The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is changing the world, especially the way we work. AI has the potential to end many jobs, but it can also make some jobs more efficient and help brands expand their reach to wider audiences. Many believe that writers are one of the professions most in danger of being replaced […]

How Americans watch TV has changed over the last two decades, and who watches what type of TV platform has also changed and is in a constant state of flux. In July 2022, streaming services first captured more viewers than cable or broadcast TV, marking a significant milestone in the history of technology as well […]

Have you ever heard of Madam C.J. Walker? You should know her: Walker is considered history’s first African-American female entrepreneur and the first female self-made millionaire in America. And we’re not talking about extraordinary success in a post-Jim Crow or Civil Rights, but the nineteenth century. Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, she was […]

Since their inception in the early 20 th century, Hollywood and the film industry have beenmajor drivers of consumer pop culture. There’s no doubt that Hollywood is synonymouswith modern American culture, and as the film industry has influenced Americanconsumer habits, Americans were historically the biggest supporters of the industry. In2020, though, many things changed. In […]

Since the late 1990s, the American retail landscape has changed tremendously, as a number of “big box stores” that were once the “go to” places for shopping have closed their doors forever. The emergence of Amazon and ecommerce have changed the way brands connect with their customers, proving to be the number one challenge to […]

If there are two things that characterize modern Western culture, and American culture in particular, it’s technology and consumerism. There’s no doubt that Silicone Valley and the many inventions and innovations that have come from there have driven our society over the last few decades, but it’s also equally true that for an even longer […]

Some things seem both endless and cyclical: Midwest winters, The Walking Dead, and Madonna’s thirst for attention. They pause briefly, and then we grudgingly accept they’ll be back for no good reason. This reality could be applied to American elections. The actual voting of a candidate happens in one short day, but the lead-up is months […]

When the World Wide Web became publicly available in 1991, it revolutionized the way we work and play and perhaps more importantly how we consume information and goods. The early internet was relatively primitive and boring, but it soon evolved to be dominated by ecommerce and then social media platforms. Many tech and business experts […]

Every youth generation has its own styles and attributes that affect greater society, and in recent decades those styles have been driven by technology trends. Generation X helped make email and the World Wide Web popular and more accessible, while Millennials played a role in bringing the smartphone and social media into the mainstream. Today, […]

Earlier this year, Wohlers Associates, Inc. published its annual report with current figures for the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. The report showed a surprising expansion of 7.50%, upwards of $12.80 billion in 2020, despite the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Growth was way down in previous years, but with many other industries struggling to survive […]

As the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution becomes a more ubiquitous part of all our lives, it’s becoming apparent that the revolution has affected some groups of people more than others. Tech mogul Elon Musk has claimed that AI will eventually eliminate all jobs as we known them, and although that is at a minimum decades in […]

A mundane object seems to burst into the media and consumer awareness unexpectedly. People line out the doors of department stores to buy it. A new edition instantly sells out when released. The product’s hashtag amasses over 6.8 billion views on TikTok alone. A woman is arrested for allegedly stealing 65 of these items worth […]

Hope and change. Those were the two promises of America’s first black president, Barack Obama. His presidency seems like a distant memory, almost a wishful dream, even as he fought during his tenure to deliver the same hope and change promised during his time in office. Today, African Americans linger between Trump’s America and a […]

What a time it is for African Americans to be represented in comic book movies, today’s most popular film genre. The ending of Avengers Endgame strongly suggests the next Captain America will be Black, while Black Panther remains the highest-grossing solo superhero movie ($1,346,913,161 globally). On the DC side, its most popular movie character is […]

Marketing trends come and go, sometimes as swiftly (and pitilessly) as the evening tide. Experts croon about them at the beginning of a year, and in the middle of the same year bloggers cheerfully take joy on those that fail to catch fire. It’s just not easy to catch the right trend wave. Should your company […]

First, let’s be honest. Although it is now a commonly used term, if you’re not familiar with “cluster sampling”, it can come across as a bad episode from the Twilight Zone. There’s something eerie about the word to make one feel like he/she is about to get probed by aliens. Ok, perhaps it is just […]

Creativity is indispensable to branding and any marketing strategy in general. It was Albert Einstein who famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” The problem is when creative departments overlook “knowledge” in their initiatives. In reality, data-driven creativity bolsters customer activation, whether it’s a radio ad or an email campaign. What’s more, having a […]

Market research is the fuel that propels products, services, and even ideas. In fact, market research might even be more important than the fuel metaphor, since crashing a campaign or initiative is more severe than sputtering at the gate. As award-winning social media scientist and author Dan Zarrella once said, “Marketing without data is like driving with your […]

  The recent soft landing of Solo: A Star Wars Story makes one wonder about the supremacy of the Disney marketing machine. Is there a Star Wars fatigue setting in? Did the studio release the movie too soon after another Star Wars movie? Is there too much competition with Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2 […]

By now, most of you are probably aware of the disastrous event at Starbucks —  where two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia store for not making a purchase and refusing to leave the premises. The scene was captured in a video that went viral, and the backlash has been monstrous on social media and […]

How Big Data, Internet of Things, and Virtual Reality Rose and Fell We just love disruption in the digital age. From the iPhone to ridesharing, and everything in between and beyond, consumers are always eager for the next best thing while brands are ready to change the way they do business. But not everything that […]