Brand Marketing Archives - Beyond Social Media

Tulsa Race Massacre

By David Erickson | June 7, 2021 |

BL and David discuss media coverage of the Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 years after the fact; Oreo’s offering to aliens; the soft power of brands; Amazon supports marijuana legalization; Dunkin’ sells paint; Apple’s privacy commercial; Amazon Sidewalk risks; Hootsuite jacks long-time customers; Twitter reinstates certifications; Stetson disowns hatWRKS; music streaming; influencers’ earnings…and much, much more.

Disney’s Robotic Groot

By David Erickson | May 24, 2021 |

BL and David discuss Disney’s development of atonomous bi-pedal robots to play characters such as Groot at the theme parks; YouTube’s new audio ad format; Google’s LaMDA AI model; Hulu’s self-serve advertising; About This Site coming to a search near you; the brand texting trend; Mattel wants to recycle your old Barbies; Snap’s Spectacles are back in AR form; India wants to erase “Indian Variant” from social media; Google Analytics 4 readiness;…and much, much more.

TikTok Surveillance

By David Erickson | August 15, 2020 |

Episode 319: BL and David discuss TikTok’s clandestine surveillance of its users; precisely targeted direct mail; warm and cuddly artificially intelligent pet robots; Twitter’s new Reply Guy feature; the power of video recommendations; LinkedIn Sells SlideShare to Scribd; Planter’s Baby Nut grows up; Apple redirects search users to its Apple News+ app;…and much, much more.

Walmart Drive-Ins

By David Erickson | August 8, 2020 |

BL and David discuss the Walmart’s new parking lot drive-in movie theaters; giving credit to creators; why Microsoft wants TikTok; the pros and cons of WordPress’ auto-updates; Roger Federer’s rooftop tennis appearance; Google’s messy take on the customer journey; advertising agencies disclosing diversity data; Google News providing ‘for context’ links; Zoombombers hack the Twitter hacking trial; brands mistranslation misadventure; Trump’s ‘clean’ Internet; B2B salesperson traits;…and much, much more.

TikTok Deal?

By David Erickson | August 2, 2020 |

Episode 317: BL and David discuss the pending/paused TikTok acquisition by Microsoft; Deadspinners split to Defector Media; Nike’s amazing You Can’t Stop Us ad; denying Holocaust deniers; Country Time’s little bailout fund; virtual influencers’ time may have come; the whole Stella Immanuel strangeness; the Walmart Nazis; the Consumer Electronics Show goes virtual until 2022; the Harper’s Letter decrying cancel culture;…and much, much more.

COVID-19 Brand Heroes

By David Erickson | March 29, 2020 |

Episode 301: BL and David discuss brands that are doing good in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic; Rotterdam Philharmonic Zoom Concert from musicians’ homes; Product Hunt’s Makers Festival work from home edition; a SuperCalaFragilisticExpialaDocious song about COVID-19; Mucinex fights fake news with “Spread Facts, Not Fear,”campaign; Yelp allows donations to small businesses; COVIDnearyou tracks the spread of the pandemic; work from home resources; a lame Coronavirus PSA by the Ad Council; bad sound and video in local and even national news coverage as reporters and guests work from home; SXSW refusal to give refunds; trump’s Cease & Desist on Democratic ad backfires; why Bill Gates want to lock the whole country down; cool tools to get you through the quarantine; astounding ad spending declines..and much, much more.

Alexa’s Brand Voices

By David Erickson | February 15, 2020 |

Episode 296: BL and David discuss Google’s Project Witness that uses virtual reality to generate empathy for jailed children; Amazon’s program to create actual brand voices to play on its Echo smart speaker; ASCII art of refugee programmers; tech titans’ efforts to combat coronavirus misinformation; augmented reality Google Maps; Facebook’s bug bounty program; Chrome’s website security deadline; reviews in Google Search Console; a glaring user experience fail in Adobe Acrobat; Target’s Minnesota Badgers miscue; …and much, much more..

Vindictive Valentines

By David Erickson | February 9, 2020 |

Episode 295: BL and David discuss “Cry Me A Cockroach” vindictive Valentines via San Antonio Zoo; social media savvy Astronaut Christina returns to earth; Seventh Generation’s brilliant State of the Union ad; Spotify’s podcast expansion; flirting with Tinder bots; how Netflix gets to the Oscars; Twitter squashes student’s parody, then apologizes; Planters Baby Nut banned; best and worst Super Bowl LIV ads; the Iowa Caucus debacle; hacking Google Maps; world’s worst job ad and world’s funniest resume; Clearview AI slapped with cease-and-decists; Celebrity Cruises’ clueless commercial; 2020 election disinformation wars; Edelman Trust Barometer…and much, much more.

Why Planters Murdered Mr. Peanut

By David Erickson | January 25, 2020 |

Episode 293: BL and David discuss why Planters murdered Mr. Peanut; Angelina Jolie producing a BBC show to teach children how to spot fake news; a brewery that put shelter dogs on beer cans to spur adoptions; Verizon’s new OneSearch privacy-focused search engine; Product Hunt’s Golden Kitty Awards; Google podcast time stamping; Apple TV+ Podcasts; Morning Brew’s podcast lessons; fraudulent .gov domains; YouTube moderators’ PTSD; Apple’s encryption back door..and much, much more.

Artificial Skin for Virtual Reality

By David Erickson | October 4, 2019 |

Episode 283: BL and David discuss artificial skin for virtual reality; Google Arts & Culture’s VR Versailles; Pew research data showing worries about social media’s impact on news; what happens if you go to Instagram jail; Google testing desktop sidebar search; Staples’ WorkLife Magazine; Tide’s #LaundryNight debates; Twitter’s DM search; leaked Zuckerberg tapes; a net neutrality appeal decision; LinkedIn’s enhanced ad targeting; a picture that speaks much louder than words…and much, much more.