“Newsjacking: It relates to a news story that’s happening or very recently happened. It ties to a product you’re trying to sell.”

Brands #winning With Newsjacking. 

While cultural relevance and timeliness is typically desired by most brands, some have started taking it to the next level with “newsjacking.”

This article exemplifies what some brands have done to gain an immense amount of attention by being hyper-relevant and fearless enough to steal (or simply capitalize) the news’ own thunder.  

Everything you need to know about content marketing.     [tools / whitepapers / content / marketing]It’s true. Content marketing is a thing. You’re gonna keep hearing “stock & flow” in the marketing world. According to an Econsultancy survey in October of this year, 90% of marketers think that content marketing will become even more important over the next year, but only 38% said they have a content strategy in place. So what to do about it? That’s where I come in. I’ve put together a whitepaper on Content Marketing which dissects some of the trends behind the rise of content marketing, what makes a good content strategy and how to get things going for your brand. Go on & give it a read - I’d love to know what you think! High-res

Everything you need to know about content marketing.     
[tools / whitepapers / content / marketing]

It’s true. Content marketing is a thing. You’re gonna keep hearing “stock & flow” in the marketing world. According to an Econsultancy survey in October of this year, 90% of marketers think that content marketing will become even more important over the next year, but only 38% said they have a content strategy in place. So what to do about it? That’s where I come in. I’ve put together a whitepaper on Content Marketing which dissects some of the trends behind the rise of content marketing, what makes a good content strategy and how to get things going for your brand. Go on & give it a read - I’d love to know what you think!

How to make a viral hit in four easy steps.  This Slate.com story shows just how Buzzfeed conjures up their viral magic. As for how they do it? It’s pretty much what you would expect: they find content elsewhere. I’m all for remix culture and love the rabbit hole that is the internet, but when I read this article, it made me a bit sad & quite angry. I want to root for Buzzfeed, but I also want them to give some credit to the people who they’re copying. Especially since they’re making money off of other people’s ideas! As writer Farhad Manjoo summed up his article, “The secret to its viral success is to find stuff that’s already a minor viral success and make it better. Repeat the process enough and you’re bound to get a few mega-hits. That’s not genius. It’s a machine.” High-res

How to make a viral hit in four easy steps. 

This Slate.com story shows just how Buzzfeed conjures up their viral magic. As for how they do it? It’s pretty much what you would expect: they find content elsewhere. I’m all for remix culture and love the rabbit hole that is the internet, but when I read this article, it made me a bit sad & quite angry. I want to root for Buzzfeed, but I also want them to give some credit to the people who they’re copying. Especially since they’re making money off of other people’s ideas! As writer Farhad Manjoo summed up his article, “The secret to its viral success is to find stuff that’s already a minor viral success and make it better. Repeat the process enough and you’re bound to get a few mega-hits. That’s not genius. It’s a machine.”

We work. Almost every day. At least Monday-Friday. And work can be exhausting. And hectic. And even annoying. But then, sometimes, you work on a project that really gets you excited about what you do. That labor of love that reminds you why you work crazy hours, why you put in that extra 10%.

For me, that labor of love (well, part of it!) is finally public, as of today! So go ahead and check out these videos we made for Dentyne, showing how their Split2Fit pack fits just about anywhere - including this guy’s dong sarong. [Yep, a client-approved video with ‘dong sarong’ in it - How cool is that?!] Next week, we’ll be releasing some cheeky instructoart graphics that will show you how you can better fit in this summer. (Just in case you need some help!)

We’ll be releasing more videos (and more instructoart!) for the rest of the year, so if you find yourself running to the store to buy a banana hammock, give Dentyne a ‘like’ on Facebook or show some love on Twitter. Because you’re cool like that, right?!

Dentyne Split2Fit Shorts: Banana Hammock (by TheDentynegum)

Source youtube.com

(via The Atavist Matures as a Publisher and a Platform - NYTimes.com)The Atavist: Maturing as publisher and platform. I’ve been a big fan of The Atavist ever since I heard one of their founders speak at AdAge’s Creativity & Technology conference a few years ago. The premise is simple: long-form multimedia content. Sure, people talk about diminishing attention spans, but the founders of The Atavist recognized a simple human truth: If people stumble upon something interesting (yes, this assumes you’ve already found the content), they’ll read it. People’s attention spans have less to do with the length of content, but more to do with how interesting (or not) the content actually is. Now The Atavist has backers like Eric Schmidt (yes, the executive chair of Google) and is expanding into the publishing space. Get to know ‘em, I’m willing to bet you’ll be hearing more from them sooner rather than later. 

(via The Atavist Matures as a Publisher and a Platform - NYTimes.com)The Atavist: Maturing as publisher and platform.

I’ve been a big fan of The Atavist ever since I heard one of their founders speak at AdAge’s Creativity & Technology conference a few years ago. The premise is simple: long-form multimedia content. Sure, people talk about diminishing attention spans, but the founders of The Atavist recognized a simple human truth: If people stumble upon something interesting (yes, this assumes you’ve already found the content), they’ll read it. People’s attention spans have less to do with the length of content, but more to do with how interesting (or not) the content actually is. Now The Atavist has backers like Eric Schmidt (yes, the executive chair of Google) and is expanding into the publishing space. Get to know ‘em, I’m willing to bet you’ll be hearing more from them sooner rather than later. 

Source The New York Times

Why Context Is King in the Future of Digital Marketing


It’s not that content doesn’t matter, it’s just that context is equally if not more important. Think about how many roles you play in your life - Colleague, sister, daughter, soon-to-be-aunt, entertainment junkie could all describe me. But the things I’m interested in when I’m in soon-to-be-aunt mode (hello world of cute baby things!) doesn’t reflect what I consume on a day-to-day basis (advertising & tech articles.) An important reminder to think about and integrate context into your marketing strategies.