It’s a marketer’s dream: Hosting a sold-out event for 10k attendees. That brands are begging to be a part of. Oh, and that was headlined this year by none other than Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, and Jennifer Hudson. That’s Shareese Bembury-Coakley’s reality as one of the driving forces behind CultureCon, the world’s largest festival…

Something’s been throwing marketers for a loop lately. (Eye-roll level pun very much intended.) Instead of turning to Google for the answers to all their curiosities and questions, consumers are increasingly watching YouTube reviews, asking ChatGPT for recommendations, scrolling through social feeds, and messaging influencers instead. Meanwhile, AI search engines are serving up “summarized” direct…

Every January, I sit down to write my predictions for the year ahead in social media and consumer behavior. And this year, one trend stood out to me more than anything else: the rise of customers as influencers. In the past 18 months, we’ve seen people boycotting brands, blocking campaigns, and becoming much more marketing…

A problem without a solution isn’t a problem, it’s a situation we have to live with. But most existing problems do have solutions. We just don’t like that solution. The solution might be challenging, or feel risky, or lead to an outcome we’re not happy about. It’s tempting to announce that this means the problem…

When B2B SaaS companies decide to migrate from legacy CRM systems, one of their biggest concerns isn‘t just moving data—it’s ensuring their existing marketing automation workflows continue running without interruption. A single gap in automated nurture sequences or lead scoring can mean lost opportunities and confused prospects, and who wants that? The stakes are high:…

AI usage is on the rise, especially in marketing. Data from HubSpot’s AI Trends in Marketing report showed that 74% of marketing professionals use AI for their work. With so many marketers using AI, it is important to acknowledge and solve for its known limitations, particularly the biases that are baked into it. As an…

Email marketing analytics have evolved far beyond open rates and click-throughs. Today’s AI-powered analytics can predict which subscribers are most likely to convert, optimize send times for maximum engagement, and track every dollar of revenue back to specific campaigns. The difference between good and great email marketing often comes down to which metrics you track…

It doesn’t happen all at once. And it doesn’t work suddenly. A home pressure cooker doesn’t use more electricity than a hot pot. And it isn’t as fast as a microwave. Instead, it builds up over time, producing results with a surprisingly small amount of effort. We’re impatient, and so we don’t consistently apply pressure…

We talk about networks but we are rarely clear about what we mean. A specific sort of network is the grid, and even that idea is complicated by two competing meanings. There’s the benign and powerful grid of peer-to-peer connection. Culture is built on this grid. This is friends, neighbors, co-workers and people who find…

It’s easy to come to the conclusion that people with means and high cultural status choose things that are better. Organic vegetables instead of junk food. But there’s a long history of traditionally high-status cultural roles embracing demonstrably un-good choices. Things like bound feet, fox hunting, absinthe or cruise ships. It’s hard to acknowledge that…