The End of the Apolitical Brand

February 01, 2017 by Taylor Wiegert in Strategy

The election is over, but politics is here to stay 24/7 for the foreseeable future. Today, everything is politicized. That’s no secret to you because one of the things that’s been politicized most is our social feeds, which are inundated with news and posts from (mostly) well-meaning people sharing their thoughts and opinions. The Obama and Biden memes are the last funny thing to make its way onto the Internet as of late, and yes, even those were political.

These are not ordinary times. Facebook has taken drastic steps to overhaul its approach to how news is shared and consumed on its platform because of its role in the dissemination of fake news. Twitter has found new relevance (for better or for worse) in its ability to share and shape policy decisions from the government. These platforms are working to define their roles in a political environment they, at the very least, helped create.

These are most certainly not ordinary times, and brands need to be paying attention.

Brave Ad World - Episode 238

May 30, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in Podcast

Plans to take a week off from recording a podcast episode were waylaid by a ton of news to talk about.

This week’s headlines: Facebook Releases Continuous Video API and Other Updates for Live, Google Expands Mobile Ads to Maps, Twitter Launches Major Updates to Tweets, Facebook Shutting Down FBX and Expanding Audience Network and Facebook Continues Testing of News Feed Redesign.

The week’s news quick hits: Snapchat Updating Discover Design, Facebook Updates Approach to Trending Topics, Instagram Code Reveals More Information on Business Profiles, Lyft Testing Ride Scheduling, Google Introduces Responsive Format Ads for Display Network, Event Pages Come to YouTube Gaming, Foursquare Launches Restaurant Recommending Chatbot, Snapchat Releases New Stickers to Users, Spotify Allowing Sponsorship of Its Own Playlists and Twitter Cards Now Support Spotify Song Previews.

Celebrate Memorial Day. Then sit back and see listen to why I couldn't wait a whole two weeks to record. Get this episode and many others in the podcast section, and be sure to subscribe viaiTunes.

This Week in Social and Digital (Week of May 23)

May 29, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in This Week in Social

This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.