Analyze the competitive landscape by listing all the alternatives customers might choose instead of your brand, including direct and indirect competitors. Next, identify the key attributes competitors use to attract customers, such as price, service, or convenience. Then, compare competitors on these factors to identify gaps in the market. Find opportunities for differentiation that align with your brand's strengths. Enterprise applied this approach by recognizing an unmet need for convenient city-center car rentals, then maintaining its strategy over a long period of time to dominate the market.
CMOs should lead AI strategy due to their deep connection to the customer journey. With AI's primary focus on enhancing customer experiences, 80% of AI projects fail when treated as tech experiments rather than customer-driven solutions. CMOs, with their expertise in customer insights, are better equipped to align AI with business goals. Key tactics include educating teams on AI fundamentals, collaborating with CTOs, and developing a customer-centric AI roadmap.
Predictions for 2025 include Google leveraging AI to transform search with multilingual and multimedia capabilities. TikTok's U.S. exit will likely shift market power to Meta and YouTube, while antitrust actions may reshape Google's dominance. SEO demand is expected to outpace supply, driving higher rates.
Brand marketing is a natural and easy pivot for social media professionals seeking other roles.
A gallery of creative SMS campaigns from brands like New Era, LASHIFY, and Moonbrew.
While ChatGPT Search offered streamlined, ad-free results and nuanced query understanding, it lacked depth for discovery-driven tasks and access to raw data.
Many brands stumbled this year by trying to be bold without understanding their audiences. Jaguar's rebrand drew criticism for ignoring its heritage, while Bumble's edgy campaign sparked backlash and led to an apology and retraction. Apple and Coca-Cola faced pushback for ads involving creative destruction and AI use.
47% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials plan to self-gift this holiday season, a trend that grew during BFCM. With higher incomes and fewer financial responsibilities, they're spending on clothing, health products, and experiences. Influencer marketing on platforms like TikTok drives personalized wish lists, while retailers like Oura Ring cater to the demand for self-care.
Humans are unreliable at predicting future behavior, making questions like "Would you use this?" less effective in customer interviews. Effective discovery focuses on understanding the current struggles and actions of actual buyers, not just those who match an ideal customer profile. Talking to people already in the buying journey also yields the most actionable insights.
Micro-interactions, such as TurboTax's motivational prompts or ClickUp's hover effects, guide users smoothly through tasks while minimizing frustration and errors. These small, purposeful design features enhance engagement, provide clear feedback, and infuse brand personality without overwhelming users.
A 40 second video on how to use Kling.ai to create an instant 360° product showcase.
A free marketing resource designed by Sean Choi to give back time for more impactful campaigns, activation, and content planning. It contains important dates for 2025 events, holidays, and observances. It also has top Twitter and Google Trends data from this year all in one sheet.
Every filter combination in faceted navigation creates a unique URL, leading to issues like duplicate content and wasted crawl budget. Addressing these challenges with canonical tags, robots.txt rules, and optimized sitemaps helps search engines to focus on high-value pages. When done right, faceted navigation improves both user experience and organic search rankings.
Many viral meme pages are sophisticated marketing tools for brands. For example, 1up drives 90% of its sales pipeline via a meme page called "Crushing Quota." Meme marketing is effective, cheap, and high-leverage. It focuses on niche problems and inside jokes relevant to the target audience.
Many holiday traditions, like Santa Claus and candy canes, originated from marketing campaigns in the 19th and 20th centuries. Coca-Cola's 1930s Santa ads standardized the modern image of Santa, while Hallmark popularized mass-produced Christmas cards in the early 20th century. Candy canes and Hershey's Kisses became holiday staples through clever advertising, and Starbucks' red holiday cup, introduced in 1997, now signals the start of the season. These campaigns shaped cultural celebrations, embedding brands into holiday rituals.
A list of emails from brands that contain witty copy, purposeful animation, and clever personalized content.
The 3 types of tags include cross-domain, single-domain, and self-referencing.
This piece clarifies the necessity of Growth teams by distinguishing between growth marketing and growth product.
Consistent SEO success requires weekly strategy meetings, SME collaboration, optimized UX, and regular reporting.
