YE OLDE CONTENT
Facebook’s Deflating Brand
Yesterday, your company lost more value than the annual budgets of 200 nations. Your user growth has flattened, and younger demographics are turning to other platforms to share the stories of their lives. The overwhelming public opinion blames you for allowing Russian...
Twitter’s Toxicity Problem
Last week, New York Times White House Correspondent, Maggie Haberman, announced she was stepping back from Twitter after nine years and 187,000 tweets, saying "the medium has changed." She, of course, announced this on Twitter, which linked back to a longer article...
Six Lessons Learned Since Unveiling My Rebrand
You've put in countless hours of self-reflection and research to refine your personal brand. Weeks of back and forth over the psychology of colors and obsessing over the copy. You've kept the Stuart Smalley voices in your head at bay long enough to work through the...
Is Influencer Marketing Ethical?
My start in the world of storytelling and marketing came from the rough and tumble world of political campaigns for which I produced TV ads, websites, and direct mail. The First Amendment allows for a wide latitude about what you can say about a candidate for office...
Throwing Away Your Brand Equity
Toyota set the mark for the hybrid car with its Prius model in 1997. In the intervening two decades, it has been the car to drive to show the world you take a personal role in combatting climate change, hate oil companies, or are budget conscious about the amount of...
One-Name Famous
Forty-five years ago, tennis superstar Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes and immediately crossed over the cultural rubicon to become a first name only female icon. In the intervening years, there have been about a dozen women who've reached...
Branching Off Brand
I was on a client call yesterday working through the addition of a new product line with a goal of opening up new markets for the company when I stopped the conversation. Since I exclusively work with clients who value give-and-take, I interrupted to make a point....
Brand v. Supreme Court
On Monday, President Trump is going to nominate his second Supreme Court justice. Whether it is this justice or their Plan B, the U.S. Senate will, this summer, be confirming that person for a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court. Regardless if it's Plan...
Red, White and Brand
What homonym in the English language turns Americans red, white and blue? Freedom. There's been an encyclopedia of articles written on how Americans are self-segregating themselves into tribes based on values, personality types, political affiliations and so on. Since...
The Story of Comedy
Comedy is largely a confessional sport in which comedians (and comediennes) mine the depths of their experiences to create a link with the audience. Like a boxer, a comedian (or comedienne) has a one-two punch--setup and punchline-- and only the best can take a joke...