Marketing

Marketing

As the year winds down, December's Booms & Shakes feels less like a wrap-up and more like a preview. Big brands are locking in partners, agencies are reshaping their futures, and new ventures are quietly testing what influence, collaboration and creativity might look like next. There's a familiar rhythm... Client wins, senior hires, strategic launches. But look more closely, and you'll see bigger themes emerge.

Bowman will continue supporting her VB Group (vbgmarketing.com) clients while adding this new role that aligns with her long-standing commitment to helping transportation companies strengthen communication, compliance outreach, and strategic growth,

External marketing speaks to the public. It's aimed at customers, both current and potential. Internal marketing, however, is meant for employees. The two audiences may overlap in some aspects - age, location, income level - but remain distinct groups with a different relationship to the company. As noted earlier, the goal of external marketing is to generate more revenue for the business, whether that's through more sales or subscriptions.

Some are die-hard fans whole up in their man caves, some are tweeting away talking about their favorite ads, and others - like yours truly - are taking it all in at their local pub. The Drum is covering the ads, and by default watching the game, from a lively bar in Astoria, Queens, sharing patrons' reactions to their favorite and least favorite spots, and sharing what the Twitter-verse thinks of this years' expensive adverts.

The message, set to Jess Glynne's 2015 song Hold My Hand, was meant to emphasize reliability and comfort. In 2025, however, TikTok users began using the audio in a very different way. Instead of polished travel clips, the sound was paired with videos showing holiday frustrations, such as tents collapsing in high winds, hotel rooms with underwhelming views, transport delays, and other familiar mishaps. The contrast between the upbeat narration and the visuals made the format easy to follow and understand.

Creating a narrative that converts viewers into leads requires more than just catchy copy. A high-quality sales business Instagram carousel template bridges the gap between aesthetic appeal and strategic marketing. Graphicook Studio has engineered a visual toolkit that commands attention. This Adobe Illustrator asset does not merely display information; it structures data into a compelling visual story. Social media algorithms currently favor content that retains user attention. Consequently, carousels have become the gold standard for engagement.

Search used to be simple: a question, a page of blue links and a fight to win the click. Brand discovery was essentially a story about rankings, keywords and referral traffic. That's no longer how people find answers. As AI assistants and generative search become the first place people turn to for information, many buyers are getting what they need before they ever reach a website.

It's not entirely new, but I think where the novelty comes in is that over the last decade, maybe a little bit more than that, the meaning of the athlete brand has really expanded,

The holiday season sparks a significant increase in consumer spending. This year, Black Friday alone saw consumers shell out a record US$11.8 billion. It's the time of year when many Americans make purchases to decorate for the holidays - lights, ornaments and Christmas trees.

Every marketing campaign is a test of coordination. Multiple teams, different tools, and varying creative opinions collide in real time - all while the brand's integrity hangs in the balance. When messages drift or visuals don't align, even the most ambitious campaigns lose clarity. That's why mastering brand-compliant campaign content isn't just a design issue - it's a leadership one.

"Every love story deserves a billboard. Every love story deserves to have all of the fanfare and celebration that [Swift-Kelce] did,"

The National Advertising Division found that Chase's most rewarding' claims, absent additional context tying them to specific product features or attributes, are nonactionable puffery, the organization said in a Dec. 3 release. NAD also determined that most rewarding' card does not convey the message that a consumer will earn the most reward points with that card. The National Advertising Division, also known as NAD, was created by the advertising industry in 1971 in response to concerns about the need for oversight of truth and accuracy in advertising.

Beyond the obvious hat, there's the now-closed, legendary Brown Derby restaurant chain, one of Old Hollywood stars' favorite eateries. There's the cocktail made in tribute to that restaurant by a neighboring venue called the Brown Derby - one of the best, not-so-sweet bourbon cocktails, it's still a classic today. And then, there's the beer. Like the restaurant, Brown Derby pilsner is no longer with us, but it still holds a place in many beer lovers' hearts.

While fundamental to sustainable success, substance alone won't get your business far in its early stages. Perception is everything, and in a world of screens and trends that fizzle out almost as soon as they begin, the reputation you shape online matters the most. What makes up a business's web reputation? Which factors drag it down, and what can you do about it before the damage is done? Here are the essentials.

Though its origins are religious, you probably know the advent calendar as a humble grocery-store product that features chocolates hidden behind 24 perforated cardboard doors. That sugary countdown to Christmas dates back to the 1950s when the first chocolate versions came on the scene. Cadbury started mass marketing them in 1971 as tools to engage children with the Christian tradition of Advent, says Canadian marketing expert Robert Warren, who closely follows Christmas trends.

The holiday season is basically the Super Bowl of marketing, every brand is fighting to come up the most innovative approach to attract attention to their brand, boost engagement, and increase sales. As December rolls in, fashion houses and beauty labels start pulling out their big ones, from immersive pop-ups and vintage-coded nostalgia shoots, to family-centered campaigns and full on city-stopping light shows. This year, a handful of brands are proving that holiday marketing can be more than just a glittery gift guide drop.

Without an audience, there is no event. But attracting the right audience is no walk in the park, and while the content and speakers are important, they are not guaranteed to fill a room. In fact, according to Freeman's 2024 Report, 81% of participants said that opportunities to connect with experts were their top reason for attending in-person events. So there's plenty to consider. But leadership teams want more than just a full room;

I walked into a quarterly business review, confident in our marketing metrics. We were hitting or surpassing every KPI, and I presented our achievements with pride. My CEO made a statement that stopped me in my tracks: "Marketing success means nothing unless the company as a whole is winning." That moment was a turning point.

Where are your competitors spending their marketing money? Gyi and Conrad's insights into this valuable data can help you stay ahead of the rivals in your market.

The potential deal - which S4 says would be structured as an acquisition of MSQ by S4 Capital rather than a takeover of S4 - comes after a bruising period for the group. S4's share price has fallen more than 90% from its peak only a few years ago. The current market capitalization sits at around £140m, a fraction of the multibillion pound valuation it once enjoyed.

The nearly 6-foot-long swabs, called Quge-tips, feature in a parody of TV infomercials where a fictional spokesperson, Bruce Neptune, shows off a variety of applications, from dusting off heaps of pollen to cleaning up a crime scene. Quge-tips are available at a website for $35 a piece while supplies last. Q-tips has enlisted the help of other brands, including Doritos and Goodyear, and content creators to get the word out on social media.

As advertisers do the difficult work to reduce their own emissions, many are turning to another, and possibly even larger, opportunity to have a positive impact on the planet - the messages they choose for their ads. Advertising has the power to positively influence consumer behavior, and every brand can and should consider how their creative work can deliver on that promise.

AI chat assistants are not being used the way many marketers expect. Instead of acting as shopping tools or search engines, they function primarily as support systems for cognitive tasks - writing, planning, analyzing and learning, according to a report by AI SEO agency Dejan. In 2026, optimizing for AI means understanding how users actually engage with assistants, not just assuming commercial behavior.

Marketers frequently champion the idea of "customer loyalty." However, much of what is labeled as "loyalty" may not be authentic. For years, brands have patted themselves on the back for retention numbers that look impressive on dashboards. But the truth is far more uncomfortable. A large portion of what we call "loyalty" is simply inertia disguised as affection. Customers aren't staying because they love us. Many are staying because leaving feels like a chore.