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Instagram will account for over half of Meta's U.S. advertising revenue in 2024 as it improves monetization, particularly through Reels. Users now spend about two-thirds of their time on Instagram watching videos, making Reels a key competitor to TikTok and YouTube Shorts. If a TikTok ban occurs, Instagram could capture over 20% of reallocated U.S. TikTok ad dollars. By 2025, Instagram Explore, Reels, and Threads are projected to contribute 9.6% of its ad revenue, up from their current share.
The NFL partnered with Betches Media to attract more millennial and Gen Z women fans, with content launching at the 2025 Pro Bowl Games. Women made up nearly half of the 2024 Super Bowl's viewers - a record increase in female viewership. TV ads during women's sports saw double-digit effectiveness gains from 2022 to 2023, and the WNBA Finals had its highest viewership in 25 years at 3.3 million. The NFL partnership aligns with growing marketer interest in women's sports as a key advertising channel.
Webinars can be repurposed into blog posts, social media clips, or carousels featuring quotes and stats. They can also become audiograms for quick engagement, eBooks for lead generation, or email drip campaigns for follow-up outreach. Additionally, stripping and refining the audio can turn them into podcast episodes for broader audience reach.
WMATA achieved a 347% year-over-year increase in Instagram engagement by embracing platform-specific strategies like trend-driven content. A standout post using a viral song garnered over 4.7 million views, proving the effectiveness of engaging, relatable messaging. This shift reflects how a tailored social media approach can transform public perception and engagement.
About half of consumers are slow decision-makers, requiring more time to evaluate purchases. A well-structured anticipation marketing strategy accommodates this by building trust, addressing concerns, and guiding prospects through a thoughtful pre-launch process. The result is increased sales, fewer sales calls, and more engaged buyers.
The a16z consumer team compiled a selection of top AI tools for the year, contributed by early adopters like Lenny Rachitsky, Aravind Srinivas, and Gary Tan. Interactive ornaments and presents on the page reveal these featured tools.
25 top-performing video ads on YouTube from brands like Volvo, Doritos, The North Face, and Nike.
London's holiday light displays on Bond Street blend public art with commercial strategy. Immersive and Instagram-friendly installations by brands like Cartier and Chanel draw global tourists and shoppers. These spectacles evoke joy and nostalgia while commodifying community spirit, turning public spaces into branded "simulated commons." Amplified by social media, the displays drive foot traffic and store conversions. The piece questions how this mix of sensory experiences, marketing, and competition will shape the future of festive displays.
Fishwife uses premium packaging and branding to elevate a low-cost category like canned fish, charging $45 for 3 tins of sardines. This strategy, common in categories like candles and chocolate, creates value in social contexts, where presentation matters more than commodity pricing. Fancy packaging transforms products into desirable gifts or status symbols, attracting new customers and justifying higher margins. Entrepreneurs and brand managers are advised to prioritize standout packaging for products with gifting potential, even in traditionally overlooked categories.
2024.12.20·embeddedbrandstrategy.substack.com·2 min read·TLDR Marketing YouTube and TikTok are emphasizing "viewer satisfaction" metrics, combining session time and engagement to counteract "brain rot." This shift pushes brands to create episodic and meaningful content that retains viewers while improving brand perception. The trend signals a redefinition of success in branded content strategies.
A quick case study on redesigning top-of-funnel product landing pages.
Subject lines, from books to emails, have long guided human attention, but AI may shift control of these "handles" to systems that create their own labels.
Regularly analyze your deliverability, clean your list monthly or quarterly, and auto-regulate your email health metrics by playing with campaign targeting.
Verbose language is making a comeback. Words like "lugubriousness" and "capacious" are gaining popularity. Group chat slang is also on the rise. Terms like "gm chat" and "hey chat" are defining how Gen Z communicates. Millennial slang is fading. Searches for terms like "ijbol" and "aura" are growing. Viral animal influencers are taking over. A smoking duck and a dancing raccoon are leading the way. Nostalgia for the early 2000s is strong, with people searching for "digital camera" and "hopecore."
Temu, owned by PPD Holdings, is the most downloaded app in the US App Store due to aggressive pricing and ad spending, including $2 billion on Meta ads in 2023. Despite losing $7 per order and 94% of surveyed users not trusting it, Temu continues to grow, leading app rankings in markets like the US, UK, Germany, and Spain. It has faced criticism, including allegations of forced labor and data mishandling, but its heavy promotions, such as $15 million in giveaways, sustain its rise. Temu's performance in the US serves as a testing ground for refining its strategy.
