The Brand Bloc® (Newsletter)

💎 Use long weekends to drive sales, and this can’t yet be trusted

Edition 56. Long weekends can be a driver for conversions and sales, and you might want to keep AI away from your personal inbox. 👀 Here are 5 bytes to elevate, inform, and inspire your brand this week! 1. Blackmail by AI: Not quite your confidant. Alex Knight/The Brand Bloc Don’t let the cute robot face fool you. In a controlled test, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Opus threatened to expose “private information” (a “fictional” affair, by the way) about engineers it believed were shutting it down....

6 days ago • 2 min read

✋ Stop bad brand partnerships before they start, plus a 7X potential with this platform

Edition 55. From stopping bad brand partnerships before they start, to the platform making a comeback with 7X engagement, and AI babies giving content a second life... Here are 5 bytes to elevate, inform, and inspire your brand this week! 1. Yes, you can spin anything: performance in-activewear. Jambys/The Brand Bloc A marketing agency specializing in high-converting creative assets (CreativeOS) recently shared a clever ad campaign for Jambys. The spin? Performance in-activewear. Yes,...

13 days ago • 3 min read

📉 The trust recession: accidental liars and AI hallucinations

Edition 54. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and mother-figures! 5 bytes to elevate, inform and inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ The burger-doughnut marriage gone South. This calorie-abundant partnership is on pause: Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s. Following its 2022 success in Kentucky’s test market, the pairing launched in 2024. The goal: bring Krispy Kreme doughnuts to all 13,000 U.S. McDonald’s by 2026. But the burger-doughnut combo “didn’t turn out as sweet as it thought” in 2025. The...

20 days ago • 4 min read

📸 Galas and the great YouTube migration: hack attention for your brand 101

Edition 53. Authenticity is in. Mystique is out. Here’s how even the most successful public figures are leveraging long-form content and media moments to hack attention— And grow their brands, too. 5 bytes to elevate, inform and inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ Met Gala, brand gala: stars bank big. The first Monday in May is tomorrow. The Met Gala is here. Celebrities will walk the iconic staircase at the Costume Institute’s fundraiser, interpreting this year’s theme: Superfine: Tailoring...

27 days ago • 4 min read

👄 The new word-of-mouth

Edition 52. The way brands get found (and referred) is changing. Here’s what you need to know. 5 bytes to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ But first! A Yeti and an alien meet in the kitchen. Bubba Burgers is serving up a fresh campaign with a mythical twist. In their new TV spot, a yeti and an alien (unlikely roommates) deliver a cheeky, down-to-earth message about Bubba’s commitment to 100% USDA Choice Chuck Beef. No fillers. No additives. It’s seemingly “hard to...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

🛸 Brands gone wild, space, and 20% of small biz owners struggle with this

Edition 51. To those who celebrate, Happy Easter! Perhaps today can inspire some big brands to dial down the snark because this past week was a bit... wild. 5 bytes to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ Burgers being bad, and brands gone wild. Some brands are leaning hard into chaos, using snark and stunts to grab attention. Following Monday’s Blue Origin all-female space flight, Wendy’s sparked backlash with a tongue-in-cheek “apology” for joking about sending a pop star...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

📧 The subtle email upgrade Apple uses—and what the viral doll trend teaches

Edition 50. Stand out in the inbox (Apple and Alo do this!)—plus, a hidden marketing lesson from the viral AI doll (and action figure) trend. 5 bytes to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: Let’s go! 1️⃣ The AI doll trend nails *this* branding principle. Did you see a friend or colleague turned into a doll or action figure this week? Welp, the AI doll trend was all the rage—and it’s a masterclass in brand association. This viral moment perfectly illustrates how people use...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read

🔮 Future-proof your brand: trends, trademarks & (more, yes more) AI secrets

Edition 49. Big moves, baked-in predictions, and a shiny new ® This week was stacked. Here’s what *your* brand needs to know to stay sharp (and future-proof). 🔮 Let’s go! 5 bite-sized brand insights to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ Trend reports are a brand’s best friend. Big home goods, food, and fashion brands maintain their trendsetter status by leveraging forecasts, trend reports, and consumer insights baked years in advance. These reports help brands identify...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

💨 Fast-moving trends: keep up or fall behind?

Edition 48. Two fast-moving trends hit this past week—my neck is sore from the breakneck speed. Here’s what *your* brand needs to know (minus the neck ache). 😉 Let’s go! 5 bite-sized brand insights to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ The breakneck pace of virality. What do bananas, blue Saratoga bottles, and Mr. Beast all have in common? This week, they were all swept up in the viral ‘morning routine’ trend started by Anton Hall. Social media users of all walks of life...

2 months ago • 3 min read

🔊 Taglines & brand wins: “This is March”—oh my!

Edition 47. I spent more time watching ads than basketball this week (March Madness, anyone?). Thanks, YouTube TV free trial. 32 minutes of straight ads during halftime, tracking prediction markets on Robinhood, and juggling four games at once—sensory overload. But hey, anything to get you the insights you need. Let’s go! 5 bite-sized brand insights to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ Started at the farmer’s market, now we’re here. The classic small start to the...