Making products and services more accessible to widespread and valuable audiences is the ultimate goal for brands all over the world. And in Europe, they’re succeeding more and more—thanks, in large part, to content marketing. About 71 percent of European marketers created more content in 2015 than they did the year prior. In Finland, 80 percent of marketers use original content to target their customers; in Denmark, that number raises to 86 percent. While output levels are high, so, too, is quality. Brands are pushing the envelope by experimenting with new formats and finding fresh ways to le ..read more

You know when you sit around with your friends and talk about what you would do if you won the lottery, after traveling the world and catching every Pokémon on your phone? My dream in that scenario is to open my own brewery. I’m not alone here, as the microbrewery craze is growing so quickly that, according to the Brewers Association, roughly two new breweries open every day. Besides the issue of market saturation, many breweries are experience a different type of oversaturation: names. We officially live in a world in which nearly every single beer pun will be trademarked. That’s right. Per T ..read more

In 1946, two brothers from Tennessee concocted a lemony drink to mix with their whiskey. They designed a label with a hillbilly mascot, and dubbed it what those “hillbillies” called their local moonshine—a Mountain Dew. Fast forward 70 years, and most of Mountain Dew’s original history has been painted over to attract a “younger, outdoorsy generation.” (Kids just don’t drink moonshine the way they used to.) Even the drink’s singular green color scheme has been diversified with a motley of new flavors—over 40 since the early ’90s. Many of these spinoffs were designed or selected by consumers th ..read more

“How do I talk to Gen Z?” An executive at a major pharmaceutical company recently asked this question of Amanda Gutterman, VP of growth at digital media company Dose, which operates Dose.com and OMG Facts. The executive wanted to make sure his brand would appeal to teenagers, not only with an eye toward future sales, but also in order to attract top young talent. Gutterman’s response? Be real. “Gen Z isn’t anti-corporate or anti-brand,” she said. “They just have an amazing nose for B.S.” The pharmaceutical executive, who preferred to go unnamed, is hardly alone in his concern. Based on new res ..read more

In the modern media landscape, one of the biggest challenges for marketers lies in reaching consumers wherever they spend their time. Among luxury brands, few do that better than Jaguar Land Rover. Last fall, the British luxury automotive manufacturer released an original adventure novella written by famed British author William Boyd. The novella, called “The Vanishing Game,” lives on Tumblr and is a fully interactive digital experience with narration, ambient sound, and animated photography. “Land Rover is a really storied brand,” said Kim Kyaw, head of digital, social, and CRM for Jaguar Lan ..read more

During a White House press conference in 2021, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, issued a Surgeon General’s Advisory on the dangers of health misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. What makes this advisory unique? Usually, these advisories are reserved for serious public health concerns that relate to what we eat, drink, or smoke. But misinformation at this scale isn’t new. Prior to COVID-19, the United States had another major public health crisis—the opioid epidemic. And at the center was Purdue Pharma, a now-infamous private pharmaceutical company that created OxyContin ..read more

When the Content Marketing Institute releases its annual Benchmark report, I beeline for one stat: How many people had a documented content strategy? Every year, the shockingly low number of marketers who have a documented content strategy has been the most troubling stat in the robust report. I always expect to see a dramatic rise, but it usually lingers around 33 percent. It finally jumped a bit this year—to 37 percent for B2B marketers and 40 percent for B2C marketers. But that’s still pitifully low. Two-thirds of content marketers are straight-up sabotaging their efforts by failing to cr ..read more

Three things in life can instantly turn my smile into a frown: dealing with a Philadelphia Eagles loss, realizing it’s Sunday when I’m outside a Chick-fil-A, and clicking on a video that serves me a pre-roll ad. Turns out, I’m not the only person upset about that last one. According to data from an August 2016 report by Nielsen and Newlio, over half of people fed a pre-roll video will skip it—and that’s just one of the popular avoidance tactics. Perhaps even more telling is that 20 percent of users will close the video altogether. They’d rather not watch at all if they have to see an ad first ..read more

It’s true, tech is changing holiday shopping habits—not just because I skipped Black Friday this year to binge-watch the Gilmore Girls revival on Netflix. According to a new infographic from digital agency Sequence, customers are getting used to making their holiday purchases online. Actually, they prefer it, which shouldn’t shock anyone during a time when stores can feel overcrowded and understaffed. As a result, the longstanding American tradition of Black Friday is losing steam. Sixty-three percent of consumers now say they would never stand in line for it. Almost half of millennials prefer ..read more

At this moment, 11 unread marketing emails are collecting dust in my personal inbox. GrubHub is trying to make me emotional about sharing holiday meals. (It’s working.) The Boston Red Sox want me to attend spring training. (Florida in March does sound lovely.) “Barack Obama” even sent an email about “fighting back.” (Yes we can?) Of those 11, I opened about half, only clicking through on one. For brands, consumer apathy toward marketing emails has become a big challenge without a clear solution. Considering the sheer volume of these emails, it’s harder than ever to entice customer engagement t ..read more