how they talked to customers that demonstrated empathy, clients started asking a lot larger purpose-related, brand strategy-type questions.
What can brands and marketers do to benefit consumers during this crucial period of their lives? Our friends at Healthline Media have created their 2021 Fitness Forecast to answer that very question.
Over the course of the tumultuous year, we observed that content publisher partners experienced material year-over-year growth despite it all, a trend that validated their very emergence as key contributors in the affiliate marketing channel.
Amanda Glasgow, creative director EMEA at digital consultancy Appnovation, explores the digital tactics that beauty brands need to stand out in a cutthroat sphere.
Now that 2021 is well underway, consumers everywhere are seeking knowledge and practical advice on how to better themselves and their health after a rocky year under quarantine and stress.
5 experience principles that are fundamental to how we can design and reimagine brand experiences that work at every stage of the consumer lifecycle, for 2021 and beyond.
For decades, a TV served as the focal point in millions of living spaces; if you didn’t have one, you were the exception, not the rule. Fast-forward to the present day, and it’s clear that a lot has changed.
From theme parks to fast food outlets or reality TV shows – there’s a long history of ideas succeeding in the US before they find their way across the pond to European shores.
Going into 2021, if you’re not considering modifications to the media strategy you laid out a year ago, you’re likely neglecting new opportunities.
If you lead a modern business, you know that your online presence is a crucial component of your financial success.
According to financeonline.com, the number of social media users is expected to increase to more than 4 billion by 2021. As social media continues to play a role in many companies’ digital marketing campaigns, here are seven crucial KPIs to look-out for in 2021.
After a multi-billion-dollar avalanche of political attack ads — so off-putting that some voters turned off their TVs — a glimpse of humor appears in the Georgia runoff election.
Helen Rose, head of insight and analytics at independent media agency the7stars, explores the role of empathy in driving gender awareness – for next-level brand campaigning.
2020 saw everything change, with the global health crisis largely eliminating live events and upending proven marketing techniques. With brands eager to reunite with customers, experiential marketing pivoted to help forge these important relationships now and into the future.
The shift from physical to digital events is an unavoidable necessity in the current climate. Even pre-COVID there was a significant movement towards hybrid events, but the pandemic put a rocket up the entire industry when it comes to virtual.
Recent Articles
