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Mat is a partner at a global brand and marketing consultancy, with a background in creative and digital leadership. He has written essays, memoir and thought leadership for publications including AdAge, The Bark, Chelsea Now, eContent, Digiday, MarketingProfs, The Forward, Tablet and is an ongoing contributor to Forbes.com. He also is the host of his own podcast, Cidiot: Learning to Live and Love Life in the Hudson Valley.
By Mat Zucker published April 6, 2018 Content is a brand's currency to demonstrate relevance and, with emerging channels and interfaces like chat and voice, it's bringing brands closer to their customers. But to succeed, company-driven content needs a more strategic approach that rebuilds a brand's foundational and experiential elements.
Within just a few months living in New York's Hudson Valley, we stopped buying our eggs anywhere but Sawkill Farm down the road. "Your eggs are better than anyone's," I told Kallie who runs the store and who moved from Brooklyn not long ago herself.
I've been working in the digital sphere since 1994, so like most marketers, I've seen new channels constantly emerge and quickly dominate- web, podcasting, social, chat, apps. What is far less obvious is how channels themselves have changed in both our expectations for them, and their potential for brands.
Three years ago, I double-shifted a career change - from agency to consulting, and from creative direction to strategic advisor. While the move "upstream" (as I've heard it called) into consulting wasn't as jarring, as say, starting a business or becoming a farmer, the day-to-day job is quite different from my days as a copywriter or creative director.
I've been writing website copy since I started out at FCB in 1994. One of my earliest assignments was for Nabisco, which became one of the first brands to launch a corporate web site. For the creative concept, we decided to turn the digital experience into a virtual town you could explore.
In her two-year life, our Shepherd/Labrador mix, Nora Ephron, has already enjoyed a rich, diverse set of friendships. In addition to her weekday playgroup in the city, weekends in the country connect her to an array of species far beyond canine.
As content competes with advertising as a business and marketing tool, commercial writers (like me) are seeing shifts in the skills that we need to keep our work relevant. Copywriting, especially in the context of advertising, has been one of the most storied and influential creative roles in marketing.
Dear Web User, My name is cleverphrase.com, and I've been live on the World Wide Web since June 22, 2007, 12:00 a.m. EST, although my unique visitor numbers trailed off on August 30, 2007 when the paid media campaign ended.
We don't have to wait for the 2010 Census results to know our numbers aren't good. Will the Jews still be 2.2% of the U.S. population? Maybe 2.1%? Or 1.9%? I was just in Israel and saw dozens of Birthright trips, but at best, they only slow down the decline in our numbers.
Plenty of folks are using AMC's "The Pitch" to debate the merits of how new business in our industry is won. To adequately review the show, the better question to me is what is our motivation to watch? Is it a show that we should study- or simply an escape to enjoy.