Edition 116. 5 brand bytes to inform & inspire: 🎒 School’s back. Brands back. Poppi / Skims Poppi and Skims are just two brands capitalizing on the heading-back-to-college crowd with seasonal collections and paid ambassadorships. Skims released “The Campus Collection.” And Poppi hired 250 students across 150+ campuses after 11,000 applied. They’ll create content and keep tabs on college hot spots (think coffee shops and hangouts) where Poppi should pursue distribution. Takeaway: They’re...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Edition 115. I interrupt our regular news-byte format to share 5 things “the top 0.1%” of users do differently with AI. But first, a little context. I just power-walked back to my hotel 🏃💨 A conference I’m attending wrapped less than an hour ago. These notes are freshly scribbled (and my heart rate is still up). My notes from the AI session. Yesterday, AI strategist Alicia Lyttle (known as “The Queen of AI” 👑) demo’d how she uses ChatGPT, Claude and her personal AI agent, Maximus, to: Build...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Edition 114. 5 brand bytes to inform & inspire: 🎵 Your Reel got its voice back Instagram Reels Ever got that Audio Unavailable error on IG? Well, “this one’s been a long time coming,” said IG head honcho, Adam Mosseri. Instagram now lets you replace the audio on old posts and carousels. “Keep every like, comment, and share it’s earned,” said Meta. The catch? New audio won’t give the post a fresh boost with the algorithm. But it *will* let your content evolve instead of expire. Takeaway: Your...
22 days ago • 2 min read
Edition 113. 5 brand bytes to inform & inspire you this week: 🛋️ IKEA assembled the final IKEA Spain vs. Argentina gave this home goods retailer an easy brand win. IKEA Canada’s “Assemble the World” campaign turned country flags into flat lays made from its own products. Furniture, textiles and decor all cleverly color-picked, and placed. Brilliant. Ownable. Instantly recognizable. No forced celebrity endorsement required. Takeaway: The best timely, cultural activations translate the moment...
29 days ago • 1 min read
Edition 112. 5 brand bytes to inform & inspire you this week: 🏡 The Meta ad catalog is moving in Meta, Spoken Flames Meta’s ad tools keep evolving. I’ve seen it firsthand. Its AI creative tools once (unprompted) turned a Spoken Flames lifestyle shot into multiple AI variations; my original model morphed into a new one drinking wine, taking a bath and moving through skyline scenes. Now, Meta is bringing that AI-generative power even closer to the point of purchase. Muse Image, the first...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Edition 111. 5 brand bytes to inform & inspire you this week: 🦁 Cannes got creator-coded Credit: The Wrap / @vertex.cgi From the people who braved the heat in the South of France, the common thread was clear: tech and software took up more space, and creators were the new VIPs. (The term ‘B2B creator’ got a lot of love, too.) One headline said Cannes was “dominated” by a $1.35T creator boom. But if you read The Brand Bloc, this comes as no surprise. I’ve covered creator equity partnerships,...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Edition 110. 5 brand bytes to inform & inspire you this week: 🏆 Winning Q4... before Q4 NBA, NFL, FIFA At the Saltbox Summer Summit (welcome to all new readers!), I explained how, and why, you’ll want a winning Q4 in your email strategy. Championship trophies were involved. Reminder: Q4 is ultra-competitive in the inbox, and open rates can fall from 43.97% in Q1, to 36.67% in Q4. That’s a 7.3 percentage-point drop, or roughly a 16.6% decline from Q1. In case you missed it, the free on-demand...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Edition 109. A New Yorker moves to Texas. Then, for the first time in 53 years, the Knicks win the NBA championship. Over the San Antonio Spurs. The irony is personal. But the only allegiance I’m pledging right now? The off-season. For athletes, championships are won in the off-season. For business owners, same. ’Tis the season to clean our email lists, build the flows, tighten the brand story, and get the email channel ready. Because Q4 will be here faster than I can hop a plane back to New...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Edition 108. 5 brand bytes to inform and inspire you this week: 🎩 Owner, operator, creator (all the hats) Yunus E., Pexels / Edit by Shavaun If you’re feeling like your entrepreneurial load keeps expanding, it is. A new report says 73% of small business owners globally identify as content creators, to some degree. The modern biz owner is part marketer, media team, customer service, and systems operator. AI is helping, but the bigger shift is this: content is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s how...
2 months ago • 2 min read