Performance marketing metrics like ROAS are facing criticism for overstated effectiveness, according to CMOs. Outdated influencer strategies and inauthentic celebrity endorsements were also mentioned as failing to build audience trust. Lastly, AI-generated creative and identity-based ad tech were also flagged as overhyped trends in 2024.
70% of B2B startups struggle with clear differentiation in competitive markets. This article outlines a framework that focuses on selecting a competitive alternative and defining distinct differentiation, such as binary or degree-based approaches. Real-world examples include Slack replacing email and DuckDuckGo prioritizing privacy over data tracking.
Research shows that faster-than-expected deliveries in ecommerce increase product returns. For every day a delivery arrives early, return rates rise by 3.8%, with new customers seeing a 4.26% increase per early day. High-priced items are more likely to be returned, while popular ones are less affected. The effect stems from cognitive dissonance; rapid deliveries leave buyers doubting their decisions. To reduce returns, retailers should provide accurate delivery windows, offer slower shipping options, and send post-purchase communications emphasizing product benefits.
SummarAIze repurposes content from audio and video into shareable social posts, email content, quotes, and more. It supports formats like MP3, MP4, and YouTube links.
To use AI effectively, there are 3 key principles that distinguish strategic use from mere experimentation. First, skill is essential - different AI models should be orchestrated for specific tasks, much like a conductor leads an orchestra. Second, AI's true value comes from asking the right questions, not just finding answers. Lastly, AI should be applied to complex areas like segmentation, targeting, and positioning, where it can deliver the most impactful results.
Social media is expected to see a shift toward episodic, mid-form storytelling, interactive content, and the standardization of in-house content creators. TikTok's future remains uncertain, but its potential ban could lead to TikTokers transitioning to YouTube. Instagram and YouTube Shorts are poised for growth, with LinkedIn evolving into a more casual and interactive space. There's a rising focus on creative consistency and SEO-rich captions, while brands risk over-prioritizing Gen Z and neglecting Millennials. Employee-generated content and ghostwritten personal brands are likely to flop, but executive branding will thrive, especially among underrepresented leaders.
Cutting advertising budgets can have long-term impacts, with one retailer losing two-thirds of its revenue and 43% of holiday sales. OptiMine's research shows that reducing spend damages brand awareness, making it harder and costlier to regain customer trust. Longer-term channels like TV and radio often face cuts despite their critical role in driving top of the funnel volume.
Reddit boasts over 100,000 subreddits, offering marketers unmatched audience targeting opportunities. Its unique culture rewards authenticity, with 90% of users trusting the platform for learning about brands and products. Brands like Semrush and Chevrolet successfully leveraged Reddit's niche communities to drive engagement and awareness, while others like EA Games have failed and attracted criticism.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on January 10 over TikTok's appeal against a federal law requiring ByteDance to divest or face a ban by January 19.
Examples include ebooks, on-demand education sessions, and long-form audio content.
5 content-related questions to ask in an interview and the ideal employer responses to look out for.
Streaming now commands 41.6% of TV viewership, with YouTube alone capturing 10.8%, surpassing Netflix's 7.7% share. This shift highlights YouTube's growing role in connected TV, fundamentally reshaping ad budgets, consumer habits, and content production. That said, challenges in measurement, perception, and budget allocation continue to complicate YouTube's position in the traditional TV market.
Pinterest searches for “shopping wish list” are up 950% YoY. Holiday wishlists are becoming a practical solution to reduce waste and stress during gift-giving. Gen Z has embraced sharing detailed lists through platforms like Giftful and Canva, normalizing the trend. Studies show recipients prefer requested gifts, while givers want to give something that makes them feel thoughtful.
Super Mario's game design teaches four key product onboarding principles: deliver an early win, teach by doing, gradually increase difficulty, and guide users through stages. These tactics help users progress naturally while staying engaged with the product.
Three social media mistakes are asking for reshares, not testing content variations, and creating content for peers instead of your audience. Instead of reshares, focus on likes and comments to boost engagement. Since only a small percentage of your audience sees each post - about 20% on Instagram - refine and repost content to increase reach. Lastly, prioritize your audience's needs through keyword research, social listening, and audience analysis, rather than catering to peers.