Sep 10, 2021
Keeping Communities Safe
When brands create communities, they take on an unspoken role to protect its members. Decisions that exclude certain members of the community don’t just cause disappointment–they leave communities feeling abandoned […]
Apr 9, 2021
Atomic Disruption
When Community and Quality Find Its Footing By Rachel Fox When Sidra Qasim finished high school, she was faced with a situation in which nearly all young Pakistani women find […]
Oct 16, 2020
Pass the Mic to the Smitten Customer
By Andrea Bullard By the time David Beckham agreed to serve as a brand ambassador for Samsung in 2012, the list of products endorsed by the soccer star had already […]
Apr 9, 2020
Narrow Focus, Broad Impact
By Rachel Fox Anthony Bakker was working as a banker in New York when he answered a help wanted ad: the Nightingale-Bamford School needed someone to implement a computerized system […]
Nov 12, 2019
Never Forget Your Roots
How Brands Can Build a Future While Knowing and Appreciating Their Past By Dante Pannell Before he met with Unilever execs at their Park Avenue skyscraper; Before he sold his […]
Jun 18, 2019
Recasting the Past
Using Nostalgia to Create an Audience Connection By Hannah Landers “What is the charm that makes old things so sweet?” Although novelist Sarah Doudney penned this phrase in her 19th […]
Jun 12, 2019
It Takes 80,000 Distinct Tastes to Build One Netflix
How Content Communities Fuel Brands By Dante Pannell Grace and Frankie, Netflix’s coming-of-aging series starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, commenced its second season with a mandate to make an […]
Sep 7, 2018
Why Bad “Plot Twists” Ruin Brand Stories
By Zachary Vickers When Norman Mailer said that the novel was dead in 1955, perhaps he was also heralding the impending fate of independent bookstores. In 1995, Amazon become “Earth’s […]
Oct 12, 2017
The Right Kind of Wrong: Szechuan Sauce and the Hero’s Journey
By Mary McCool Can a hot mess be manufactured? McDonald’s recently proved it’s willing to try. Earlier this year, the chain’s “Mulan SzeChuan Teriyaki Dipping Sauce” returned to cultural memory […]
Jul 27, 2017
Paying for the Privilege of Two Weeks in a Tent
By Ed Lynes For the past two weeks, I have been in the mountains of West Virginia for the Boy Scouts of America’s 2017 National Jamboree (we’ve been in the […]