Fisher-Price launched a brand refresh effort in December of 2019. The work done by Pentagram, Wieden+Kennedy and Fisher-Price is a masterclass on brand expression. The coordination of different agencies, contrasted brand history, varied expressions across multiple touchpoints for multiple products, and a pitch-perfect execution like this doesn’t happen by accident. You would be forgiven if you thought that with money, size, and ubiquity, a brand refresh effort like this would be relatively common. Not easy, but certainly not a risky endeavor. Read More

Last week I attended the Do More Good Conference in Lincoln, NE. Rand Stagen, the co-founder of Conscious Capitalism, was one of the speakers.

As I understand it, put simply, the world and its people used to be governed by religion and thereby compelled to “do good.” Business was kind of a bad seed – it was Capitalism. A dog-eat-dog mindset was encouraged. Read More

Traditional grocers have been losing market share to alternative formats for some time now, but with the rise of Amazon and their purchase of Whole Foods, the rate of change continues to accelerate. Walmart is also investing heavily in e-commerce and the retail giant is intent on competing with Amazon for the top spot in online grocery market share. Increasingly, consumers are gaining confidence in ordering groceries online. According to the Food Marketing Institute study conducted by Nielsen, Read More

Co-authored by Rebecca Weber and Justin Henriksen
We are so excited that Instagram TV has finally launched. One piece of the puzzle that seemingly has been missing from this platform is long-form vertical video. For marketers and businesses, this can build upon the growing need and proven success of sharing consumable content, which will impact your brand and bottom-line revenue. Read More

Old is new, and that’s not all when it comes to consumer marketing.
It was the Business Insider article, Procter & Gamble Launches Direct-to-Consumer Subscription Business, that got me thinking about how the paradigm of selling to consumers is shifting. Yet again. Read More

The term “Mobilegeddon”  has being bandied around the last few days by the media to characterize the change Google is implementing today relative to mobile search results.
While Google’s algorithm change will certainly impact many companies that don’t have mobile-ready sites, it’s a logical move. And one Google has been pushing for the last two years. In reality, we’ve ALL been talking about the impact of mobile and this change may be the push needed to make sites more usable for consumers. Read More

Facebook has decided to change an important rule around brand-sponsored contests. Changing rules is not surprising since Facebook is consistently evolving. However, there are implications to how success and failure of contests may have been measured in the past.
Up to this point, contests have been a great opportunity to gain Facebook “Likes.” Often times, one of the rules to enter a contest was to first “Like” the brand page. First “Liking” has not been required, Read More

I tweet, Facebook, and blog about restaurants on a regular basis, but I don’t Yelp. I’m not sure why other than the fact that I don’t really use Yelp to help me find places to visit. The few times I have used it have been disappointing, probably because I am very picky.  Translation: I’m vegan and in the past the network has not been as helpful for my goals.
A couple weeks ago I was at one of my favorite local restaurants and the owner said his vegan cake would be at the Yelp party in a few days. Read More

Last Friday, Uber, a ride-sharing program delivered through a mobile application, offered something out of the ordinary, ice cream. UberIceCream was available in 144 cities (38 countries on 6 continents) and allowed Uber users to request ice cream to be delivered to them. All costs are paid through the mobile app that users set up ahead of time, so there is no worry about how to pay.
Uber, and its fuzzy pink mustached competitor Lyft, Read More

I can’t stop thinking about this article. A NYC restaurant wanted to understand more about why recent customer reviews included long wait times for service and food, so they watched video footage from today compared to 10 years ago. The incredible answer has nothing to do with the restaurant. The “wait” times are due to a dramatic shift in smartphone culture. As guests focus more on their phones, their time to decide what to order, Read More