Brand investment is regaining importance as AI-native companies shift focus from pure demand generation to building strong identities that differentiate them in crowded markets. Firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Lovable emphasize brand, communications, and community over heavily paid campaigns, using mission, voice, and customer experience as growth drivers. Lovable's growth highlights how brand identity and experience can accelerate demand, with customers and influencers drawn to its approachable and human positioning. For CMOs, the challenge now is balancing demand with brand, as companies that lean only on demand risk blending into the noise, while the strongest growth comes from orchestrating both.
Companies rooted in digital products are turning to physical publishing to create permanence, scarcity, and cultural weight. 37signals used books like Rework to turn company philosophies into both profit and marketing, generating customers and employees aligned with its values. Google launched Chrome with a printed comic that made the abstract browser feel tangible and collectible. Airbnb created Airbnbmag to position itself as a lifestyle brand, Stripe built Stripe Press to associate itself with intellectual authority, and Midjourney launched a magazine to give AI art legitimacy and scarcity. This strategy transforms digital brands into institutions with influence that extends beyond software.
A ranked list of the top gen AI web products and mobile apps people are using.
Show discount codes immediately on pop-up success pages and then include them in follow-up emails.
Sponsored
Sprout Social's new research [5] surveyed 1,200+ marketing directors and CMOs. Turns out, confidence in social media is high... but trust in ROI models is low. For SMMs, that means more pressure to tie strategy to outcomes.
AI tool adoption in the US is slowing, while traditional search remains dominant. Over 20% of Americans now use AI tools 10 or more times per month, up from 3% in early 2023. Despite this, 95% of Americans continue to use traditional search engines, with 86% as heavy users, indicating that AI complements rather than replaces search.
The Food & Beverage category on YouTube is the platform's fourth-largest, with 5.9 trillion views and 6.7 million channels. It's driven 99% by creators. Short-form and humorous content dominates, with top creators and fast-growing channels seeing view increases up to 14,000% YoY. Successful brands combine paid and organic support. They also partner with creators and adopt Shorts and quick-cut styles.
2025.08.28·11326.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net·12 min read·TLDR Marketing Somerce manages creator communities as long-term partners rather than one-off promotional channels. For each client, Somerce runs a dedicated creator network, gifting samples and incentivizing participation through cash rewards, product perks, and competitions. This model has driven strong results in beauty, such as Glow For It's 1,200-creator community with 800 actively posting. Operating on low retainers with performance-based commissions, Somerce combines paid top influencers for reach with smaller creators for scalable content and sales.
A heatmap of a high-traffic product page showed that many users clicked on the Product Specification section, even though it was hidden in an accordion. The client's original page kept this section closed by default, but a test variation opened it automatically. This small change led to a 12% increase in transactions. The result shows how analyzing user behavior and making simple adjustments can produce significant gains.
Instead of sending routine post-meeting emails that get ignored, turn meeting notes into a 30-sec AI-generated video. Include slides that summarize challenges, proposed solutions, and next steps. Add the company logo, reference stakeholders by name, and include a meaningful data point. Video tools like Synthesia or Loom AI let you track who watches and how much, so you can tailor follow-ups based on engagement.
This guide outlines MKT1's core frameworks for building effective product, content, and growth marketing strategies. It defines product marketing as audience-first research that informs positioning, audience analysis, and ecosystem mapping, which are critical to standing out against competitors and shaping a company's market narrative. It recommends defining TAM and ICPs, prioritizing them into tiers, and building an Ecosystem Map that considers competitors, complements, and influencers rather than only direct rivals. Content should be treated like a product, guided by frameworks like Story Stack and Perceptions, with a focus on quality, strategic roadmapping, and repurposing to maximize Mileage. For growth, select from six core engines, adopt Account-Driven GTM, mapping both account and contact lifecycle stages, and use bottom-up forecasting with efficiency metrics.
