Jennifer Corbett

Last week, a Sesame Workshop video featuring Elmo and Andrew Garfield teaching kids about grief went viral (20M views!), and I've also seen it shared by several of my connections here on LinkedIn. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend it—it’s especially heartwarming for a longtime Sesame Street fan like me. This video isn’t just another piece of content; it’s a testament to Sesame Street’s continued progressiveness, even decades on! ❤️ Watching it, I realised how effectively it tackles a difficult topic like grief, using techniques that can help any of us discuss sensitive subjects. Here are a few lessons I took away: 💖 Start with a Familiar Anchor Using a popular character (or two!) instantly makes the topic of grief feel more accessible. Anchoring challenging discussions in a shared or familiar experience eases the path to addressing complex emotions. 💖 Simplify Without Minimising The video breaks down grief in simple language without reducing its significance. Avoid jargon or overly complex explanations when tackling sensitive topics, instead, focus on clear, direct language that is easy to understand. 💖 Human Connection The personal bond between Andrew and Elmo makes the topic feel real and close, reminding us that difficult emotions aren’t abstract—they’re deeply personal. This layer of authenticity creates trust, making hard topics easier to digest. 💖 Hopeful Framing Instead of dwelling solely on the sadness of loss, the video emphasises solutions and constructive ways to process grief, offering hope and solutions. I love that I am still learning new things from Sesame Street and Elmo! 🌟

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I love this… I’ve always felt like people are most innovative before they know the rules. And that ideas unencumbered by the implications, strings attached, or historical precedence are the most disruptive. To be fair, Its natural to see the same things over and over and eventually get in line with the way it’s always been. I believe this is why: 1. Kids are so fun to hang out with. 2. You should listen extra carefully to the new person (and kids) with whacky ideas. 3. Hire folks new to the problems you typically solve.

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This year, the best Holiday love story can't be found on Hallmark... Or Netflix. Or Hulu. You'll find it right here in Ad land. Etsy has packed more feeling into this 60-second slice of heaven than any city slicker mucking it up in a ranch can muster. Bringing to life Waldo's existential crisis during the holiday season is an incredible way to reinforce the idea that personalized gifts are simply the best gifts. We all believe that we know Waldo. Just as a gift giver may think, they know, generally, what a certain person wants for Christmas. All of the algorithms and website drop-down menus have categorized everything for us: If you are a 5-year-old girl, you should buy her X. If you are a 40-year-old Dad, you should buy him Y. If you are a high-school teenager, you should buy them Z. But who are these people individually? Focus on that, and create something great at Etsy. Check out how Etsy is teed up for a strong Holiday season, in our latest (US) report here: https://lnkd.in/gyrbPjTs And while we are at it, Netflix, have you made a bid for the rights yet? I share #Marketing & #Advertising Holiday season musings; follow for more. We are tracking ALL the Ads day by day. Brad Minor Orchard Jon Evans Andrew Tindall Jess M. Genevieve Norris Freddie Laughton Melissa Rosenthal Colin Jenkinson Bruce Bickerton Hallmark Media Netflix Hulu The Walt Disney Company

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Brit Morin, Jessica E. Lessin, Sam Lessin and Dave Morin had a really interesting conversation on a podcast this week about media businesses, the tribulations of the The Washington Post and how it's losing piles of money and subs. The discussion dipped into something Chris Anderson coined 20 years ago, perhaps before their time, called "long tail" content. Essentially his thesis called on creators to hyper-focus only on their niche, becoming the expert in hacking heat pumps or the best practices of dog grooming. Now, I'm one of those always looking to appeal to the broadest audience possible so naturally I've pushed against this framework, considering it too limiting. Then I met and worked under Robert Allbritton at POLITICO, where in spite of many in the company not on board with the philosophy, he talked about starting the company to deliver value to a sliver of the audience: those most powerful in the halls of government and soup of politics (and charge significant money for it). Needless to say it was a winning approach, because it's unlikely Axel Springer paid a billion dollars a few years ago for the ad-supported general news side of the house - as terrific as that content is. It was the subscription "Pro" product that overdelivered to that wonky sliver. And while the chatters on the pod did not say so, a similar strategy could well work for the Post: Turn 80% of the operation toward finding a little white space in the "political and policy makers" space, and become an absolute authority there ... and then, of course, license all that to the LLMs ;-) (But that's a story for another post.)

