Brett Smiley’s Post

I love that more agencies are thinking in this way. In my opinion, fan culture and fandoms is how marketers should think about their audiences. Rather than just looking at general demographics, it's important to acknowledge that audiences are real people with real passions and fandoms towards specific activities or brands. We all have them and we know we as people gravitate to other likeminded people. When strategizing about audiences, our focus should shift towards understanding the specific interests and fandoms they are into. And ask ourselves, What kind of content are they consuming? What about it makes it resonate with them? This approach allows marketers not only to devise creative strategies and concepts, such as partnerships, ads, or engaging executions, to target these audiences effectively. More importantly, it enables marketers to gain insights into how to communicate and engage with them authentically. #lookingforwork #brandstrategy #seniorbrandstrategy #audienceinsights #marketing

Change happens slowly—until it doesn’t. After a few years of uncertainty during COVID-19 followed by rounds of layoffs in tech, we may be into a new era of marketing for brands. I wrote a piece for Fast Company based on my recent observations. It's called "Brand New Rules." Read here: https://lnkd.in/eWBjy_CR Special thanks to Jeff Beer of Fast Company for editing and publishing it. #marketing #advertising #creativity #branding #brands #newrules

Today we launch our new agency, Run Deep. An independent sport, entertainment and culture creative agency, backed by Mother. In a world where cultural credibility is brand currency, we run deep into fan cultures to help brands unlock the power and influence of fans. Fan culture is bigger than ever, but fan eco-systems have changed significantly; fragmentation of fan cultures reflecting the increasing diversity of fans and interests, new dominant channels, fan creation models, and fan activism on the frontline of social progress. There are more opportunities than ever to access these deeply engaged communities, but brands must run deep to build genuine connections. If you’re a brand looking to run deep into fan culture, get in touch. [email protected] https://rundeep.agency/

Finding "Rockstar" employees is more challenging now than it has been in a long time. Once you hire that person, only time will tell if it was a good decision or not. When I receive messages like the one below, it makes me feel great and proud because I know I made the right choice. Well done Rachael Burton! #localiq #networking #advertising #marketing #media #branding

Launching new products and brands is the most exciting, and the most challenging part of my job. I'm grateful to Ad Badger and my clients for allowing me to do this on a regular basis. We've shared key practices in the video. Of course, we could talk about this for hours. What strategies do you use to rapidly increase sales and become profitable in a short period of time? https://lnkd.in/gSxBE_Ue

Pound for pound, this is one of the best creative concepts and execution of all time. It was a fun, and brutally honest attempt, to reclaim some semblance of relevance in hopes of saving a dying brand. However, it didn't work. To me, the biggest problem is that the Creative mostly resonates with my generation, persons who had already written off Radio Shack. All the nostalgic characters were largely irrelevant to younger customers who never considered Radio Shack a viable alternative. A new generation of customers, which the brand desperately needed, didn't understand most of the pop culture references. Despite what the Cannes Lion community wants us to believe, advertising isn't art, and Creativity isn't enough. Advertising must achieve a commercial objective, and money spent on talent and production must produce an ROI. Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy a year after its massive bet on paid media failed to pay off. Fun ideas are fun, but effective ideas are even better. Don't be bamboozled by a charismatic creative director looking to produce something that will be better for his/her portfolio than your bottom line.

"Why not do something that's going to bring people back to advertising and have consumers engage with what we're creating again? I think it starts with diversity. It starts with welcoming new, fresh, innovative ideas - that's the key. We can't just keep regurgitating the same thing and hoping for a different result.” I spoke with KUAMP INC.'s founder, EP and CCO, Antonio “Tronic” McDonald about his career journey so far, opening pathways for the next generation, and what the pinnacle of branded entertainment can be. Read the full interview below. LBBonline - Little Black Book

Big news from Front Office Sports today as we announced our strategic investment from RedBird Capital Partners + International Media Investments and welcome former CNN president Jeff Zucker as our new co-chair. Over the past four years, we've watched our audience, team, and influence grow significantly, and this major investment validates two key things for us: 1) FOS is a category-defining media company at a time when sport business coverage has become mainstream + vitally important for sports fans and business leaders alike. 2) There is significant upside and opportunity for us to keep making impact, innovating, and adding to our offerings -- all while staying nimble, aggressive and energetic as our team and brand grows. Thanks to EVERYONE who has followed, subscribed, and supported over the past few years. We're excited to keep it rocking! More coverage from Bloomberg News: https://lnkd.in/g79jXMkm

Buh bye Sports Illustrated. Unions, poor leadership, changes in ownership & publishing rights, the firing of the CEO, and likely more importantly the huge reduction in readership of "printed" publications all contributing to SI laying off entire staff today (Friday 1/19). We will continue to see this as publishers continue to struggle to transfer their brand value to digital. This is one more in a long series of publishers to not understand the digital environment, execute it correctly, and monetize within an online first/only position.

Super Bowl Commercial 🏈🏟️ Kanye West and his team spent 7 million dollars on a Super Bowl Ad spot 😮 Turns out that was their entire budget for the commercial, leaving them no money for production of the actual commercial. What do they do? Ye films himself in a car with his phone. Is it crazy or is it genius? Let’s look at the results. In the 24 hours following the commercial Ye’s store did nearly 20 million in revenue!! 7M for the ad spot 0 dollars for the commercial Nets a return of 12 million and change Based off of the numbers it was a genius move! What can we learn from this? Maybe nothing. Maybe he is just a global super star and people will buy anything he does. Or maybe sometimes we put too much emphasis on something needing to be perfect. If they hired the best marketing agency and the best producers and developed the best commercial ever what are the chances it would have netted this same return? I think there are times when we need to just trust our talented people and let them cook. The end result may look different than you imagined but results are results. What do you think? Was it genius? Or was it terrible? #marketing #sales #kanyewest #yeezy #commercial #linkedin #art #music #fashion