Reddit has launched its most significant Reddit Pro update, available now on iOS and coming later this year on Android. The update adds mobile access to the Trends tool, allowing businesses to track mentions, keywords, and engagement opportunities in real time. It also introduces enhanced performance insights for comments to help measure which responses build trust and drive meaningful engagement. In addition, Reddit released its first Reddit Pro Organic Playbook, a guide to help businesses understand Reddit's culture and apply proven strategies for authentic community participation.
New PMM managers often face overwhelm as AI accelerates productivity but also creates more noise, lower motivation, and unrealistic executive expectations. Success in the role depends on mastering four foundations: purpose, people, process, and performance. Process is becoming increasingly important in an AI-driven environment. This post introduces a 30-60-90 day plan that helps managers transition from consuming value to producing it by first building trust and clarity, then refining systems, and finally delivering visible wins tied to business impact. By day 90, managers should establish a PMM charter, delegate ownership, and cement a high-performing culture while also demonstrating their own leadership through impactful projects. Long-term success comes from giving clear feedback, creating scalable systems, and shifting from individual contribution to enabling team-wide growth.
Google is testing changes to AI Mode in Search to drive more clicks to publishers. Updates include adding embedded link carousels to both desktop and mobile, improving inline links for better context, and expanding the Web Guide feature from the “Web” tab to the main “All” tab.
Substack now requires writers to use Apple's in-app purchases, raising prices 30% on iOS, delaying payouts 45 days, and removing the option to opt out. Apple controls billing and subscriber data, blocking writers from taking their audience elsewhere. This shift from writer-owned Stripe accounts to Substack lock-in reflects a broader trend of platform control, dependency, and fee hikes across the creator economy.
Reinvent past videos, poll audiences, and use the “opposite day” approach.
Cracker Barrel's “Old Timer” remains.
LinkedIn is expanding its BrandLink program by adding more publishers and creator-led video shows, with sponsors including AT&T Business, IBM, SAP, and ServiceNow. Since launching, it has brought in over 70 publishers and creators, with the number of creators on the platform nearly doubling since 2021. BrandLink revenue rose nearly 200% in the three months to June 30 compared to the prior quarter, while publisher and creator payouts more than tripled year over year. Video remains one of LinkedIn's fastest-growing formats, with uploads up over 20% by July and views rising 36% year over year as of February.
LinkedIn research shows professionals trust their networks more than AI or search. 43% cited colleagues as their top source for advice, and 64% said networks help them decide faster. Rising AI expectations overwhelm workers, as 51% feel learning AI is like taking on another job. For brands, this means B2B buyers rely on peer insight as much as company channels.
80% of marketing leaders plan to shift funds to social media as it becomes central to customer acquisition, loyalty, and revenue. Top platforms driving business impact are Facebook (70%), YouTube (68%), and TikTok (64%). 87% of leaders will increase paid social spend, over 80% will raise investment in influencer and organic social, and 75% plan to grow social team headcount, especially in SEO roles. However, only 44% rate their teams as “expert” in measuring ROI, which is often blamed on a lack of sophisticated reporting.
Percentage coupons are more effective for store-wide promotions than fixed amount discounts. In an analysis of over 70,000 grocery orders, percentage coupons led to 42% more customer spending, 56% larger basket sizes, and 50% more profitability compared to fixed amount coupons. Fixed amount coupons work better for discounts on specific products or brands because they are easier for customers to calculate. Very large discounts, such as 60%, can hurt sales if customers doubt product quality.
81% of consumers say they need to trust a brand before buying, but only 39% trust advertising overall, creating both a challenge and an opportunity for businesses. Ethos, which focuses on credibility, builds trust by showing character, competence, and care. Small businesses can use strategies like testimonials, community engagement, founder highlights, celebrity or influencer endorsements, and awards to establish credibility in digital advertising. Credible ads lead to higher conversion rates, lower acquisition costs, and long-term customer loyalty. Unlike short-term discount ads, ethos-based marketing creates sustainable growth through trust and word-of-mouth.
