Don’t believe everything you read online, kid. But, you can bet on these:

Do you want to be popular or be better?

Marketing plans are very similar to planning a trip; telling you where you’ve been, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. Just as an airplane follows a certain path to get you to your destination, a marketing plan must also track its progress to ensure you’ll arrive at your final destination.

Every good marketing plan clearly outlines objectives so your team can look back on the year and say, “We got where we wanted to go.” After all, no one starts a race without knowing where the finish line is.

It’s a big, big, blog world out there folks. And if you, your company, or both are not actively in the blogosphere, stop doing what you're doing right now – and get your blog on.

Advertising and marketing awards are often painted by detractors as an exercise in vanity. After all, we don’t work for awards. We work for the best possible outcomes for our clients. So, why should we worry about earning awards at all?  

There used to be a very methodical way to plan out a year at an agency. Towards the end of third quarter you would start presenting plans for the new calendar year. Clients would know their entire budget for the next year and give agencies the opportunity to plan a full year’s worth of media at once. This allowed for great negotiating power but stagnant buys. Good agencies would shift the plan based on opportunity throughout the year, bad agencies would sit back and just let it run.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, companies marketed their goods and services by jumping on their soapbox to convince people why they needed to buy from them. “We’re bigger!” “We’re better!” “We have the latest and greatest!” Those companies that could shout the loudest or the longest were usually the winners.

The Burger King is so cool, he’s probably getting a big head. In the past few months, he’s been part of Floyd Mayweather’s entourage, and also landed a seat in Bob Baffert’s (American Pharoah’s trainer) box at the Belmont. That’s some serious publicity for the pop culture icon that’s more than just a mascot for the fast-food chain.

These days’ consumers are interested in how companies interact with the world around them. They wonder if brands truly deliver on the promises that they make or if, maybe, just maybe, those words are just words.

By 2020, millennials will account for 1/3rd of the adult population. Understanding the wants and needs of the millennial customer will be critical to the future of utility marketing. Compared to older generations, millennials are more socially conscious, with 83% distrusting large corporations.