With all the noise about mobile ads, it would be hard to blame you for just assuming print ads had died and gone to marketing heaven. But smartphone-interactive codes, specifically QR codes, have taken the traditional ad market by storm; more than 10 percent of ads in the top 100 magazines in the U.S. now [...]
Dec 12, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Marketing, Technology, Trends | Tags: Advertising, codes, Guinness, Jossle, mobile, mobile apps, QR codes, smartphone | Leave A Comment »
[Originally published in longer form on Stamford magazine’s website.] It’s as much a part of today’s office culture as mediocre coffee and birthday cupcakes from the nearest deli—and a whole lot more fun and useful for maintaining sanity. I’m talking about the work spouse, that person who is a sometime confidant, habitual significant partner and [...]
Aug 10, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Features, Marketing, PR | Tags: 30 Rock, Advertising, Captivate Networks, collaboration, Facebook, HR, IM, Marketing, marketing communications, OfficeMax, sales, significant other, the Accidental Adult, the Huffington Post, Twitter, work husband, work spouse, work wife | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Stamford magazine's website.] Last Saturday morning, you could say I had a bit of a wake-up call. We sat eating Nova on Fairway bagels with a few weekend guests, our banter made a bit fuzzier by the previous night’s homemade sangria, courtesy of my sister, and icy margaritas from Jim’s son, courtesy [...]
Jul 03, 2012 | Categories:Features, Insights, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: 140 characters, 24/7/365, Advertising, BlackBerry, C-suite, cloud, connection, digital, distractions, intimacy, Jay Chiat, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mark Wnek, mobility, smartphone, Social Media, solitude, telephobia, telephone, text, virtuality, voice, voice mail | Leave A Comment »
Many of you reading this have worked in marketing, advertising or PR and have made a lifelong career out of building brands and selling products in many categories. But have you ever taken the time to think of what you have to offer the world as a product? Maybe it’s your ability to write great [...]
Jun 13, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: adland, Advertising, Advertising Age, Apple, Brand Me, freelancing, linchpins, Marketing, personal brand, Pinterest, polyglots, PR, public relations, self-curation, Seth Godin | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on CNBC.com.] With the Facebook IPO looming and everybody watching, I’m wondering if the social network to end all social networks is going to live up to the hype. (Could anything live up to all this hype?) With big advertisers not convinced that Facebook is a good platform to propel brands forward and [...]
May 18, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Social Media | Tags: Advertising, Disney, Eduardo Saverin, Facebook, Facebook IPO, Ford, GM, Google, Infographic Labs, Instagram, Kraft Foods, Mark Zuckerberg, Pinterest, Sheryl Sandberg, Social Media, social networks, Wall Street, Yahoo | 1 Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] In this election year, I’ve been on fear watch. Folks are fearful of everything from 2012 theories to GMOs to student loans taking over as the No. 1 source of pain for college grads everywhere. A few years ago, I talked at length about the cult of anger our [...]
May 07, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Insights, PR, Social Media, Youth | Tags: 9/11, Advertising, anger, Brands, business, Chevy, Chrysler, college, consumer confidence, Daniel Gardner, fear, fearless, fearlessness, France, French elections, Generation Y, Germany, GMOs, Google, Hermes, hope, Israel, Japan, Martin Luther King Jr., Obama, Palestine, PR, presidential election, public relations, retail, South Sudan, student loan debt, student loans, suburbs, World War II | Leave A Comment »
Online ad spending in Russia swelled by 56 percent in 2011—meaning that officially, but just barely, it surpassed print advertising spending. The U.S. is also set to hit that advertising milestone this year; in 2012 American advertisers will allot an estimated $39.5 billion to online campaigns (compared with $32.03 billion last year). Who’s pocketing these [...]
Mar 20, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Media, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Advertising, advertising trends, american association of advertising agencies, association of national advertisers, digital ads, Facebook, Google, in-view advertising, infographic, online ad spending, online ads, print advertising, Russia, social media advertising, television advertising, the interactive advertising bureau, United States | Leave A Comment »
As Facebook prepares to go public, one journalist suggested that, in homage to its transparent nature, “TMI” be adopted as its stock ticker symbol. Works for us, especially considering there has been so much wince-worthy social media activity of late. Some doozies in particular: A woman used Twitter to hash out the good, the bad [...]
Feb 21, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: 50 Cent, Advertising, Facebook, hashtag, oversharing, Sinead O’Connor, Social Media, social media trends, Technology, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Biking: a boon to the environment or urban nuisance on wheels? It depends on whom you ask. Turns out that the growing number of bicyclists in cities around the world are subject to a bit of a backlash—call it a “backpedal.” And nowhere are the complaints more loudly heard than in New York City (natch). [...]
Jan 27, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Marketing, Politics, PR, Trends | Tags: Advertising, American cyclists, bicycle, bicycle accident, bicyclist, biking, biking accident, British cyclists, Dutch cyclists, environmental movements, global trends, Marketing, Politics, public relations, transportation trends | Leave A Comment »
St. Petersburg, Fla., is the saddest U.S. city; Austin the funniest; and Nashville the manliest. The loneliest city on the entire planet? Dublin. And the very best city to live in all the world is … (drumroll, please) … Vancouver. Have qualms with any of these or questions about how they were chosen? So do [...]
Jan 25, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Brands, PR, Social Media | Tags: Advertising, Austin, city lists, city rankings, Detroit, Dublin, happiest city, Marketing, marketing trends, Nashville, public relations, saddest city, Social Media, sponsorship, St. Petersburg, Top 10 lists, transportation, urban planning, Vancouver | Leave A Comment »
A massage before take-off. An in-flight shower. Three-star meals. These days, first-class flights are more dramatically luxurious than ever before—in stark comparison to the spartan amenities afforded those occupying the back portion of the plane. Though first-class passengers account for just 5 percent of those on long-haul routes, and business class passengers for 15 percent, [...]