Google Ads is introducing new loyalty offerings for brands. Retailers can now personalize member-only pricing and shipping benefits across both free and paid listings on Google, designed to drive deeper engagement with the most valuable shoppers. Sephora has used personalized annotations to show signed-in shoppers specific discounts based on their loyalty tier, which resulted in a 20% increase in click-through rate for personalized ads shown to loyal customers. Google Ads is also launching a loyalty goal to help optimize budgets towards the highest-value shoppers.
Zubtitle streamlines video editing for social media by automatically transcribing speech and adding captions, headlines, and progress bars. It also enables resizing and formatting for various social platforms.
This “smart chain” turns complex topics into clear content through 7 steps. These include agent research, voice dictation, synthesis, examples, metaphor, polish, and micro-test with iteration. It provides ready prompts, quality checks, and deliverables, enabling end-to-end management of the content process.
Kids' content and co-viewing households are very valuable for advertisers since children influence household purchases. However, strict privacy laws like COPPA and GDPR-K, combined with the growth of ad-supported and FAST platforms, make compliance a major challenge. Regulators judge campaigns by likely audience, not genre, so brands must replace data-driven targeting with context-based strategies, creative suitability, and data minimization.
In this interview, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, discusses how he built the company with his sister and six other co-founders. He covers their work with the DoD, how the team proved skeptics wrong on revenue, and how AI models display capitalistic impulses as they improve. He also explains the current AI market structure and players, AI advancements vs. safety regulations, and how he personally uses AI.
5 questions to ask if your website content is problem-led or playbook-led.
Fred Manley critiques VW's famous "Think Small" ad, arguing that cleverness replaced clarity.
Social media now drives app discovery, replacing app stores as the main entry point. Viral videos can generate millions of downloads in days, and algorithms determine which apps gain traction. Influencer trust and UGC play a larger role than traditional advertising, creating a loop where sharing fuels growth. To succeed, developers must build apps with shareable features, integrate marketing into design, and adapt quickly to social trends or risk being overlooked.
68% of marketing and sales professionals in the US and UK are already using AI at work, with 51% using AI agents. However, only 17% have received comprehensive, role-specific training. Nearly half admit to using unapproved tools, which raises governance and compliance risks. While 67% say AI saves time and 56% report productivity gains, only 39% feel confident it boosts revenue.
Many B2B brands weaken their identity by over-focusing on ROI. A common mistake is confusing product positioning with brand positioning. This results in messaging that feels like a feature list rather than an emotional or aspirational reason to care. Brands also lose strength when sales dictates messaging, when companies avoid taking a stand, or when success is measured only through short-term KPIs like clickthrough rates instead of long-term metrics such as brand awareness and sentiment.
The key is to start by acting like a genuine Redditor. Engage, post, and build history before mentioning the product. Study the top subreddits in the niche to learn what content performs, then create posts that follow proven formats like story-driven arcs or practical tips, keeping them 95% valuable and under 5% promotional with subtle product mentions and no links. Treat it like a numbers game by drafting and testing many posts. To scale, advanced tactics such as aged accounts or proxies can help, but the foundation remains understanding the community and delivering value first.
A list of Chrome Extensions that speed up SEO audits, including Agital, Linkparser, and Lightshot.
To reach 10K LinkedIn followers, post consistently around one clear mission rather than hacks like pods or automation. Define a single problem to solve, then use the shared GPT tools (provided in the article) to refine your mission, design your profile, write posts, and build a 30-day content calendar. Optimize your profile with a clear headline, simple visuals, and easy links, then create posts that break down solutions in engaging formats, using AI for research and content ideas.
Levels Health built its brand by reframing continuous glucose monitors as lifestyle tools rather than medical devices. Before launch, it built a 40K+ waitlist and turned early adopters into evangelists, creating social proof that made the product cultural currency. Its marketing runs like a media company, producing blogs, podcasts, and videos for education, distributed across Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and X. By prioritizing education and community over growth tactics, customers end up selling themselves on the product.
