BIG QUESTIONS
Does your brand deliver meaning?
You’re at a beer festival and come across a big sign from a brewer that says, “Shout out your bitterness and we’ll replace it with ours.” There’s a mouth-sized opening right on the sign. Intrigued, you scream into it until your throat burns. Suddenly, out pops an ice-cold, delicious, and very bitter can of beer. Farnham, the brewer, could have simply given its beers away for free. But by attaching that gift to a joyful, cathartic encounter, they also delivered meaning. Your brain has “encoded” that experience and is therefore changed by it. Because when our brain encodes things, it’s strengthening connections between different neurons – thus reinforcing a pattern. And it’s a pattern that can be recalled and reexperienced. In this way, Farnham encoded its brand of (bitter) beer into the minds of its audiences. When you, as a marketer, are striving to build your brand (through interactive experiences or not), this is really what you’re trying to do: deliver meaning that creates a pattern in their minds. Then, as you reinforce that pattern over time, it defines and solidifies your brand.
TOOL JOY
The quiet, shy, introverted AI notetaker
In one sense, the act of taking notes is what helps you process and remember the meeting. Then again, sometimes notetaking can distract you from the conversation itself. AI notetaker Granola AI could be the remedy for that. Easy, accurate, and integrates with major meeting platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Teams. Importantly, it doesn’t join your calls as a bot. It just sits quietly on your desktop, transcribing audio. When you join a call, a pop-up appears asking if you’d like to transcribe the call. Otherwise, it’s like it’s not even there.
DESIGN WE ❤️
New cereal flavors concepts
Humor can be a very effective tool in questioning things we often take for granted, like the dubious claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that a quick and easy bowl of cereal is a valid way of ticking that box. That’s why we love this LinkedIn post by Garth Manthé, showcasing some adventurous new cereal flavors. Using clever package design, these mock-ups make the prospect of ingesting WD-40 or toothpaste a lot less repulsive than they might otherwise be, which is a testament to the power of packaging and food advertising, a major global industry. When you think about it, is it really that different to enjoy a bowl of Marlboro Smoky Corn Puffs versus the tricalcium phosphate, high fructose corn syrup and myriad other highly processed chemicals found in so many popular breakfast foods? Food for thought…
PINWHEEL ANNOUNCEMENT
Melissa Harris, Partner/Client Services & Operations
Melissa is the high-strength, fast-bond superglue that holds our small agency together. An award-winning video producer, author, UX/UI designer, and agency ops guru, she’s worn more hats here than we have hat hooks. So once it was time to grow (and grow we have), it was obvious she needed to be a big part of it. We’re thrilled to announce her new role as Pinwheel’s Partner/Client Services & Operations.?
BEEP BOOP
Act now! Check out 10 different categories of calls to action here. Get ’em while they’re hot!
That’ll teach ’em: Based on a survey of 1,007 employees across industries, 28% expect to see revenge quitting – resignations driven by workplace frustrations – at their workplace in 2025.
A googol of Googling: The average American searches Google an average of 126 times per month. Total Google searches per year is ~5.9 trillion. Still verrrry relevant for marketers.
? ? ? Emojis are nimble creatures. They can be used to make statements or add nuance, express emotion or an idea, and substitute for physical gestures, objects, or emotions. They can do practically anything. ?
Dance, Wiggleman, Dance: The new iPhone 16e has a fun little TV spot featuring (as Family Guy’s Peter Griffin calls it) that “wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man” dancing his heart out to Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s new song “Talk.”
WORD TO THE WISE
“Visual consistency is less about guidelines or creating matching luggage and more about creating an energy – a consistency of energy.”
Danilo Boer, CCO, FCB Global
WHAT CLIENTS WANT
14 thought-starters for acquisition marketing
- Launch a new feature as a stand-alone product (e.g., Slack Huddles, Uber Eats, Zoom Whiteboard).
- Make your landing pages more interactive.
- Put your sign-up form over a dimmed UI (e.g., Mine).
- Study your competitors’ tactics with Google Dorking.
- Offer a free prize inside (a free gift of any kind).
- Offer concierge migration from their old provider to you.
- Give immediate in-person demos instead of scheduling them for later (our client Stripe does this).
- Cut the number of choices (and any degree of complexity) from the customer experience flow.
- Launch a comparison page that puts the competition in a whole different category.
- Include social proof early in the prospect journey.
- Use recent interactions as hooks for personalized email outreach (e.g., “we noticed…”).
- Directly approach unhappy competitors’ customers found via review sites.
- Deploy scarcity tactics like discounts or limited availability.
- Build a playground for testing your product without signing up.
ICEBREAKER
If you could go back in time and change your college major, what would you change it to?
Melissa: Honestly – I wouldn’t. I double majored in Environmental Science and Latin American Studies (ask me about my undergrad thesis) with a minor in Religion. I loved what I studied!
Todd: Sociology. I double majored in Political Science and Communications. But given the (cough) times we live in today, I’d rather have a better understanding of how groups/societies behave and how social change works.
Laura: I majored in Journalism and loved it, but if I had to do it over again, I’d do a double major in Psychology and Science Writing/Communication.
Marielle: I absolutely love what I do, but sometimes I wish I had pushed past my fear of the math prerequisites for med school. I think I’d be a good doctor.
Jason: My major wasn’t the most enjoyable (Economics), but provided me with a great business foundation. I enjoyed the Political Science and Psychology classes and always wanted to take more.
Sarah: Advertising. Wouldn’t change the major, but do regret the decision to graduate a year early. Then again, “Class of 2000” still has a nice ring to it.
Kim: Nursing. Couldn’t be more different from my actual major/minor (Journalism and Asian Studies), but I think I’d make a great nurse.
John: I majored in Psychology with an emphasis on Cognitive Science, and wouldn’t change it. The human brain is the most fascinating and complex organized system in the known universe, and it’s amazing that we know so little about this thing we all have right behind our eyeballs.
FALLACIES, PARADOXES & THEORIES…OH MY
The Barnum Effect (oh, YOU are going to LOVE this!)
Named after the circus showman P.T. Barnum, this is a psychological phenomenon whereby people believe vague, general statements apply specifically to them, even though the statements could apply to anyone. Barnum was famous for his ability to captivate people with seemingly personalized (though general) experiences. Amazon uses this in its famous “You might also like…” recommendations, and it’s part of the appeal of Nike’s famous “Just do it” slogan (people personalize the “it,” inserting their own personal obstacle). StichFix uses it when sending clothing recommendations –“Hey Christine, we picked these styles just for you!” even though the styles are matched algorithmically and based on available inventory.