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I’ve never really told you all what I actually do for a living, so here you go Pisgah Peaks Ventures builds & manages fractional marketing team for SMBs that are doing under 10-15 M ARR. The teams could be anywhere from 2 to 20+ individuals. Hiring for PT marketing roles can be a big drain on small businesses. They're unsure of who to hire, how to train, and they def don't want to manage them. This keeps costs in check (no office space here!) + avoids costly benefits / W2 wages. Perfect clients for us? B2B companies with 1-2 internal marketing team members Dispensaries with 2-5 locations. Soloprenuers who are scaling from 6 > 7 figures. A few years ago we started investing into other small businesses & at this point have equity in a handful of other SMBs. The goal? By 45; be able to live off the proceeds of our portfolio and golf 4X a week. To my network.... Tell us What do you do? Why do you do it? Post in the comments!

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After a brief summer reprieve, I'm digging back into the content game. Seeing so much lately about the importance of investing in the brand, making it authentic, direct response (or programmatic or performance marketing - pick your term) vs brand marketing. It seems the general thought leadership out there is we swung too far to performance marketing, moved too far away from brand marketing (one author even articulated performance marketing as "renting customers from Meta and Google") and companies are starting to see the impact. I absolutely could not agree more. As a marketing leader I have been guilty of this myself, but when I really dig into why, the answer is simple: The uphill battle for a marketing leader to convince CEOs who don't understand marketing (and there are plenty of them) and CFOs who are focused on ROI and quarterly goals, that brand marketing is a valuable investment, oh but you won't see the return in quarter or even possibly within year, is steep. And that's putting it mildly. Find me a CEO who understands the importance, wants to make the investment, is willing to use performance indicators as a gauge of its success rather than revenue, and has the patience to wait it out - that is a CEO I want to work with. #brandmarketing #performancemarketing

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Now that curation has earned its way into more and more programmatic circles, it's only fitting that Pesach Lattin has dived into the question "are all data curation solutions interchangeable?" Spoiler alert - they aren't, which makes this article a must read both those who are already capitalizing on curation and those just getting started. Drew Stein Audigent Ted Smith Greg Williams Jake Abraham Gina Cavallo Chris Meredith #data #curation #programmatic #programmaticdata

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Exactly — unique and fresh perspectives allow for innovative marketing strategies.

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Creator recos for my LI connections who cast & execute campaigns. Although my busy season is over, I know a lot of you are hurtling into the peak holiday campaign stretch -- when any day can bring a quick-turn ask you didn't see coming. We all love a diverse program with fresh faces/voices --but this season we also need super-professional/reliable partners. In the spirit of #ADCOLOR2024 I've made a list of Black woman influencers I've hired this year that check all the following boxes: Fast-turnaround / full-stack writing, production & editing skills / smart unique POVs / collaborative and accept feedback/ will never let you down. All yours for the outreach! List of handles w notes, links to their profiles in comments: @hannahmwright -- adds sunshine to a campaign. Reality TV bold-face-name with lots of follower interaction. Great at integrating brand messaging into upbeat lifestyle video formats. Also I can't overstate how awesome her rep Slash Management is. @wickdconfections - book her right away for any holiday decorating/baking program that needs Food Network-quality content.  Incredible artist who can create anyone's likeness on a cookie. Has appeared on food TV multiple times. Professional educator and woman in STEM. @yourstruly_thehensleys - A diamond tucked away in northern Michigan . Hilarious, wholesome family comedy from a self-repped macro who has a big squad of mom creators that will show up to do collabs. Her car vlogs are inspired. @doniaduchess -- NAACP Award-winning, 2x Emmy nominated broadcast TV producer/host. She's a one-woman powerhouse who can research, concept, shoot and edit a video that's morning news quality, in 24 hours. @barbiebrains -- an intellectual heavy-hitter who's equally able to do glam and style. Her expertise is unique in my history of creator sourcing: Double degrees in Neuroscience History and Sociology of Science from Upenn. Channel is a mix of health policy, history and HMU tutorials.  @brittfusilier -- A pharmacist with a healthy macro IG lifestyle channel that's grown steadily over a decade, Dr. Fusilier is brand-safe, socially savvy, and practiced at integrating a brand message into a polished mom-lifestyle video (she has 4 daughters). @dariarosereal -- Yale Law graduate who excels at sociocultural explainer videos and presents like a beauty/personal care influencer. Great for deep-dives into complex topics. Put her in front of your pickiest policy, academia, CSR clients. @clarabelletoks -- Wickedly funny satirist who flips the script on gender and race microaggressions. You've likely seen at least one of her videos, as they often go viral. Selective about partnerships, but a great get for a woman-centering org or brand in the health, education, arts or business space. Shower them with well-paid contracts please, #influencermarketing pros!

