Research Space / Marketing

Authenticity in Advertising. Strategically, it’s a dead ringer for Google’s emotionally empty ad from July, in which a dad used its AI product Gemini to write a letter to an athlete purporting to be from his daughter.

Apple's Campaign Failure. Apple, celebrated for the last 40 years as a wonderful custodian of its own brand, has released an absolute stinker of a campaign to promote the benefits of Apple Intelligence.

AI Product Ads. This week, some of the greatest minds in advertising creativity took another swing and miss at selling the benefits of AI to a consumer audience.

SEN Radio Growth. SEN Radio’s owner Sports Entertainment Group gained 7.1%.

Event Announcement. Unlock - Brands x 24 Hr Economy takes place in Sydney on October 31.

Member Benefits. Your membership includes a complimentary ticket to all of Unmade's events, including HumAIn (2025), REmade (1 October), Unlock (31 October), and Compass (across November).

Unmade Index Update. The Unmade Index picked up 0.95%, moving to 443.1 points.

Creative Risk Aversion. These campaigns show the hallmarks of marketing by a risk averse committee, nervous of the backlash if they showed some of the truly powerful things generative AI is capable of.

Successful Celebrity Collab. Recent hits include actor Busy Phillips joining low-sugar candy brand Behave as an investor and advisor, boosting their e-commerce by 300%.

Time-saving Music Tool. As an Audiio Pro subscriber, you can find the perfect music and sound effects for your videos in a fraction of the time.

AI Music Search. With Audiio's AI-powered search engine, LinkMatch, you can search their entire catalog in seconds.

Recommendation for Audiio. Get 70% off your Audiio Pro membership today when you use coupon code 'curiouscreator'.

Authenticity in Endorsements. Florence insists authenticity is key: 'If a product can't succeed without a celebrity, it won't with one either.'

Strategic Partnerships. Parallel has linked Venus Williams to protein drink Happy Viking, where Williams actively influences the brand's direction.

Southern Cross Capitalisation. The market capitalisation of Southern Cross Austereo dropped below $120m for the first time after losing another 2%.

Market Reaction. The ad industry went into paroxysms of schadenfreude on Monday night with the arrival of a 9pm announcement from Mutinex.

Baxter's Departure. After just four months, the APAC CEO of Mutinex, Mat Baxter, has left the business, unable to work happily alongside founder and global CEO Henry Innis.

Membership Benefits. Your membership includes a complimentary ticket to all of Unmade's events, including HumAIn (2025), REMade (1 October), Unlock (31 October), and Compass (November);

Media Agency Spend. Early Guideline SMI data on media agency spend for August showed most sectors going backwards, despite hopes that the market had hit bottom.

Unmade Index Decline. The Unmade Index slid back close to its low point on Tuesday despite the wider ASX All Ordinaries edging into positive territory.

Live Reality TV Investment. There’s a further investment in live reality TV alongside I’m A Celebrity.

Unified Theme. The global ownership structure of the company leaves Paramount as the best placed media company to argue that the sum of its parts adds up to more than the whole.

Paramount Upfronts Kickoff. Paramount yesterday become the first of Australia’s TV companies to show its hand during 2025 Upfronts season.

Future of Broadcasting. Southern Cross Austereo’s valuation will go up as soon as it finally offloads its fading regional TV licences and becomes a pure play audio company.

Index Recovery. The Unmade Index finally broke an eight day streak of declines to record a move upwards yesterday, growing by 1.36% to 443.3 points.

Declining Linear Audiences. The second fact is linear audiences are declining. I think none of us can have our heads in the sand about that.

Shift in Perception. Prosser acknowledges: “We don't see ourselves as a free-to-air business anymore. We see ourselves … as a premium video business.”

Content Strategy. Big Brother will be live on Ten and streamed 24 hours a day live which is almost exactly the sort of content FAST was invented for.

Advertiser Offering. Paramount is the only company locally that can offer advertisers audiences across SVOD, BVOD, FAST and FTA.

Contenders for CEO. Acting CEO Matt Stanton's first challenge will be navigating the release of the report into the company’s culture.

Historic Media Rights Deal. Paramount Australia and Football Australia agree to a historic multi-year, multi-platform media rights deal for Australian national teams through to 2028.

Sneesby's Departure. Mike Sneesby may be on the way out for Nine, but the company still has months of dramas ahead.

Nine's Valuation Decline. In recent reports, Nine's valuation falls below $1bn after losing $3bn in the space of three years.

NRL's Bid Discussion. The NRL is trying to talk up a bid from Paramount for its next round of rights negotiations.

Upcoming Upfronts. We get ready for another big week in Upfronts season, with Paramount sharing its plans for 2025 today.

Bullying Claims. A slew of bullying claims have also been levelled against two senior women at Nine.

Importance of CEO. Sneesby’s three years are a demonstration of how quickly a company can drift off course with the wrong CEO.

Unmade Index Status. The Index, which charts the performance of Australia's listed media and marketing companies was almost flat, drifting down by just 0.07% to another new low of 437.4 points.

Growth Story Needed. There’s a bigger prize for the TV industry to play for than a new logo.

VOZ Marketplace Explained. The key fact which had eluded me and at least some others is that the VOZ marketplace is not, in fact a marketplace.

Competitor Strategies. The case for Nine as the ideal owner of news mastheads the Australian Financial Review, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald gets weaker all the time.

Suitable CEO Candidate. The best person for the role is not automatically the one with the highest profile.

Sneesby's Departure. After Mike Sneesby’s departure, now we turn to the question of who’s the right choice to lead Australia’s biggest media company.

Nine's Valuation Decline. Mike Sneesby becomes the first local media CEO to have deliver shareholders a decline in valuation of more than $3bn.

Advertising ROI Case Study. An Optus case study shared earlier in the day at the conference demonstrated the uplift in return on advertising investment once heavy users could be served different executions.

User Growth. Join over 100,000 users worldwide driving business growth with Pipedrive.

CRM Benefits. Pipedrive's easy and effective CRM lets you track your sales pipeline, manage deals and automate the whole process so you can focus on one thing: selling.

Branding Merging. At Adweek's Commerceweek, execs from Kate Spade and Starface World discussed how brand building and performance marketing are merging to drive loyalty and sales.

AI Features. Streamline success and make smarter, faster decisions with AI-powered features.

Starface Engagement. Kara Brothers, president of Starface, explained how the brand uses humor on TikTok to promote its acne patches, engaging 2.5 million followers.

Kate Spade Strategy. Amanda Bopp, VP of marketing and ecommerce at Kate Spade, focuses on customer engagement, like online reviews, as a path to loyalty and sales.

Systematic Collection. Set up a system for collecting examples, whether it’s a folder, spreadsheet, or app.

SCAMPER Technique. To creatively rebuild ideas, consider using the SCAMPER technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse.

Framework Habit. The best marketers have a process, a framework, and a habit of deconstructing greatness and reconstructing it in their own image.

Deconstructing Campaigns. Most marketers don't have a system for deconstructing successful campaigns; they merely admire a campaign and then move on.

Collecting Examples. Start by actively hunting and gathering examples of marketing brilliance in the wild; make it a habit.

Reverse Engineering. Great marketers analyze successful campaigns to identify key elements and psychological triggers behind their success, which is the art of reverse engineering.

Skill Distinction. The #1 skill that separates good marketers from great marketers is the ability to break down successful campaigns.

Effective Goals. A clear, achievable goal and a tangible reward were pivotal in the success of Morning Brew's referral program.

Real-World Application. The Viral Post Generator was built by scraping 100,000s of LinkedIn posts to analyze what makes the top 0.1% stand out.

Frequency of Remix. Hold monthly 'remix' challenges to reconstruct marketing ideas from different industries for your brand.

Creative Theft. Reverse engineering is all about creative theft: finding amazing campaigns, deconstructing what works, and rebuilding it in new ways.

Morning Brew Example. Morning Brew's 'Refer 50, Get a Mug' campaign deconstructed traditional referral programs and identified key elements to create a viral loop.

Market Presence. Now found in nearly 10,000 stores, including Target, Walmart, and Kroger, Belgian Boys has shifted its focus from trendy city spots to mass-market retailers.

Optimal Budget Split. Les Binet and Peter Field, global experts on marketing effectiveness, honed a formula to help you find your optimal budget split based on the unique characteristics of your industry, size, market and strategy.

Event Marketing Strategy. Willa's chose to launch in Target stores and promote the brand at the Minnesota State Fair, a prime spot for reaching a large, diverse audience.

Localized Campaign Effectiveness. Brands are finding that a localized approach can be just as effective—if not more so—than high-profile urban strategies.

Local Ads Impact. Belgian Boys noticed that their customers’ baskets also included everyday essentials, prompting a shift to localized ads and partnerships.

Hyper-Local Marketing. Hummingbirds connects brands with local creators to run targeted campaigns in specific cities, helping brands like Olipop execute cost-effective, hyper-local promotions.

Mike Sneesby's Departure. Mike Sneesby becomes the first local media CEO to have delivered shareholders a decline in valuation of more than $3bn.

Upcoming Events. Events include REmade - Retail Media Unmade on October 1 and Unlock on October 31.

Membership Perks. Annual members now get a free ticket to all of our events.

Market Sentiment. The much bigger fall in share price tells a story of a market that stopped believing in the company's prospects under Sneesby and his board.

EBITDA Decline. Sneesby inherited an annual EBITDA profit number of $564.7m in the 2021 financial year; last month he delivered a number of $517.4m for FY24.

Sneesby's Impact. The same market that assigned a valuation of $5bn to Nine on the day Sneesby was announced as CEO in 2021, concluded the company's future is now worth $3bn less.

Nine's Valuation Decline. This week, Nine's market capitalisation fell below $2bn.

Content Is King. You can put out the best content in your industry.

B2B SaaS Growth. dofollow.com helps B2B SaaS companies increase rankings and traffic, so they can bring more qualified leads to their doorstep.

Importance of Links. Without regular links from high-authority sites that tell search engines your site is worth showing, it won’t surface when buyers look for a solution like yours.

Unmade Index Low. The Unmade Index, which tracks all the ASX-listed media and marketing stocks, closed on another new low, dropping 0.12% to land on 443 points.

Effect of Privacy Regulation. The decision not to proceed with the hard bits of the Privacy Act reforms - removing exemptions for smaller businesses and creating a 'fair and reasonable' test for what information about the public - is consequential for the industry.

Future of Advertising. In the case of the age crackdown, the government appears to be taking on the burden by funding the research into the best way of doing it, rather than legislating for the principle.

Loyalty Programs Importance. Loyalty programs are vital for retail media, as they provide rich customer insights that enable more targeted, relevant advertising.

Decline of Nine's Market Cap. Nine's market capitalisation declined another 2% on Tuesday, ending the trading day on a market capitalisation of below $2bn for the first time in Mike Sneesby's tenure as CEO.

Podcast Relaunch. I'm finally excited to re-launch my podcast.

YouTube Content. I've started to create a ton of content surrounding my experiences in Japan.

Medium Article. I talk about my writing hiatus and why I'm back!

Google Focus. In this week's podcast, we're be taking a look at some recent news around Google especially its anti-competitive positioning.

Airbnb vs Hotels. Here's one recently I released around my thoughts on Airbnb vs Hotels in Japan.

Market Capitalisation Dip. For a while yesterday, Nine's market capitalisation dipped below $2bn, before recovering slightly to finish the day at $2.006bn.

Valuation Decline. Nine's valuation falls below $2bn, after losing $3bn in the space of three years.

CEO Valuation Report. Mike Sneesby becomes the first local media CEO to have deliver shareholders a decline in valuation of more than $3bn.

Crackdown on Scam Ads. The government is announcing a crackdown on scam ads with fines for the digital platforms that carry them.

AI Regulations Consultation. The government has kicked off a fortnight-long consultation period around a new set of voluntary rules on AI usage.

Privacy Reforms Delayed. The most consequential reforms to the Privacy Act have been moved to 'the too-hard basket', and are likely to be dumped to the other side of the election.

Membership Upgrade Offer. This is the perfect time to upgrade to an Unmade membership to access events and members-only content.

Disrupt Radio Challenges. Disrupt Radio staff have gone unpaid for nearly two months, emphasizing struggles in the startup environment.

Startup Realities. Ben Roberts, founder of Disrupt Radio, highlighted that 'Start-ups are not for the salaried and superannuated.'

Google News. In this week's podcast, we're be taking a look at some recent news around Google especially it's anti-competitive positioning.

Telegram and Crypto. We'll also take a look at Telegram and crypto news!

Marketing Spend Comparison. None of the companies who shared numbers came close to the marketing spend benchmark of 5-10%; SCA on 2.2%, SWM on 2.1% and Ooh Media on an insipid 1.2%.

Media Marketing Spending. Every ASX-listed media company that shared a number in their annual reports cut their own marketing spend, even as they were telling their own clients that this was a bad idea.

Seven West Media Cuts. In absolute terms, Seven West Media cut the most out of its marketing budget between the 2023 and 2024 financial years, cutting it by $5.6m (or 19.2%).

Media Companies' Advice. The advice that media companies give to marketers about investing in their brands is good, but it takes boards and managements who are incentivised to invest in the long term.

ARN Stake Details. Activist investment firm Samuel Terry Asset management has become the biggest shareholder in ARN, with a 16 percent stake.

Unmade Index Drop. Nine lost 1.5%, leaving it teetering only just above a $2bn market capitalisation.

Disrupt Radio Financial Loss. Disrupt Radio lost nearly $5m in its first year on air and needed to find $400,000 per month to cover its costs, having just $5,000 left in the bank.

Disrupt Radio Status. Disrupt Radio, a loss-making company, went off air from its DAB+ broadcast frequency after being locked out of its studio by Sports Entertainment Network.

Southern Cross Austereo. In percentage terms, Southern Cross Austereo trimmed the most from its marketing costs as it dialled back on the launch phase marketing of its digital platform Listnr, with a cut of 26.2%.

Marketing Tactics. Create a customer hall of fame: Dedicate prime real estate on your homepage. Spotlight one customer every week.

Key Lesson Summary. Remember: It's not about the carpet, it's never about the carpet. It's about the stars who walk on it.

Customer Advisory Board. Build a customer advisory board: Invite top users to join. Quarterly video calls with your CEO. Make them feel like VIPs.

Creating Exclusive Merchandise. Design insider swag: Create exclusive merchandise. Only for customers.

Engaging Customer Events. Host a 'Customer Oscars' event: Annual online awards ceremony. With categories like 'most innovative use case'. Let the community vote for winners.

Customer-Centric Marketing. It rarely matters what your product (=the red carpet) is made of. What matters is WHO is using it (=the celebs and superstars walking on it).

Presence of Celebrities. Tom Hanks was right there with me as we strutted down the red carpet for the world premiere of his movie 'Elvis'.

Cheap Feeling of Carpet. This is the cheapest piece of fabric I've ever felt.

Cost of Red Carpet. It costs $15,000 to walk [the Cannes red carpet] (if you can find a ticket).

Cannes VIP Experience. Two years ago, I got invited to Cannes Film Festival as a VIP guest.

Creative Promotion Strategy. I produced an impressive quick answer video. Filmed it at a green screen studio near home and pulled an all-nighter to edit it.

Successful Creative Entry. I put a link to a YouTube video instead. I didn't write a name.

Mastercard Competition. I won a Mastercard promotion! An all-expenses-paid trip.

Ooh Media's Upfronts. Last night Ooh Media kicked off Upfronts season with a bash on a beautiful Sydney evening at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Event Reset for Ooh Media. The event felt like a reset for Ooh of the back of a poor half: A reminder to the market of the company’s scale; a promise to be easier to deal with; a reworked plan for retail media.

AI Adoption in Briefs. Ooh Media will respond to briefs faster was the promise, including using AI to do so.

Emerging Competitors. Another agency person observed that Ooh Media can't claim to be number one for ease of dealing with, as that belongs to rival QMS.

Nine's Market Capitalization. Nine was hammered, losing 5.5%, leaving its market capitalisation only just over $2bn.

Unmade Index Decline. The Index landed on 444.7 points, its worst ever, and the first time the index has been below 450 points.

New Contracts Announcement. What Ooh did announce was new contracts including Waverley Council, more of the northern beaches in Sydney, and the Eastlink Motorway in Melbourne.

Retail Media Strategy. Ooh Media's retail media play ReOoh, announced last year, is now REO, with the central part being an outsourced media sales house for retailers.

Ooh Media's Dominance. Ooh Media's claims to be number one on all the key metrics including market share, audience share and profitability.

Understanding ChatGPT. Demystifying ChatGPT: Understand its full potential.

Free Guide Availability. Transform your workday with HubSpot's free guide, 'Using ChatGPT at Work.'

Expert Tips Provided. Best Practices: Expert tips for maximum effectiveness.

Streamlining Use Cases. Practical Insights: Real-world use cases to streamline processes.

Actionable Prompts Offered. Discover how to leverage ChatGPT for efficiency and innovation with 100 actionable prompt ideas.

Historical Legislative Delays. In the 18 years I’ve been covering the media beat in Australia, there has been no moment when media owners haven’t been complaining that the legislation is out of date.

Media Regulation Complexity. There are few areas of public policy that are more complicated to navigate than media regulation.

Unmade Index Performance. The Unmade Index closed on 462.9 points, up by 0.56% for the day.

ARN and SCA Stock Trends. Southern Cross Austereo and ARN Media both gave back some of Monday's big jumps, yesterday losing 2.7% and 1.7% respectively.

Advertising Levy Consideration. Alongside this comes the possibility of a much bigger move: Introducing an advertising levy on the digital platforms.

Legislation Drift Risk. The temptation is to let it drift until the election. Neither dead or alive, it’s Schrodinger’s legislation.

Short-Term vs Long-Term Impact. I say short term because in the long term, the market will reset; in the next rounds of sports rights negotiations, networks will be able to bid less because if they factor in less betting advertising in the future.

Public Sentiment on Ads. Every survey shows that the public thinks there are too many betting ads.

Political Lobbying Impact. The television networks in particular have been really good at lobbying for their own interests via Free TV Australia.

Advertising Trends. The numbers for July, released by Guideline SMI, were rotten. Again.

Market Movement. SCA and ARN both see spikes in their share prices.

Event Schedule. Upcoming events include REmade on October 1 and Unlock on October 31.

Membership Benefits. Annual members now get a free ticket to all of our events.

Revenue Growth. In today's episode of Start the Week, we cover off the new 2024 financial year data from the IAB, revealing video streaming growing by an impressive 18.6% while connected TV is taking the biggest slice of that.

Results Season Insights. We look back upon a results season full of lots of bad news but few nasty surprises.

Upcoming Upfronts. We look forward to Upfronts season which kicks off with Ooh Media's Outfronts on Wednesday.

