We’re happy to say that Unfiltered Marketing: 5 Rules to Win Back Trust, Credibility, and Customers in a Digitally Distracted World (Weiser/Career Press 2020) is now on sale. Based on four years of global quantitative research into the intersection of technology and culture, Unfiltered Marketing provides business leaders from the C-suite to the front lines […]
How Adidas Approaches Co-Creation by “Swimming in the Culture”
Today’s Brands Need Heroic Credibility
From Branding Strategy Insider, October 27, 2020, by Paul Leinberger Consumers have grown to distrust curated media and traditional marketing. They want to make their own decisions based on raw footage, real-time updates, and unfiltered livestreams. They don’t want the polished media release, the staged press conference and the practiced responses. How, then, do brands […]
Unfiltered Leadership In Times Of Crisis
From Chief Executive magazine, October 20, 2020, by Paul Leinberger All indications are that Covid-19 will be with us deep into 2021 and perhaps even longer. We can no longer hope that the worst is behind us and soon we will be able to go back to “the way it’s supposed to be.” The ongoing […]
Election 2020: “Raw” versus “Peak Outrage”: Competing Trends Shape the 2020 Presidential Election
On Friday, October 23, after the final presidential debate, President Donald Trump held a rally in Florida that featured something rare even for a Trump event. At the rally, there were large screens showing video clips that he would reference like colossal visual aides during his speech. Don’t take my word for it, he seemed […]
Institutionalizing Uncertainty: Scenario Planning and the Post-Covid-19 World
Planning for the unthinkable has become the top priority. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in. If you lead a business, you’re now in the contingency business. Everyone is now a corporate strategy planner. You have to look at the things that will never happen and then provide a workable plan to survive, and potentially […]
COVID-19 AND RE-THINKING THE BALANCE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTIVITY AND COLLABORATION
I wrote a piece up on Inc.com entitled, “3 Ways to Inspire Innovation From Remote Teams,” that touches upon a critically important point that frankly needs a deeper dive than what my editors over there typically want. Thus, the double click here. There’s more to it than just saying the work from home workstyle gives companies ways to foster greater innovation […]
Identity Is the New Currency: Reputation Management and Google’s Knowledge Panels
It dawned on me after connecting a new domain and email account to MailChimp and having my first test email come back with a “we’re not sure who sent this email” error message that identity is the new currency in the digital world. This isn’t a hard sell, I’m sure. Look in your junk […]
Meet the New Capitalism. Same As the Old Capitalism.
I wrote a piece over at Inc.com the other day that should be cross-posted over here, as well, on the subject of stakeholder capitalism. It’s very much in vogue to say how capitalism is dead, or shareholder capitalism has failed, etc., etc., all of which is somewhat ridiculous on its face. What we’ve clearly seen […]
3 Rules that Define Corporate Leadership in a Digital Age
In an age dominated by technology – and where our workers have the same needs and expectations as our customers – how is a smart leader to actually lead? New research points out 3 major megatrends that define leadership in a digital age.