Know What's Happening in Marketing
Know What's Happening in Marketing
PopSockets turns phone backs into a $169M revenue stream
The company evolved from a garage prototype in 2011 into a global brand that monetized the unused back of smartphones. By 2017, PopSockets posted $169 million in revenue, driven by a simple grip that became a daily habit and sparked word‑of‑mouth growth and celebrity visibility.
Huckberry’s newsletter, launched 15 years ago, includes external links to curated stories, defying the e‑commerce rule against outbound links. The brand treats customers as community members, offering entertainment, education, and connections beyond its product line. This content‑first approach yields customers with a lifetime value 3.5 times higher than those acquired via ads. The strategy demonstrates that long‑term community investment can drive greater profitability than short‑term acquisition tactics.
Brand management has become a core business discipline, turning reputation into measurable assets like brand equity that justify premium pricing and protect market share. Consistent visual identity, tone, and customer experience reinforce trust and align internal teams around a clear...
RAD Intel, an AI‑driven marketing platform, closed a $60 million Reg A+ raise, posted more than 5,000% valuation growth in under four years, and secured the Nasdaq ticker $RADI. The funding and listing move underscores the accelerating demand for AI tools that...
The market feels the messiness of brand growth before you even realize what’s happening. Death by a thousand cuts, if you will. 🫢 When this happens, when growth stalls (or things start to feel confusing) as your fractional CMO, this is what...
AI made content cheap. So founders did what made sense: they produced as much as possible. 500 articles. 1,000 articles. Pump the numbers. Numbers went up, then went all the way down. The problem wasn't using AI. The problem was using AI without strategy.
Retail marketers are facing backlash as AI‑generated ad “slop” erodes brand trust. Recent incidents like Blue Apron’s gibberish copy highlight consumer rejection of low‑quality automated content, now dubbed Merriam‑Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year. While platforms such as Meta and...
MyBroadband’s "What’s Next with Aki Anastasiou" offers South African executives a 30‑minute video‑podcast interview to share their company story, solutions, and growth insights. The episode is published on MyBroadband’s site and syndicated across YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Soundcloud and more....
Connected TV (CTV) ad spend in the U.S. is set to near $38 bn this year, cementing its role as a core media channel. However, the rapid expansion of premium SVOD, FAST channels, and OEM interfaces has fragmented the supply, making...
British Airways unveiled “An Original British Briefing,” a surreal safety‑video‑style campaign that reimagines the pre‑flight briefing as a guide out of everyday stress. Directed by Jeff Low, the film places flight attendants in mundane settings—traffic jams, dentist chairs, chaotic homes—to...
Cyprus‑based retail broker HFM has secured a multi‑year Official Global Partnership with Premier League leaders Arsenal. The deal grants HFM match‑day branding at Emirates Stadium and visibility across Arsenal’s digital channels, including the new *The Arsenal* platform. HFM, rebranded from...
🤯 Built a product funnel in under 45 mins 🔥 AI researched the audience 🛠️ Landing page and ad copy done 🤵 Email follow-up sequence set 📦 Entire funnel live This is crushing $10k funnel builders Want the blueprint? RT + comment 'FUNNEL AI'
MarketsandMarkets projects the influencer marketing platform market to grow from $1.15 billion in 2026 to $2.03 billion by 2031, reflecting a 12% compound annual growth rate. The expansion is driven by brands’ push for data‑backed, transparent campaigns and the need for faster...
This week’s ad roundup highlights a wave of self‑aware campaigns, from Burger King’s decision to retire its iconic King mascot and crown the consumer, to Uber’s meta “Irish exit” spot featuring reality‑TV star Maura Higgins. Brands such as Ugg, JCPenney,...
Quicken, a financial‑planning software firm, discovered its strong SEO presence did not automatically translate into visibility within AI‑driven answer engines. After lagging behind a smaller competitor in generative search, CMO Euan Campbell launched a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategy. The...
dentsu X unveiled The Creator Catalyst, a playbook that transforms fragmented creator activity into a systematic growth engine for brands. The framework, built for the Algorithmic Era, combines AI‑driven casting, early‑stage cultural integration, and commerce‑focused measurement to deliver scalable, measurable...
