Wednesday, March 20th was World Happiness Day. The results of University of Oxford’s 2024 World Happiness Report were shared, and headlines written. Canada ranked 15th happiest out of the 143 countries studied with a score of 6.9, and the U.S. ranked 23rd with a score of 6.7. Both were behind the Nordic countries with scores ranging from 7.3 - 7.7, as well as countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands. But with these countries benefiting from weeks and weeks of available vacation time, and university tuition that you aren’t still paying off into your 30s, it’s a ranking most of us can probably accept. Let’s raise a glass to celebrate!

The ultimate goal is to appear at the very top of the search engine results page (SERP). The way to do this is to optimize. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process used to optimize a website’s content relevance, link popularity, and tech for optimal ranking on search engines.

SEO isn’t something that you can just set and forget. It’s important to stay up to date on SEO trends in order to ensure a website ranks optimally on search engines such as Google. Read on to discover three key trends you should be aware of, as well as the SEO basics that are still incredibly important.

We’re all familiar with the adage that acquiring a new customer costs more than retaining an existing one. The actual number varies depending on the source and industry, however 5 to 10 times seems to be the generally accepted range. Think about how much is being spent on marketing initiatives - the majority of which is typically spent on finding new customers. Why aren’t we focusing more on customer retention? Because it is so much more difficult. It requires patience, discipline and effort from departments beyond marketing. Read on to discover some best practices on how to build strong customer relationships.

This year’s Super Bowl was as exciting as they come. Besides Taylor-spotting and the half-time show, there was the game itself. Tied going into overtime, San Francisco takes the lead and Kansas City somehow comes out on top? Who could ask for more? However, if you’re in advertising, chances are, the game itself wasn’t the most exciting thing about last Sunday’s Super Bowl, it was the ads! Our team went through all the ads and curated our top 5. We also called out a few that we thought really missed the mark.

Taylor Swift has brought over $300 million in brand value for the Chiefs and she isn't even a paid influencer - she’s an unofficial brand ambassador. An unofficial brand ambassador is a person who isn’t partnered with a brand in an official capacity (there’s no written agreement or any kind of contract in place) but they are unofficially associated with the brand. The person acts almost as an accidental influencer for the brand. Unofficial brand ambassadors can be an extremely powerful marketing tool, but they do come with a downside. Read on to discover more about the power of unofficial brand ambassadors!

If your friend having their regular Starbucks order 6 days a week shocks you in this economic environment, you may be in for a surprise. It’s no secret that the economy isn’t as strong as it was before the pandemic, with interest rates and large-scale layoffs. Economists are predicting that consumers will tighten their spending in 2024. However, that doesn’t mean that consumers will stop spending. Instead, it means that people will become more picky about what they choose to spend money on. As absurd as the Starbucks example may have seemed, people are expected to spend more on what is termed “affordable luxuries” in 2024.