IAB Revenue Data. The Internet Advertising Revenue Report FY24 & June Quarter can be accessed at https://iabaustralia.com.au/resource/internet-advertising-revenue-report-fy24-june-quarter/.

Podcast Report. We also discuss a separate half yearly report into podcast listening habits from Commercial Radio & Audio and Triton Digital.

Audio Streaming Boom. Meanwhile, online audio has just had its best quarter.

Further Reading. The Australian Podcast Bi-annual report is available at https://commercialradio.com.au/RA/media/General/Documents/Podcast%20Ranker/CRA-Podcast-Half-Yearly-Report.pdf?ext=.pdf.

Agency Impact Speculation. I’ve a growing hunch that a factor that needs to be examined more closely when it comes to declining revenues for traditional media is the role being played by agency groups in accelerating their process thanks to their own self interest.

Bupa Campaign Success. Thinkerbell is not only celebrating the Australian Paralympic Team with Bupa, but ensuring them that their care will always be present.

Unmade Index Recovery. The Unmade Index recovered a little on Friday after hitting a new low point earlier in the week. It finished up by 0.83% for the day, landing on 456.1 points.

SCA's Future Control. Could SCA’s management instead take control of their own destiny by looking at other ideas that see it become the audio component of a bigger whole?

The Monkeys' Transition. The most successful local creative agency startup of the last two decades, The Monkeys will become part of the Droga5 network from December.

Consultancy Retreat. With one notable exception, the consultancies are in retreat from adland.

Declining Marketing Spend. SCA’s falling expenditure on promotions and marketing, which dropped from $15m to $11m across the year.

Local Revenue Increase. Local revenue for SCA actually increased over the year - from $175m to $176m.

TV Revenue Drop. The biggest fall in revenue was in SCA's TV arm which shrank from $107m to $98m.

Annual Results Decline. SCA's EBITDA profits were down to $66m (they were three times that just a decade ago) and revenue fell below the half billion dollar threshold, landing at $499m.

Reasons for Popularity. 'Instantly shareable results' and 'just the right amount of snark and humor' contributed to its success.

Viral Tool Success. Twitter Roast is 'one of the most successful products on Product Hunt in years.'

Growth Hack Within Growth Hack. 'You probably already have the perfect mini-tool hiding in your product.'

Pro Tip for Mini-Tools. 'Make it 100% free. No email, no sign-up, nada.'

Launch Recommendations. 'Launch it on Product Hunt, Reddit, HackerNews, etc.' to create buzz.

Example of Mini-Tools. Examples of successful mini-tools include Copy.ai's cold email generator and Wix's QR code generator.

Common Mini-Tool Feature. Mini-tools 'create free value while subtly bringing attention to the core product.'

Marketing Strategy. 'Build a free mini web app or tool that solves a super-specific problem for your target audience.'

Consumer Mindset Shifts. The conversation also covers how consumer mindset changes depending on life stage.

Quality of Life Focus. We're a free, open, easy, sporty, home-focused people, quality of life-focused people, and it ain't going away.

Call for Awards Entries. Our call for entries for the REmade Awards is live only until the end of the weekend.

Nine's Market Capitalization. Nine finished the day up by 0.75% to a market capitalisation of $2.1bn.

Unmade Index Stability. The Unmade Index stood still on Wednesday with the market offering a sigh of relief that Nine's annual financial results were no worse than expected.

Permanent Change Post-COVID. As the lockdowns of Covid fade in people's memories, some of the changes in trajectory are permanent.

Heavy Financial Loss. In July, Unmade revealed that Disrupt Radio had lost $4.6m in its first year on air, and was burning $400,000 per month.

Disrupt Radio Issues. Startup digital station Disrupt Radio has started filling its airtime with old episodes after staff downed tools because they have not been paid.

Flat Audio Stocks. Southern Cross Austereo and ARN Media both slipped to the lowest valuation in their histories.

Record Low Index. The Unmade Index hit a new record low of 456.6 points.

Company Trading Insights. Company directors who allow insolvent trading can face civil proceedings including financial penalties, or being disqualified from being a director.

Insolvency Risk Flagged. In the obligatory disclosures within the Birchal document, Disrupt Radio had flagged an 'insolvency risk', saying: 'The Company is not yet profitable.'

Staff Consider Action. Staff - some of whom are part of a WhatsApp group called Dis Fucked Radio where they have been discussing their missing pay - have told Unmade they are considering taking their concerns to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Low Audience Reach. Yesterday's radio ratings also contained more bad news for Disrupt Radio which sank to an official weekday reach of just 4,000 people across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Crowdfunding Shortfall. A fund raising initiative on the crowd funding platform Birchal which closed on July 1 raised just $24,500 of Disrupt's $1m target.

Staff Pay Delay. Unmade has seen a series of memos to staff from the management of Disrupt Radio saying that their July salaries were late because an anticipated new round of investment is yet to arrive.

Modest Sales Growth. A more realistic expectation is a modest 5% growth in holiday e-commerce sales.

Faster Shipping Impact. Portless cuts shipping time from China to the U.S. down to just six days, which could leave more of your customers feeling happier.

AI's Future Predictions. AI tools predict a continued shift towards mobile and personalized shopping experiences, along with a growing focus on sustainability.

BNPL Growth. Buy-now, pay-later options are expected to account for 9% of holiday sales as shoppers lean into flexible payment options.

Social Commerce Rise. Gen Z is set to drive social commerce this season, with about 40% planning to shop directly through social platforms like TikTok.

Email Marketing Surge. Expect a 25% increase in email marketing as retailers try to capture consumer attention without breaking the bank.

Mobile Shopping Dominance. Expect over half (54%) of online holiday sales to come from mobile devices.

Instagram Carousel Update. You can now share 20 slides in one Instagram post.

Smell Advertising. McDonald's installed scented billboards in the Netherlands, which effectively triggered memories of past visits to their restaurants.

X Testing Changes. X is testing the removal of like, comment, and repost buttons from replies.

New Instagram Metric. Instagram is making views the primary metric for content.

Power of Senses. McDonald's reminded us that smell is a powerful tool that can evoke strong emotional responses and create lasting impressions.

Consultancy Experiment. One of the curiosities of the Australian economy is that we’re small enough for experiments, but large enough for them to be meaningful.

Read More.

Marketing Services. The attraction for the consultancies was in finding adjacent territory where they could offer new marketing services, and charge for them.

Consultancies' Decision. The consultancies are starting to make up their minds about whether they want to be all in.

Membership Benefits. Annual members now get a free ticket to all of our events.

Consultancies Retreat. With one notable exception, the consultancies are in retreat from adland.

Perplexity's New Direction. We look at Perplexity's plans to take on Google in search with an advertising offering.

Media Unmade Events. Annual members now get a free ticket to all of our events.

Brand Safety Issues. Media companies are starting to push back against buying agencies' brand safety policies after the admission of Group M boss Christian Juhl that by default most of his clients are kept off news sites.

OpenAI and Conde Nast. Conde Nast's deal with OpenAI was highlighted as part of the discussion.

Fake AI Imagery. Donald Trump's sharing of fake AI imagery was mentioned as a significant issue regarding misinformation.

Further Reading Links. The Australian reported on 'Brand suitability myth busted' which reflects critical industry insights.

Member Benefits. Upgrading to an Unmade membership includes access to members-only content and paywalled archives.

Advertising on News Sites. Juhl testified to Congress that just 1.28% of brand spend goes to online news.

ABC's Future Needs. The ABC needs to not only make the case for more funding, but to spend it effectively.

Southern Cross Update. ARN Media isn't giving up the chase for Southern Cross Austereo despite a $4.3m setback.

Unmade Index Drop. The Unmade Index hit its own new low point yesterday too, dropping by 0.9% to 460.3 points.

Market Capitalization Low. Australia's two major audio companies both hit all time low market capitalisations yesterday, with Southern Cross Austereo landing at $134m.

ABC Leadership Transition. Both men said exceptionally nice things about each other. I doubt it would have stayed that way if Anderson stuck around.

Talent Drain Concern. With only five percent of the digital advertising and ad tech employees now over 50 years of age, the long-term problem is the knowledge that is leaving the industry.

Senior Staffing Decline. From 44% of vacancies in the space being for people with more than six years' experience just one year ago, that's halved to 20%.

Job Market Shift. The proportion of ads seeking cheaper people with one to three years of experience has jumped from 13% to 34% in the space of a year.

Creative Titles. The weirder and more personalized to the influencer’s persona, the better.

LinkedIn Profiles. Create an actual LinkedIn profile for them using the wacky ‘Chief’ title.

No Real Role Needed. You don’t actually have to give the influencer ownership or a real role in creating your product.

Halo Effect. When people admire an influencer, they transfer positive feelings to anything directly associated with that person.

Psychological Impact. The Parasocial Interaction Effect: People develop imagined personal connections with influencers they follow.

Successful Examples. Virgin Voyages made Jennifer Lopez their ‘Chief Entertainment Officer’.

Influencer Titles. Instead of just paying influencers to endorse you, try this: Give them a fancy ‘Chief’ title that implies they co-created your product.

Marketing Investment. ARN has so far spent around $3m on marketing the show’s Melbourne launch.

Kyle & Jackie O Show Launch. Despite there being no early breakthrough in the ratings, The Kyle & Jackie O Show's Melbourne launch is still a key part of the networking strategy.

Failed Takeover Costs. ARN Media's bill for the failed takeover bid for Southern Cross Austereo was $4.3m.

Unmade Index Recovery. The Unmade Index recovered slightly on Thursday, up 0.3% from Wednesday's all-time low to land on 464.5 points.

Dividends Slashed. That was mainly, I suspect, down to the decision to slash the size of the shareholder dividend from 3.5 cents per share to 1.2 cents this year.

Stock Price Decline. The ARN Media stock price slumped. It closed yesterday down by nearly 10%.

AI Podcast Targeting. The company will soon tap into a new AI-driven capability referred to by Davis in his presentation to analysts as "conversational targetability" of podcasts.

Digital Profitability Shift. The company was keen to talk about how (like SCA's Listnr) it will soon no longer be losing money on its digital efforts.

Mixed Revenue Results. The actual numbers were a little better than I’d been anticipating. Metro radio was down 2.5% in the half. Regional was up 15.3% and digital streaming was up 34%. Overall, audio revenues were up 1%.

Cost Cuts Announced. There will be another $10m in cuts across ARN Media, representing more than 5% of the company’s cost base.

Revenue Growth. As you’ll see, revenues have now reached just over $550,000.

Unmade's Membership Benefits. Unmade's annual paid membership will now include a ticket to all of our events.

Email Database Changes. On August 9, we hit 22,468 email addresses on our database for our daily email.

Event Successes. REmade has also been a commercial success with strong sponsorship and ticket sales.

New Upcoming Event. Unlock takes place in Sydney on October 31.

Unmade Index Decline. The Unmade Index fell a further 0.46% into its most negative territory since its launch.

Transparency in Data. I’d rather be transparent. And, less altruistically, I hope it inspires a question from trade marketers to some of our rivals.

Diversifying Revenue Streams. The repeatable revenues of paying subscribers is where our long-term future lies.

Independent Media Growth. Through persistence and participation, Many of Many has become a significant voice within the publishing ecosystem.

Man of Many's Milestone. Tomorrow is Unmade’s third birthday and we'll be sharing a post with some updates on how we’re travelling.

Future of Funding. If the government does decide to create a digital levy on the platforms, Man of Many will inevitably be one of the voices arguing for funding.

Digital Publishing Challenges. Purcell argues that lifestyle journalism is a form of public interest journalism that deserves funding.

Recognition in Media. Man of Many has been a long time entrant (and sometimes winner) in Mumbrella's Publish Awards.

Man of Many Origins. Neither of its two founders Scott Purcell and Frank Arthur came from a publishing background.

Declining Market Cap. The Unmade Index began at the start of 2022 on a nominal 1000 points. Yesterday's number marks a fall of more than 53% of their collective value.

Unmade Index Low. The Unmade Index hit a new low point yesterday, dropping by 1.06% to 465.2 points.

Unlimited Creative Assets. For just €14.50/month, you get unlimited access to over 19 million assets from Envato.

Amazon Affiliate Insights. Discover the detailed conversion rate lift Amazon sellers experienced from affiliate marketing, broken down by product category.

Impressive TikTok Results. TikTok ads are performing in the top 1% CVR, with a 50% decrease in costs per add-to-cart, a 92% increase in organic video views, and over a 30% increase on ROAS.

UGC Creation Success. minisocial has helped thousands of brands create UGC that converts, goes viral, and drives engagement.

Simplified Influencer Activation. Seamlessly activate 10, 25, 50, or 100 micro-influencers without any of the lift.

Unbiased News Delivery. Join millions who start their day with unbiased news delivered straight to their inbox with 1440.

Ooh Media's Revenue Decline. Revenue was down by 2.8% to $288m for the half, compared to the high point of 2019, when revenues were $305m.

Ooh Media's Leadership Changes. This is the first time we get a snapshot of three years of relatively consistent leadership and market conditions for Ooh Media.

Earlybird Discount Expiry. The earlybird discount ends tonight for this year’s REmade conference.

Industry Metrics Discussion. The session will explore the right metrics, the impact of ad creative on measurement, and how better data can unlock more investment.

New Retail Media Scorecard. REmade delegates will get an exclusive first look at the new Retail Media Scorecard, with highlights from the third edition to be shared on stage.

Affiliate Marketing Report. Discover the detailed conversion rate lift Amazon sellers experienced from affiliate marketing, broken down by product category.

Wait-and-See Approach. For now, the industry is in a wait-and-see mode regarding TikTok's new policy.

Opportunities for Brands. With TikTok's huge user base, the platform offers a unique opportunity for alcohol brands to reach new audiences.

Concerns with Age-Gating. TikTok's inability to age-gate organic content is a major concern for brands like Josh Cellars.

Cautious Brands. Many alcohol brands are holding back despite the green light from industry groups like DISCUS.

Alcohol Ads on TikTok. TikTok is now allowing alcohol ads in the U.S., targeting users aged 25 and up.

ABC's Media Watch Plans. The ABC has been rebuffed in what would have been a wonderful casting move.

ARN and SCA Update. ARN likely to update the market on its SCA takeover ambitions when it does its half yearly update on Thursday.

Ooh Media's Profits. Clues from earnings season as Ooh Media's profits slip.

Tech Tax Rumblings. In today's audio-led edition, rumblings about a tech tax get louder.

Publishers Sensing Opportunity. Publishers smell money in the air, and they’re launching a landgrab before the dollars drift to the ground.

Lifestyle Publishers Value. Lifestyle publishers are arguing that what they do had a value too.

Earnings Season Check-In. We check in on earnings season with Ooh Media reporting a down half this morning.

Media Watch Host Search. It tried to interest Justice Michael Lee in replacing Paul Barry as Media Watch host.

Digital Levy Likelihood. A digital levy for platforms now looks likely.

Stat on FTA Advertising Market. Financial markets say FTA advertising market won’t improve until consumer confidence lifts.

Media Impact. Over 80 articles were written about the campaign, generating 230 million media impressions valued at $44 million.

Volvo's Unique Strategy. Instead of joining the fray with a multi-million dollar ad, Volvo launched a unique social media contest.

AI Product Discovery. Google Adds Enhanced Product Discovery Options Powered by AI.

LinkedIn Verification. LinkedIn Adds Verification for Company Pages.

Google Search Console Update. Google Search Console launches recommendations.

Sales Growth. The campaign led to a 70.7% increase in sales for the featured product, the Volvo XC60, the highest in its category for February 2015.

Website Traffic Surge. Volvo's website saw over 116,000 visitors in two weeks.

Social Media Success. With more than 55,000 tweets during the Super Bowl, #VolvoContest became the most-tweeted automotive hashtag of the day, even trending globally.

Regional Consumer Growth. Demographer Bernard Salt made the argument that regional consumers are growing faster than their city counterparts.

CHEP Campaign Success. CHEP has played on the type of car chase scene seen in all action movies, and turned it into a display of the efficiency of the Mobil fuel range sold at 7-Eleven forecourts.

Gambling Revenue on Sports Rights. If the TV networks anticipate no gambling revenue in the mix, they will all have to bid less.

Unmade Index Performance. The Unmade Index crept upwards for a third day in a row after an improvement in Nine's valuation lifted the market.

Media Moguls' Influence. Eric Beecher published his book 'The Men Who Killed The News,' in which he argued that media moguls have too much hidden power.

Labor and Gambling Ads. Labor has got itself into a political pickle just months before an election. Does it make a law change for which there appears to be widespread public support? Or does it back the TV networks who will influence that election in their news coverage?

ARN Media's Acquisition Plans. ARN Media is looking for outcomes to take SCA's five metro capital Triple M network and expand its Kiis FM network to five cities.

Authenticity in Marketing. The move to podcasts highlights a shift toward storytelling and authenticity.

Investing in Podcasts. While launching a podcast requires significant investment and effort, it’s proving to be a valuable tool for brands looking to differentiate themselves.

Brand Engagement Strategy. Brands like Thrive Market and Bobbie are turning to podcasts as a powerful tool to build deeper connections with their audiences.

Email Marketing Success. In 2023, Omnisend merchants earned an impressive $72 for every $1 spent.

Other Discount Strategies. Recommend your free trial instead, offer an extended free trial, or limit discounts to students only.

Wix's Strategic Move. With their 10% coupon page, Wix is capturing potential customers early on, right at the start, before they even have a chance to be tempted by competitors.

Immediate Customer Satisfaction. Discovering the secret discount page makes them feel like they’ve hit the jackpot which leads to higher retention.

Quick Purchases. Yosi told me that hundreds of people have made purchases with this coupon, without any additional promotion.

Organic Ranking Advantage. Don’t link to this page from anywhere else on your site! Instead, let it be discovered organically by customers searching for '[Company] discount' / '[Company] coupon code'.

Create Discount Pages. Make your own ‘secret’ discount page and be the hero they’re looking for.

Expired Coupon Frustration. More often than not, they only find expired or fake codes from random sketchy sites.

Customer Discount Search. When people want to buy your product, they often look for discounts.

Control the Narrative. Build a discount page, even if it just says 'Sorry, no discounts here.'

Customer Psychology. Customers feel like they've hit the jackpot, even though it’s not really a secret.

Extra Push for Buyers. Hesitant buyers get the extra push they need to convert.

Streamlined Support. You can streamline support by directing discount requests to this page.

SEO Benefits. With a dedicated URL, you can outrank those pesky coupon sites for '[your company] discount' searches.

Backlink Opportunities. You may earn additional backlinks from coupon websites that link directly to your discount page.

Foxtel's Streaming Success. The rise of Kayo and Binge saw each platform pass more than 1.5m paying subscribers for the first time.

Earlybird Ticket Sales. Discounted earlybird tickets for the REmade conference are available until Tuesday, with a $185 saving.

Kayo's Evolving Focus. Ogrin implies a subtle repositioning of Kayo to emphasize domestic sports in response to losing major international rights.

