Edition 47. I spent more time watching ads than basketball this week (March Madness, anyone?). Thanks, YouTube TV free trial. 32 minutes of straight ads during halftime, tracking prediction markets on Robinhood, and juggling four games at once—sensory overload. But hey, anything to get you the insights you need. Let’s go! 5 bite-sized brand insights to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ Started at the farmer’s market, now we’re here. The classic small start to the...
10 days ago • 3 min read
Edition 46. Spring forwarded me into a pile of pollen 🤧 Reporting this week with the sniffles but bringing the brand news without missing a beat. Let’s go! 5 bite-sized brand insights to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: 1️⃣ An influencer in *every* zip code. Global brand behemoth Unilever has a new CEO who plans to increase spending on social media influencers—down to the zip code. In a fireside chat last week, CEO Fernando Fernandez expressed his plans to increase spending...
17 days ago • 2 min read
Edition 45. The algorithm fed me a new podcast this week and introduced me to the idea of “scab” versus “scar.” I’ll explain. This framework inspired this week’s theme: “versus”—the impact of making too many decisions. Decision fatigue has entered the chat. This versus that. Skip the workout versus take the call. Pull an all-nighter versus go to bed. Lakers versus Celtics (my team won, by the way). 😏🍀 Let’s get into it! But first, mind if I make decision-making fun and inspiring, not...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Edition 44. Today’s a late send (sorry!) because we’re traveling, hopping time zones—and losing track of time, but never the brand news 😉 5 news bytes to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: Here we go... 1️⃣ Love, set, rebrand. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) debuted its new look this past week, but there was little emphasis on logos and more emphasis on the passion and purpose of its players. “The WTA realizes that a brand isn’t just a logo, font, or signature color; it’s...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Edition 43. This week, a longtime and frequent customer of Spoken Flames filled out our post-purchase survey. Their comment stopped me in my tracks: “I have supported this business consistently and get no discount as a frequent buyer. What can be offered?” Oof. They weren’t wrong. I love and appreciate every customer. And I operate my e-commerce brand like Cheers 📺— Everybody knows our customers’ names. I pride myself on building a brand culture that values its customers. Yet here was one of...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Edition 42. Valentine’s Day has come and gone—now it’s time to show your website some love. These few quick updates can mean more sales and sign-ups 💌 5 bytes to elevate, optimize and inspire your brand’s website this week: P.S. I’d love to feature *your* brand on The Bloc. Interested? Peep the poll at the end. Here we go... Speed wins sales – A mere one-second delay in load time can drop conversions by 7%. So aim to optimize images, enable caching, and use a fast hosting provider. There are...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Edition 41. I noticed a unique change to my Instagram feed this week, and you may have, too. Gone are the simpler days with chronological feeds and pictures of our friends’ avocado toast breakfasts. These days, a feature like “Chat with AI characters” is now seamlessly integrated into our newsfeeds: Credit: Meta Here’s what you need to know and how it could benefit your brand. 5+ bytes on algorithms and AI agents P.S. Welcome to all new subscribers! 😃 Here we go... What is Chat with AI?...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Edition 40. Happy New Year! Have you updated the date in your website footer to 2025 yet? ;-) 5 news bytes to elevate, inform, or inspire your brand this week: P.S. Poll results from last week show everyone loved this new, brief, but topic-abundant format, so it’s a keeper! Here we go... Product pricing: Science says to nix the cents. Thinking about pricing a new product or service this year? Well, keep it simple and round to the whole dollar. This study reports that adding numbers like .97...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Edition 39. ’Tis the season for end-of-year wraps, recaps, and future-minded trend reports. Here are a few ✨ stand-out stats ✨ for your brand into the New Year. Plus, this week—a new format. Less lengthy, personal anecdotes with a singular weekly focus. More broad and bite-sized brand news to help inform, inspire, and elevate your brand. Let me know what you think! I’ll leave a poll at the end. STAT SEASON While Spotify’s Wrapped fizzled out this year, trend reports are soothing my soul....
3 months ago • 2 min read