When we talk about diversity in marketing, we first have to identify that we’re talking about target audience diversity—racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity and inclusion. Marketing diversity can refer to a product or geographic diversification. This article is about the inclusion, exclusion, targeting, and stereotyping of women, minorities, and the LGBTQIA+ community and our industry’s efforts to improve. As marketers, our job is to be on the edge but not over the cliff. In college, we were told that we both mirror and mold our zeitgeist. So, while we were subject to the time and cultures of the said past times, we can and should still be judged for the directions we led.

It’s that time of the year in ad land when we take a look at the commercials produced at exorbitant cost and placed at, well, exorbitant cost to give brands (and ad agencies) their thirty seconds of Super Bowl fame. But something seemed a little different this year, and it’s not just the absence of twenty different cryptocurrencies running ads. When we previewed 86 or so Super Bowl and “Big Game” related commercials and teasers, we began to notice that almost every single one was funny (or tried to be, bless their hearts). In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll examine the sudden explosion of humor in advertising. We’ll also discuss why it’s happening now and what it means for the future of the business.

You already know the importance of trust but are you thinking about this important form of capital the right way? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll explore brands looking at trust as something to be built rather than just simply something to protect. You’ll also learn how to build a trusted brand using five key insights.

Many of our articles are about tangible topics, with acronyms like ESG, ABM, or GBP. Marketing, though, is about the mastery of both the objective and the subjective to help you best sell your products or services. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss black and white advertising and seven reasons why your brand might choose to use this creative in our full-color world. We’ll also learn some of the psychological impacts it may have on your consumers.

Have you ever been to a webpage that wasn’t optimized for your phone properly, and the ads blocked the content? How about waiting so long for an ad to disappear that you clicked on the ad, then clicked the back arrow just to see if it would end sooner? Well, you’re not alone; 90% of those surveyed find digital ads annoying. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll look at problems with programmatic advertising and the damage targeting top-of-funnel metrics, like impressions and clicks using broad ad networks, can have on your brand.

In 1990, the Canon EOS Rebel camera ad featuring tennis star Andre Agassi boldly told us, “Image is Everything!” Back then, it certainly was something, but was image more important than it is today? You needn’t look any further than your friend’s and family’s social media pages to realize that the “ideal self” is still alive and kicking in 2022. In today’s edition of Plain Talk, we’ll juxtapose concepts that center on the concept of real self vs. ideal self in advertising and what we think that means for the future of brand relationships.

Consumers, investors, employees, policymakers, and business partners are becoming more interested in learning the benefits of ESG, driving its importance and complexity for companies and institutional investors. While it’s predominantly linked in its most formal executions with publicly traded corporations, there is value to smaller private companies and brands to enhance or grow a halo effect if done properly, with purpose and authenticity from all involved. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’re not giving advice on developing an ESG initiative. Instead, we’re focusing on 11 ideas to boost your ESG branding by leveraging your practices.