Potential Price Increases. Kayo's entry-level price of $25 per month may rise towards $50, according to industry predictions.

Market Capitalization Threat. Seven West Media's market capitalization of $224m is now in danger of being overtaken by ARN Media at $218m.

Streaming Growth Strategy. Julian Ogrin claims that in the next 12 to 24 months, Foxtel can be number one in digital advertising.

Retail Media Conference. The final session for REmade will feature a Leadership Q&A with key retail media figures discussing the industry's future.

Celebrity Financial Ties. The ads featured Steven Bartlett, a well-known entrepreneur and social media influencer, praising their products, but did not disclose his financial stake in both companies.

Need for Trustworthy Ads. We need ads we can trust, and that starts with full transparency from the people promoting them.

Call for Transparency. A simple '#ad' tag can make all the difference, making it clear when someone is being paid to promote a product.

Influencer Marketing Risks. As influencer marketing becomes more popular, it’s easier for brands to blur the lines between personal recommendations and paid promotions.

ASA's Ad Crackdown. This isn’t an isolated incident; it’s part of a bigger crackdown by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on misleading ads, especially in the world of influencer marketing.

Misleading Ad Practices. Recently, two health-focused brands, Huel and Zoe, found themselves in hot water over misleading ads.

Importance of Disclosure. The rules around advertising, known as the CAP code, are pretty clear: if someone is making money from the product they’re promoting, they need to tell you.

Flat Share Price. Seven's share price was flat yesterday which suggested there were no surprises for the market.

Long-term Revenue Goals. The scale of SWM’s reduced short term ambitions could be best illustrated by Howard's response: 'Is it possible to achieve a low single digit revenue decline? Yeah.'

Change in Leadership Compensation. Warburton's final year netted him remuneration of $1.3m. He’s now SWM’s eighth biggest shareholder with a 1.5% stake in the company.

Fluctuating Ad Revenues. We drove our BVOD minutes by 39%, but the BVOD revenue was up 10.

Market Speculation on SVOD. Howard said: 'There been a lot of speculation on SVOD in the past. I don’t think we’re more desperate or less desperate to get into the space.'

Cooperation Suggestion. There will be 'a change in the go-to-market strategy coming to the market in the next month or two.'

High Net Debt. Net debt ($301m) is now bigger than those annual EBITA profits (and bigger than the company’s market capitalisation of $239m too).

Significant Revenue Decline. Revenues were down a bit (by 4.9%). Profits were down a lot (by 33.2%).

New Leadership Style. New Seven West Media boss Jeff Howard finally said something publicly yesterday, fronting the company's annual results announcement.

TV Network Crisis. The TV sector is in "diabolical trouble", argued Bill Shorten as he made the case for keeping betting ads on air.

Advertising Spend Decline. Advertiser spend with the networks was down 8.1% to $3.4bn.

Revenue Decrease. Five years ago, the networks had a $4bn industry. Now it’s worth $3.3bn.

BVOD Growth. The wider BVOD numbers are a case for optimism - from $93m in FY18 to $441m this time round.

Sports Rights Issue. The biggest factor is a problem of the own networks’ making. They’ve bid up the cost of sports rights even faster than their advertising base has shrunk.

Rough Day on Index. It was a seriously down day on the Unmade Index yesterday, with a drop of 3.57% to 474.3 points.

Major Network Losses. Seven West Media had the worst of it, falling by more than 10% at one point, before landing on a daily decline of 8.82%.

Buy Foxtel Plans. Nine is gaming out a way to buy Foxtel, as discussed in the update.

Event Announcement. REmade returns as a full-day event in Sydney on October 1, featuring an emphasis on empowering marketers in retail media.

Critique of Domain. The Australian Financial Review published an article hinting that Nine's majority-owned real estate platform Domain is being badly run.

Market Cap Comparison. Domain has lost 10.8% of its market capitalisation so far this year, while REA has gained more than 10%.

Pressure on Management. There seems to be an attempt by players within Nine to put pressure on Domain's chairman, Nick Falloon, regarding his leadership.

Cross-Functional Collaboration. Growth marketing often involves collaboration between different teams, such as product development and management, sales and business development, and customer support.

Customer-Centric Approach. Understanding customer behavior, needs, and preferences is central to growth marketing.

Rapid Prototyping. Growth marketing involves constant testing to identify the most effective tactics for driving growth.

Data-Driven Decision-Making. Growth marketers rely heavily on data analytics to make informed decisions and understand what strategies are working and what are not.

Key Growth Metrics. If you can easily say that your marketing is directly and measurably leading to these results, that's great! Keep on keeping on.

Distinguishing Growth Marketing. Many companies and organizations think they are doing growth marketing, when in reality they are doing traditional marketing.

Serious Companies Grow. Today, the companies and organizations that are serious about growing all do growth marketing.

Applicability to All. This type of marketing has become increasingly more applicable to all types of companies and organizations, larger and smaller.

Growth Marketing Emergence. Growth marketing is a relatively new type of marketing that has emerged in the last 10-to-15 years.

Growth Marketing Institute. There's more where this came from at the Growth Marketing Institute.

Confusion in Approaches. The confusion between growth marketing and traditional marketing often arises because both disciplines share common goals.

Growth vs. Traditional. Traditional marketing is more about building a brand over time, while growth marketing is about achieving fast, measurable results.

Scalability Importance. Successful growth marketing strategies are exponentially scalable, meaning they can be expanded to reach more customers without a proportional increase in costs.

Full-Funnel Focus. Growth marketers work on improving every stage of the customer lifecycle, from acquisition to retention.

Push for Rapid Growth. Companies and organizations looking for significant, rapid growth lean more towards growth marketing.

Nine's Absorption Talks. Nine talked to News Corp about buying Foxtel.

Domain's Leadership Issues. There is a subtle hit on the management team at the Nine-aligned Domain in the Australian Financial Review.

Share Buyback Failure. There are suggestions that Nine's share buyback program has been a fizzer.

AI Disillusionment. In the world of AI, have we hit the trough of disillusionment?

Further Reading Links. For more insights, refer to additional resources including 'Nine and News Corp deal talks add to Foxtel intrigue.'

Cosmo Returns. Six years after Bauer Media killed it off, Cosmopolitan Australia is back on the newsstands.

Foxtel's Future Risk. Binge will be a much weaker product without HBO.

2DayFM Breakfast Changes. Southern Cross Austereo pulled the plug on another failed 2DayFM breakfast show, marking the seventh failure since Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson defected.

Structural Changes. The toughness of the environment faced by News Corp Australia is there in the numbers. Advertising revenue in Australia was down 11% for the year from US$412m to US$366m.

Reader Revenue Surge. Significantly more of News Corp's revenue now comes from readers (US$419m in circulation and subs) than advertisers (US$366m).

Urgency for Sale. There’s an urgency about the deal. News Corp will never get a better price than now.

Declining Profits. In the face of higher costs and the continued decline of high value broadcast subscribers, Foxtel's profits declined to $310m from $347m in FY23.

Subscriber Growth. Sports platform Kayo and entertainment service Binge passed 1.5m paying subscribers each in the last quarter.

Foxtel Sale Discussions. Reaction to yesterday's News Corp financial year results announcement was dominated by talk of a sale of Foxtel Group.

Mini-Games Trend. Fast forward to today, and it seems like everyone is jumping on the mini-game bandwagon.

Startup Simulator Launch. In 2016, Toggl launched 'Startup Simulator' - a simple web game where players build a startup while avoiding employee churn and bankruptcy.

Mini-Game Design Principles. The trick is to take an existing game model and twist it to fit your audience with their specific lingo, pains, and inside jokes.

Engagement Hook. Drop new challenges daily (like Wordle and LinkedIn), and people will get hooked; it’s also a great conversation starter.

Wizlympics Launch. At Wiz, we launched 'Wizlympics' - just in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Educational Mini-Games. Toggl's 'Startup Simulator' teaches founders how to cope with extreme situations.

Viral Potential. Great games spread organically; players share high scores, challenge friends, and talk about them on social.

Mini-Games Marketing Benefits. Games keep users on your site or app longer than any other content, which is wild for SEO.

YouTube Playables. YouTube introduced 'Playables' - interactive ads that let users play a mini-game before watching a video.

LinkedIn's Puzzle Games. LinkedIn has launched a series of puzzle games that provide a short mental break at work.

Advertising Rationality. Choosing not to advertise on X is an entirely rational thing to do; continuing to advertise on X is the dumber move for most brands.

Musk's Lawsuit Humor. Elon Musk's decision to sue former Twitter advertisers is laughable, but the legal case raises a real issue about brand safety doctrines.

Market Movement Overall. The Unmade Index finished flat for the day on 477.8 points, thanks to positive moves from larger stocks including Nine and Ooh Media.

Enero's Share Drop. Shares in Enero fell by 5.6% to land the company on a $99.4m valuation.

Challenge Advertising Norm. It is time to challenge the collective avoidance of news advertising by agencies, which limits brands’ reach and drags down return on investment.

News Advertising Budget. Brands prefer to avoid advertising next to the news; not much more than 1% of client budgets go into online news environments.

Agency Laziness Costs. Agency laziness of avoiding all news, not just the places where there’s a genuine risk of brand damage, costs their clients money if they have to pay more to be elsewhere.

Impact on News Media. For the advertising ecosystem, the end of GARM may be no bad thing, as serious news publishers often miss out on advertising in the name of brand safety.

GARM Lawsuit Causes Closure. WFA is closing GARM as a result of the X lawsuit, presenting the move as being about GARM lacking the resources for the fight.

Enero's Market Capitalization. Enero falls below a $100m market capitalisation for the first time since Covid.

Media Moguls' Influence. Beecher has a major focus on the Murdoch family in his book, highlighting how media moguls use their influence for their own ends.

Public Interest Journalism. Beecher believes public interest journalism should focus on scrutinizing power and government, not lifestyle journalism.

Murdoch Family Lawsuit. Beecher was unsuccessfully sued for defamation by Lachlan Murdoch.

Beecher's Critique. Eric Beecher published a book condemning the power of media moguls.

Enero's Decline. Enero dropped to a market capitalization of $106 million after hitting its own four year low.

Market Performers. Among larger stocks, IVE grew by 3.4% while Seven West Media was up by 3%.

Unmade Index Recovery. The Unmade Index improved by 1.08%, recovering slightly after drops of 3.6% and 1.2%.

Democracy Loophole. Beecher describes the unregulated influence of owning a media company as 'the loophole in democracy'.

Commercial License. Every download comes with a lifetime commercial license, allowing use in any project without restrictions.

Unlimited Access. For just €14.50/month, you get unlimited access to over 19 million assets.

Diverse Asset Range. Envato Elements has everything you need to bring your ideas to life, offering an unrivaled range of quality assets and templates from global artists with one simple subscription.

Omnichannel Strategies. The session titled 'Mastering Retail Media: Integrated Strategies for Omnichannel Success' at REmade will provide insights on leveraging data-driven approaches and customer insights.

REmade Awards Entries. Entries for the REmade Awards are now open, with an early entry deadline of August 23 and a late entry deadline of September 1.

Early Bird Ticket Sales. Early bird tickets to REmade are on sale for another 14 days, with a saving of $185 on the full conference price.

Market Capitalisation Drop. SWM lost nearly 3%, landing at a market capitalisation of $254m, while its net debt was $257m.

Seven West Media Valuation. Seven West Media hits a concerning milestone with its market valuation falling below the size of its debt after its share price slumped yesterday.

Customer Behaviour Insights. Unilever, Cartology, and IAB will reveal insights into changing customer behaviour across the buying journey, focusing on first-party data in retail media.

Consumer Commerce Survey. Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, will present a first look at the findings of IAB's latest consumer commerce survey, offering a comprehensive look at customer behaviour and preferences across Australia and, for the first time, New Zealand.

REmade Conference Details. REmade returns to Sydney for a third time on October 1, expanded to a full day event with round tables, workshops, and more structured networking time.

Focus on Social Media. Instead, the target for most of the restrictions will be social media, which is a much safer target for the government to have a war with.

Gambling Ad Regulations. The government is watering down its plans to ban most forms of betting ads from television.

Read More on Betting Ads. The leaks are comprehensive enough to be credible.

Voucher for REmade. Below the paywall, you’ll also find the voucher code to save 40% on tickets to REmade.

Event Discounts. Members receive discounts on tickets to our events, including our AI conference humAIn, our retail media conference, REmade and a free ticket to our annual Compass series.

Unmade Subscriber Benefits. Unmade's paying members support our analytical journalism.

Market Crash Impact. Yesterday's market crash batters media and marketing stocks.

Ad Industry Advice. The ad industry would be wise to clean up its act on gambling anyhow.

TV Ad Inventory Impact. Granted a dispensation to carry two betting ads per hour on each network, that would create a scarcity value that would produce high value ad inventory in a less cluttered environment.

Boost Repeat Purchases. Businesses with higher visitor identification see a 53% boost in repeat purchases.

3x Revenue Growth. Lockstar achieved 3x revenue in a competitive Amazon category exclusively through affiliate marketing using Levanta.

Retention Woes. Long-term loyalty is rare, with only 6% of customers buying again after three years.

Apparel Buyer Trends. Apparel buyers are the easiest to identify, with a 27% rate, leading to a 20% repeat purchase rate.

Identify E-commerce Visitors. The more you know about visitors—like email addresses and phone numbers—the better you can strategize.

Essential Visitor Understanding. For e-commerce retailers, understanding who's browsing isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential.

Visitor Identification Rate. 85% of e-commerce site visitors are basically ghosts, unidentified and out of reach.

Digital Levy Consideration. A major new intervention around digital platforms is looming, including the possibility of a digital levy.

Government Betting Ad Regulation. The government seems to be watering down its threat to ban betting ads from TV, limiting gambling brands to two ads per hour.

Offers for Unmade Membership. Thinking about upgrading to an Unmade membership offers member-only pricing for upcoming conferences and events.

Media Access Fee Discounts. Networks are asking for another discount on what they pay to access the public airwaves amidst the proposed changes.

Rex Airline Intervention. The government is weighing up what intervention might be needed to save regional airline Rex, questioning if the airline should have stayed focused on the country.

Customer Communication Preference. We have seen an influx of customers (of all ages) who prefer to communicate with our clients via social media, as opposed to the more old-fashioned way of contacting them through their websites or otherwise.

Service vs. Sales. Most businesses are not all that interested in serving through their digital marketing; they mostly want to use it to promote and sell.

Customer Satisfaction Gap. 80 percent of businesses think that they are providing great customer service, yet only eight percent of customers actually agree.

Retention Opportunity. Be mindful to realize the unprecedented and even lucrative opportunity that proactive and reactive customer service affords businesses to have a two-way conversation with customers, which can increase customer retention.

Proactive Service Importance. Proactive customer service (or what we call 'content as customer service') is the ability to foresee people's questions, concerns, hesitations and problems related to your business and/or industry before they bring them to your attention.

Advertising Revenue Decline. A month where advertising revenue was down by just 1.1% is certainly an indicator that the decline might finally be slowing.

Digital Platforms Levy. The planets are aligning on a digital platforms levy - could it head off a war over the News Media Bargaining Code?

Cautious Government Approach. They’re being extremely careful to follow a process least likely to face legal challenge.

Potential Media Funding. A digital levy could assist in financial support for public interest news production in this country.

Unmade Index Decline. The Unmade Index's trip back above 500 points has come to an end after just two days, thanks to wobbly global markets.

Government's Digital Levy Work. What became clear this week is that the government has done far more work on a digital levy than anybody realised.

SMI Advertising Data. If the numbers seen in the week's data from SMI Guideline continue for another month or two, we may look back upon June as the month where the advertising market finally hit bottom for traditional media.

Podcast Genre Popularity. Genres like True Crime and Society & Culture had the highest ad loads, while sports podcasts were particularly popular among new advertisers.

Simulcast Ad Insights. Podcasts simulcast on YouTube had a higher share of host-read ads and direct response advertisers but a slightly lower ad load compared to traditional RSS-fed podcasts.

Ad Spending Shift. Direct response ads accounted for 44% of spending, while brand awareness campaigns represented 54%, a 15% increase year-over-year.

Top Spenders. Top spenders included BetterHelp, Amazon, and Shopify, with the gaming industry showing the most significant growth in ad spending.

Ad Load Trend. The average ad load increased to 7.19% in Q2, contributing to an overall average of 9.11% across sampled episodes.

Brand Entry Increase. The number of brands entering the podcast ad space grew by 1.9% from Q1, with 1,516 new advertisers.

Podcast Ad Growth. The report reveals a 22% year-over-year increase in podcast advertising spending, highlighting the medium's growing popularity across the U.S, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Australia.

Creator Profile Access. It lets you search & filter every public creator profile on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. That’s over 250 million social media creators!

Influencer Tool Usage. Modash is the tool that 1,400 brands like Bolt, NordVPN, and Mixtiles use to find nano & micro influencers.

Bard Criticism. Current and former Google employees are calling Bard ‘useless’ and not safe for public release.

Musk's Ambitions. Musk claims that this year is the year he will finally complete his self-driving mission.

Bard's Release. Google decided to release Bard despite the criticism from its employees.

Micro-Car Startup. Startup of the week: Many new electric cars are out but have you heard of a micro-car? Kate (the car manufacturer) will produce cars that fall between middle-distance trips, like taking your kids to school.

Uber Eats Robot Launch. Uber Eats launches this cute robot to deliver your food in Virginia City.

Tesla's Self-Driving Claims. According to a conference call, Elon Musk says Tesla will likely launch full self-driving technology this year.

Employee Criticism. According to a new report, Google employees call their own AI bot 'worse than useless.'

Snapchat's AI Release. On the topic of ChatGPT and Google's Bard, Snapchat releases its own AI chatbot for free.

Internal Employee Feedback. An investigation of Google's launch on Bard sparked internal confusion as employees themselves stated they did not want Bard to be launched.

Podcast Episode Announcement. EP8 JUST released: 10 minutes of tech news with me.

Marketing Skills Importance. From starting a side project to any startup, marketing is a requirement to getting your business off the ground.

YouTube Shorts Challenge. I decided to do a challenge: Post a Short daily for 4 months straight.

Quarterly Newsletter. I’ll be trying to release a ‘marketing learning’ newsletter every quarter just because it’s hard to come by actual learnings on a weekly or even monthly basis.

Interview Process Difficulty. In short though, Google has a much ‘thorough’ process and is, in my opinion, a lot harder.

Required Marketing Skills. I wrote an article last year about some of the marketing skills that are required to be a successful entrepreneur.

Subscriber Growth. Definitely got me over the 1K hurdle and I will continue to try new methods to grow my channel.

Sponsorship Opportunities. I am currently taking in new sponsorships for my newsletter, Youtube or Medium.

Sponsorship Details Link. For all the information including stats, price etc. please click this link here.

