Blogs, the dusty digital diaries of the early 2000s, were once places where individuals shared their thoughts, passions, and stories with the world. Back then, blogs were hubs of navel-gazing, authenticity, creativity, and personal connection. These online journals were also a breath of fresh air, offering a glimpse into the lives and minds of everyday people. But today, sadly, their purpose and function have become muddled.
In today's hyper-competitive marketplace, businesses are no longer judged solely by the quality of their products or services. Instead, they're evaluated on how they make people feel. This emotional connection - built through clear, consistent, and compelling branding - can mean the difference between fleeting visibility and lasting impact. Modern consumers want more than transactions; they seek meaningful experiences. They're increasingly drawn to brands that align with their values and offer authenticity over perfection.
There's a parasite called toxoplasmosis that rewires the behaviour of cats (and even humans) so they act in ways that help the parasite spread. The cat doesn't know it's infected. It goes about what it thinks, is its business. But often, it is going about the parasite's business instead. Marketing, I suspect, is suffering from something eerily similar.
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google local reviews are disappearing, it appears to be a bug Google is working to fix. Google Posts is testing a scheduler option. Google Ads has a new investment strategy tab. Google Ads may soon support campaign level audience exclusions in Performance Max campaigns. Google Merchant Center for Agencies is now available.
Nostalgia is running rampant in marketing, with myriad brands resurrecting old ads, taglines and mascots to build emotional resonance. What happens when an organization wants to do the opposite of nostalgia bait: make consumers forget its most-recognized slogan in favor of something fresher and more relevant? The National Pork Board was recently faced with such a challenge, and its journey to repositioning pig protein carries larger lessons for how legacy brands are adapting to the digital age.
The narrative goes like this: If you want to connect with your customers, you need to tell stories that capture hearts, not just wallets. But here is the truth. Storytelling is not the right investment for every brand. Done well, it can be powerful. Done without the right context, it can become a costly detour. Story takes time, patience and consistency.
Most coaches show up to discovery calls ready to sell. They prepare their pitch, practice overcoming objections, and hope their charisma carries them through. But the best coaches don't sell on discovery calls at all. They pre-sell through content. Their prospects arrive already 80% convinced, credit card in hand, asking when they can start. Create this reality by transforming your LinkedIn presence from a digital resume into a sales engine.
On Monday, the German athletic company said it is creating a new structure in the division to include product creation, innovation, go-to-market as well as brand marketing. Puma noted that the move is aimed at enabling "stronger and more consistent" storytelling for its products. As a result of this move, Maria Valdes, who was previously chief product officer, will become chief brand officer to oversee this new organization at the management board level.
Upon entering the one-day immersive installation known as GrazaVerse, guests were greeted with a surrealist tableau: a Renaissance-style cherub statue "peeing" olive oil, with bread skewers for dipping, risotto served by a mysterious set of disembodied hands behind a wall, and a soap dispenser filled with olive oil for drizzling on soft serve. As bizarre or offbeat this event, built to introduce olive oil brand Graza's new glass bottles, might sound, it represents a cross-industry trend in which brand creative is getting ... weird.
Violating a National Advertising Division rule isn't the same as violating a US law. But advertisers rely extensively on the self-regulatory system to handle disputes and determine whether specific ads are misleading and should be pulled. Companies generally abide by the self-regulatory body's rulings. While they try to massage the truth in ways that favor their own brands, they want to have some credibility left over to bring complaints against misleading ads launched by their competitors.
According to the 2025 Bentley University-Gallup poll published in May of this year, 51% of U.S. adults now believe companies should take a public stance on current social and political issues, a significant jump from just 38% in 2024. This is an interesting development at a time when companies face heightened scrutiny around sustainability and social commitments. However, a SmartNews survey released earlier this year shows that 90% of respondents question corporate messaging at least some of the time and 36% think company statements feel inauthentic.
For the most part, it's nearly impossible to find advertisers that are spending a substantial amount of their social budgets on X. But more niche industries, such as crypto, see X the same way traditional advertisers view Meta and Google - their audience is there, it delivers good results. It's a no brainer. Or at least should be.
Media plans look tidy on paper, but real audiences mute, scroll, and block. On ad-supported streaming, nearly two-thirds of viewers (64%) actively avoid ads. With the loss of third-party cookies, the data that once connected your targeting now arrives incomplete and delayed. The only messages people truly engage with are those they've chosen to receive from people they follow. Little wonder that industry trackers put influencer spending at about $32.55bn in 2025.
Few technologies have reshaped consumer behavior as quickly as ChatGPT. Launched in November 2022, the conversational AI tool gained 100 million users within two months. It now engages more than 190 million people daily, processing more than 2 billion queries. OpenAI has released more than 20 updates to expand its capabilities, transforming ChatGPT into a dynamic platform that generates articles, code, images, videos and more.
In today's fast-moving business environment, marketing is no longer just a support function-it's a core growth engine. Yet, many companies unknowingly sabotage their own success by building weak or undersized marketing structures. I've seen this firsthand, where a small team was expected to "do it all," from strategy and demand generation to creative execution and analytics. The result was predictable: missed opportunities, burnout and a marketing function that couldn't keep pace with company ambitions.
