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Flip back through articles, columns, tweets and other prognostications from marketing pundits over the past decade plus, and you’ll see a common theme: it’s going to be a big year for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

And finally, that time has come. Well, sort of…

While we’ve been teased and tantalized about the potential of these awesome technologies, the time finally seems just about right for their proliferation — at least for one of the two platforms. That’s the reality of new marketing technologies; once they reach a critical mass of brand and consumer buy-in, legal challenges naturally emerge as we explore their full potential.

In the case of these perception-altering platforms, it’s VR that’s experienced a downshift … Continue Reading

Perform a quick Google news search for “digital advertising” and it’s quickly apparent that transparency — or a perceived lack thereof — is an issue that runs rampant in the industry. In other words, how does the math calculating impressions, clicks and other key metrics add up behind the screen? Perform the same search engine query for “blockchain,” the basis of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and it’s equally obvious that transparency is among the biggest boons for the decentralized and mutually-verifiable digital ledger.

The upshot? It’s only natural that blockchain emerges as a disruptive force for digital advertising. In fact, this strategic synergy, albeit a bit complicated at times, is already underway. This shared chapter was recently chronicled by my … Continue Reading

California sets the standard for the rest of the country in a lot of areas—now, we can add privacy regulation to the list, as discussed by my colleagues Richard S. Eisert and Gary A. Kibel in a recent Davis & Gilbert client alert. This summer, California passed a bill known as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, imposing rigorous privacy-related obligations on entities that do business in the state. Some have called the act “GDPR-light” since it implements some concepts similar to those in the new European law.

The California law was thrown together in a hurried effort by the legislature to head off an even more restrictive ballot initiative. That initiative had broad public support and enough … Continue Reading

In the last few years, Intel’s advertising has become a lot less inward-focused. For decades, the company’s “Intel Inside” campaign directed consumers’ attention to the chips that Intel puts inside electronic devices. While that campaign (with its instantly recognizable bong-bong-bong jingle) helped make the company what it is today, Intel hasn’t been content to rest on its success. This is a company with innovation in its DNA, after all.

With new CMO Steve Fund at the helm, Intel has added an outward looking element to its Intel Inside message. The company’s latest marketing push is focused outward, highlighting the shuttle launches, solar-powered car races, animated dragons, high-tech garments, and other wonders that Intel technology brings to life. The initial video … Continue Reading

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but what about video? Whoever is behind the famous aphorism never crunched the numbers on video, but you’d have to think that the words-to-video conversion rate would be very large. After all, video advertisements are known to have tremendous advantages, even over those that use pictures. Video ads are more likely to be discovered (search engines love video content), shared (consumers share video at high rates), and acted upon (according to Amazon and eBay, video ads accompanying product descriptions increases the chance of a purchase by as much as 35%) than other formats. All of which helps explain why people are watching so much video these days.

According to data gathered by … Continue Reading

Winemaking is a timeless craft—or so you might think. If you do, one visit to a Jackson Family Wines facility powered by Tesla batteries and you’ll soon realize that wineries are certainly keeping up with the times.

One of the country’s largest family-owned wineries, Jackson Family Wines has been innovating in all kinds of ways as it carries on the family’s winemaking legacy (including production of the popular Kendall-Jackson brand). It has shown both foresight and ingenuity in adapting to climate change, which has begun to affect the California landscape on which the company grows its grapes. In some cases, it has implemented low-tech solutions that farmers of yore would recognize: using owls and falcons instead of pesticides to control … Continue Reading

When listeners turn on the radio these days—terrestrial, digital, or satellite—they can tune in to precisely the content they want to hear: country music, sports talk, alt rock, or whatever their tastes call for. What if radio worked the same way for advertisers? That is, what if brands could serve their messages to precisely the audiences they wanted to reach? Punk rockers, workout warriors, or commuters with a taste for political talk. Through advances in technology and data collection, we’re starting to find out.

The nation’s biggest radio and streaming services have been busy building out technology that allows advertisers to target audiences based on their musical tastes. Few pieces of data give advertisers greater insight into a consumer than … Continue Reading

Today’s agencies are expanding more quickly and aggressively into new jurisdictions than ever before. That isn’t a project to take lightly.

Advances in technology and the globalization of business have facilitated the process of international expansion to some extent, but the fact is that great regional differences remain: in business cultures, regulatory environments, and more.

All of which makes the question of when to pull the trigger on taking an agency abroad a difficult one—challenging enough, in fact, to make an executive wish they had a crystal ball.

How I See It Business is global today, and for many firms it is imperative to serve clients from many global locations. But expanding for expansion’s sake alone is not a path… Continue Reading

If you were forced to pick one way in which companies have evolved the most significantly since the turn of the century, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more popular response than communication.

Social media has created two-way dialogue and real brand accountability. The 24/7 news cycle has amplified the impact of any crisis, from CEOs sticking their foot in their mouths to customer data breaches. Brands are compelled to be socially and environmentally conscious. Heck, Millennials want to know your charitable partners before they buy your goods or apply for your jobs.

These are just a few of the new functions that fall on the shoulders of today’s Chief Communications Officer (CCO). No longer is this a role exclusively … Continue Reading

Have you heard of Digital Darwinism?

You can probably wager a guess at what it means. As it relates to multiplatform publishing, it holds that the brands that can’t adapt will not survive this content revolution. More specifically, brands that don’t seek to reach customers everywhere, and in real time, will be left in their competitors’ digital dust.

TV, print, radio, social, mobile, outdoor – the list goes on. Multi-channel marketing is not new. But the strategy of building and embracing an ecosystem of channels targeting a number of devices is becoming more of a “must” than a “should.” Sure, part of it depends on your industry. Media companies such as ESPN and Vice Media are leaps and bounds above … Continue Reading