Shopify Layoffs. Shopify is laying off 20% of its staff.

Google Flip Phone. Google announced their first ever flip phone.

Bluesky's Ambition. Curious about Bluesky - the app looking to displace Twitter (launched by previous founder Jack Dorsey)?

Pixel Fold Announcement. Google announces its first fold phone - The Pixel Fold.

TikTok's Creator Fund. TikTok is expanding its creator fund - requiring 10K followers and longer videos. Perhaps a play to take on Youtube?

Instruqt Funding. Netherlands-based startup Instruqt raises €15M Series A to allow businesses to test new software in the organization before purchasing.

Shopify Layoffs. Shopify just laid off 20% of its staff and sells logistics arm to Flexport in a bid to focus in more.

Ad Spending Growth. Ad spending on digital videos looks to top 55.2 billion this year.

Newsletter Structure Change. I have now separated tech and marketing reads into two sections which makes it easier to track both sections separately.

Podcast Content. The podcast discusses all the recent announcements that were interesting to the host.

Google Announcements. Recent announcements from Google's Keynote Day have been noted as interesting developments.

New Innovations. Highlights include Bard, Google Maps, and Duet AI.

Duet AI Launch. Google introduces Duet AI for their workspace combo (Docs, G-mail, etc.) to combat Microsoft's Co-pilot.

Google Announcements Podcast. I dive deep into all of Google's recent announcements at their Keynote Day!

Marketing Powerup. Become a smarter marketer in just 10 minutes.

Advertising Spend Stalling. Advertising spend will stall this year as inflation continues to drag on.

Airbnb Marketing Success. After posting its first-ever quarterly profit, Airbnb says its 'full funnel' approach to marketing is paying dividends.

Petal Startup. I'm excited to see this startup, Petal redefine the credit score and help customers better manage it with their card solutions.

Musk Steps Down. Elon Musk has finally stepped down as CEO of Twitter and has found someone for the role.

Humane Wearables. Humane's demo looks at projector base wearables that don't require any smartphone or device to pair with.

Bard Release. Google also announces they are releasing the waitlist for Bard (their ChatGPT competitor) and that it's available for all now.

Google Find My Device. Google's Find My Device will soon use billions of other devices to help better locate your device.

Twitter Activity. I’ve decided that I will start being active on Twitter again so give me a follow and a hello on Twitter!

Subscriber Welcome. We have a huge amount of subscribers coming in from the Substack network so wanted to welcome everyone to the newsletter.

Marketing Powerup. Become a smarter marketer in just 10 minutes.

AI Search Implications. Some interesting opinions and thoughts around AI powered search and the future of marketing.

YouTube Ad Changes. Youtube is announcing unskippable TV ads that go up to 30 seconds.

Supply Chain Startup. Check out their new supply chain startup (also if you’d like to advertise your startup reach out to me!).

Long Emails Article. My latest article on Medium around sending long emails and how to best approach it.

ChatGPT iOS App. OpenAI launches a ChatGPT app for IOS (sad days for Android users like me).

Elon Musk Interview. This is an interesting interview in which Elon Musk ranted about work-from-home workers.

Gmail Account Alert. Ok if you have an inactive G-mail account for the last couple of years, make sure you log back in. Google might be deleting these soon at the end of the year!

Logo Simplification Trend. Why brands are simplifying their logo and visual identity.

App Recording Users. This Android App secretly recorded you for a whole year, after being listed on Google Play.

Google AI Search. Google launches a new AI search engine and there are limited spots to join the test.

Budgeting Startup. Nymbus raises $70 million to help replace this legacy technology.

Tech News Highlights. The podcast covers the headlining topics in tech news this week.

Apple Headset Price. Apple's new headset is priced at $3499.

Zuckerberg's Opinion. Zuckerberg shares his thoughts on Apple's new headset.

Reddit API Changes. Reddit API changes are coming, and big apps are being affected.

Mercedes beats Tesla. Mercedes just beat Tesla to a massive milestone in self-driving technology.

Podcast on Vision Pro. I take a look at Apple’s Vision Pro headset - especially Zuckerberg’s feedback on it.

Most Hated Brands. 7 most hated brands in the USA (Elon Musk's Twitter is no.4).

Google AI Impact. Is Google AI Plan with its search engine about to destroy the Media?

Kickstarter Project. Not a startup, but I’ll be releasing a Kickstarter Project in the coming months.

Apple's Vision Pro Price. Is Apple’s new ‘Vision Pro’ going to revolutionize computing with its $3499 price tag?

Startup Funding. This startup recently raised $9.3 million and allows businesses to build their own computer vision no-code apps.

Market Opportunity. I think how Reddit is treating the whole situation, there is an opportunity in the market for something similar to come by and take market share.

AI in Advertising. How AI is impacting search advertising results.

AI-Powered Search. Brands must prepare themselves for the future—the era of AI-powered search.

Content Recommendation. I’ve actually released an opinion piece on this, so take a read below if you’re interested.

Threads Downloads. Instagram's Threads has over 100+ million downloads, beating ChatGPT as the fastest platform to reach one million active users.

Threads Guide. A Beginner's Guide to 'Threads' provides everything you need to know about Instagram's new platform.

YouTube Subscribers. An article discusses how many subscribers you need to start making money on YouTube.

Elon Musk's Prediction. Elon Musk believes Tesla will have Level 4/5 self-driving this year.

Free Video Offer. MotionDock is offering a FREE video for startups or companies for Cornertech and Marketing readers.

Competitive Outlook. Threads will become a massive competitor and will definitely take the fight to Musk's Twitter.

Twitter Ecosystem. While Threads is gaining traction, Twitter still has the more robust ecosystem of users.

Cortana Shutdown. Microsoft is closing down Cortana - Will Siri meet the same fate?

Threads Momentum. Threads has got a whole heap of momentum but will lose it like Clubhouse did if they don’t release new updates and contain the hype.

Ad Market Softness. Is the ad market going soft? Are advertisers spending or not? Here’s the answer.

Massive Riot. Influencer Kai Cenat Sparks Massive NYC Riot with PlayStation Giveaway! He has actually been now arrested as well.

Twitter Renamed. Twitter renames to X, and the user with ‘X’ for their Twitter handle (455K followers) gets their handle taken away.

Google Alerts. Google will now alert you if your private contact information goes online.

Self-Driving Taxis Approved. California regulators voted last week to allow self-driving car companies Waymo and Cruise to offer 24/7 paid taxi service in San Francisco.

Linus Tech Tips Controversy. Linus Tech Tips is engrossed in controversy after controversy, from sexual allegations to inconsistencies.

Big Oil on TikTok. Big Oil companies are apparently trying to use TikTok to make themselves look ‘better’ to younger generations.

AI Engine Optimization. 'AI Engine Optimization' will disrupt SEO.

Spotify's Podcast Spending. Spotify invested heavily into podcasts over the last few years, but they found out recently they were paying $38 million a year for ‘white-noise’ podcasts.

New Hardware Releases. Richard mentions some of the latest hardware tech Google has been releasing or will be releasing soon.

Kickstarter Launch. Richard is busy working on his Kickstarter that’s about to launch in a couple of weeks.

YouTube Ad Blockers. There is speculation if this will be the end of ad blockers for YouTube.

Ad Toxicity Concerns. There are concerns that X’s ads are about to become even more toxic.

Chromebook Improvements. Richard remembers getting a Chromebook in 2016 and thinking how bad it was - but things have changed.

AI in Wearable Tech. Google’s new watch will have a ton of AI capabilities - will it be as good as Samsung’s lineup?

Google Pixel 8 Pro. Google will launch with a thermometer and seven years of follow-up updates.

Google Tech Growth. There is a more significant trend evolving in 2023 - that is, Google’s ever-evolving growth in the physical tech space.

Job Redundancy. I was made redundant quite recently.

Share the Project. If you own a dog, or know someone who owns a dog, the biggest thing that can help me right now is if you check it out or share it with a more relevant person.

Market Research. It’s also a great gift idea from the market research I’ve done!

Book Details. It’s a 3-in-1 Activity Dog Book, that links activities, a photo album, and a diary all in one.

New Project Launch. I’m excited to announce today that I’m launching my first-ever Kickstarter!

Job Change. I started a new job at Shopify. It's one of the leading e-commerce platforms for a reason, and it's been a blast so far especially working in a completely different industry than what I'm used to.

Rebranding Plans. I will eventually re-brand this newsletter as it doesn't make sense calling it 'CornerTech and Marketing' anymore.

Positive Perspective. In a way, being made redundant was a blessing in disguise!

Newsletter Shift. I plan to make this newsletter more about things I'm doing and updates that are happening with me than a generic tech newsletter.

YouTube Milestone. My Travel Youtube Channel hit above 1k subscribers!

Book Launch. I launched my pet book project on Shopify (how uncanny is that)! We managed to kick our Kickstarter goals, and I'm selling a book now.

Marketing Results. The answer was, not much but also enough to get us over the line.

Cookie Tracking Changes. Google's plan to turn off third-party cookies in Chrome is dying.

Wiz Acquisition Rejection. Wiz the wonderkid cybersecurity startup rejects Google's offer of $23 billion USD.

Crowdstrike Outage. Crowdstrike (and Microsoft) causing a global outage.

Ambassador Program. I also kickstarted a new ambassador program for those who have a dog or know someone with a dog and would like to join!

Shopify Perk. Did you know a great perk of working at Shopify is the ability to create your own store on the paid plan for free?

Add-ons Impact. ALWAYS include add-ons, people will buy them if they relate to your product.

Pre-registration Importance. Start early with your pre-registration page (We had around 100 followers with 5 of them converting immediately once we launched)

Kickstarter Strategy. Instead, I went - what if I just aimed for a lower amount with no marketing outside Kickstarter? How much would Kickstarter help market for us?

Prompt Structure. Each of our prompts is 2,000+ words. They all have the same structure, no matter the goal (content writing, idea brainstorming, etc).

Exploring Custom GPTs. The capabilities of Custom GPTs are insane, and they in fact remove the need for a prompt library.

Update Process. Once a month-ish, I send an update to the marketing team on Slack about new prompts that I’ve added.

Dozens of Prompts. I then built dozens of prompts (based on the structure I showed above) and organized them on a Notion page.

Focus on Repetition. I started by asking the team, what are the most repetitive tasks we do (at all roles) that require creativity but can be replicated and ChatGPT can assist us with?

Standardization Benefit. No one has to edit the prompt to use it.

Prompt Template. Just remember to fill in the blanks (the placeholders) in length before you send the prompts over to your team.

Successful Prompt Strategy. The secret to winning with ChatGPT is being ultra, ultra, ultra-specific.

Adoption Challenges. Despite the magic that ChatGPT (and AI in general) can do, many teammates just never used it at all.

Efficiency Issues. Many of us in the marketing team have independently used ChatGPT, created our own copy & paste prompts, and never shared them with the entire team.

Practical Application. It's all about becoming an integral part of someone’s routine in a meaningful way - by being there in the right moment.

Real-World Integration. Put your brand logo/slogan in everyday places, like KitKat with their park benches, to make it super easy for people to choose you when that moment strikes.

Slogan Strategy. Your slogan or visual should lead people to your identified moment - nudging them toward your product.

Physical Reminders. They even placed public benches shaped like KitKat bars to remind you to seize the moment for a break.

Targeting Gen-Z Trends. They have targeted specific Gen-Z search keywords on Google and YouTube, such as 'bad hair day' or 'I hate Mondays,' and advertised advice to just take a break.

Moment Marketing Defined. Identify a specific moment in your customer's day when your product or service is most helpful — and own that moment.

Own the Break Concept. KitKat has an actual mission to OWN the concept of taking a break.

AI Performance Breaks. Google's latest research shows that breaks can actually improve AI output.

KitKat's New Campaign. KitKat just dropped a genius campaign linking their iconic slogan 'Have a Break' with a surprising way to boost ChatGPT's performance.

Key Moment Strategy. Win customers by owning a key moment in their day.

Show Labor. When people see the effort behind your product, they're more likely to assign it a greater value.

GPT-4 Perception. People overvalue the results of GPT-4, compared to GPT-3.5, just because GPT-4 writes slower.

A/B Testing Result. People share the result more when there is a longer waiting time, even if it's artificial.

Evidence Button. We added some artificial friction and hid the evidence behind a button to increase user engagement.

Skyscanner Technique. Skyscanner works by adding search results live, making users appreciate the work of the algorithm.

Fake Friction. If your service is lightning-fast, consider adding a bit of theatrical delay (fake friction).

Operational Transparency. Update your users on what is happening after they buy your product.

Founder Marketing. A great way to achieve labor illusion is through 'Founder Marketing' by sharing internal insights on social media.

Nespresso Marketing. Nespresso shares the stories of those who harvested the coffee beans that ended up in the capsules.

Schlitz Beer Success. By highlighting standard practice, Schlitz beer quickly became the most popular beer in the country.

Successful Marketing. Showing what your product is doing 'behind the scenes' will satisfy people.

Visible Effort. People perceive products that involve visible effort as more valuable.

Labor Illusion. People value things more when they see the effort behind them.

Effective Messaging Examples. Examples include, 'Convert 30% more with high-performing landing pages' (-Unbounce) and 'Secure everything you build and run in the cloud: Trusted by more than 40% of Fortune 100 companies' (-Wiz).

UserGems Example. UserGems is my favorite example of a perfect B2B copy.

Competitor Subversion. Head to competitor websites. Don’t copy – subvert. Without naming competitors, describe their common flaws in a way that highlights your strengths.

Job Security Focus. Job security: Trusted by the best revenue teams + [Logos].

Customer's Wish. The best copy completes the customer’s sentence: ‘I wish I could _______.’

B2B Buyer Motivation. B2B buyers never really care about your product; they care about job security. Show people why buying your product will make them look good in front of their boss.

Engaging Headlines. Turn the stolen ‘Responsibilities’ into a headline with power words and emotions. The headline must scream ‘Now you can...’ not ‘What we do is...’.

Target Responsibilities. Go to LinkedIn. Find a job description of the role you are targeting. Steal the words you see under ‘Responsibilities’.

Improving Registrations. By including an 'application' format or 'play to attend' challenge, you can significantly improve your event registrations and attract a more engaged audience.

Engagement Success. JupiterOne created follow-up riddles that took place in the event itself, with around 90 people attending out of 110 who solved the first puzzle.

Play to Attend Model. Design a puzzle-based challenge with a hidden registration page as the reward.

Targeted Attendees. An application process can scare some people off, but it attracts engaged, interested, and valuable attendees.

Data Collection. You can now collect much more data about your audience by requiring relevant details beyond name and email.

Audience Perception. Your audience feels special for being selected, and they gain confidence in the event's quality.

Quality Engagement. This powerful one-word switch ('Apply' instead of 'Sign Up') creates excitement, boosts registration rates, and increases the quality of attendees.

Exclusive Invitations. Instead of simply letting people sign up for your event or webinar, invite them to apply.

Elevator Pitch Displays. Install screens in the elevators of office buildings with tech companies & VCs, that display the elevator pitches of startups on every ride.

On-Demand Laundry Service. On-demand laundry service where users can have their laundry picked up, cleaned, and delivered back.

Dream Interpretation AI. An AI app that interprets your dreams based on descriptions or voice recordings.

Free Ride-Sharing Bikes. A network of bikes for urban areas, free if the rider agrees to carry advertisement banners.

Earth Archive Concept. Like Web Archive, but for the real world. Experience it with the Apple Vision Pro.

Conversation Starter App. Users tell the app who they’re meeting with; the app scrapes the web for data to provide smart & personalized things to say.

Motivational Workout Drone. A personal workout drone with speakers that captures epic shots and offers motivation/coaching during outdoor workouts.

Side Hustle Networking App. A networking app for finding or offering tiny side gigs based on skills.

Branded Fitness Challenges. A fitness app where users join brand-sponsored fitness challenges for discounts or rewards.

Silent Garbage Trucks. Introducing silent garbage trucks for streets where residents are willing to pay more.

Karaoke Matchmaking. Connect with people based on your karaoke song choices, and meet offline to sing together.

B2B Influencer Marketplace. Connects businesses with industry influencers for targeted marketing.

Live Cooking Platform. A live streaming platform where chefs cook in real-time, allowing viewers to follow along, ask questions, and even request dishes.

Collaborative Novel Writing. Users collectively write a novel, one line at a time, voted on by the community.

Targeted Podcast Recommendations. This app knows what you love and recommends specific episodes of podcasts.

Mystery Dinner Delivery. A service delivering surprise meals from local restaurants. The twist? 1 out of 10 deliveries is a jackpot, worth 10x the price you paid, that comes with a collectible & shareable golden ticket.

B2B Music App. Office music democracy! Employees suggest, upvote, and pay to hear their song pick in the entire office.

Home Gym Service. A service that connects you with neighbors who have home gym setups. No gym memberships, just workout spaces right next door.

Confidence Boosting Tool. A Zoom extension that makes everyone naked with AI when you're presenting something. Massive PR for free.

Unique Startup Ideas. Here is a special edition I’ve scheduled in advance: 19 startup ideas, each with a unique marketing twist.

Curiosity Factor. Curiosity is a powerful motivator, and personal conversations can be your secret weapon.

Engaging FAQs. Answer commonly asked questions in a chat screenshot format. Much more engaging & personal than the usual web page with collapsable bulks of text.

Testimonial Screenshots. Happy customers speaking with your CSMs? Their words = your win! (Get permission)

Behind-the-Scenes Ideas. Create a fake conversation between 2 employees about an upcoming product launch or event.

Staging Conversations. Don’t have a genuine opportunity? Consider staging the perfect chat.

Screenshot Marketing Rule. Whenever you have an ethical chance to publish a real screenshot from iMessage/Teams/Slack/WhatsApp—you should.

Tweet Engagement. Our most viral tweet ever was a censored private chat from the leak discovered by Wiz researchers from a Microsoft AI team.

Viral Screenshots. When a leaked DM or group chat screenshot appears on our social media feed, we stop and read.

Popular Graphics Types. 1. Nostalgic content 2. Oddly satisfying visuals 3. Private chats (i.e. iMessage / Whatsapp screenshots)

Effective Graphics. Based on my experience, there are 3 types of graphics that, when shown, immediately make people stop scrolling their feeds.

Honeymoon Location. I’m writing this week’s newsletter from our villa at Four Seasons Koh Samui, where HBO just finished filming season 3 of The White Lotus.

Effective Acquisition Strategy. Brute-Force Marketing requires a lot of manual, non-scalable work, but it’s a bullet-proof way to boost your acquisition rates.

Viral Marketing Example. Here is a viral post from Nico Ferreyra, the CEO of Default.com, showcasing the value of his platform to Deel.

Example of Success. Tomer Dean did ‘Brute-Force Marketing’ with his startup Lychee — a SaaS for automatically turning podcast episodes into YouTube Shorts clips. He simply created clips with his app and sent them to podcast hosts.

