In today’s fast-paced world, brands aren’t just selling stuff—they’re also expected to make a difference. This blog dives into the “human brand” concept and challenges whether they’re really a new and unique thing, or if it’s just some new marketing BS that we are trying to make out of nothing. Are brands really evolving into more empathetic, purpose-driven entities, or is this just a shiny new label for what companies have always done?

You are probably seeing them more and more. Brand Collaborations are a strategic partnership between two or more brands with common goals. While there are some must do’s when it comes to planning and executing a great brand collaboration, the results and success when done right can be one of the most powerful tools a brand can use.

In June we conducted our Annual Growth Survey, targeted to startups and scale-ups in both B2B and B2C segments globally. As we all know, running a business in the growth segment is both wildly exciting and scary as $%@!. As the business scales up, it becomes crucial to “stay ahead of the curve, adapt to market changes, and effectively implement your marketing strategies” - or so they say (and who is “they” anyway??). Our Annual Growth Survey provides real-time feedback on what we care about right now, and where we need to focus our attention moving forward.

As marketers, we’re always thinking about what we need to do in order to better our social presence. From consistent posting, to using links and tags, and more, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to optimizing social media. But we rarely stop to consider that there are some things we should NOT be doing. Sometimes, avoiding certain bad practices of social media are actually even more important than following the best practices.

In a world where there are ads everywhere you look, and claims to do this and that, how can you trust the product or service you want to purchase? Showing strong testimonials is a great way to back up what you say and help convert possible buyers into a sale. It builds trust with your buyers and acts as a form of social proof, letting your customers do the work for you. Satisfied, genuine testimonials are as good as gold and all businesses should work on collecting this valuable information.

Recently we’ve seen a number of articles surmising about the death of social media as we know it. The growth rate peaked in 2020 / 2021 and currently time spent on social media is lower than it was in 2019 and growth itself has slowed as we reach a ceiling of usage. True, there are small pockets where the number of users is increasing - in the U.S. where current usage is below the global average. Overall, people are spending less time sharing and liking. Where is this trend headed?