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Why Most Native Advertising Will Fail
Are you familiar with the term “native advertising”? You may have read about it on popular blogs like Techcrunch, Adweek and Advertising Age, but can you put your finger on exactly what it means?...
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The Best Advertising Isn’t Advertising Anymore
For decades, advertising was a joyous place. Executives enjoyed two-martini lunches as they watched the ad dollars roll in. Ads were spread through every new medium—from print to radio to television....
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BuzzFeed’s Native Advertising is OMG WIN!
OMG. This may have been my hardest assignment yet. BuzzFeed is killing it on the interwebs lately (WIN), and not just because it creates some of the most shareable content around. It’s “killing it...
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Is Twitter a Gold Mine for Character-Based Brand Storytelling?
This post originally appeared in our December ’12 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. My wife has never seen the movie...
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What’s the ROI in That?
There seems to be no better time of year for brands to empty their pockets and slap their logos everywhere they can in hopes of gaining exposure than the end of the calendar year. Between the New...
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4 Brands Winning Big in Social Media with Surprise and Delight
This past weekend I had the joy of throwing a surprise birthday party for my wife. And by joy I mean massive amounts of stress and that sick feeling in my stomach I get when I have to withhold the...
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Bridging the Gap Between Digital, Mobile and In-Store Experiences
This post originally appeared in our January ’13 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. In the mid-’90s I was a teenager...
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What Every Brand Should Know About Facebook’s Graph Search
Yesterday Facebook announced its biggest innovation since the News Feed in 2006. It is finally taking search seriously, launching Graph Search. What Google is to the web, Graph Search is to your...
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Coca-Cola Falls Flat Tackling Obesity
This past weekend my beloved New England Patriots, a team in the U.S. National Football League, lost in the conference championship game, falling one game short of the Super Bowl. I was devastated and...
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4 TED Talks All Brand Storytellers Must Watch
TED talks are a gold mine of knowledge. Because the TED website’s topics include not only technology, education and design (TED) but also business, science, activism, health, storytelling and...
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Why I Wasn’t Impressed with Oreo’s Super Bowl Blackout Tweet
I’m going to say it: I wasn’t impressed by Oreo’s blackout tweet. As I brace for the backlash, I’ll try to explain myself. I do realize that Oreo is making all the brands that invested $4 million for...
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Marketers Take Notice: Reddit is Very Much Here
From Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dave Grohl to a five-year McDonald’s employee and a valet for the stars, the “I Am A ____, Ask Me Anything (AMA)” section of Reddit takes on...
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3 Brands Winning the Real-Time Media Game
This post originally appeared in our February Issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. The blanket of snow that fell...
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5 Lessons of Effective Editing for Viral Success
An interesting insight into what makes social content effective has emerged, or at least made itself more visible, in the past year or so. Content is king, but editing may be the queen who’s actually...
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What is Social Media Storytelling?
My parents and many of my friends still don’t understand what it is I do every day. They envision me frolicking in the fields of Facebook and Twitter, swapping gossip and sharing funny memes. They must...
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3 Television Shows that “Get” Social
Television has been “social” for years now, but the rapid embrace of real-time marketing in 2013 (and we’re only two months into it) has shifted social TV into a higher gear. But the topic of brands...
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Disney All-In on Content Marketing With “Oh My Disney”
Though it was founded in 2006 (which makes it older than Twitter), BuzzFeed stormed onto the social media scene in 2012, more than doubling its 2011 traffic (per Alexa). The format is perfect for the...
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Possibly the Greatest Brand Story Ever Told
The most effective mass media is the stories we tell and conversations we have with each other. If you don’t believe me, let me prove it to you. We’ve all seen an endless number of ads for cars, car...
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Social Media Strategy Step 1: Find Your Audience
I’m a child of the 80s and a teenager of the 90s. Though my parents didn’t spoil me with riches, they did hop on the Internet bandwagon early. It’s a pretty impressive and serendipitous thing, if you...
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Drive-Thru Marketing: Bite-sized Content for an Impatient World
I have no patience anymore. I know that at some point in my life I did. I could wait in lines, sit through three-hour college classes and even read a book for hours, all without feeling as though I’d...
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Breaking Down the Viral HRC Marriage Equality Campaign
Unless you gave up Facebook for Lent, I’m sure that last week you saw a number of your Facebook friends’ profile photos (and possibly your own) change to a pink square with an equal sign in support of...
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Baking Brand Storytelling Into Your Lunch
Any restaurant is rich in stories, from the founding of the establishment to the experiences of its patrons. Because of that, the restaurant business is an interesting venue for content marketing,...
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When Promoted Hashtags Are Campaign Killers
No matter how lofty a brand’s goals are when it uses hashtags, there are always individuals ready to use them to drag it into the gutter. McDonald’s is on its second go-round with promoted hashtags...
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What Craft Beer Can Teach Your Brand About Storytelling
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...
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Getting Marketing Miles Out of Your Superfans
In my tween years I was a huge fan of the WWE (then the World Wrestling Federation). I would watch every episode of Superstars of Wrestling and Saturday Night’s Main Event, among other various WWE...
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6 TV Ads That Will Grip You With Their Story
Television advertising has traditionally been seen as an interruptive yet creative means of exposing audiences to a brand. There’s no denying the massive audience that television commands, not only in...