Success Stories. Christina Cacioppo, one of the co-founders of Vanta, heard that the Segment team was struggling with SOC-2 compliance. She proactively sent the team a spreadsheet outlining steps to take to ensure compliance, for free.

Labor Illusion Effect. When your ideal customers see the effort invested, they perceive your company & product as more valuable.

Tangible Outcomes. People resonate better with tangible outcomes than vague promises.

Personalized Outreach. Everyone is sending generic cold messages. But you will show personalized value.

Brute-Force Marketing. Use your own product on behalf of potential customers → gift them the results (as if they were already using your product).

Viral Job Posts. Using quirky, weird, and funny job posts can go viral.

Traffic Source. The career page is often the second most visited page on a website (after the homepage).

Under-Leveraged Marketing. Your careers page gets tons of traffic but is probably the most under-leveraged.

Fake Job Post. Example: Beehiiv’s 'Remote Office Manager' position isn’t an office manager supposed to be... well, in the office?

Successful Rebranding. Fiverr posted a series of real jobs with funny titles, such as 'Someone Who Always Picks the Right GIF and Software Engineer.'

Viral Engagement. Ideally, you should think of a problem your ideal customer has and craft a funny & impossible job around solving it.

Buzz Generating Jobs. Funzing hired a real-life 'Pokemon Master' to travel the world playing Pokemon Go.

Culture Signal. Using funny job posts attracts top talent and shows you're fun.

Cost Effective. No realistic job offer is needed (see tactic #1), allowing for buzz generation for $0.

Playful User Rituals. Create weird rituals that users 'must' participate in to use your product.

Becoming Advocates. Nail this and you won't just keep users around – you'll turn them into advocates.

Customer VIP Treatment. The ultimate customer retention boils down to treating them like absolute VIPs.

Creating Insider Terms. Create insider lingo. Prove you're the category king by inventing a new language.

Example of Inclusivity. Basecamp, a project management software, is famously anti-meeting. This house rule is reflected in their product - which lacks any meeting features.

Community Engagement. This shoe policy instantly creates a sense of a community with 'house rules' that visitors must follow.

Proactive Support. These tactics require a lot of manual work—but their effect on retention is huge.

Serving with Respect. In Thailand, you'll always be given things – money, food, gifts – with two hands. It's mindblowing. Full focus always. 100% respect.

Retention Tactics. My biggest takeaway wasn't the pad thai or elephant feeding... it was the genius retention tactics weaved into Thai culture.

Read More Here. I wrote a full article about visualization last year - read it here.

Recommendation for Homepage. Take toggles outside of your product’s UI/UX and onto your public facing homepage.

SEO Benefits. Longer visits = better SEO = more organic traffic.

Visual Engagement. It’s like giving people a personalized demo before they even sign up.

User Customization. By switching toggles on & off, visitors can clearly see how your product fits their specific needs.

Toggles Enhance UX. Homepage toggles can be a game-changer for user acquisition.

Boost Reply Rates. I've seen this boost reply rates by up to 35% with no other changes.

Example Cold Email. Here's an example of a perfect cold email: Subject: re: optimizing {{Company}}'s onboarding.

Power of P.S.. The P.S. is the most-read part of any email — hands down.

'Sent from my iPhone'. Always end the email with 'Sent from my iPhone' (even if not).

Permission Opener. Kicking off any question with 'May I...' hits hard. Really hard.

Conversational Closing. Close your email by asking a question the recipient can answer in <1 minute: Opinion, tech stack, advice, or pain points.

Using Fake Referrals. Include a fake forwarded message from one of your colleagues recommending that you reach out to this person.

Lowercase for Casualness. Kill the corporate vibe with nonchalant lowercase.

Impact of Subject Lines. Make your subject line read like an internal email from their boss.

Casual Email Tone. The only rule of thumb that always worked for my cold emails: Make the email extremely casual.

Contrarian Hot Takes. Share a spicy, counter-intuitive opinion on your industry, backed up with data or experience.

Stealth Demo Drops. ‘Leak’ a sneak peek demo video of your upcoming release to build hype.

Emotional Communication. The only rule is that you must be personal and share your emotions, just not too many emotions.

Content Engagement. After publishing, engage and react to ALL of the comments, and obsessively comment on other founders' posts.

Common Marketing Hesitations. The most popular reasons silent founders don’t engage in marketing are 'No time', 'I don’t know what to post', and 'No one will care what I have to say'.

Feedback Power. It's surprisingly powerful yet underrated; don't be afraid to put your product out there and ask for honest feedback.

Company Milestones. Sharing news about funding rounds, ARR, and # of users = the easiest tactic for LinkedIn.

Product Updates Importance. New releases, upcoming features, customer news are essential as a founder.

Daily Posting. Post on LinkedIn every single day, in the morning hours where you live.

Founder Marketing. Yes, you absolutely should do 'Founder Marketing' (=share thoughts, expertise, and startup updates on your personal social media).

Understanding Audience. True marketing magic is rooted in deeply understanding *your* audience and delivering real value.

Avoiding Gimmicks. Viral tactics like the 'magical' dot prey on our biases as marketers - our desire for quick wins and silver bullets.

Experiment Recommendations. Run your own controlled experiments. Test the tactic with a small subset of your audience. Measure downstream impact, not just surface-level engagement.

Critical Assessment. Some marketing ideas are designed to go viral on social media, but they rarely move the needle on metrics that matter.

Temporary Boost Effect. The dot got more people to click, but not to buy.

Data Monitoring. The only concern I had about it was monitoring the quality of the clicks you get from this tactic (as it might also increase your bounce rate).

Short-lived Results. He later told me it had zero impact on actual conversions and revenue stayed flat.

Viral Idea Impact. One founder claimed their click-through rate (CTR) skyrocketed by 41% after implementing this tiny change.

New Hire Engagement. Connect new hires with as many Wiz employees as possible during their first month.

Cultural Importance. Employee advocacy simply won’t happen without the right company culture.

Engagement from Company Page. Whenever an employee posts about Wiz, we always comment from the company page.

AI Tools for Content Creation. I have also created the Wizard Post Generator: an internal AI-powered tool I built for employees to auto-create personalized LinkedIn content.

Custom Posts for VIPs. High-impact employees like hiring managers need extra-special support for crucial posts.

Workshops on LinkedIn. I’ve been running 15-minute “10 Rules for Going Viral on LinkedIn” sessions for various internal teams.

Employee Recognition. When we write posts for Wiz's main LinkedIn page, we make a point to always include and tag our own people.

VIP Advocate Club. We have created a private Slack channel where these 'Wizfluencers' get exclusive access to weekly LinkedIn growth tips from our team.

Content Contests. We organize limited-time contests that challenge employees to create specific content for LinkedIn.

Time-Saving Strategy. Feed employees with a spoon. You won’t regret it!

Celebration Automation. Our HR system sends employees a custom GIF on their Wizversary.

Engagement Gamification. We even started a ‘Treasure Hunt’ game: Before some events, we hide a secret item in 5 employee images.

Personalized Graphics for Events. Before each big conference, we create personalized graphics for each employee attending, complete with multiple post options.

Spoon-Feed Employees. Don’t expect them to spend time on your marketing goals.

Receptive Audience. Content shared by employees often reaches a more receptive audience.

Potential Reach. With 1,200 team members and an average of 2,000 LinkedIn connections each, we have the potential to reach 2.4 million people.

Employee Advocacy Impact. Wiz employees have successfully become a powerful buzz-generation engine.

Application Opportunities. Look for opportunities to use homophonic priming, especially in website copy, email subject lines, and ad headlines.

Subconscious Influence. The brain considers both meanings simultaneously, even if only for a split second, which is enough to plant a subconscious seed.

Activation of Information. When we read, the phonological (sound) information is activated alongside the semantic (meaning) information.

Power Phrases. A few homophonic power phrases to consider including in the copy include 'Buy' = Bye, 'Sale' = Sail, and 'Access' = Excess.

Homophonic Priming. 'Homophonic priming' is the clever use of words that sound like other words (=homophones) to influence thoughts.

Inner Voice. When people read stuff, their inner voice ‘hears’ the words.

Initial Interview Question. The first question asked in any interview is 'What should I know about [NAME]?', aiming for a concise and compelling pitch about their successes and skills.

Domain Ownership Signals. How many domain names a candidate owns serves as a great indicator that they truly understand the internet.

Competitive Landscape Awareness. Asking what it would take to become the 'category king' invites candidates to think in terms of market dominance and competitor research.

First Experiment Ideas. Candidates are expected to propose quick win recommendations and thoughtful experiments grounded in research for their potential role.

Company Research. If a candidate hasn’t done any research on the company, it is an immediate red flag in the interview process.

Bias for Action. Candidates must demonstrate a bias for action, making decisions quickly and adapting fast even with incomplete data.

Event Planning Skills. Organizing an event reveals much about a candidate's project management abilities, including their resourcefulness and grit.

Viral Marketing Experience. The question about a candidate's viral moment seeks specific examples and an understanding of the factors that led to virality.

No-Code Experience. Experience with no-code platforms shows a candidate's technical orientation and ability to automate processes.

Passion for Marketing. A candidate's excitement about their favorite marketing resource indicates their passion for marketing rather than just seeing it as a job.

Outsourcing Capability. Asking about experience with Fiverr or Upwork tests a candidate's ability to solve problems creatively by leveraging external resources.

Audience Building Importance. The question 'Have you ever built an audience from scratch?' is the most important in any marketing interview, revealing a candidate's understanding of audience growth.

Unconventional Interview Questions. The top 10 uncommon job interview questions aim to uncover exceptional talent that might slip through the cracks of a traditional interview.

Content Playbook. Make incredible content, pick scroll-stopping visuals, run fun contests, engage like your life depends on it, get your team on board.

Team Engagement. Employee advocacy has been one of our best strategies. Run internal contests for the most creative comments on company posts.

Giveaway Strategy. Our top-performing posts are often giveaways for Wiz swag or cybersecurity toys. The key is making it stupid-easy to enter the giveaway: Comment, tag a friend, and you’re done.

Visuals Importance. After the hook, your graphic is the next most important element. We’ve tested this to death (trust me), and here’s what works: GIFs > photos > videos.

Engagement Practices. We make engagement a daily non-negotiable: Respond to every comment you get (even just to say thanks).

Post Engagement. The LinkedIn algo doesn’t care how good your post is. It cares how many people are tapping the like button and comment.

Single Main Idea. Assaf Rappaport, our CEO, happened to sit next to me as I finished up my draft. He took one look and said: “What are you trying to say here? Pick ONE main idea. Just one.”

Content Strategy. The honest truth is that we don’t have some magic growth hack or a fancy AI tool that does all the work for us. We just focus on creating really f*cking good content, every single day.

Follower Growth. When I joined Wiz as Head of Growth Marketing in November 2022, our LinkedIn company page had 30,000 followers. Fast forward to today, and we’ve just hit 200,000 followers.

Testing New Methods. Change your copy (add 'er') when you need people to act. Worth a test!

Nudging Actions. By inspiring users to think about their identity, you can nudge them towards desired actions and create a stronger sense of community and loyalty.

B2B Opportunities. I haven’t seen this emoji trick on LinkedIn yet... Could be a goldmine for B2B.

Corporate Identity. All employees of Beehiiv use a bee emoji on Twitter/X to reinforce their identity as Beehiiv supporters.

Community Building. Students use a ship emoji in their Twitter/X names, creating a sense of community and shared identity.

Emoji Identity Signal. One of the coolest identity hacks is to encourage people to add emojis to their names on social media.

Voter Turnout. Voter turnout increased by 15% when individuals were asked to be voters.

Helper Effect. A preschool study showed a 50% increase in children cleaning up when asked to be a helper.

Power of Identity. People are more likely to act when it aligns with how they want to be seen.

Identity Marketing. ‘Identity Marketing’ leverages this by transforming actions into identities.

Welcome Experience. My promise is 'The world’s most powerful marketing ideas, delivered every Friday'.

Feedback Importance. Many of them run raffles or contests where you can win a chance to pick their brain.

Waitlist Strategy. I built a waitlist. I threw up a simple Wix landing page and collected emails.

Email Engagement. I have a strong suspicion that this double opt-in requirement makes my emails pop up in the primary inbox more often, increasing my open rates which stand at about 45%.

Product Hunt Launch. I won the #1 Product of the Day, Week, and Month awards, which quickly led to 5,600 new subscribers almost overnight.

Sponsorships ROI. While the ROI wasn’t amazing (around $6-10 per subscriber), these were ultra-relevant subscribers who were a perfect fit for me.

Effective Posting. Currently, I spend 90% of my writing time deleting words.

Design Regrets. Neglecting to post on LinkedIn was a big mistake, as I barely touched LinkedIn for the first year of MarketingIdeas.com.

Growth Strategy. Running a newsletter is like playing an addictive video game... I’m obsessed with testing creative growth tactics and discovering new channels.

Article Production. I’ve published 52 articles, attracted over 17,800 subscribers, and reached more than half a million website views.

First Year Success. Today marks the first birthday of MarketingIdeas.com, and it’s been the best year of my career.

Future of Disrupt Radio. Disrupt Radio claims significant growth in advertising revenues is expected as it builds out and hires a dedicated direct sales team.

TV Advertising Market Decline. The TV market took another hit, down by 12.3% for the month.

Unmade Index Decline. The Unmade Index lost another 2.56% yesterday to drop to just 460.7 points.

Low Cumulative Reach in Brisbane. In Brisbane, Disrupt Radio has a cumulative reach of 1,000 people per week, last of the 32 stations surveyed.

Sponsorship and Advertising Plans. Disrupt Radio plans to syndicate its content as well as pursuing on-air advertising and sponsorship.

Cumulative Audience in Sydney. Disrupt Radio's cumulative audience in Sydney is 5,000 people, placing it 32nd out of the 33 DAB+ stations covered in the survey.

Funding Status. Disrupt Radio is looking to raise up to $1m ahead of an even bigger raising of $5m.

Significant Financial Loss. Disrupt Radio spent $4.9m in its first 11 months of operations and brought in just $308,028 in advertising revenue.

Disrupt Radio Burn Rate. With a burn rate of nearly $400,000 per month, Disrupt Radio needs investors with deep pockets.

Distraction Warning. O'Connell warns against letting the arrival of rival shows distract from their own program, stating, 'You’ve got to be really careful that you don’t let other shows and their mindsets bleed into your own.'

Value of Live Radio. O'Connell emphasizes that 'The magic of radio for me is live. I always has been.'

Podcast Content Focus. The conversation in today's podcast revolved around the launch of O'Connell's mentoring service, 'Finding Fire.'

Stock Market Movements. Nine recovered by 1.52% to a market cap of $2.1bn while IVE Group was up 2.57%.

Unmade Index Recovery. The Unmade Index improved from Tuesday's all-time low, bouncing back by 1.28% to 466.5 points yesterday.

Radio Industry Evolution. O'Connell states that 'Radio needs to change. It has to build a different model.'

Future Networking Plans. O'Connell wants the show to be more widely available and has expressed interest in networking into markets like Sydney.

O'Connell's Market Position. Christian O'Connell, host of Melbourne's top FM breakfast show, represents a significant voice in the FM market.

Superhero's Communication. Superhero has been sending out slippery communications regarding undisclosed kickbacks when customers buy US shares, accompanied by a party popper emoji.

Apology Deficiencies. Customers noted that the apology from Qantas felt 'narrow and legalistic,' lacking a sincere acknowledgment of their negative experiences.

Brand Experience Deterioration. Every aspect of the Qantas brand experience is said to be slightly worse than five years ago, at a much higher price.

Declining Airline Ranking. According to the annual Skytrax rankings, Qantas has fallen from a top ten airline pre-COVID to number 24.

Customer Communication Issues. Qantas outsourced the communication of the remediation to Deloitte, which many customers found impersonal and lacking in genuine apology.

Ghost Flights Scandal. The ghost flights scandal at Qantas led to CEO Alan Joyce's early departure after it was discovered that the airline sold bookings for 8,000 flights it had no intention of running.

Qantas Remediation Payments. Qantas has agreed to pay back 86,000 passengers a total of $20m following legal proceedings brought by the ACCC.

Optus Sport Moves. Optus Sport, which already has the English Premier League, also picked up the rights to the FA Cup knockout tournament.

Media Stocks Decline. All but three of the 14 local stocks we track have lost value for their investors in FY24.

Index Performance Data. The Unmade Index almost stood still for a second day in a row on Friday, slipping by just 1.2 points to 465.9.

Advertising Regulation. The way that the Australian Communications & Media Authority regulates every platform differently makes no logical sense in 2024.

Cultural Significance. That list should be slimmed down to only the events that are genuinely culturally significant.

Sports Broadcasting Concerns. The most notable thing about the legislation that went through this week is that it did not extend protections into the streaming world.

Local Media Crisis. Without policy intervention, the collapsing business models in TV and publishing will result in a grievous hit on Australian culture.

Policy Failure. The result is a policy failure which is actually a bad outcome both for them, and the public.

Public Interest Focus. Next time round, the policy needs to start with the question of what is in the public interest, not networks’ interests.

Legislation Outdated. The government’s latest media legislation cleared Parliament on Thursday, and it’s already out of date.

Commerce Index Tool. Our Commerce Index is a powerful tool that we are beta testing with brands to develop more effective commerce capability and strategies.

New Advertising Opportunities. The convergence of retail media with connected TV (CTV) is incredibly exciting.

Need for Standardisation. The lack of standardised measurement and reporting across RMNs is a significant hurdle for both agencies and brands.

Agencies' Role Significance. Agencies are now more crucial than ever for brands navigating the increasingly intricate world of retail media.

Inherent Market Challenges. Overcoming inherent challenges like measurement, standardisation, and platform aggregation will be crucial to unlocking this potential.

Retail Media Growth. Currently, retail media accounts for roughly 4.9% of ad spend in Australia, a stark contrast to the US's 15.1%.

New Award Categories. Two new categories - recognising the Retail Media Team of the Year and Best Use of Data in Retail Media - will be added alongside last year’s categories.

Awards Program Expansion. The REmade Retail Media Awards program is returning in expanded form for 2024.

Concern Over Title Closures. Allowing the archives to disappear from the web would be cultural vandalism.

Cultural Loss in Media Cuts. The closures are a microcosm of the growing loss to Australian culture from the crisis facing advertising-funded media.

Disrupt Radio Financial Struggles. Disrupt Radio closed its crowd funding investment offer, which aimed to raise $1m, with just $24,500 raised.

Facebook News Surge. Over the last three or four days, the Facebook feed has been flooded with news links, local and international, from news brands previously liked on Facebook.

Paramount Ownership Change. Paramount’s dominant shareholder Shari Redstone finalized a deal with Skydance to take control, with David Ellison becoming the new proprietor.