Culture is how people connect. And as brands work to be seen as relevant, to build relationships with their communities, and to ride the visibility wave of trending topics, engaging in culture feels like a natural way to get in front of consumers. The problem? Not every brand gets it right. Even though participating in, and especially shaping culture, can be powerful when done well, the way brands show up doesn't always deliver the impact they intend.
Zero search occurs when people find information or make decisions without performing a conventional search. Instead, they ask AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini to synthesize and explain what they want to know. These tools no longer provide a list of links. They deliver synthesized, conversational responses that blend data, opinions and relevance. In doing so, they're becoming the new entry point to brand awareness.
Too many lawyers are sold on the idea that a shiny website and a few SEO tweaks will flood their inbox with new business. But as digital strategist and attorney Seth Price explains in our recent "Be That Lawyer" conversation, marketing a law firm - especially in the B2B space - requires more than a passive online presence. It requires strategy, focus, and the courage to say no to the wrong things so you can double down on what actually works.
With each consolidation, acquisition, or PE investment, marketing agencies' vision moves further away from being providers of agnostic services and creators of culture to purveyors of enterprise platforms and orchestrators of strategy and execution. Put simply, your agencies will no longer act solely as your agents but also as owners of products/solutions, resellers of technology partnerships and developers of emerging capabilities.
Takeup of AI search tools is on the rise, disrupting user behaviors and the performance of brands' organic search efforts. The implications for paid search, as well as for search's impact on brand awareness and conversion metrics, are less clear. What is certain is that increasing a brand's presence in AI search summaries will become a crucial goal for many marketers. It's also one they can get started on right now.
This role is an excellent opportunity for someone at the start of their career seeking hands-on experience in advertising, sales, and media operations. You will manage day-to-day advertising tasks, support communications with advertisers and business members, and contribute to refining our systems and processes. As Mission Local grows, this position will expand with it - offering the chance to take on new responsibilities and develop into a larger role.
Simply put: Colors drive emotions, and emotions drive purchasing behavior. The brain processes visuals faster than text, so colors trigger subconscious associations that shape perception before other messages make their way in. For consumers connecting with a brand or product, color helps them instantly categorize products and streamlines their decision-making. It happens fast- customers form judgments about products within the first 90 seconds of interaction, with up to 90% of that assessment based solely on color.
Here's what most people don't understand about this industry: it's still the Wild West. Some brands are sophisticated and know industry rates cold. Others are winging it completely. I've seen deals vary wildly for similar deliverables, and frankly, those "industry standard" rates you find online? They're largely suggestions-and often irrelevant. This reality presents both opportunity and challenge. One popular question becomes: who should make the first offer?
Right now, it's the fourth quarter. The finish line is in sight, and how you close out the year can make or break your overall success. This isn't the time to play small-it's the time to swing big. At my own $119 million company, PostcardMania, Q4 is one of our busiest and most profitable seasons. In fact, along with Q1, it consistently drives the most growth.
"As the definition of talent continues to evolve, so must the systems that support it," said Andrew Ruf, Managing Partner at Paradigm. "Reign Maker Group has built a scalable process that meets creators where they are, with an eye towards where they're going. By combining our global reach with their innovative infrastructure, we're able to accelerate opportunities for a new generation of talent and the professionals who represent them."
If you covered up your name and profile picture on LinkedIn, would your dream client still know that post was written by you? The LinkedIn feed is overrun with AI-generated posts, regurgitated quotes, and surface-level advice that sounds like everyone else. Your ideal clients scroll past dozens of posts every day, glazed eyes searching for something real, something that actually helps them solve their problems.
I hate to say it, but it's true: Marketing professionals love to give "one-size-fits-all" advice. We spend so much of our time urging the "best practices" that really do work for the vast majority of situations (and many of which clients in other industries find easy to forget) that we sometimes find it challenging to take a step back and assess the specific needs of businesses that may have concerns that do not apply to other business types.
As the global digital economy accelerates, descriptive domain names have become strategic brand assets for businesses, conveying product relevance, credibility, and intent to customers and audiences at a glance. Their growing adoption also offers valuable insight into broader digital and market trends worldwide. Recent data from our recent survey at Identity Digital reveals a compelling trend: Seven of the 20 highest-value premium domains sold in early 2025 were .global. Alongside this, .world and .digital have also climbed in prominence among top-level domains (TLDs).
Creativity, AI, analytical thinking, problem-solving, and leadership skills are core skill sets that are in extremely strong demand for 2026 and beyond, based on data gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' projections, the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report and Coursera's Job Skills Report, From these skills, there are three specific skills that are directly tied to high-paying jobs, which are already in demand right now.
Flexjet's Chairman Club event, is one of the perks you get for dropping at least six figures a year on a jet program. Other destinations have included Anguilla and Lake Como. Flexjet and other private jet operators are touting wine tastings at vineyards not typically open to the public, suites at a Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Super Bowl, facials at 40,000 feet, and menus created by top chefs like Nobu Matsuhisa.
For decades, telecommunications companies have been the quiet power behind the world's digital transformation. They connect billions, fuel global commerce, and enable nearly every modern convenience. Yet despite that foundational role, telcos have often struggled to capture the consumer imagination or command the kind of loyalty enjoyed by tech and social media brands built on top of their networks. Today, two converging forces can change the equation: the rise of the creator economy and the rapid maturation of artificial intelligence.
