(Apologies for the provocative title, but if you’re into measuring social media you might still find this post sexy).
I used to be consistently frustrated when brands would post mundane holiday messages. You know the type — the “Happy 4th of July” Facebook post from your friendly multinational oil and gas corporation, complete with a stock photo of an American flag.
Though, I realized it’s not just the idea of a brand posting this type of “light touch” content that bothers me. After all, it’s the same thing our friends and families...
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It's February again, which means that it's Valentines' Day, President's Day and of course, Black History Month. What it doesn’t mean is that as an African American, I’m suddenly more apt to make purchases, but it often feels like marketers believe it does.
This circular from a Philadelphia supermarket offers weekly deals next to a picture of a young boy holding a drawing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the caption "Proud to honor and celebrate African American history, culture and achievements.” After a shopper submitted a picture of the circular to Gawker, the picture quickly spread across the...
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I just spent two weeks in jury duty. It was challenging and interrupted my work and personal life, but I’m glad I did it in the end. I actually found quite a few parallels between what makes for a good jury and what makes for a good marketing team.
1. Patience and perspective is critical. The hearing was the first week, and then we deliberated for a week. In the end, we were a hung jury (stop smirking, it just means we didn’t reach a verdict). At first, we jurors felt terrible. We had failed. We didn’t finish the job. However, as the judge declared a mistrial, he said, “You shouldn’t feel one bit of...
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We're looking into all things money this month — college debt, mortgages, loans, micro-economies — it's all dynamically changing the way we think about money and value.
As the postwar generation lives longer, spending much of their savings along the way, the meaning and reality of inheritance has changed drastically. Today, statements like "Someday all this will be yours” seem outdated and almost foreign as people’s attitudes toward inheritance have shifted significantly.
Check out the latest insights and implications of these shifting attitudes on...
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As a certain mega-sporting event rears its helmeted head later this week, a whole host of advertising spectacles also makes an appearance. In celebration of the unique hoopla that surrounds one of the largest and most publicized occasions of the year, we thought we'd highlight some of the more interesting content and choice-based topics, trends, and stories that have caught our eye and held our attention. The Super Bowl only does come once a year, after all.
Coke and Schadenfreude Make for a Super Mix
The perennial brand ambassador to all things super, Coca-Cola, is just one of several brands crowdsourcing their spots for the big game this Sunday.
In one spot, “
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As Facebook users watched Mark Zuckerberg announce Graph Search on Tuesday, the social network flipped a quiet switch on a different sort of search for its most profitable users: brands. Facebook began scanning promoted images posted by brands for abundant text; those images featuring more than 20 percent text are now at risk of being taken down by the social network.
This “ad policy” is essentially Facebook’s way of enforcing a best practice they have been pleading with brands to respect for years. They recommend that brands use images of real people and real things with minimal text or text overlay. By requiring brands to adopt this policy, Facebook believes they are providing an improved user experience: a peaceful scroll...
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The internet has been buzzing this week about sports and hoaxes. With an
admission of guilt from Lance Armstrong, the lesson that no cheater will go unpunished is more clear than ever. However, a second, even more surprising story broke this week about the fictitious relationship between college
Football star Manti Te'O and Lennay Kekua, a woman who doesn't even exist.
As a top college athlete, Te'O is familiar with...
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Bravo, Jodie Foster. It’s rare to be a force in an industry for five decades, particularly one in which public scrutiny, rejection and random discrimination are part of the job (and that’s just the roles you actually get!). There’s been no shortage of commentary on
Jodie Foster’s speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, but to me it’s a lot of noise in the wrong room. Did she or didn’t she just come out? Will she finally, finally, accommodate our raging nosiness about her private life and tell us she’s gay? Please. Who cares? Really, ask yourself, do you actually care if Jodie...
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HH Trends: Volume 2 is out. With the holidays on the horizon, this issue focuses on all things travel — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
One of our favorite trends in the new issue is what we're calling: "That Human Feeling."
We book everything online, sorting by price and location. And we sit next to strangers for hours on end (in ever tinier seats). The commoditization of today's travel industry offers a one-size-fits-all model that excises humanness from purchasing considerations. In the...
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Phrases like “the end of an era” don’t quite sum it up. The current buzz around the world surrounds the closing of a saga, not just an era—The Twilight Saga.
How will people move on? How will they transition into life after Twilight? These are the questions being asked and debated as the film franchise comes to an end.
The final movie earned $141 million in its first weekend alone, with the series of books reaching 116 million copies sold worldwide. So while the series has always had its share of controversy, skeptics, and haters—there is no doubt about Twilight’s cultural relevance. It has transcended its own stories to become a permanent part of culture—everyone knows the characters and...
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