Mediaweek Allegations. The AFR published allegations that people at Mediaweek had complained about the behaviour of its owner and publisher Trent Thomas.

Disrupt Radio Zero Ratings. In Melbourne, Disrupt Radio's cumulative reach dropped from an already awful 6,000 to an asterix - which appears when the number is too low to measure.

Nine Publishing Cuts. Most of the titles within Nine's youth-focused digital publishing arm Pedestrian Group, with the exception of Pedestrian itself, have been closed.

Lacklustre Upfronts. This year's Upfronts are shaping up to be a lacklustre affair, with media bosses reluctant to be seen to be hosting big parties while staff lose jobs.

Mediaweek Owner Situation. The AFR reports today that owner Trent Thomas, subject of sexual harassment claims by staff, is considering selling the business to Brag Media owner Vinyl Group.

Olympics Revenue. Nine has booked $135m against the event, which CEO Mike Sneesby says will deliver a profit.

Nine's Olympic Profit. Nine says it's made it into profit with its Paris Olympics sponsorship packages.

Consumer Future. As you’ll hear, it wasn’t the full generative AI experience of conversations being generated on the fly.

AI Sales Experience. The AI seemed as though the ocker salesman had recorded a series of pitches, and the AI was playing responses depending on what I said.

REmade Awards Open. Entries are now open for the REmade Awards.

AI Call Centers. The other day I had a phone call from an AI trying to sell me some wine. It wasn’t very good, but it still felt like a part of every consumer’s future.

Weekend Newspaper Readership. Where I suspect that newspapers will last longest is at weekends, where readers have more time and inclination for longer, curated, crafted reads.

Digital Audience Engagement. One thing they need to do though is pivot those editions towards that digital audience.

Stock Performance Highlights. Seven West Media was the only stock to improve, up by 2.86%.

Quality as Differentiator. Excellence and curation is the point of difference when it comes to news.

Digital Focus for Publishers. To remain part of the daily habit, they still need to deliver a curated package.

Experience of Reading. Reading a printed newspaper is still a better experience.

Unmade Index Decline. The Unmade Index broke its four-day upwards trajectory yesterday, losing 0.77% top land at 484.4 points.

Curation Matters. The thing worth preserving is curation.

Future of Newspapers. My guess is the latter: Will newspaper presses stop rolling before the TV transmitters turn off?

Mixed Reader Reactions. The reaction was a mixture of nostalgia from readers who have already moved away, to resignation from those who will miss newspapers as part of their daily habit.

Murdoch's Prediction. Rupert Murdoch gave the printed medium of newspapers 'fifteen years, with a lot of luck.'

Celebrating 60 Years. The interview with Gray and The Australian's editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn was timed for the 60th anniversary of The Australian.

AI's Impact on Journalism. The conversation also discusses how AI will change journalism.

Monitoring Media Landscape. The wide-ranging conversation also covers the tough publishing environment and The Australian's battles with its rivals at Nine.

News Corp's Market Capitalization. News Corp rose by 3.35%, to close at an all-time high market capitalisation of AU$24bn.

The Unmade Index Performance. The Unmade Index rose again yesterday, increasing by another 1.28% to 490.6 points.

Need for New Platforms. Gray adds: 'We need to be in new places with our brand and our news reporting in the forms that people want to consume it...'

Podcasting as Growth Tool. Gunn states, 'We are looking at our success in podcasting. I think it's an important tool for us to grow audience.'

Radio Station Plans. Gunn acknowledges that 'live audio' is on the table.

Meta's Arbitration Pressure. If designation of Meta occurs, the company would be forced to go into binding arbitration with local companies over how much it must pay each of them to feature their content.

Meta's Potential Exit. If Meta stops sharing news on its platforms to beat the News Media Bargaining Code, it should be forced to leave Australia altogether, the executive leading News Corp's relationships with digital platforms argues.

Future of Print Media. Rupert Murdoch predicted that newspapers have only 15 years left in print, as evidenced by Australian Community Media stopping weekday print editions.

Potential Nine and Nova Deal. An asset swap between Nine and Nova might make sense given both companies' interests in radio.

News Corp Radio Consideration. News Corp is contemplating launching a radio station or 'live audio,' similar to Times Radio in the UK.

Journalists Union Action. The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance announced staff had voted in favour of industrial action next week in protest at the company’s publishing cuts.

Nine's CEO Behavior. CEO Mike Sneesby is acting like he’s already working his notice, indulging in perks while staff face redundancies.

Southern Cross Austereo Decline. Southern Cross Austereo sank to a new low with its market capitalization falling to $138m after a drop of another 2.5%.

UK Advertising Sentiment. The proportion of UK marketers planning to increase their advertising spend has hit a ten-year high.

Publicis Revenue Growth. Publicis said global revenue grew by 5.6% over the quarter.

Netflix Ad Tier Impact. The ad tier is accounting for 45% of new signups, according to Netflix.

Netflix Subscriber Growth. Netflix jumped to 278m paying subscribers globally in the most recent quarter.

Northern Hemisphere Indicators. The northern hemisphere indicators are good, suggesting positive trends for the global market.

Previous Rankings. Prior to Covid, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne was often the most awarded agency globally.

Impact of Mergers. It would mean a hell of a lot of brand equity and cultural capital vaporised overnight.

Agency Mergers. The equivalent merger just occurred for real in Canada. BBDO, DDB and TBWA are being brought together under the flag of Omnicom Advertising Group.

Single Brand Holdcos. Omnicom's moves in Canada and India point to a future of single brand holding companies.

Unmade Index Performance. On a day when the wider ASX All Ords rose by 0.5%, the Unmade Index, which covers the listed media and marketing stocks, followed it upwards, rising by 0.6%.

Join Privacy Reform Webinar. If you haven’t yet got your head in the game, I recommend joining the briefing.

Ad Industry Compliance Concerns. As a small business owner, I felt an enormous sinking feeling about the complications and compliance to come.

Google's Market Influence. Depending on what stats you look at, roughly 60% of the web runs on Google’s Chrome browser.

SCA Share Price Jump. Shares in Southern Cross Austereo went on a rollercoaster ride on Tuesday, leaving the company's shares up by just under 7% for the day.

Data Breach Notification. If there’s a data breach, brands will have just 72 hours to tell customers.

Data Holding Principle. It introduces a new principle that any brand which holds data about consumers will have to apply a 'fair and reasonable' test to what individuals would expect them to do with their data, regardless of whether they got consent in the first place.

Privacy Act Changes. After a four year review of the 1988 Privacy Act, the changes are weeks away from being legislated.

Changing Marketing Behavior. Just as Royal Bank of Australia governor Michelle Bullock musing about putting rates up can have almost as much impact on markets as an actual rise, the threat has already changed marketers’ behaviour.

Google Cookie Decision. After more than four years of Google’s push to block third party cookies on Chrome, yesterday it called the whole thing off.

Creatives as Absorbers. Great creative people are absorbers. They absorb things around them all the time.

Membership Benefits. Your membership includes member-only pricing for our HumAIn and REmade conferences.

BBH's Legacy. Ad agency BBH is among the most significant advertising agencies of the last half century.

Seven West Media Decline. Seven West Media went in the opposite direction, losing 5.6%, taking the company share price back down to its all four-year low of 17c.

Unmade Index Rise. The Unmade Index continued its creep back towards the 500 barrier, rising by 0.82% on Wednesday to 492.3 points.

Sydney's Creative Hub. Sir John explains his provocative premise that the reason why Sydney is not a great creative hub is because the weather is too good.

Creative Connection. Sir John argues that the only way for creatives to stay relevant is to stay in touch not just with culture, but with their surroundings.

Memorable Campaigns. BBH's black sheep campaign to launch Levi's black jeans is one of the world’s most celebrated print ads.

SCA Share Price Surge. Southern Cross Austereo grew its share price by nearly 8% as it held new talks to sell its fading regional TV licences.

Announcement of REmade Awards. The REmade Awards 2024 are open - you have until August 23 to get your submissions in, with late entries accepted until September 1.

Retail Media Limitations. Retail media provides an opportunity for retailers to increase their minuscule margins, but it is insufficient on its own.

Walmart's Flywheel Strategy. Walmart's CEO describes their ecosystem as a 'flywheel' effect which creates relationships where customers view Walmart as their primary destination.

Sector Shift Prediction. Morgan Stanley predicted TV advertising in Australia would lose $450m, radio would lose $150m, and outdoor and print sectors face a $60m shortfall by 2027.

Downgrade Impact. Morgan Stanley downgraded their valuation of five of the largest ASX-listed media stocks due to the threat of retail media.

Walmart's Retail Media Growth. Walmart has since grown to a $3bn+ retail media business with a very high margin thanks to the percentage of sponsored products.

Predicted Revenue Growth. Goldman Sachs predicted that retailers in the US are positioned to generate $15-$20bn of e-com oriented retail media revenue from CPG manufacturers by 2025.

Retail Media Impact. Investment bankers are quite bullish on the role of retail media in affecting market capitalisations.

Pureprofile Profit Milestone. Pureprofile landed its first annual after-tax profit, resulting in a 15% jump in its share price.

Retail Media Insights. Retailer margins remain low, with grocery being among the worst, indicating a need for margin-boosting strategies.

Unmade Index Decline. The Unmade Index lost 0.57% yesterday, landing on 483.7 points.

Aspermont's Financial Struggles. Aspermont reported a loss of $0.3m in 2023, down from a profit of $1.3m the year before.

Lachlan Murdoch's Uncertain Future. The Murdoch family trust gives equal votes to Lachlan and his siblings, which could lead to his ousting if they wish to change the company's editorial direction.

Stutch's Tenure. Michel Stutchbury stepped down after 13 years as editor-in-chief of the Australian Financial Review, having left the publication in good standing.

Biden's Torch Passing. Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, stating, 'The best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.'

New Partnerships Director. Clive Prosser joined Unmade as Partnerships Director, marking a landmark week for the company.

Membership Benefits Promotion. Upgrading to an Unmade membership includes member-only pricing for events and access to exclusive content.

HumAIn Conference Benefits. Your membership includes Member-only pricing for our HumAIn and REMade conferences.

OpenAI Developments. We examine the latest developments in AI, including the launch of OpenAI's own search offering.

AI Content Concerns. The AI content snake threatens to eat itself.

Missing Columns. Several regular columns are missing from today’s papers.

Nine Journalists Strike. Nine's big Olympics fortnight in Paris has been overshadowed by its journalists going on strike.

Nine Strike Coverage. Nine's strikers misread the room, and their audience.

Revenue Watch. The market will also be looking for good news about Nine's Olympics advertising revenue, which will land in the current financial year.

Further Reading. Read more about ASX results at the linked article.

Ticket Discounts. Members receive discounts on tickets to our events, including our AI conference humAIn and a free ticket to our annual Compass series.

Membership Benefits. Unmade's paying members support our analytical journalism. In return, you get access to our full archive.

Leadership Scrutiny. Market watchers will also be looking more carefully at chief finance and strategy officer Matt Stanton, who is a strong internal candidate to succeed Sneesby.

Stock Performance. Nine's stock is trading near its lowest point since the Covid emergency began in 2020.

Nine's Challenges. Since then, Nine has been through some of the most tumultuous months in its history, with a scandal of sexual harassment in its TV newsroom.

Market Expectations. The market will be looking for tangible evidence that the TV market has hit bottom, and is beginning to turn.

ASX Results Season. Results season - aka accountancy Christmas - is almost here.

In-store Digitization Opportunities. The opportunities being unlocked via digitisation and personalisation.

Customer Engagement Focus. We'll tackle the complex landscape of customer data, loyalty, and how to navigate the new privacy legislation.

Gemini's Market Push. Google began a global push on its AI product Gemini, which has been described as awful.

Increased Content at REmade. This year’s REmade will feature more content and new networking opportunities including round tables and workshops.

Unmade Index Performance. The Unmade Index of listed media and marketing stocks followed the wider ASX All Ordinaries downwards yesterday as the market waited for today’s crucial quarterly inflation data.

Marketing Challenges for Gemini. The major issue with the Gemini marketing campaign is that it’s overstating its usefulness.

Key Insights from PwC. PwC's Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook report for 2024 pointed to Cartology, Coles360 and Amazon as ones to watch once again, with the winning combination of tech investment, and rich seams of customer data to mine.

REmade Returns. REmade is returning for a third time, this year as a full-day event.

Call for Entries. The call for entries for the REmade Awards is now live.

REmade Event Tickets. Earlybird tickets are now on sale for the next edition of REmade on October 1.

Encouraging Inflation Data. New inflation numbers quelled fears that interest rates might go up again.

Positive Day for Media Stocks. It was a particularly good day for TV stocks, with Nine growing 4%, and Seven West Media growing 5.9%.

Unmade Index Recovery. The Unmade Index jumped by 2.77% on Wednesday to 500.7 points, outperforming the wider ASX All Ordinaries which rose by 1.76%.

Panel Discussions. A panel of news practitioners discussed how generative AI is already changing practices in journalism and the publishing business model.

AI Impact on Journalism. While the audience at HumAIn voted down the debate motion that AI is an extinction level event for media, its impact on the business of journalism is nonetheless undeniable.

Threads Update. Threads now lets all users save drafts and take photos within the app.

Google Search Updates. Google May Show Your Social Media Posts In Search (via Google Business Profiles).

TikTok Legislation. What’s going on with the new bill that could ban TikTok?

Book Recommendation. $100M Leads by the author is recommended for marketers.

Actionable Takeaway. Encourage customers to take small, initial actions that align with your desired outcome.

Consumer Behavior Strategy. Brands can use the Commitment & Consistency principle to influence consumer behaviour.

Psychology Principle. Check out this psychology principle that can help you persuade people better. It's called Commitment & Consistency (reference: The Psychology of Persuasion), and it's like a secret sauce for convincing people.

Newsletter Recommendation. Receive what is working in the world of SEO, content creation, and side hustles from the CEO of a busy marketing agency.

Sponsorship Ads on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will now enable brands to sponsor any organic post in the app.

LinkedIn Gaming Feature. LinkedIn plans to add gaming to its platform.

Instagram Ads Update. Instagram rolls out ads with promo codes.

Book Recommendation. Growth Hacker Marketing: A primer on the future of PR, Marketing and Advertising.

Newsletter Recommendation. Get your bi-weekly dose of B2B growth insights packed with powerful case studies, trends, and creative growth strategies you won't find elsewhere.

User-Generated Content. Encourage customers to share their experiences with your brand through photos and videos.

Social Media Engagement. Showcase the number of followers, likes, shares, and comments your brand receives on social media platforms to demonstrate its popularity and relevance.

Influencer Collaboration. Collaborate with influencers who align with your target audience to amplify your brand's message and reach a wider audience.

Customer Testimonials. Highlight positive reviews, testimonials, and success stories from satisfied customers to demonstrate the value of your product or service.

Influencer Impact. Seeing someone you admire endorse a product makes you more inclined to give it a try yourself, simply because you trust their judgment and want to mirror their lifestyle.

Social Proof Concept. Social Proof taps into our innate desire to follow the crowd and seek validation from others.

Instagram Reels Length. Instagram's testing longer reels to maximise engagement.

Google-Disney Partnership. Google announces ad placement partnership with Disney.

YouTube Video Policy. YouTube warns channels against deleting videos.

Unusual Marketing Spaces. It's a great example of how brands can use unusual spaces to grab people's attention, create unforgettable branding moments, and make people interested in their products.

Competitor Gratitude. When the press asked Skoda about the genius idea, they just said they wanted to thank their competitors for giving them free advertising space.

Unique Advertising Spot. Skoda's new ENYAQ line was advertised in a unique way, reaching drivers when they're really focused - backing up into a parking spot.

Skoda's Creative Ads. Skoda came up with a super cool marketing campaign in Sweden that turned a boring parking experience into something fun.

Search Ads Carousel. Google Tests Search Ads Carousel Slider.

New Video Generator. Google releases Imagen 2, a video clip generator.

Noteworthy Marketing News. Paid ChatGPT customers can now use AI to edit DALL-E images.

Use Testimonials. Displaying testimonials and case studies from happy customers can prove the effectiveness of your products or services.

Establish Reliable Information Source. Creating and sharing valuable content can establish your brand as a reliable source of information for your audience.

Showcase Credentials. Highlighting your certifications, awards, or other accolades can demonstrate your brand's expertise and credibility.

Leverage Influencer Partnerships. Partnering with influencers or thought leaders can give your brand a boost of credibility and authority.

Influence Consumer Behavior. When marketers use the principle of Authority, they can influence our behaviour significantly.

Authority in Marketing. The principle of Authority says that we trust and follow the guidance of people we think are experts or in positions of power.

Free Newsletter Recommendations. 5 FREE Newsletter Recommendations of the Week include 'Growth Waves', which offers bi-weekly B2B growth insights, and 'Above The Fold', designed for quick and easy tips for small business owners.

Instagram Search Bar. Meta is testing an AI-powered search bar on Instagram.

Airchat Launch. Naval Ravikant's Airchat is a social app built around talk, not text.

TikTok AI Ads. TikTok may add AI avatars that can make ads.

Customer Loyalty. This whole campaign is IKEA's way of making shopping more personal and rewarding, especially since their stores aren't exactly around the corner for most people.

Dubai Exclusive Offer. It was an IKEA Dubai-exclusive deal where an hour of travel could knock off about AED 105 from the customer’s purchase.

Time as Money. They used Google Maps timeline to figure out how long the customer's journey was, then turned that time into money to spend in the store.

IKEA Campaign. IKEA came up with an ingenious marketing campaign, 'Buy With Your Time', that rewarded customers for the time it took them to get to the store.

Threads Ads Launch. Meta could launch Threads ads this year.

Meta DMs Testing. Meta Tests DMs on Threads via Instagram Inbox.

TikTok User Payment. TikTok is paying users in France 38 cents to spend an hour on its platform.

Listen and Adapt. Actively listen to feedback from your audience, especially your superfans, to strengthen your relationship with them.

Reward Loyalty. Recognise and reward your superfans for their loyalty and advocacy by offering exclusive perks.

Cultivate Community. Create opportunities for interaction and engagement to foster a sense of community among your audience.

Identify Superfans. Use analytics and engagement metrics to identify your most engaged audience members and superfans.

Superfans Definition. Superfans are your brand's most loyal and devoted supporters who engage with your content and actively advocate for your brand.

Fandom Pyramid Levels. The Fandom Pyramid reveals the key steps you need to take to cultivate a tribe of loyal supporters.

Reddit Product Ads. Reddit Adds Dynamic Product Ads To Help Brands Reach Shoppers in Discovery Phase.

WhatsApp Community Updates. Event scheduling in the WhatsApp Community has been spotted in the newest beta.

Google Testing Features. Google Tests Discussion and Forums Questions With Answers Box.

Adding Distinctive Features. It's a good idea to add some extra features that solve your customers' specific needs and problems.

