As marketing professionals with years of experience, we’ve all learned to trust, to some degree, that little voice inside our heads that tells us when we may have stumbled across an idea that could be genius. Intuition. Inspiration. The gap in time and space where the magic happens. Creatives in our industry thrive on honing their intuition to drive new ideas and break new creative ground. But in today’s highly fragmented and diverse customer universe, many brands find out the hard way that real insight must guide intuition. In today’s Plain Talk article, we’ll noodle some cautionary instances where a well-written research and insight development plan could have saved brands a lot of money and heartache on controversial ads and promotions.

Ad dollars are on the move in the financial space—increasingly shifting from traditional to digital, specifically to mobile. While financial services have historically relied on more traditional vehicles, times are indeed changing. In this edition of the Compound Interest series, we’ll discuss why it is time to look at digital ads for financial services and how to do it.

Competing with national banks on a smaller budget requires sharper strategy. The most effective bank marketing starts with data: understanding what you have, analyzing it objectively, and letting insights drive decisions. Learn how to build a marketing strategy that allocates resources based on opportunity, not last year’s budget.

Influencer marketing has become a digital monster. Are you doing it? Are you doing it wrong? Should you be doing it at all? If so, how and under what circumstances? In this edition of the Plain Talk series, we’ll take some of the mystery out of influencer marketing and dispel a few myths along the way. First, let’s talk about the money.

If you’ve been advertising online for any amount of time, you’re probably already pretty familiar with a couple of the most common ways to run ads on the web. In this installment of Plain Talk, we’ll break down dynamic search ads vs responsive search ads and what they can do for you.

In today’s Plain Talk newsletter, we’re talking about corporate social responsibility initiatives. According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans’ trust in the federal government to handle both international and domestic matters is at the lowest point it has been in more than twenty years. Only 35 percent of Americans have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the U.S. government’s ability to handle domestic issues. Meanwhile, trust in the government to handle international issues ranks only six points higher at a mere 41 percent.

In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss B2B trade show trends. We hope you’ll gain valuable insights that you can apply to your B2B marketing regimen.

Healthcare organizations are competing for talent in one of the tightest labor markets in the country. Candidates increasingly prioritize flexibility, well-being, and culture, so recruitment strategies built around compensation alone won’t cut it. Learn how a marketing-driven approach to employer branding and talent attraction can help you fill critical roles faster.

The California Consumer Privacy Act is one of the strictest consumer privacy laws in the U.S., and new regulations taking effect in 2026 expand its reach even further. Twenty states now have comprehensive privacy laws on the books, so this isn’t just a California problem. If your business collects personal data from consumers in any of these states, your privacy policies and opt-out mechanisms need to be current. Find out what the latest requirements mean for your compliance strategy.

For years, you’ve had your website on a partner’s proprietary content management system. Why is now the time for a change? In this installment of our Plain Talk digital series, we’ll explain open source vs proprietary CMS (and why it’s time to switch to open source).