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Yes, I've started adding the "award-winning" descriptor to every relevant mention of this amazing marketing team and yours truly. You know that feeling when you've just survived production hell, you step back and take in the totality of what you all have conceived and managed to bring to life. You think, "It's done. And it's good!" Then you see the results and think "It worked!" Your colleagues agree, and usually, that's enough to carry the momentum into the next thing. And the next thing. And so on. Therein lies the challenge for high-performance teams. We yearn for the recognition, but the production cycle keeps turning. So I'm incredibly grateful to Evi Loveres--truly one of the most talented creative professionals in the industry--for breaking the cycle and championing this opportunity. In case you don't feel like clicking the link, Fictiv's annual State of Manufacturing report is my favorite campaign (and a beast of a project.) "State of Manufacturing is an in-depth annual report published by Fictiv to demonstrate its leadership and expertise in the manufacturing industry. Last year's report was generated by surveying over 240 leaders in engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, and product development to identify developing trends and gather key insights. These insights were packaged as a landing page, ebook/printed piece and was supported with an integrated campaign consisting of email, webinar, live panel discussion at a trade show, PR, and various social media promotions." Go ahead and click that link for a selection of creative assets developed for this comprehensive campaign. Results (June 2023 - April 2024) - Potential reach: 209.4M - 688 backlinks from 46 referring domains - 7K website users (4.7K new) - 600+ e-book downloads - 375 webinar registrants This campaign would not have been possible without my award-winning 😉 colleagues: Christine Evans, Michael Gorman, Evi Loveres, Varun Mehta, John Honey, Jenn Miller, Kaitlyn Silva 🏆

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I recently had the pleasure of introducing two all-stars who have started to make magic together, first up on the "What's Your Story?" podcast. Here are a few takeaways from their conversation: - **Creativity Transcends Industries:** Devo Harris’ journey from music production to tech innovation is a masterclass in what can happen when you are curious and flexible to change. - **Vision and Collaboration:** Devo’s superpower of "seeing around corners" and bringing unique perspectives together to achieve greatness is a skill I’ve seen first hand at Adventr. - **Power of Storytelling:** Both Devo and Matt Story emphasized the impact of storytelling in making meaningful connections and driving change. Devo’s story to not “assume that this opportunity belongs to someone else" resonated too. Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gWGGtqNV #Leadership #Innovation #Storytelling #Podcast #Creativity #Tech

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Six months into parenthood, I’ve become increasingly aware of the presence of what I call ‘Just Waiters’, and while they’re common in parenting conversations, they pop up all throughout your education and professional life too. These are folks who hear that something is going well, and would prefer for you to trade today’s joy for tomorrow’s stress. Oh you’re enjoying being a new father? Just wait until they’re toddlers, it gets way harder. Just wait until you have more than one to look after…Just wait until they’re teenagers…Just wait until they want nothing to do with you… Thinking about how this plays out during other phases of life: Oh you’re doing well in high school? Just wait until college, it gets way harder. Oh you’re enjoying college? Just wait until you have a real job. Oh you’re enjoying your job? Just wait until you get laid off, or have a bad manager, or your industry slows down…or…. Just wait? No thanks, I’ll do my living right now.

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50% Stock Value Snapped. Here is the CEO explanation: “You may be wondering why, with all of the progress we’ve made in our business over the last year, our share price performance has lagged the overall market,” Spiegel wrote Tuesday in the letter. “The answer is simple: our advertising business is growing slower than our competitors.” Snap, which is known for its Snapchat disappearing photo app, competes with Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok, which are popular with young people and have larger advertising businesses. “ To serve more Ads Snap will have to figure out new ways to attract and retain youth on their platform… and you can guess what is going to happen… #socialmedia #advertising

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I've been thinking about this hot take on the agency model since Stephanie McCarty's post went viral last month. She's absolutely not wrong that agencies need to stop selling things clients don't want or need. But of course I have my own counterpoint and my reason for why Ervin & Smith doesn't even fall into her definition of "agency." One of the four key principles in our approach to work with our client partners is that we don't duplicate work. If a you have the research, brand platform and expertise to know and verbalize your vision and strategy, great! But those folks generally aren't the best fit for our firm. We most often work with executives who are lacking marketing expertise (usually in the form of a CMO like McCarty). So that's often our first big task: helping CEOs, COOs and their teams define their vision and positioning in a way that will allow marketing to help them reach their goals. I guess I'm saying, I agree with the idea that agencies should LISTEN to what clients actually need. And if strategy, research and vision is already handled, well for goodness' sake, stop trying to sell it to them again! But for those of you who don't have a CMO and need some help filling in the marketing expertise gap in your c-suite...well, you know where to find us. https://lnkd.in/gi2Jm4gT