Niche Specialization. By concentrating on a specific segment of the market, you can become an expert in that area.

Market Growth Focus. Lastly, pick a market that's growing so you can make progress faster.

Find Your Audience. To start a business, you need to find a group of people who really need your product or service.

Avoid Price Wars. Try to make it difficult for customers to compare your product or service with your competitors'.

Unique Offer Strategy. To sell more of anything, turn your product or service into a distinctive, one-of-a-kind offer.

Gym Marketing Focus. If you're a gym owner, you can market yourself as a stamina trainer for new moms.

Meta Ads Launch. Meta could launch Threads ads this year.

Google Ads Update. Google Ads will pause low-activity keywords starting in June.

Specialization in Travel. If you're a travel agent, you can market yourself as a specialist in Singapore trips for families or Bali trips for wedding anniversary celebrations.

Federating Examples. A classic example from the book is FedEx, which pioneered the overnight delivery category.

Create Sub-Categories. You can always create a new sub-category and still come out on top!

Law of Category. The Law of Category basically says that it's better to be the first in a new category than to try to compete in an existing one.

ParagraphAI Tool. ParagraphAI is an AI-powered writing tool that helps craft perfectly curated content for all your writing needs, including drafting emails and correcting spelling in over 40 languages.

Threads View Count. Threads is making it easy for anyone to see a post's view count.

ChatGPT Integration. ChatGPT sidebar lets you easily add ChatGPT and other copilot AI features directly into your daily tasks, whether you're browsing the web, sending emails, enhancing your writing, or translating text.

Natural Reader Usage. Natural Reader converts text online into natural-sounding audio, allowing users to have emails, websites, PDFs, Google Docs, and Kindle books read aloud.

Jasper Everywhere. Jasper Everywhere is a browser extension that seamlessly integrates AI into any platform you use, allowing you to generate content with just a simple click.

Temp Mail Benefits. Temp Mail offers a temporary, secure, anonymous, free, and disposable email address, keeping your real mailbox clean and secure from spam, advertising mailings, hacking, and attacking robots.

AI Technology Growth. AI technology has rapidly advanced, revolutionising various aspects of our daily lives through automation, personalised experiences, and valuable insights.

Instagram Reel Performance. Instagram says posting longer reels can hurt your performance.

AI Ad Audience Creation. X will soon enable advertisers to create ad audiences with AI.

Emotional Engagement. The campaign was a real emotional ride, turning into something really heart-warming and thought-provoking.

Worlds Apart Campaign. In 2017, Heineken introduced the 'Worlds Apart' campaign, which brought together strangers who held opposing viewpoints and asked them to collaborate on a project before disclosing their differing opinions.

Positive Messaging. 'Worlds Apart' highlighted the potential for understanding and unity, showing that despite our differences, we can find common ground.

Bold Approach. Heineken didn't shy away from controversial topics when many other brands did.

Authentic Conversations. Heineken didn't plan out the conversations. Instead, they set the stage for real chats.

Incorporate Elements. Think about how you can incorporate genuine storytelling or tackling bold topics into your next campaign.

Marketing Resourcefulness. DHL leveraged their competitors' resources to promote their brand without traditional advertising costs.

Engagement Focus. The campaign led to high engagement through social media buzz, demonstrating the power of clever marketing tactics.

Viral Success. People loved the cleverness of the stunt, and it quickly went viral.

Media Buzz. The campaign sparked significant media coverage and social media buzz, reaching audiences far beyond the initial scope of the campaign.

Cost-Effective Strategy. DHL used existing logistics networks to spread their message, proving that you don’t always need a big budget to make a big impact.

Creative Advertising. DHL took a cheeky approach by turning their competitors into unwitting advertisers, highlighting DHL's competitive edge in a humorous and memorable way.

Trojan Mailing Campaign. Back in 2014, DHL pulled off a marketing stunt that left its competitors red-faced and the public in awe, known as 'Trojan Mailing.'

LinkedIn Image Update. LinkedIn Updates Link Previews in Organic Posts With Smaller Images.

Google Chat Removal. Google Is Removing Its Chat Option From Business Listings.

Instagram CTA Impact. Instagram Says Using Certain CTAs Can Impact Post Reach.

Subscriber Retention. Spotify creates an emotional connection by highlighting users' listening habits and memories.

FOMO Trigger. Seeing friends and celebrities share their Wrapped summaries creates a sense of FOMO for those not on Spotify.

Data Utilisation. Wrapped showcases Spotify's data capabilities, subtly reminding users of the platform's sophisticated algorithm.

Viral Content. The visually appealing and easy-to-share graphics are tailor-made for social media.

User Engagement. Spotify Wrapped engages users by providing them with a personalised experience that’s all about them.

Newsletter Sign-Up. Encourage visitors to sign up for your email list. It's a low-commitment request that's easy to agree to.

Pinterest's Attention Report. Report Shows Pinterest Drives More Total Attention Than Other Apps.

Meta's Community Rollout. Meta quietly rolls out Communities on Messenger.

Instagram News Update. Instagram May Soon Enable You to Cross-Post Stories to WhatsApp.

Successful Examples. Netflix offers a free trial period to get users hooked (small ask), after which they are more likely to subscribe (bigger ask).

Engagement Through Content. Ask visitors to read a short blog post or watch a quick video, then invite them to download a comprehensive ebook or join a webinar.

Free Trials Utilization. Provide a free trial or a freemium version of your service to prompt users to upgrade to a paid plan.

Exclusive Offers Follow-Up. Once they’re on your newsletter, send them exclusive deals or product recommendations.

Self-Perception Impact. When someone agrees to a small request, they start to see themselves as supportive; this self-perception makes them more likely to agree to bigger requests in the future.

FITD Technique Explained. The Foot-in-the-Door (FITD) technique involves starting with a small initial request that your audience is likely to agree to.

YouTube Search Feature. YouTube is testing image-based search via Google Lens.

Threads Link Preview. Threads is testing an updated link preview display for Instagram posts.

AI in Advertising. TikTok ads will now include AI avatars of creators and stock actors.

Importance of Fresh Breath. The campaign established the idea that fresh breath is important for hygiene, influencing public perception significantly.

Sales Success. The campaign was a huge hit, leading to skyrocketing Listerine sales and widespread recognition of the term 'halitosis.'

Emotional Advertising Impact. Listerine's advertisements played on fear and insecurity, using emotional appeals such as the sad bridesmaid who risks social rejection due to bad breath.

Marketing Strategy Shift. In the 1920s, Listerine recognized that bad breath wasn't widely acknowledged as a major issue and used the medical term 'halitosis' to create awareness.

Historical Product Origin. Listerine was originally formulated as a surgical antiseptic in the late 19th century and was used for various purposes, from cleaning wounds to scrubbing floors.

YouTube Crackdown. YouTube confirms crackdown on VPN users accessing cheaper Premium plans.

X Provides Insight. X To Provide Insight Into When Your Audience Is Active

New Marketing Insights. Google Perspectives Now Shows Instagram Posts

Key Marketing Takeaway. Identify what makes your brand unique and make it the focal point of your campaign.

Creative Variability. The ads were so varied and creative, keeping everyone interested and excited for what would come next.

Cultural Relevance. Absolut's ads have always connected with what's happening in culture, art and society, keeping the campaign exciting and meaningful.

Iconic Imagery. The bottle's unique shape and sleek, simple design made it the star of every ad.

Genius of Simplicity. The campaign's genius lies in its simplicity and consistency, centred around the shape of the Absolut bottle.

Long Campaign. Absolut Vodka's 'The Bottle' campaign began in 1980 and continued for years, becoming one of the longest uninterrupted advertising campaigns ever.

YouTube Thumbnails. YouTube will finally let you upload custom thumbnails for playlists.

Threads Updates. Threads tests disappearing updates and a media tab on profiles.

Meta AI Influencers. Meta will enable influencers to create AI versions of themselves.

Viral Potential. The novelty of a pizza company fixing potholes was unexpected and newsworthy, helping the campaign go viral and earning widespread media coverage.

Corporate Social Responsibility. The campaign positioned Domino's as a socially responsible brand, enhancing their image and aligning it with customer values.

Community Engagement. By partnering with local governments to fix potholes, Domino's engaged with communities directly, building goodwill and strengthening their community ties.

Paving for Pizza. In 2018, Domino's launched the 'Paving for Pizza' campaign, where they committed to repairing potholes in cities across the United States.

X Platform Changes. X weighs adding a downvote button to replies, but it doesn’t want to emulate Reddit.

Telegram Monetization. Telegram lets creators share paid content to channels.

Instagram Updates. Instagram Chief Reiterates That Sends Are Now a Key Focus.

Community Building. The campaign’s requirement for fans to share photos and use a specific hashtag drove massive user-generated content.

Campaign Memorability. Transforming the billboard into designer handbags added a tangible element to the campaign.

Influencer Leverage. By creating the campaign around her love for designer bags, Netflix effectively tapped into her influence and fanbase.

User Engagement. This simple ask created a viral buzz, encouraging fans to actively engage with the campaign on social media.

Tangible Marketing Strategy. The marketing team tore down the billboard and turned it into 200 exclusive designer handbags, which were then distributed to fans across Spain.

Innovative Marketing Campaign. Netflix ran a campaign that really tapped into Georgina’s love for designer bags and her iconic status.

Reality Show Promotion. 'I am Georgina' is a reality show that offers a sneak peek into the luxurious life of Georgina Rodríguez, the girlfriend of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

Amazon Advertising Expansion. Amazon expands ad offerings for non-Amazon sellers.

Pinterest AI Process. Pinterest Outlines AI Background Generation Process for Product Shots.

Meta's New Feature. Meta's new feature allows advertisers to showcase offer details like discounts directly on Instagram ad call-to-action buttons.

Playfulness in Marketing. This campaign not only addressed a common issue but also brought an element of playfulness and artistry into the everyday act of eating cookies.

Limited-Edition Release. To facilitate this, they released limited-edition tubes filled with vanilla cream specifically for this purpose.

Transforming Disappointment. Oreo encouraged customers to mend broken cookies with their classic cream filling, adding a touch of joy and creativity to the experience.

Oreo's Kintsugi Inspiration. Oreo found a clever marketing solution by drawing inspiration from the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, which means 'golden joinery'.

New App Launch. Microsoft's AI-powered, Canva-like Designer app lands on iOS and Android.

Model Release. OpenAI released a cheaper, smarter model.

Marketing Update - Instagram. Instagram Tests Making the Messaging Icon the Main Focus.

Social Media Impact. Its fun and light-hearted tone resonated with the online community and quickly went viral.

Engagement Boost. The campaign became a hot topic, inspiring memes, shares and discussions about the approach's creativity and ethical considerations.

Cost-effective Strategy. Due to budget constraints, celebrity endorsements are not possible for emerging brands. However, Surreal turned this challenge into a creative opportunity.

Creative Campaign. Surreal Cereal created a super creative 'Fake Celebrity' campaign for endorsements, which not only grabbed attention but also started fun conversations and sparked social media debates.

Meta AI Feature. Meta AI gets a new 'Imagine me' selfie feature.

Threads Update. Threads is developing an easier way to access likes and saved posts.

Reddit Ads Launch. Reddit launched Lead Generation Ads.

Newsletter Recommendation. Join 100,000+ others and learn how to use Agent AI to grow your career or business.

Campaign Buzz. By showing the true product, TAB Gıda built a strong sense of trust and created a buzz that got people talking.

Trust Building. This campaign struck a chord with consumers, addressing their concerns about the difference between ads and reality.

Real Product Photos. TAB Gıda took a Whopper made in a regular Burger King kitchen and photographed it using a Polaroid camera, with no food stylists or digital touch-ups.

Honest Marketing Campaign. TAB Gıda launched a marketing campaign that showed just how confident they are in their product quality.

Jacquemus Success. Jacquemus's success is a testament to the power of world building.

Brand Promise Clarity. Translate your narrative into clear, compelling brand promises.

Visual Consistency. Ensure your visual elements—color palette, typography, imagery—are consistent across all platforms.

Emotional Connection. Your narrative should evoke emotions, spark curiosity, and offer a sense of belonging.

Narrative Creation. At the core of world building is a compelling brand narrative.

Jacquemus Example. Luxury fashion brand Jacquemus is a master of this, crafting a unique, enchanting world that resonates deeply with a high-brow audience.

World Building Importance. World building can significantly enhance your brand's appeal and connection with consumers.

Future Duer Challenges. While Duer plans another Strava challenge later this year, they are also sponsoring the RBC GranFondo Whistler race.

Leveraging Partnerships. Strava partnerships are proving invaluable for brands looking to connect with active communities and leverage data for strategic growth.

Branded Challenge Success. Participants who cycled to work twice a week for two weeks received a 30% discount, with 42,000 completions against a goal of 27,000.

Engaging Gen Z. Strava’s research shows a higher Gen Z engagement, making it an ideal platform for reaching young, active audiences.

CamelBak Challenge Participation. Last year, CamelBak's 'Redefine Limits' running challenge drew 149,000 participants, while their biking challenges engaged over 400,000 users.

Fitness App Collaborations. Chipotle, Duer, and Hoka are tapping into the power of fitness tracking and activity-sharing app Strava to create branded workout challenges, attracting new customers with product discounts.

Sales Model. With Levanta, you pay only for sales, not clicks, which boosts your organic search rankings and best-seller status.

Affiliate Marketing. Levanta's affiliate marketing platform enables building direct partnerships with over 4,000 publishers, influencers, and affiliates.

Lead Capture. Smart Recognition identifies the email addresses of up to 40% of your anonymous website traffic without opt-in forms.

Exclusive Discount. Readers of the newsletter receive an exclusive 20% discount on a premium annual subscription to Brilliant.

Brilliant Learning. Brilliant is the ultimate platform for mastering AI, programming, and data science through engaging, interactive lessons.

Advanced Filtering. Modash offers advanced filtering options such as hashtags, keywords, bio, and topic filters to help you find the perfect creators for your brand.

Influencer Database. Modash.io has a database of over 250 million influencers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Focus on Depth. Elly Truesdell stated: 'I’m really much more interested in brands that are focusing on key geographies and depth rather than breadth.'

Investor Caution. Investors are now more cautious, focusing on unit economics, margins, and a clear path to profitability.

High Entry Costs. Entry costs for new brands can reach up to $6,000 per store.

Retail Space Competition. Competition to secure retail space has intensified and retailers increasingly charge slotting fees and demand higher sales cuts to boost their margins.

Email Address Identification. Capture email addresses of up to 40% of your anonymous traffic.

Lead Capture Innovation. Smart Recognition lets you target and email most of your website traffic, growing your email list and revenue faster!

Measuring Influencer Success. Brands like Apothekary are evaluating influencer efforts with the same rigor as digital advertising campaigns due to the complexities of measuring influencer campaign impacts.

Effective Promotions. Offering special promotions, like limited-time offers without minimum purchase requirements, has proven more enticing for followers compared to generic calls to action.

Organic Content Approach. Experiment's Lisa Guerrera emphasizes building genuine relationships with a select group of creators, yielding better ROI through organic content despite slower scaling.

Challenges for Small Brands. Smaller, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands face substantial financial pressure when attempting to collaborate with influencers who now have agents and higher fees.

Authenticity Over Aesthetics. Theresa Bischof from Apothekary noted that raw, day-to-day content significantly outperforms polished, professional clips in audience engagement and conversion rates.

Rising Influencer Fees. The average campaign revenue of an Instagram creator increased from $3,653 in 2021 to $5,111 in 2022.

Triggered Email Strategy. Inbox Mailers allows sending triggered emails when your subscriber is actually in their inbox, leading to open rates of 50-70% and improved deliverability.

Watch Panel. Check out this on-demand panel to discover: Expert strategies to navigate UGC challenges, Proven tactics to optimize each ad type, Data-driven insights for campaign excellence.

Data-Driven Insights. Data-driven insights for campaign excellence.

Tactics Optimization. Proven tactics to optimize each ad type.

Expert Strategies. Expert strategies to navigate UGC challenges.

Marketing Strategies. Learn battle-tested strategies from top marketers who've cracked the code on Spark Ads, Partnership Ads, and UGC campaigns that actually deliver ROI.

Ad Spend Wasted. Tired of wasting ad spend on Instagram and TikTok?

Growth Marketing SuperBoost. 'Four Forces of Change' is one of the frameworks featured in Growth Marketing SuperBoost.

Improving Core Features. Lastly, the fourth force is 'habit of the current solution' and your key messages should address specific ways that your offering improves on a core feature or attribute of their current solution.

Addressing Customer Anxiety. The third force is 'anxiety of the new solution' and your key messages should describe what makes customers anxious about switching solutions.

Key Message Forces. The first force is 'push from the current solution' and your key messages should answer why the current solution that the customer is using falls short of satisfying their wants and/or needs.

Four Forces of Change. In the 'Force to Address' column, list the two forces that prompt customers to switch a product or service, as well as the two forces that prevent customers from switching (four forces in total).

Columns Creation. Start by making two columns, one titled 'Highlight Feature' and the other 'Customer Benefit and Description,' and fill them in.

Framework Overview. The first framework consists of two parts that help uncover the unique qualities of your business or organization and its product or service, so you can translate them into key messages.

Marketing Value. Marketing communications are most effective when you understand what unique value your business or organization provides.

Continuous Improvement. Regularly updating the experiences provided through growth marketing can help it stay fresh—making the effort to deliver experiences that go above and beyond can be a powerful investment in customer lifetime value.

Unified Brand Voice. Customers want businesses to speak with a common voice, even when they deal with different parts of the organization.

Importance of Messaging. True growth marketing is less about lofty price points and fancy graphic design, and more about key messaging that is consistently executed with thought and care.

Customer-Centric Culture. You have to build a business culture that is so obsessed with your customer needs that all employees are motivated to bridge these gaps.

Scaling Agile Teams. Add agile teams one at a time and not add new ones until the latest is operating effectively.

Daily Accountability. Each morning there is a daily stand-up where each team member reports on what they accomplished the day before and what they plan to do today.

Team Composition. The war-room team should possess skills across multiple functions, be released from their 'BAU' day jobs to work together full-time, and be grouped in a 'war room.'

Improved Speed. Businesses that formerly took multiple weeks or even months to get a good idea fielded to customers can now do it in less than two weeks after adopting agile growth marketing practices.

Agile Benefits. In many businesses, revenues in the segment offerings and product lines that use agile techniques have grown by as much as a factor of four.

Agile Growth Marketing. The most effective and efficient way to do growth marketing is to take the 'agile' approach.

Anchoring Effect. People tend to subconsciously latch onto the first fact they see or hear and then base their decision-making on this fact.

Growth Marketing Resource. There's more where this came from at the Growth Marketing Institute.

Content Sharing. The most effective marketing and advertising employs knowns to drive more word-of-mouth by hyper-focusing on producing and publishing shareable content.