New York Festivals (NYF) has unveiled its 2026 Creative Marketing Strategy & Effectiveness Executive Jury, chaired by Ellie Bamford, Chief Strategy Officer at VML. The global panel of chief strategists from agencies such as Ogilvy, Dentsu, BBDO and others will...
Researchers leveraged Meta's 14.5 million‑user no‑ads holdout to test whether Facebook users care about advertising. In a 2022 survey of 53,166 participants from 13 countries, the median amount users would accept to quit the platform was $31.04 for ad‑exposed users and...
The post breaks down how viral products are engineered, not accidental, by aligning product design, distribution tactics, and retention systems. It highlights that visually distinctive, simple, emotionally resonant products naturally fit social media content. Strategic exposure through creator collaborations and...
Instagram’s algorithm now prioritizes comment velocity over likes, saves or views when deciding which posts to amplify. Early‑hour comments act as a quality signal, prompting the platform to test the content with larger audiences. Creators can deliberately trigger this loop...
America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) has launched direct and programmatic buying for its free ad‑supported FAST channels, allowing advertisers to purchase inventory as a standalone product rather than through genre bundles. The move follows a 30% year‑over‑year rise in streaming audiences...
Sukoshi, a Canadian‑born Asian beauty retailer, has expanded from a 355 sq ft Toronto shop in 2018 to a 20‑store chain across the US and Canada. The company differentiates itself by acting as a launch and acceleration platform for emerging Asian brands,...
Kao Corporation is launching its Bioré skincare line in South Korea as part of its Global Sharp Top strategy, expanding the brand’s presence beyond the 66 countries where it already operates. The rollout includes a unified global campaign for Bioré UV...
Sunquick has teamed up with Havas Malaysia to launch a Ramadan and Hari Raya campaign built around the Malay concept of “air tangan mak”, the mother’s caring touch. The film showcases Sunquick as both a refreshing drink and an ingredient...
Zara has launched a two‑year creative partnership with John Galliano to reinterpret its archive, marking a deliberate push upmarket. The collaboration is positioned as a branding exercise as much as a product line, aiming to infuse luxury credibility into the...
Google Ads now comprises nine distinct ad formats, each designed for specific user intents and placements across Google’s ecosystem. Search ads deliver text‑based results driven by keyword intent, while Display, Shopping, Video, App, Discovery, Local Services, Performance Max, and Smart...
In a recent episode of Making Sense of Martech, Optus’s Associate Director of Personalization and Martech, Eloise Gillespie, explains how AI‑driven personalization can scale only when the underlying infrastructure aligns with real‑world business constraints. She details the shift from treating...
Malaysian dairy giant Lactalis Trading has teamed with advertising agency THE SHOUT GROUP to launch the “QBB – Pilihan Dipercayai Sepanjang Generasi” Hari Raya campaign, spotlighting QBB Pure Ghee’s heritage. The initiative centers on a “Cook with QBB” contest, offering...
Levi’s has entered a multi‑year global partnership with K‑pop star ROSÉ, integrating her aesthetic into the denim brand’s women’s line. The deal builds on previous collaborations, including campaigns with Alia Bhatt and Beyoncé, and features custom stage outfits displayed at Levi’s...
Malaysia’s Naga DDB Tribal agency launched “Sampul Dodol,” a handcrafted Raya gift that replaces generic envelopes with traditional dodol confectionery. The initiative frames the labor‑intensive sweet as a metaphor for nurturing client relationships, emphasizing care, attention, and shared effort. By...
Pepsi MAX announced the launch of Pepsi Football Nation, a global platform that celebrates football culture and fan expression. The initiative highlights a roster of star players—including Vinícius Júnior, Alexia Putellas, David Beckham, Florian Wirtz and Lauren James—while blending digital, social and on‑pack activations. It leverages...
On 1 April 2026, Quantcast and B&T will host a Breakfast Club event in Sydney to confront the pervasive “optimisation fatigue” marketers face. The panel features Chloe Jones of Princess Cruises, Gemma Poesaste from Telstra’s Roam Agency, Dan Lee of Quantcast, and...
