Nick Susi

“Inclusive design recognizes and embraces the diversity of users to create universally accessible products and services. Real representation means integrating Latine professionals into decision-making roles, from the C-suite to product design, not just for appearances but for their valuable perspectives that can lead to more informed, culturally relevant decisions.” I reshared a post a few days ago and it spun up some offline conversations into the profound impact of truly inclusive design around every industry. So, I put my thoughts into an article to make it make sense from a business perspective. This isn’t just another article on DEI—it’s about essential business innovations that are reshaping our industry. This conversation is more than necessary; it’s urgent. We need to ensure that Latine and Hispanic perspectives are included not as part of a checkbox exercise but as a core strategy to drive genuine innovation and growth. It’s not just about surviving the market changes—it’s about leading them. Check out the full the article linked here: https://lnkd.in/eJrmk8PX #InclusiveDesign #LatineRepresentation #BusinessInnovation #latinasintech #hispanic #innovation #marketing #operations #businessoperations #design #ux #marketshare

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STORY vs. CONTENT The word "content" gets tossed around so much that it’s lost its meaning—especially when it comes to video work supporting a brand. But here’s the thing: the term "content" doesn’t do justice to the power video has in communicating a brand’s story. Consider this: 72% of people prefer to learn about and buy from brands through video rather than text-based ads. Video content improves message retention by 95%, compared to just 10% for other mediums. 84% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand after watching professional, high-quality video. The real magic? Video taps into emotions, which is crucial in building trust and creating genuine rapport with your audience. It’s more than just content—it's about telling a story that resonates. At Blue Oak Productions, this is the driving force behind our work. "Your brand is your story. Tell it well." It’s time to move beyond generic content and focus on creating videos that connect, engage, and inspire. Let's rethink how we talk about "content" and aim for something more meaningful. #BrandStorytelling #Videography #CustomerEngagement #BrandBuilding #VideoMarketing

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Monsters, evil puppets, masked killers, Super Hero’s, and animated characters create the best opportunities for shareable IRL Activations. Good opportunity to go viral with your marketing. #movie #marketing #IRL #activation #film #tv #viral #earnedmedia #digital #social

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You remember this Spider-Man drawing meme from a few years back? https://lnkd.in/gXwXApdd You know, the one that shows the level of quality you get when you give an artist 10 minutes vs. 1 minute vs. 10 seconds? I remember when it started doing the rounds, a lot of creative types used it as an example of how much worse their work is when it's rushed vs. when they get enough time to truly ideate. What's funny is, this isn't even the best depiction of that. Imagine instead if you started by giving someone 10 seconds to draw a *brand new* superhero — one that doesn't already exist. My guess is the result would go something like "Uhhhmmmmm.... I dunnnoo.... (hastily scribbles rough silhouette with a cape)". Then give them 1 min and watch more detail get added. And then 10 and watch really rich character and story elements emerge. I see this a lot in organizations that put a premium on sprints and MVPs. It's one thing to put time constraints on refinement, evolution and optimization of an idea. It's another to rush the ideation itself. That's typically not a good recipe for innovation, since (as my example illustrates) when people are rushed, they tend to regurgitate/replicate the familiar. There is something to be said for putting some time constraints on ideation as a generative exercise. And when facilitated with a focus on lateral connections sparking new combinations, there is a way to hack novelty at pace. But often the main value is in getting all the obvious ideas out of the way, and getting the gears turning in the back of brains to let time do its work of mental marination. Then the real gems that team members can't stop thinking about can be prototyped/MVP'd/etc. Have you seen rapid ideation produce novel concepts (in product, comms, org design, etc.)? Or has it tended to churn out ideas that feel like replications/regurgitations, logical/linear progressions and slight incremental improvements on what already exists? #innovation #creativity #ideation #agile #mvp #prototyping #poc

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Owning Intellectual property is powerful

