BIG QUESTIONS
Have you considered inspiring your audience?
Humor is a tried-and-true way for marketers to get attention, connect, and coax audiences to lower their guard. A less common, but equally powerful way to do that is to tell stories about deeper values, aspirations, and desires. Patagonia, for example, has this uplifting and inspirational ad about just letting kids be kids. Nike has a long history of telling stories that evoke the eternal hope, raw ambition, and unrelenting persistence of our athletic selves. But many marketers these days eschew inspiration for clicks and sales. It’s a stream of 5% off coupons, free trials, and exaggerated promises. And, sure, short-term techniques do have their place. But perhaps too much of marketing today is focused on quick quantifiable results at the expense of deeper relationships. The kind of relationships that can be forged when you invite your audience to partake in the emotional helium of hope and experience your brand’s version of a beautiful, universal dream. Seems we could all use a dose of that right about now.
TOOL JOY
Google Notebook LM: This is your brain on really good drugs
Every once in a while we have a “Holy Cow” moment where a new tool takes our breath away. Originally called “Project Tailwind,” Google’s Notebook LM had exactly that effect. One year old and 4.5 million visits a month, the Gemini 2.0-led product lets you plug in multiple sources (PDFs, G-docs, web urls, etc.) then quickly analyzes them, summarizes it all, lets you ask questions, and delivers key points – with inline citations along the way. If you prefer to learn on the go, you can have it generate a short podcast where two very life-like AI bots chew the fat about every facet of your source material. It’s a mindblower. Here’s an 18-minute podcast we created comparing the in-house agency model to external shops. Give it a listen!
DESIGN WE ❤️
Dropbox brand guidelines
Every once in a while, you come across an artifact that is so well done and thoughtfully designed, you can’t help but feel a sense of awe, and perhaps a twinge of jealousy. The Dropbox brand guidelines website have this effect. It hits all the marks: it’s elegant and functional, comprehensive and intuitive. The scroll based animation isn’t just eye candy, it really serves to elucidate the logic and sophisticated design thinking behind every aspect of the Dropbox brand. These guidelines have set a new standard against which we will be comparing all others. Game on.
BEEP BOOP
Time to upskill? According to a new World Economic Forum survey, the next 5 years will see 170 million new jobs created by macro trends (e.g. AI). Meanwhile, 92 million will be displaced (many due to AI). Here are the jobs of the future.
The crowd goes wild: Verizon super plans for Super Bowl LIX. They’re inviting actual non-ridiculously-rich people into their local stadiums around the country to experience the big game on the big day itself – live music, food, $20 beers, sticky floors and all. Touchdown!
Californians too biased for Meta? Homeskillet Mark Zuckerberg says he’s moving Trust, Safety & Content Moderation from California to Texas saying, “As we work to promote free expression, I think it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams.” ?
Sad face emoji: American’s enthusiasm for their jobs just fell to a 10-year low. Wuh wah…
SPECIAL FEATURE
Meet Pinwheel’s new writer/editor Kim Porter
We’re thrilled to announce that Kim Porter has joined the Pinwheel Editorial Team as a Content Writer/Editor working on articles, guides, case studies, and so on.
Kim brings a wealth of writing/editing experience from Bankrate, Credit Karma, Experian, LendingClub, Insurify, and US News & World Report. Upon completing her grad degree in journalism, her crash course on personal finance began when faced with a $10K credit card bill. From clearing that debt to helping her husband crush $145K in student loans, Kim discovered a passion for helping people make smarter financial decisions. She now leads personal finance seminars and is working to get her financial planning accreditation.
Kim has written hundreds of articles (many for Pinwheel clients as a contractor), baked “too many cookies” (ahem… no such thing), traveled to 26 countries, and ran half marathons on three continents. She lives in the Boston metro area with her husband and young daughter.
WORD TO THE WISE
“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”
James Clear, Author, speaker and entrepreneur
WHAT CLIENTS WANT
4 ways to grow your brand’s newsletter list
- Promote gated content: Release a juicy report, guide, or cheat sheet and put it behind the email gate. Then put it on a cost-per-lead demand-gen platform like Audyance to target your ideal customer.
- Encourage referrals: Create a newsletter referral program where one referral unlocks a digital product, download, discount, or entry into a contest. Then promote the program on the newsletter.
- Do a swap: Offer an ad spot in your newsletter to another, complimentary newsletter that goes to the same or similar audience. Or, instead of an ad spot, it can be a recommendation coming from your brand and theirs.
- Guest post: Similar to the swap above, trade guest posts with a complimentary newsletter – linking to content.
ICEBREAKER
What is the next skill you want to learn?
Todd: AI prompting techniques for visuals. It’s a fascinating marriage of writing and visual thinking and I think it’s going to push me to learn a lot more about design and the visual arts.
Melissa: Embroidery. I used to needlepoint – and I knit. But I want to master embroidery so I can make amazing things like my mom used to make.
Kim: I plan to practice Spanish and help my daughter learn it!
Jason: Chess. I was thinking this would be a fun activity for the family to learn together. I received the idea from an article that talked about ideas to unplug.
Sarah: Improving my surfing skills. Duck dives, turtle rolls, and perfecting my pop up are all on the list for the winter surf season.
John: There are too many to list, so here are my top 2: continue to improve my Catalan (amb aquesta dat, va molt poc a poc, stia santa!); get back into painting (to counter the glut of AI-generated sludge oozing out of every corner of the interwebs).
Laura: One of my best friends and I have committed to use the next four years to learn Spanish together. Languages don’t come naturally to me, so having a “buddy” is going to help a lot.
Marielle: As a creative storyteller, I’m pushing myself to learn two things very far outside my wheelhouse: the game of bridge and personal finance. Excited to stretch my brain, and – ironically – rewrite the story I tell myself.
FALLACIES, PARADOXES & THEORIES…OH MY
The Plateau of Latent Potential
Popularized by author James Clear, this describes the period when your effort to achieve a goal (or improve a skill) doesn’t immediately yield the kind of results you were expecting. This often leads to frustration, disappointment, and quitting. But if you stick with it, prioritize the act of doing over the idea of achieving, and create systems and processes to facilitate your goals, then you will eventually enjoy that hockey stick of awesomeness (our term). Let’s face it, sometimes the progress you’re making isn’t obvious or visible. It’s happening under the surface. This is true for companies as well as people. For example, if you’re testing a marketing strategy or tactic, don’t take the initial result as the final result. Keep at it and see where it leads you.
