Mike Robb, head of Corporate PR and Digital at the Cicero Group in London, tweeted a provocative question yesterday: Is social media killing journalism? Robb had asked two highly respected working journalists -- albeit, both too old to be digital natives, and both British -- to respond to the question in a roundtable format. 

Retargeting works better than any other online display tactic when the primary objective is conversion. Frequency matters, as it always has and retargeting is a highly effective method of achieving the right levels. At the same time, we know online privacy concerns are on the rise.

Energy companies that use retargeting need to be thoughtful about how they present themselves to consumers. 

Jelly is the latest social media sensation to hit your mobile device. The brainchild of Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, and his partner Ben Finkel, the app is a questions-and-answer platform that leverages your social media networks to crowdsource knowledge.

The concept is simple: take a picture; add a question and post. 

Content marketing is one of the dominant themes in advertising. And it makes sense. The way we consume media has changed dramatically in the past decade and consumers are savvier than ever to traditional marketing efforts. The creation of content that people genuinely want to engage with and share is a very alluring prospect to marketers in the age of YouTube and DVR.

Everyone wants to be the content, not the annoying message that interrupts or distracts from it. 

A few weeks ago, my fellow KSVer Tucker wrote a great post about the importance of brands taking risks and telling stories. And he’s right. With the help of Pixar, I’ll tell you why.

Every time I watch the first six minutes of the Pixar movie Up, I cry. Sob is more accurate. It’s an incredibly moving story of two people, Ellie and Carl. In the span of the six minutes, you follow their life together. You watch them meet as children, fall in love, get married, buy their first house, make plans for the future. You ride the emotional rollercoaster of their ups and downs, all the way to Ellie’s deathbed. In those six minutes, you forget you’re watching two animated characters. Heck, you forget you’re watching a movie altogether. 

What do you do when your "advocates" aren't actively advocating on your behalf?
The Trade Ally program at National Grid was struggling, with fewer and fewer allies participating. Oh, what's a Trade Ally Program? Here’s a quick primer for those who may be less familiar with the utility marketing world: 

With an average of 5,700 tweets per second, it’s easy for information to get lost on Twitter. So why wouldn’t you seize the opportunity to give your tweets a boost? There’s a way to squeeze in extra information beyond the 140-character limit, and it’s as simple as adding a few lines of code to your website. 

Mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the fairest brand of them all?

Saturday morning: I left the house with a fresh shave, groomed hair, pressed clothes, and the general perception of having my shit together. Cut to noon and I’m running errands making a beeline to my car through a department store when…BAM! There it was: the surprise, jump out at you out of nowhere mirror. I was frightened, shocked, and saddened at what stood before me. 

2013 has been a big year for mobile video.  With Instagram’s July video feature debut and Vine’s expanding popularity, an increasing number of brands are hopping on this social media train.

Fractal. It’s a word that makes me cringe. Along with coplanar, interval, and cotangent, the word fractal represents a complex mathematical realm. But when put in the context of marketing, fractal takes on a whole new meaning.
At the recent MAGNET creative conference in Chicago, speaker Andrew Davis challenged us with a series of “what if” questions. One of them: What if, instead of trying to talk to everyone, you targeted a niche? What would happen if you took a fractal approach to problem solving?