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More news coming soon

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I've noticed a trend here lately among certain Creatives I follow. They take blue chip brands, (Nike etc) and dash off a quick "ad" (sometimes they say they did it "in their coffee break"). I'm not sure what their strategy is because these "ads" are usually terrible and completely off brand, so they are not exactly putting their best foot forward if new business is the goal. What's more, they make it seem like it is real work for real clients. (Although I will say, they get a ton of positive responses that all sound kind of the same) My real beef is that they are diminishing the real work that goes into creating advertising that actually motivates people into some kind of action around a brand. There is strategy, insight, brand knowledge, and more, that is assembled by professionals. To me it all comes across like this video I apologize in advance for sharing. I mean, it's SOMETHING, but it sure misses the mark compared to the original. https://lnkd.in/gRwfi8MV

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For producers like myself, practice is essential. And then practicing more is important. You're doing a lot to produce a live stream. You are seamlessly managing the visual aspects of a live stream while engaging with the run-of-show document, monitoring the internal comms, and ensuring the stream is running smoothly. I was recently featured as a speaker for an event to talk about productivity tools. For once, I was IN FRONT of the screen. It was my turn to go LIVE, and then.... looped audio with an echo. Oops, there was an audio issue that was happening LIVE. I couldn't do much because I wasn't in charge of the live stream. We got it sorted out quickly. So, this is your reminder. Practice, practice, practice... AND have a backup plan too! #bepresent #production #livestreaming

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The latest research from Yieldmo, cooked up with Ascendant Network, gives us a peek into adland’s relationship status with AI, and it’s complicated. While 62% of industry execs now feel comfortable inviting AI into the creative sandbox, they’re still keeping a tight leash, needing detailed playbooks to avoid any runaway algorithms. The study dives into insights from agency and brand bigwigs, revealing their cautious dance with AI. Many are letting AI test a handful of pre-approved assets, optimizing them for performance, but—surprise!—no one’s quite ready to let it fly solo. Brand custodians, it seems, still want the final say. There’s no full autonomy for AI yet; it’s more like a supervised internship. “The media landscape has been fundamentally altered as machine learning and generative AI start making waves,” noted Lisa Bradner, Yieldmo’s Chief Strategy Officer. “Many marketers feel that while AI’s potential is tantalizing, it’s still something we need to wrangle carefully to leverage it across our operations effectively.” Bradner’s sentiments capture the industry’s cautious optimism: AI might be powerful, but it’s also a bit of a wild card. Yieldmo is stepping in to help with its new “Six Steps for Creative Generation and Performance Optimization”—a framework that promises to bring AI’s potential to life while keeping things human-first. The steps, which read a bit like an AI etiquette guide, include leveling up internal AI knowledge, setting performance goals, and benchmarking AI assets against traditional creative. And of course, there’s a friendly reminder to “keep a human in the loop”—as Yieldmo puts it, “guardrails are for toddlers learning to bowl, but they’re also essential when AI’s involved.” One exec in the study, preferring to remain anonymous, summed up the learning curve with a laugh: “I’ll let AI optimize a creative, sure—but only after it’s survived my ‘good taste’ test. If AI starts recommending neon gradients, it’s back to the drawing board.” With Yieldmo’s new framework in hand, it’s clear the industry isn’t quite ready to let AI run the show unsupervised—but if it behaves, it might just be allowed to stay. Michael Yavonditte Rick Eaton Teddy Jawde Lindsey DiGiorgio Brad Burnham Michael A. Fazio

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When I was CD at Creative Asylum, we had a very UN-digital process of tracking the hundreds of spots we needed to deliver for a campaign. The best part was when it was all over and we tore down the lists and piled into the Cat and Fiddle bar for some well-deserved adult beverages and Scotch eggs. #Creativity, #CreativeDirection,#CreativeAgencies, #Consulting,#Consultation, #SubscriptionBusiness,#DesignThinking, #Branding,#Marketing, #Innovation