AI and automation are driving down the cost of media execution, exposing a mismatch in traditional agency billing that bundles strategic thinking with operational work. The article argues for separating these functions: pricing execution on measurable outputs while charging a...
Posca Hydrate, an Australian hydration‑soda startup, has been named Official Drinks Partner of Wheelchair Rugby Australia and the Australian Steelers, joining the ‘Officially Unsponsored’ campaign that strips kits of branding in favor of QR‑coded blank canvases. The partnership includes hand‑delivered...
TikTok is extending its #BookTok bestseller rankings to six additional European markets, including Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. The new lists will combine TikTok’s engagement data with NielsenIQ BookData sales figures to produce monthly trend reports. The...
Amazon Australia has named NFL Super Bowl champion Jordan Mailata as its Packaging Reduction Officer in a new sustainability campaign with Poem. The role focuses on minimizing added packaging while protecting items, building on a tripling of orders shipped without...
Pinterest has released new guidance for its AI‑driven Performance+ campaigns, which automate creative, targeting and budgeting. Launched in October 2024, the fully automated solution leverages Pinterest’s engagement data to optimize ad delivery. Internal tests show advertisers achieve more than 10%...
I built a skill for Claude Code that creates competitor comparison and alternative pages that rank in search and convert visitors. You give it a competitor name and it builds the full page — "Best [Competitor] Alternatives" with a feature comparison...
Brisbane’s tourism board has launched the third phase of its "Brisbane Favours the Bold" campaign, created with Bigfish Design, Content Lion and dentsu Queensland. From January to September 2025 the city attracted 7.1 million domestic travellers and generated $9.9 billion in visitor...
Vodafone unveiled its new experiential platform, “First Night Only,” in partnership with Howatson+Company, turning the Samsung Galaxy S26 launch into an underground live show featuring Genesis Owusu in Sydney. The event highlighted the phone’s 200MP camera with bespoke lighting and...
Social media has become the primary growth engine for U.S. small businesses, with 96% leveraging platforms to drive brand awareness and sales. The same algorithmic distribution that powers multi‑million‑dollar budgets is available to solo founders, making content performance the true...
LiveRamp and Chalice AI have formed a strategic partnership that embeds Chalice’s Growth Scored Audiences directly into LiveRamp’s data collaboration ecosystem. The offering assigns a predictive growth score to every U.S. household, reflecting its likely impact on a brand’s specific...
Boss Up Taxes, a Houston‑based tax‑preparation outlet, has exploded on TikTok, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers and generating a surge in client appointments ahead of the April 15 deadline. The firm’s bold, meme‑style videos contrast sharply with the traditionally...
Elite Island Resorts has unveiled “A Love Letter To Antigua,” a multi‑component campaign designed to equip travel advisors with ready‑made itineraries, an interactive 360° map, and a summer promotion offering a free fifth night at The Verandah Antigua. The initiative...
Most organizations tap only 57% of their primary martech platform’s capabilities, leaving nearly half of their investment idle. The shortfall is attributed to strategic misalignment rather than technology limitations. Platforms like Adobe Experience Cloud offer real‑time AI‑driven personalization, yet many...
I continue to see major differences between AEO and traditional SEO. Here's a perfect example of something that just happened: One of my companies launched a hyper-targeted "Best of" post for our niche. Within 48 HOURS, a large franchise found...
The $500K-$1M range is where most brands stall out. Too big to keep running on gut calls. Too small to justify a $15K/month retainer. Every dollar has to work and you don't have the infrastructure to know if it is. That's the...
You don’t need weekend plans. You NEED to: • Launch net-new creative concepts (not iterations) • Pull your 7-day ncROAS, not blended • Spend 7-10x AOV before killing a creative • Move losing ads into a Zombies campaign • Audit your creative angles, not just...
I had Codex build the content accordion from the cautionary tale "don't build the content accordion" inspired by X's new feature which uses AI to summarize X articles written with AI. It takes an X article, summarizes it in a tweet,...
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