AI-generated models and digital clones are reshaping the fashion industry. In 2024, there were 5,350 modeling jobs nationwide, with employment projected to remain flat through 2033. The median pay for a model that year was $89,990, but digital clones may earn less per job even if they allow for more work without travel. While companies like Guess and H&M have experimented with AI models, they have faced backlash over job displacement and unrealistic beauty standards. The industry is uncertain about how human models and AI will coexist.
Optimize ads for purchases rather than link clicks to lower CPA.
A successful logo must be adaptable, memorable, timeless, and simple.
Start optimizing 3rd-party vendor review sites because LLMs use them to verify company information.
Audiences are becoming less engaged despite rising creator content for beauty and fashion brands. Skincare posts grew 22% in H1 2025 while engagement fell 20%, showing content saturation is reducing impact. Smaller creators outperform larger accounts, with beauty nanos seeing 27% higher engagement and 19% more video views, and fashion nanos achieving 33% higher engagement. Paid content often underperforms despite higher spending.
Cracker Barrel's recent logo update, which removed long-standing Americana imagery, triggered a backlash that erased nearly $100 million in market value. The incident signals that perceived “woke” moves are increasingly viewed by investors as high-risk brand decisions. When brand identity shifts appear misaligned with core audiences, especially without a clear rationale or timing strategy, they can trigger immediate market consequences.
Referencing a well-known competitor in your marketing isn't always risky - it can be very effective. A study across 100 brands found that rivalry mentions, especially negative ones, boost engagement and intent to buy, particularly among loyal customers. On your own channels, lean into clever jabs at competitors to energize your base. For broader campaigns, stick to storytelling cues to turn competitive messaging into a narrative people follow.
Large email images, especially animated GIFs, will impact loading times, deliverability, and user experience. Keep individual images under 250KB and total email size minimal, with GIFs ideally under 1MB. Oversized files may slow load speeds, trigger spam filters, or get clipped in clients like Gmail. Tools like TinyPNG and ImageOptim help compress images, while Ezgif.com can optimize GIFs.
Chili's drives consistent sales growth by combining a high-frequency, culture-first social strategy with value messaging and operational execution. The brand uses social media as a testing ground, responding quickly to fan behavior and shifting campaigns in real time. Chili's is able to turn engagement into consistent revenue growth by aligning trend-driven content with timely offers and in-restaurant upgrades.
Type a phrase, definition, or description you are thinking of, and this Reverse Dictionary will find the word that best fits that description.
Good lifecycle programs integrate with the broader customer experience rather than operating as isolated messaging channels. Overcomplicated flows and short-term click-focused tactics often fail, while programs that prioritize key behavioral loops, reinforce customer habits, and continuously test and optimize drive retention and long-term value. Treat lifecycle as a way to solve customer problems consistently, not just a tool to hit immediate metrics.
Based on an analysis of 2,317 TV car ads, $11.3B in ad spend, 15 years of sales data, and 7 years of search trends, researchers found that informational ads increased sales for lower-priced cars under $36,000 or those with lower quality ratings, while emotional ads boosted sales for higher-priced, high-quality cars and increased searches across all price points. Emotional ads also created stronger buzz and brand interest. However, informational ads remained more effective at converting sales for cheaper cars. The findings suggest expensive products benefit most from emotional ads, while inexpensive products perform better with informational ads.
Content curation is growing in relevance, driven by user fatigue with algorithmic posts and AI-generated noise. Curation can offer a competitive edge by emphasizing taste, judgment, and cultural listening. Unlike content creation, curation builds trust by surfacing what matters, shaping narratives, and reinforcing thought leadership. For marketers, integrating curation alongside original content can deepen brand authority, expand networks, and improve campaign performance.