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Liquid Death and YETI recently collabed on a...casket But I'm willing to bet that move drove much more than the $68k final bid for both of them Stop for a second and imagine the "data-driven" CFO from my last post being pitched this concept by the marketing team. Either the CFO would have an aneurysm or the marketing team would be fired on the spot. CFO: “You’re telling me you want to put this money into building ONE cooler and creating an over-priced commercial about it!? GET OUT OF MY OFFICE, NOW!” But during the one week that this “auction campaign” ran, it took over the internet by storm. I have no idea about the data behind it, but in looking at just a few posts from Liquid Death, YETI, and team members of those organizations, I see tens of thousands of likes and thousands more comments and shares. So this means on LinkedIn alone, they had HUNDREDS of thousands of organic (free) impressions. This doesn’t even begin to touch on all of the media pickups this got from outlets like AdAge, ADWEEK, Food & Wine, local news stations, and more. I would be willing to bet that the number of earned impressions this campaign got was easily in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions. Not to mention that it also sold for a casual $68,200…. No clue what their budget was when going about this. But here’s the math I’m running through my head: 💰 Total budget to build casket, film commercial, etc. was less than final bid of $68,200, meaning they were ROI positive on this alone 💰 Total earned media was likely in the ballpark of what would’ve cost at least $0.5-1.5 million in ad spend dollars to reach that same amount 💰 Unattributable amount of additional revenue generated for Liquid Death and YETI for purchases of their other products by people who learned about them (or were reminded about them) through this PR stunt So to that CFO who doesn’t like the data-informed risk-takers on their team, and only makes investments based on "data-driven" historical data… Maybe being so "data-driven" isn’t the best answer 🤷‍♂️ - - - - - - - - - - This past weekend I dove into an example of what it means to be data-driven vs. data-informed in my newsletter: samkuehnle [dot] substack [dot] com/p/why-im-not-data-driven

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One key observation I’ve taken away from this election—and have been sharing with founders, non-profit executives, and leadership team members—is the fundamental shift we’ve seen in media consumption and the growing importance of personal digital platforms. This week’s episode of Scott Galloway’s No Mercy / No Malice podcast does a great job of breaking down the mechanics behind this shift. ✅ Note: These mechanics go beyond politics and are applicable across the business world. I highly recommend checking out this episode and asking your marketing partner for a plan to invest in both the medium and in the digital footprint of your leadership team. ⤵️

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In light of the recent budget cuts affecting Seth Meyers' 8G Band, there has been an outpouring of support for the band and criticism of NBC for what some perceive as corporate greed. Others in the television industry blame the rise of streaming services for this decision. I think it's time to hold up a mirror. People vote with their wallets and their time every day. If you're upset about losing great creative talent, turn on your broadcast or cable TV. As another great late night talent would say... “meanwhile”, media companies have long trained their sales reps to chase digital dollars, I was working for them when it started, often at the expense of their flagship broadcast products. They mandated investments in digital and social media, cutting into their own margins and profits. They also facilitated the shift to streaming, despite the well-known instability of its monetization structure. As someone who invests in media to reach people where they are, and personally a lover of all media (new and “traditional”), I see this as yet another moment to reflect on our habits as we see the media landscape shift. It's on us to change our habits. By supporting traditional media platforms, we can help create a media ecosystem that better supports its creators. And for media companies - stop it with chasing sales for the sake of sales and focus on selling the value you have. Your people. For broadcast companies selling Facebook campaigns, as just one example, you’re just lining someone else’s pocket.

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One great way to encourage people to buy an additional SKU of your product? Release a limited edition that’s too intriguing, on trend, impossible not to try - i.e. Oreo’s with Sour Patch Kids, and lemon chiffon Kit Kats. It’s something food companies have done in the past to either revive their brand, or gain new attention, but it’s incredibly popular right now, as retailers vie for TikTok placements, YouTube reviews and anything to get people talking. I remember launching a Pokemon cereal 20 years ago, when I was at Kellogg’s… thinking it was going to be an “in & out”, but it lasted for years due to popularity of the anime series. And it was a fun cereal. The coolest extensions I’ve seen are in mayonnaise: sriracha mayo, yes. Olive oil mayo, yes. Chipotle mayo, absolutely… Brands are also desperate for shrinking shelf space. NielsenIQ found that over the past 13 years, square footage in supercenters, supermarkets, dollar stores, and drug stores has decreased, creating less space for products and more competition to earn that real estate. Consumers have short attention spans, they want to get in and out, and they tend to use online search to figure out what and where they want to make their purchases. Ecommerce is booming, of course, but it’s harder for a brand to stand out. New flavors provide relevance/news on your products, as long as you have a way to prompt users to search for them. That’s the importance of having an omnnichannel strategy that includes special/in & out products.

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