Principle of Reciprocity. The 'principle of reciprocity' entails that people feel an obligation to do something for you when you have done something for them.

Loss Aversion. Loss aversion refers to the consumer tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains.

Liking Principle. The 'liking principle' postulates that people like others who are similar to them, pay them compliments, and cooperate with them towards mutual aims.

Law of Least Effort. The 'law of least effort' suggests that most people are inherently lazy or want to do things efficiently.

Information-Gap Theory. The 'information-gap theory' posits that when someone has a gap in their knowledge on a topic they care about, they will take action to find out what they want to know.

Framing in Marketing. Framing impacts how consumers perceive options and ultimately guides their choices.

Commitment and Consistency. The principle of 'commitment and consistency' refers to the choices people make to believe more strongly in the decisions they have already made.

Decoy Effect. The 'decoy effect' is a situation where people tend to have a change in preference between two options when they are shown a third option.

Action Paralysis Principle. The 'action paralysis principle' states that people commonly second-guess their own behavior, especially if they are not sure how their decision will impact them.

Understanding Decision Making. People frequently act illogically, making their behavior difficult to predict.

Psychology in Marketing. Smart marketers incorporate one or more psychological principles into marketing and advertising.

Marketing Creativity. Thus, business operators ought to push their marketing to be more surprising.

Cultivating Relationships. Surprise fuels passionate relationships.

Emotional Amplifier. Surprise appears to amplify whatever you are feeling.

Cost-Effective Surprise. Surprise is cheap.

Behavior Change. Unexpected events drive learning.

Addictive Nature. Surprise is like crack for your brain.

Power of Surprise. Surprise is still probably the most powerful marketing tool of all.

Imagination in Marketing. It really comes down to a question of imagination and bravery.

Podcast Availability. You can also listen to the podcast version of this article on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Potential Link. There's more where this came from at the Growth Marketing Institute.

Creating Loyal Customers. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life.

Reciprocity Law. The law of reciprocity states that the average person tries to repay, in kind, what another person has provided them, which applies in marketing through the concept of providing free samples to encourage purchases.

Trust Through Value. True success in selling comes from focusing on providing value and serving others generously; building strong relationships is the foundation of effective selling.

Youtility Marketing Steps. The six-step process to Youtility includes identifying consumer needs, mapping them to useful marketing, and keeping score by measuring how Youtility impacts key metrics.

Charmin's Innovative Marketing. Charmin built a mobile app called "Sit or Squat" to help users find and rate clean public restrooms in their area, aiding in the challenging marketing of toilet paper.

Hilton's Helpful Approach. Hilton started a Twitter account called Hilton Suggests, responding to travel and tourism questions, genuinely being helpful without strings attached to encourage hotel consideration.

Real-World Example: River Pools. River Pools and Spas quickly became the industry leader of pool and spa installations in their market by launching a blog to help people learn more about the different aspects of pools and spas in general.

Youtility Definition. Baer suggests that being useful — making your marketing so useful that people would be willing to pay for it — is easier and more sustainable.

Growth Marketing Concept. The businesses that authentically and relevantly help potential and current customers with their problems perform better across metrics like customer acquisition costs and loyalty, customer lifetime value, word-of-mouth (i.e. free referrals), and more.

Investment in Strategies. Therefore, the businesses that are able to catch and keep customers’ attention — via marketing strategies such as 'Youtility' and 'content experiences' — will be far more successful in the long run.

Attention is Key. Marketing is not a battle of products and services. It is a battle of attention.

Recognition-Hunger Importance. This is what Eric Berne calls 'recognition-hunger,' a need that is substantially more important than food-hunger.

Be a Better Friend. Now, ask yourself: How can I (my business) be a 'better friend' to our customers?

Customer Engagement. Potential customers desire certain interactions with your business before they become a paying customer, while current customers desire other types of interactions.

Complementary versus Crossed Transactions. 'Complementary transactions' happen when the response is appropriate and expected. 'Crossed transactions' happen when the response is unexpected or out of context.

Social Intercourse Dynamics. Most of these games are being played unconsciously, but once you become aware of this 'social intercourse,' you will probably be a little more conscious about it.

Game Theory in Marketing. When we interact with others, we are actually playing games — from power games to sexual games to competitive games.

Marketing Psychology. If there is one thing you should prioritize in your marketing — and of course there are many things to prioritize — it is that marketing is nothing more (or less) than psychology.

Product-for-Prospects. These 'breadcrumbs' are what Daniel Priestley calls a 'product-for-prospects' — a low-risk first step people can take before committing to your core product.

Content Consumption. In their research, Google discovered that people typically consume 11 pieces of content before making a purchase.

Warming Customers Up. Smart businesses know how to warm people up through a strategic funnel in an enjoyable and easy-going way.

Dormant Tensions. Priestley calls this a 'dormant tension' — a desire or frustration that is not being acted on.

Psychological Tension. According to marketing expert Daniel Priestley, the underlying reason people buy anything is due to psychological tension.

Explore More. There's more where this came from at the Growth Marketing Institute.

Fostering Ethical Leadership. Understanding concepts of leadership and governance can lead to more ethical and effective leadership within their teams and organizations.

Vision and Purpose. Philosophical inquiry often involves exploring questions of purpose and meaning.

Long-Term Focus. Philosophy encourages a long-term perspective, which is essential for sustainable marketing success.

Innovation Through Philosophy. Philosophy encourages questioning the status quo and exploring new ideas, which can fuel innovation and creativity in marketing.

Understanding Human Behavior. Philosophy offers profound insights into human nature, desires, and motivations.

Ethical Marketing Importance. Ethical marketing practices are essential for building trust and credibility with consumers.

Critical Thinking Development. One of the primary benefits of studying philosophy is the development of critical thinking and analytical skills.

Philosophy's Marketplace Relevance. In a rapidly evolving marketplace driven by technology and data, the relevance of classical disciplines such as philosophy might seem obscure.

Growth Marketing Definition. The best marketing is not marketing. It’s growth marketing.

Forces of Change. Understanding each of these forces, and then implementing them into your marketing materials, is crucial when it comes to getting prospective customers to give up our competitors' product.

Conversion Story. Your business' 'conversion story' really sells prospective and existing customers.

Category Competition. When businesses and organizations gain early leadership in a category, they gain more resources to innovate, create, market, and sell their brand.

Jobs to Be Done. Using the 'Jobs to Be Done' framework, you can truly understand the 'jobs' your customers 'hire' your product to do for them.

Buyer Personas. Developing detailed buyer personas can be incredibly helpful.

Understanding Audiences. The question is not if you know your target audiences, but how well you know them.

Elements of Value. Businesses which perform well on multiple 'elements of value' have more loyal customers than the rest.

Future of Trust. As we move forward, the role of trust in marketing will only become more significant.

Data Privacy Priority. To build and maintain trust, companies must prioritize data privacy and security.

Influencer Authenticity. Businesses should partner with influencers and content creators who genuinely believe in their products.

Customer Experience Importance. Exceptional customer experience is a key driver of trust.

User-Generated Content Trust. 92 percent of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than traditional advertising.

Content Marketing's Role. Content marketing plays a pivotal role in building trust.

Effective Storytelling. Businesses that share their journey, values, and challenges connect with consumers on a deeper level.

Transparency Builds Trust. Transparency is the foundation of trust.

Trust Deficit. 76 percent of people worry about false information or fake news being used as a weapon.

Trust as Key Element. The word of this decade, unequivocally, is trust.

Overcoming Cultural Shifts. Developing a creator mindset requires a cultural shift within the organization, prioritizing creativity, experimentation, and authenticity.

Data-Driven Decisions. Businesses that become creators can leverage tools to measure the performance of their content and make data-driven decisions.

User-Generated Content. Encouraging customers to create and share content related to your brand can amplify your reach and credibility.

Competitive Edge. In a crowded marketplace, businesses that become creators can distinguish themselves from competitors through unique and compelling content.

Building Relationships. Businesses that adopt a creator's mindset are better positioned to build genuine relationships with their audience.

Diversified Content Formats. The rise of digital media has expanded the range of content formats available to businesses.

Innovation Encouraged. When businesses become creators, they open the door to continuous innovation, fostering a culture where creativity is a core component of the company's DNA.

Customer Engagement Importance. In the era of social media, customer engagement has become a crucial metric for business success.

Effectiveness of Storytelling. Traditional advertising methods are losing their impact as consumers crave authentic and engaging content; by adopting a creator's approach, businesses can craft narratives that resonate deeply with their audience.

Power of Authenticity. One defining characteristic of a creator is authenticity; successful creators often share personal experiences, insights, and opinions that reflect their true selves.

Becoming Creators. The good news is, there is an alternative opportunity: for businesses to become 'creators.'

Social Media Algorithms. Organic reach has dramatically declined over the past few years, largely driven by the evolving algorithms of major social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which prioritize paid content.

Organic Reach Decline. The era of organic reach on social media is essentially over, marking a significant shift in how businesses and individuals need to approach their social media strategies.

CAC Importance. Understanding how much it costs to acquire a new customer is crucial for budgeting and resource allocation.

Advocacy Indicator. A high NPS indicates that our customers are not only satisfied but are also likely to become advocates for our brand.

ROAS Definition. Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a marketing metric that measures the revenue earned for each dollar spent on advertising.

Conversion Rate Assessment. By examining this metric, we can assess the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and website usability.

NPS Measurement. NPS measures customer satisfaction and loyalty by asking one simple question: 'How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?'

MRR Indicator. For subscription-based businesses, MRR is a vital indicator of financial health.

Churn Rate Signal. A high churn rate can signal underlying issues with our product, customer service, or user experience.

CLV Tracking. Tracking CLV helps us understand the long-term value of our customers.

Weekly Metric Review. Every Friday, we dedicate time to meticulously analyze seven key growth metrics that provide a clear snapshot of our company’s performance.

Growth Necessity. In the current business environment, growth isn’t just a goal — it's a necessity.

Elements of Value. The 'Elements of Value' are fundamental attributes for why customers buy anything, within four categories: functional, emotional, life-changing, and social impact.

Jobs to Be Done. Using the 'Jobs to Be Done' framework, you can truly understand the 'jobs' your customers 'hire' your product to do for them.

Agility Importance. Companies that prioritize agility over adherence to a fixed mission are better positioned to respond to market shifts, technological advancements, and evolving customer needs.

Static Challenges. A rigid mission statement can become outdated, hindering a company's ability to pivot and respond to changes.

Fortune 500 Findings. A study by the Harvard Business Review analyzed the mission statements of Fortune 500 companies and found that many of them used similar language and themes.

Vague Statements. Many mission statements are filled with broad, aspirational language that can apply to virtually any company.

Mission Statement Value. The practical value of mission statements is increasingly questionable.

Category Focus. Customers ultimately do not care about products or services, or the businesses and organizations that provide them; they care about categories.

Storytelling Impact. A business' origin story highlights the transformation that customers undergo when they buy, use, and/or engage with your product or service.

Customer Understanding. While many marketers focus on demographics and geographics, great marketers also study psychographics, behavioral patterns, firmographics, transactional patterns, technographics, seasonal patterns, and benefit segmentation.

Customer Focus. Successful marketers prioritize their customers because they understand that customers are not operators.

Growth Metrics. Every Friday, we dedicate time to meticulously analyze seven key growth metrics that provide a clear snapshot of our company’s performance.

Data-Driven Decisions. In today’s business environment, marketing is king — but data is queen, and she wears the pants.

Journaling Benefits. Incorporating journaling into your routine can enhance your creativity, sharpen your analytical skills, and provide a space for continuous learning and growth.

Agile Management. At the Growth Marketing Institute, we use the 'agile' approach to time and budget management.

Creative Thinking. Cultivating a habit of creative thinking can lead to innovative marketing campaigns that capture attention and drive results.

Jobs to Be Done. The premise of the 'Jobs to Be Done' framework is that people do not care about your products or services; they care about their needs.

Leverage and Pricing Power. Ultimately, this leverage gives the business greater pricing power, more control of any variables that may apply, and other competitive advantages.

Support for Sales. Marketing should be seen as a crucial support system for salespeople, working in tandem to achieve common business goals.

Perceived Value. Marketing greatly enhances both the perceived and real value of a product or service, contributing to its overall success in a market.

Expedite Sales Cycle. Effective marketing plays a pivotal role in expediting the sales cycle, transforming potential leads into loyal customers more swiftly and efficiently.

Strategic Marketing System. At a minimum, your marketing system should focus on three key areas: lead generation, conversion, and retention and referral.

Avoid Interruption. If your business does 'interruption marketing', consumers will 'turn you off.'

Permission Marketing. Now more than ever, we are living in an age of 'permission marketing' whereby consumers have an easy, convenient choice to opt in and out of marketing.

Conventional Marketing Issues. Conventional marketing is boring, typical, and does not get noticed and keep potential and current customers' attention.

Show Uniqueness. If you want people to pay attention to your business and seriously consider becoming one of your customers, your marketing needs to show them something they have never seen before.

Attention Battle. Marketing is a battle of attention, not a battle of products and services.

Handling Cold Outreach. A strong marketing funnel repositions the business-prospect leverage, since the side that 'starts the conversation' is the side that relinquishes much of the leverage.

Effective Marketing Strategies. Effective marketing strategies leverage both real and perceived value to attract and retain customers.

Using ROI to Address Concerns. Show Return on Investment (ROI) to turn an initial price objection into a sound financial decision.

Understanding Customer Objections. Customers may express the 'too expensive' objection for various reasons, including Perceived Value, Budget Constraints, and Comparison with Competitors.

Perceived Value Importance. Perceived value is influenced by personal experiences, emotions, expectations, and marketing messages.

Leverage Elements of Value. We recommend using the 'Elements of Value' framework to drill down the real value your business and its product/service provide to customers.

Real Value Defined. Real value, also known as intrinsic or objective value, refers to the tangible and measurable benefits that a product or service provides.

Opportunity from Feedback. Hearing from customers that your products or services are 'too expensive' can be disheartening, however, this feedback presents a unique opportunity to refine your value proposition.

Transparent Communication. Ensure that marketing messages truthfully reflect the real value while enhancing perceived value.

Efficiency Gains. These capabilities have undeniably improved efficiency, allowing marketers to reach their target audience more precisely and at a lower cost.

Authenticity in Marketing. The human element will remain crucial in infusing marketing with authenticity, emotion, and originality.

Future of Marketing. The future of marketing will undoubtedly involve a combination of AI and human creativity.

NY Times Campaign. This campaign combined AI-driven insights about media consumption with powerful storytelling to highlight the importance of investigative journalism.

Spotify's Personalization. Spotify uses AI to generate personalized year-in-review playlists for its users.

Nike's Campaign. Nike used AI to analyze social media trends and consumer sentiment, identifying key issues and themes that resonated with their audience.

Consumer-Centric Insight. Engaging with consumers directly can provide richer insights that inform more meaningful and creative marketing strategies.

Diverse Data Sources. By incorporating diverse data sources, including qualitative insights and cultural trends, marketers can infuse their campaigns with fresh and relevant ideas.

Encourage Experimentation. Encourage a culture of experimentation where creative teams are empowered to take risks and explore unconventional ideas.

Human-AI Collaboration. Instead of relying solely on AI, marketers should use AI to complement their creative processes.

Balance Creativity. Businesses must use AI as a tool to enhance, rather than replace, human creativity.

Generic Marketing Risk. As AI-driven marketing becomes more prevalent, there is a risk that marketing will become increasingly generic.

Threat to Creativity. The very efficiency that makes AI so attractive also poses a significant threat to creativity in marketing.

Real-time Optimization. Machine learning models can optimize ad placements and adjust bids in real-time to maximize ROI.

Data Analysis Power. Algorithms can now analyze vast amounts of data to predict consumer behavior, segment audiences, and personalize content.

AI in Marketing. Artificial intelligence's integration into marketing has been nothing short of transformative.

Forces of Change Resource. Understanding each of these forces is crucial when it comes to getting prospective customers to give up our competitors' product.

Brand Categorization. When businesses and organizations gain early leadership in a category, they gain more resources to innovate, create, market, and sell their brand.

Jobs to Be Done Resource. Using the ‘Jobs to Be Done’ framework, you can truly understand the ‘jobs’ your customers ‘hire’ your product to do for them.

Elements of Value. The ‘Elements of Value’ are fundamental attributes for why customers buy anything, within four categories: functional, emotional, life-changing, and social impact.

Forces of Change. There are ‘four forces of change’ that prompt customers to switch a product or service, as well as the forces that prevent customers from switching.

Conversion Story. Your business' ‘conversion story’ really sells prospective and existing customers, highlighting the transformation that customers undergo when they engage with your product.

Category Importance. Customers ultimately do not care about products or services, or the businesses and organizations that provide them; they care about categories.

Jobs to Be Done Framework. Using the ‘Jobs to Be Done’ framework, you can truly understand the ‘jobs’ your customers ‘hire’ your product to do for them.

Buyer Personas. Developing detailed buyer personas can be incredibly helpful, representing your ideal customers and providing insights into what motivates them.

Audience Analysis. While many marketers focus on demographics and geographics, great marketers also study psychographics, behavioral patterns, and firmographics.

Focus Strategies. By focusing on the ‘1,000 true fans’ approach, your business will surely see an increase in sales, customer lifetime value, and customer loyalty.

Mass Marketing Evolution. With the advent of search engines and social media, mass marketing was democratized and made available to many more businesses.

Importance of True Fans. You want to focus on the ‘true fans’ because their enthusiasm can increase the amount and customer lifetime value of ‘regular fans.’

Revenue Goals. If your goal is $1 million in revenue each year, and you are able to earn $1,000 per year per ‘true fan’ (i.e. per customer), then you need 1,000 of them.

True Fans Concept. Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, calls these hyper-focused target audiences ‘1,000 true fans.’

Premium Memberships. At a steep $150.00 per month for a membership, John Reed Fitness is not for 99.99 percent of Los Angelenos.

Unique Gym Concept. John Reed Fitness in Los Angeles looks more like a nightclub with exercise equipment than an actual gym.

Conversion Story Resource. Your business’ ‘conversion story’ really sells prospective and existing customers.

Algorithm Efficiency. It is well-known that simple statistical algorithms often outperform experts in making predictions and decisions.

Measuring Noise. 'Noise' can be measured without knowing the correct answer.

Triggers and Actions. Events that start the automation, such as a rise in cost-per-click, are called triggers in the IFTTT model.

Noise in Marketing. This inconsistency highlights a common issue: employees in identical roles should theoretically be interchangeable, but often are not.

Adopting Algorithms. Reducing 'noise' involves replacing human judgment with formal rules or algorithms.

Noise Audit Process. Conducting a 'noise' audit involves having multiple professionals independently evaluate the same cases to observe the scattering of judgments.

Impact of Noise. 'Noise' is insidious, causing even successful businesses to unknowingly lose money on marketing.