Dec 20, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Brands, PR, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Advertising, aviation, branding, economics, first class, flight, luxury market, Occupy Wall Street, plane, public relations, reality television, Social Media, Southwest Airlines, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
It’s so 2008 to complain that Mom and Dad have joined Facebook. The platform long ago ceased playing host to mostly college kids and their keg party pictures. These days, the average age of an American Facebook user has risen, to 38 in 2010, up from 33 in 2008. (Also of note: This average user [...]
Dec 14, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Marketing, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Advertising, aging, baby boomers, elderly, Facebook, Kevin Bacon, Marketing, Medicare, seniors, six degrees of separation, social connections, Social Media, SoMe, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Have you noticed a gender stereotype emerging in some of today’s humorous ads? (Brands such as Dodge, Dockers, Dove and Miller Lite come to mind.) Each ad has in common a hapless male weathering his wife’s requests while longing to reclaim his manhood. In spite of some backlash, this new generation of ads is an [...]
Dec 12, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Brands, Fashion, Marketing, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Advertising, Chechnya, controversy, Dockers, Dodge, Dove, Dr Pepper, female consumers, feminism, gender, Marketing, Miller Lite, sex, Summer's Eve, women | Leave A Comment »
Now that the social media footprint of corporate brands has been directly linked to a company’s growth and value, more emphasis is being put on the how-tos of branding via social media. For one, there’s the matter of “likes” and comments and how to get them. Comments, especially, are valuable to brands, as they lead [...]
Dec 05, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Brands, Fashion, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Advertising, Bank of America, branding, damage control, Facebook, Google Plus, Harvard Business School, Marketing, promotion, public relations, Social Media, Tory Burch, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on Fuel the Future. I’ve written before about how far advertising has come in terms of how women are portrayed. I’ve long been a fan of the Dove ads that show “real” women in “real” underwear, and sanitary pad brand Always has done a good job of portraying what having your cycle is [...]
Aug 01, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Marketing | Tags: Adfreak, Advertising, Always, Brands, Dove, feminine hygiene, Fuel the Future, Groupon, Marketing, multicultural, Stephen Colbert, stereotypes, Summer's Eve, Super Bowl, The Richards Group, Tina Fey, vagina | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on Fuel the Future. It was a big week in Cannes, and I just flew home. From Jacksonville. So here I am in Connecticut trying to decide if I have Cannes envy after following my friends and colleagues in France on Facebook and Twitter. But what I’ve decided is that maybe Cannes isn’t [...]
Jun 24, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Features, PR | Tags: Advertising, Advertising Age, awards, blur, Cannes, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Dave Senay, earned media, Fleishman-Hillard, Grand Prix, measurement, metrics, PR, public relations, TBWA | Leave A Comment »
It has been a while since we’ve heard people talk about “the death of advertising.” A few years back, the birth of social media and interactive marketing had ad watchers sounding the death knell, but we now know that although advertising (and media in general) has changed, the ad biz has certainly not disappeared—and is [...]
Jan 26, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, CSR, Features, Marketing, Media, PR | Tags: Advertising, Arnold Worldwide, consumers, creative class, crowdsourcers, crowdsourcing, CSR, David Jones, death of advertising, design, Gap, Havas Worldwide, interactive marketing, Levi's, Marketing, Mayor Bloomberg, One Young World, PR, Social Media, social responsibility, The Tipping Point | Leave A Comment »
You’d have to live under a rock to not have been swept up by, or at least heard of, the latest culinary craze: food trucks. California has always had its taco trucks, but now you can find gourmet crepes, sophisticated meatball sandwiches and even schnitzel on a corner or curb near you. L.A., Austin and [...]
Dec 03, 2010 | Categories:Advertising, Features, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Advertising, Austin, Brands, California, consumers, Facebook, followers, food fests, food trucks, gourmet food trucks, Heavenly, Heinz, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, mobile billboard, New York, Social Media, The New York Times, tweet, Twitter, Zagat | Leave A Comment »
Being new to trendspotting, I felt a little out of place at this year’s WorldFuture 2010 conference, put on by the World Future Society—as if I was the only person not developing some type of artificially intelligent machine in my basement. But I soon realized that there is a lot to learn and understand now [...]
Jul 20, 2010 | Categories:Advertising, Features, Marketing, Social Media, Trends | Tags: academia, Advertising, Africa, artificial intelligence, Asia, climate change, collective wisdom, Dennis Bushnell, economy, education, entrepreneurs, environment, Erica Orange, five-sense simulation, freshwater, Internet, Jared Weiner, Marketing, millennials, NASA, online, otaku, pushing boundaries, Sahara Desert, saltwater technologies, Social Media, trendspotting, tuition, Twitter, virtual world, Wikipedia, World Future Society, WorldFuture 2010 | 1 Comment »
With a daughter heading off to college this fall, I’ve got a lot to reflect on when it comes to career decisions and higher education. I’m ambivalent about the fact that my daughter is pragmatic and has chosen an undergraduate business school over a liberal arts education. Yet a liberal arts education feels like a [...]
Jun 29, 2010 | Categories:Advertising, B2B, Features, PR, Social Media | Tags: Advertising, aspirational, business school, communications tool, Cutlip and Center, e-mail, ethics, Facebook, higher education, Johnson & Johnson, journalism, liberal arts, market research, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, PR, public relations, Tony Hayward, Twitter, tylenol | Leave A Comment »
