The Web is the new Wild West — lawless, full of overly eager trespassers and hyped to a point of absurdity. Yet, there is always the potential for human empowerment and business growth waiting patiently around the digital corner. To cut back on the lawless and overly eager part, millions of people are increasingly turning to private Slack Channels and closed Facebook Groups. How many do you belong to and …
Dear Advertising Professional: Don’t Become Toast
There are few ad blogs left standing today. Most of them are toast. One ad blog that curious minds like to visit is The Agency Review by Martin Bihl, a site full of excellent book reviews and more. I was reading Bihl's interview with Luke Sullivan, a.k.a. Saint Luke and this one passage stood out, among many fine passages. Here’s the thing about our business. Unlike other industries like, say, grocery stores or …
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Dial Up Some White Castle Chicken Rings Before They’re G-O-N-E
Columbus, Ohio-based fast-food restaurant chain White Castle has always had avid fans—the kind who would spend 45 minutes watching a Facebook Live stream about chicken rings. https://youtu.be/TsXtSGzq_ls If you didn't make it all the way through the above, watch this condensed version of the mocvertisement: https://youtu.be/gJWlv1aCvhw According to Ad Age, hosts Heather and Janelle responded in real-time …
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Smarten Up; Facebook and Your Mobile Phone Make You Dumb
Sean Parker, Facebook's first President, gave an interesting talk recently, where he reveals the thinking behind the machine. https://youtu.be/WIfrMwql6Fo The problem the Facebookers sought to solve: How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible? The "solution" they ended up inventing: "It's a social-validation feedback loop ... exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself …
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We Have A Big Fat Platform Problem
Fake news is such an innocent term. The fact that the term masks what it really is—propaganda meant to weaken real news—gets lost in the equation. Nevertheless, what does "fake news" actually look like? It looks like this: https://youtu.be/xIJVoumWYtQ Sadly, fake news, a.k.a. propaganda is not innocent, nor does it exist in a bubble. According to Bloomberg, Russian meddling is far from the only social …
Want To Stretch Your Creative Muscles? Leave Your Corner Office Behind.
Oxford-educated, Lucy Jameson, recently stepped down as chief executive officer of Grey London. The Drum asked her about her adult gap year and her "expert internship" at Facebook. I found it fascinating to observe the difference between how people react to you when they think you’re just a random intern vs when they know you’re CEO of a 500 person company. You can get a far better feel for what’s really going …
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Ask And You Shall Receive A Thoughtful Answer
Russian hackers are now meddling in the French election. French newspaper, Libération, is fighting back with a search engine staffed by real-life journalists. https://youtu.be/HPQGV58LWUw Libération with the help of J. Walter Thompson/Paris came up with the anti-hoax service CheckNews.fr, a search engine trading cold algorithms for journalists for three days before the French elections. In related news, …
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Does Your Facebook Group Encourage And Support Real Life Interactions?
The platform that creates the stickiest bonds between users wins. Facebook wants to win. In this piece for Facebook Groups, the human bonds formed at Donda’s House – the non profit inspired by Kanye West’s mother, Donda West, are featured. Facebook tapped Persuade director Michael Marantz to help tell a story about an incredible group of students, who, despite their challenging youth in Southside Chicago, …
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