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The Difference Between Fun and Useful Content in Social Sharing
To say I’m not much of a handyman would be an understatement. I’m my father’s son—a Boston sports fan through and through, hardworking and always trying to please. But he and I know absolutely nothing...
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4 Lessons in Creating Dynamic Social Content
Why would I care? Why would I share? These are two key questions that Droga5’s chief creative officer, Ted Royer, says his agency considers when creating social content for brands on Facebook. Royer...
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Why It’s a Mistake For Brands to Ignore Tumblr
Pretend I’m someone who understands the basics of the Internet but has never used a social platform. Now let me ask you: What’s Facebook? What’s Twitter? What’s Instagram? Most answers, at least from...
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An Open Letter to Nutella: Why Did You Eliminate Your Greatest Marketing Asset?
My dearest Nutella, For decades your hazelnut spread has turned everyday consumers into product purists. From brownies and cookies to hot chocolate and crepes, Nutella has been the cornerstone of a...
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Not Everyone is a Storyteller
Lately, everyone in advertising has become a “storyteller” specializing in “engaging content.” This isn’t true, of course. But I understand why everyone’s making the claim: Digital is the only part of...
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What Billions of Cicadas Taught Me About Storytelling
The cicadas are coming. Billions of buzzing (relatively harmless) insects will descend upon the eastern United States from Georgia to New England in the coming weeks. If you’re not familiar with them,...
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Getting the News into “Brand Newsrooms”
Celebrating Oreo’s now-famous twi-jacking (Or is it “twit-jacking?”) of the Super Bowl for the brand’s own milk-and-cookies purposes, the ad business erupted early this year with ecstatic chatter about...
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5 Types of Social Media Content Your Audience Really Wants
Why do we follow brands? What’s the point? They’re not our friends. We’re not going to make plans with them on a Friday night or invite them to our birthday parties (though some we would if we could)....
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5 Social Media Tips to Ignore
Do a quick Google search or scour the front pages of your favorite social media blogs and you’ll find a seemingly endless array of articles providing you with tips and advice on social media (this blog...
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Why Instagram Isn’t a Vine Killer
Make no mistake about it. The launch of Instagram Video (wholly owned by Facebook) is a shot across, if not directly into, the bow of Vine’s ship (wholly owned by Twitter). Instagram’s already...
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For Second Screen Engagement, Twitter Leads the Pack
Last fall my favorite TV show was American Horror Story. I enjoyed all the twists and turns, but more than that, I loved getting together online with friends and perfect strangers every Wednesday night...
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There’s No Content Like No Content
I’m annoyed to see Google’s use of a Rembrandt self-portrait across their logo today, on the 470th anniversary of his death. I live a short way from Kenwood House in London, home to one of...
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Can Digital Save Retail?
My wife and I have a baby on the way. Literally any day now he or she (we don’t know which) could arrive. We’re as excited and terrified as all first-time parents are, fully aware that our lives will...
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Adopt or Die: The Anxiety of Checking In on Foursquare
I’m a social media early adopter. I should be, considering I write for a digital content marketing agency’s blog. I post photos on Instagram, share thought nuggets and articles on Twitter, argue on...
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How Story Platforms Help Global Brands Go Local
While the current turmoil in Cairo may obscure the post-revolutionary optimism that pervaded the city last winter, that mood was powerful at the time. Despite the chaos in the virtual absence of...
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Why Telemarketers are the Worst Brand Storytellers
There’s a certain feeling I get, and I’m sure we all get, when I answer the telephone and am greeted by a telemarketer. There are a few feelings, actually. Sort of like the five stages of grief. First,...
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“Boris” Bikes and Barclays’ Problem with Authority
London’s rammed with bicycles. Everyone’s on two wheels. It’s fun, cheap, and good for you. Barclays-branded hire bikes are everywhere. But no one thinks of the sponsor when they pick up their wheels:...
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How to Create Real-time Twitter Gold
Ever since the Super Bowl, all eyes have been on Oreo during major tent-pole events as we waited for them to deliver more real-time Twitter marketing. Audiences were surprised and delighted by the...
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Why You Should Stop Worrying About Big Data and Love Your Consumer
In the post-advertising world, many brands struggle to understand the people they’re selling to and why they behave as they do. As power shifts from brands to consumers, knowing your consumer has never...
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Why Your CPG Brand Isn’t Remarkable and What You Can Do About It
This post originally appeared in our August ’13 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. Marketing CPG products is hard....
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Why Storytelling is the Best Way to Engage Health Care Audiences
Additional reporting by Nick Dutnall. Relying on numbers at the expense of human judgment and experience, no matter how reassuringly extensive the latter, can lead to poor decision making that has...
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When will ads be over?
Rebecca Leib (@lieblink) was tweeting the other day about her newest research on digital marketing. Her report documents the ongoing shift away from digital ads—ineffective banners, mostly—to valuable...
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Getting through to customers in the Post-Advertising Age
It appears the oldest question in advertising is now the newest. (No, this does not include, “Can you make the logo bigger?”) The question is, “How do we get through to people?” The traditional...
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Advertising Is Losing the Anti-Ad-Blocking Battle. Here’s why.
Hundreds of millions of people have rejected advertising’s threats, pleas and arguments. So have the German courts. The digital ad biz needs to change its tune, its strategy and its leadership....
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