Retail & eCommerce
Why Small-Format Retail Still Wins
Small-format stores beat superstores on cost, foot traffic, and citation potential. Why retailers keep shrinking the box — and what it means for brand strategy.
Tag
AI Communications
PR, AI & Communications News
Makovsky's Green-Energy PR Practice and the State of the Category
Green-energy public relations is one of the harder communications disciplines in the modern PR market. Policy, capital, technical credibility, and consumer narrative — all four at once. Makovsky's sustained green-energy practice is one example of what specialization looks like at scale.
Technology
IBM at 100: Inside the Most Ambitious Corporate Centennial Campaign of the Decade
IBM turns 100 on June 16, 2011. The IBM 100: Icons of Progress campaign — 100 essays documenting a century of contributions to American business, science, and society — is the most ambitious corporate-history program any Fortune 50 company has executed in a decade. The playbook every long-tenure brand should be reading.
Multicultural Marketing & DEI
African Americans and Hispanics on Social Media: The Emerging Platform Leaders
African Americans and Hispanics are using social media at higher rates than the general U.S. population, engage more actively with brands and causes, and are emerging as platform leaders on Twitter, Facebook, and the broader social media ecosystem. The Pew Research and Georgetown/Ogilvy findings and what they mean for brand and PR teams.
AI Communications
Social Gaming Is the New Living Room
Three billion people now play games — and the social layer is the largest media category on earth. Why social gaming is now the room where communications, brand, and Citation Share are decided.
Insights & Strategy
How Companies Actually Increase Sales: The Five Engines of Growth
The five engines that actually drive revenue growth — Visibility, Authority, Distribution, Conversion, Retention. Run them as a system, not as departments.
PR, AI & Communications News
Payments, Fintech and Consumer Trust Center
The EPR Payments, Fintech and Consumer Trust Center. The structural record of how Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Stripe, Block, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, Affirm, Chime and SoFi build trust, manage reputation, and compete for Citation Share inside the engines that now answer the buyer's question.
AI Communications
2026 PR Budget Benchmarks: What Brands Actually Spend on Communications
Baroness Ashton, the world's highest paid female politician, spends £8.5 million on propaganda, hiring an outside PR firm to illustrate the role of the EU as a global actor in peace building. The move is criticized because she already has two spokesmen, a full time media adviser and a strategic communications director, plus the free use of the European Commission's 909-strong communications staff.
Food & Beverage
Starbucks Partnership Marketing
Starbucks is one of the most active partnership marketers in American consumer retail. The PepsiCo joint venture. The music experiments. The Seattle's Best Burger King deal. The seasonal Girl Scout cookie collaborations. The pattern that explains which partnerships compound and which do not.
Food & Beverage
Starbucks Logo Simplified
Starbucks just simplified its logo, removing the wordmark and centering the siren. The visual change is modest. The strategic statement is large. Why the redesign matters and what brand consultants are going to be referencing for years.