B+LOG
Super Bowl LII: Will Ads Overshadow Game?
Ah, the Dog Days of Winter. Christmas and New Years are long gone, spring is several months away and there’s another snow storm coming next week. Yippee! Fortunately, there is one interesting thing on the horizon: the Super Bowl. Unlike almost any other sports event—save the Olympics—the annual NFL championship draws interest from all segments…
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Screen Cutting In A Connected World
I read the headline “Here’s What Happened When I Gave Up My Phone for the Week,” and immediately let out an audible groan. Having read several articles in the same vein, I expected another rant about how technology (primarily the smartphone) was ruining humankind. But, I read on. Refreshingly, this tech writer put down his…
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The Twitter Gift You Never Knew You Wanted #280
Most of you have heard the news by now. Twitter officially rolled out a new 280 character limit this past month and the internet was abuzz, wondering what this means for bloggers and brands alike. Many went out of their way to write up ridiculous tweets, most throwing in more than a *few* emojis, before…
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Apple’s iPhone X syncs with Digital Influencers
I didn’t camp out for the new iPhone X, but I was first in line to explore their product rollout strategy. Apple tapped into digital influencers for the iPhone X announcement. What might seem like simple strategy on the surface, actually shook the tech and marketing spaces as Apple may have strategically lost a few…
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Now Trending: Kid Influencers on YouTube
The days of watching cartoons on TV after school and being excited about a $10 weekly allowance are over – well, at least for some kids these days. Youngsters are increasingly trading in Disney Channel and Nickelodeon for Youtube. A select few are capitalizing on this trend by swapping out their traditional “kid” lifestyle for…
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Taco Bell: Going Healthy, Staying Real
I’ve always had a guilty, secret thing for Taco Bell … and now it is following me to work. In the past week, I came across two completely unexpected news items about Taco Bell and, in the process, gained a newfound respect for a company that manages to be relentlessly innovative yet never gets pulled…
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Butterfinger Batters Bears on Thursday Night Twitter
The Chicago Bears’ 35-14 trouncing by the Packers wasn’t their only embarrassing, real-time loss on a national media outlet last Thursday. They were also manhandled on Twitter … by the Butterfinger candy brand. The action began in the first quarter, when Bears quarterback Mike Glennon lost a snap off his knee for a fumble that…
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Disney/Netflix: The sky is falling! Or not.
Disney’s recent decision to leave Netflix and start its own streaming services sent shockwaves from Madison Avenue to Main Street. Like the Disney character Chicken Little, people nationwide wondered aloud if the sky was falling. Not only did the split mean the undoing of one of the entertainment industry’s most powerful alliances, it underscored the…
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No, Influencers are Not Ad Buys
If you are even slightly involved in advertising or PR, you’ve probably heard the term “influencer marketing.” From fashion to fitness, these digital mavens have established themselves as worthwhile, non-traditional media outlets for brands to leverage. It may come as a surprise then to hear that they should not be classified as ad buys. With…
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Micro Data, Macro Strategies: MMS ‘17 Highlights
Now in its sixth year, the Modern Marketing Summit (MMS) in Chicago has grown into a globally significant showcase of the latest marketing trends. This year’s conference had a heavy focus on the future of artificial intelligence, but also provided great insights to more applicable, data-driven strategies for agencies to implement. One of the sessions,…
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