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I don't typically post about my former activism, but today X announced that it was suing GARM, an advertising industry group dedicated to brand safety. It is bullshit. I know because I was threatened with the same lawsuit. Back in 2018, when I was running Sleeping Giants, Breitbart, an influential blog run by Steve Bannon, tried to sue me for tortious interference. Not quite the antitrust case that X is bringing, but it was filed for the same reason. All we had done was show advertisers, ironically via Twitter (now X), the actual content on which their ads were running. Over 4,000 advertisers backed out. Breitbart was obviously not happy, so they sent a letter notifying me that they were filing suit and asking me to preserve any and all documents between me and a number of people and organizations that had literally nothing to do with our organization. My attorney, R. James Slaughter, the greatest attorney on this green earth, sent them a note back asking them to preserve any and all documents between them, their funder Robert Mercer, the Trump campaign, and Steve Bannon, among others. We never heard back from them and the suit never made it to court. But the more important piece of his reply was that I was covered by the First Amendment. I was, of course, able to voice my opinion on their content and ask advertisers if they supported what I believed to be racist, sexist and bigoted content. I was also allowed to post screenshots of their own printed content. Advertisers, also protected by the First Amendment, were able to make their own choices that benefitted and protected their businesses. This case filed today is frivolous and I would imagine that Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino well know this. For a platform that purports to protect free speech (but often doesn't) they should understand that advertisers have a right to make up their minds about where their ad dollars go. If they don't want to appear next to posts from actual self-proclaimed Nazis, who are now allowed back on X, it is their right. If they just don't want to be on the platform because they think it hurts their brand overall, it's their right. If they don't want to be on the platform because it's not worth the cost, it's also their right. I can tell you exactly how this suit is going to go. X will lose. But the goal is to both bankrupt GARM and scare advertisers into HAVING to advertise on their platform, and I hope that does not come to pass. As an industry, we are here to do what's best for the companies we work with and for. Any limits on that ability are truly anti-free speech. We can and should advertise in the places we feel work for us and our customers. Such is the First Amendment. You can sue all you want, but the rights you claim to protect for your users also protect your critics. You can't have it both ways.

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The Next Generation Is Not Watching TV," the MrBeast team wrote in many of the pitches. "Traditional media reach older audiences. Next gen consumers have drastically shifted to digital media — and specifically digital creators." Clear. Concise. Honest. YouTube is taking over. TikTok is taking over. The Gatekeepers are losing control. Creatives are now in charge of their own destiny. Brands are now able to create their own entertainment and distribution models. #film #entertainment #business #brandedcontent

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3 more days to vote for my talks to be at #SXSW25 1. Go to Panel Picker at SXSW com. 2. Search for "Ethan Decker". 3. Choose your favorite. Or your least favorite (spitevote). Or all of them. Get a hotel STAT bc that stuff sells out quick. BTW my talk topics: 1. What AI is NOT going to change in marketing. 2. The new science (& art) of going viral. Co-presented with Victoria Carrington-Chávez. 3. How to present data like a boss, not a bore.

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Some Friday reading. Interestingly, some news sites opted out of being included in Google's SGE, but with this, as news gets posted on Reddit, that information will get pulled into real-time ChatGPT answers. Among other seems, it seems like one way to work around that issue since news sites like WaPo post their own news stories on Reddit and often copy/paste the first parts of their stories as the top comment on the post. "Reddit gets access to OpenAI’s tech for building AI features, and OpenAI gets real-time access to Reddit posts that feed into ChatGPT" https://lnkd.in/ehizPz6E

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The brief to Mischief @ No Fixed Address two years ago was to have people ask, “wait, WTF is Tubi?” And then go find out about it. Before the streaming service debuted at Super Bowl 2023, many didn’t know what Tubi was or what it did—despite the app already being on most smart TVs. Some actually thought it was a virus of sorts or even a scam, with a prompt Google search of “is Tubi legit?”. Mischief’s been helping Tubi build its brand ever since. Today, it is the most-watched free movie and TV show service in America. It reaches more than 80 million viewers every month and accounts for 2.1% of all TV content consumed. It outranks the likes of Paramount+, HBO, Apple TV+ in terms of viewership. And it even tied with Disney+ recently. Because of its popularity, people have a hard time believing it’s free (more than 60% don’t know it is). #marketing #creativity

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