U.S. Ad Market Posts Third Consecutive Gain In September, Albeit Marginally (mediapost.com)

The Institute for Advertising Ethics will hold the second of two webinars focusing on the ad industry's role in greenwashing on December 8 at 10 A.M. The upcoming webinar -- which focuses on tools and frameworks for preventing greenwashing -- follows one held October 19, which featured industry experts providing a benchmark for understanding how pervasive and how problematic greenwashing actually is for the advertising industry.

The data privacy and cybersecurity risks of email correspondence are finally getting the attention they deserve. There’s a growing awareness that “phishing” – the digital exploit of sending emails that look and feel like real communications from known senders, but instead contain or link to a variety of harms – is the menace behind an estimated 90% of cybersecurity compromises. Now, consumers are learning that 70% of emails they receive are tracking them in some way, thanks to groundbreaking analysis from Princeton computer scientist Steven Englehardt, PhD, and his research team. This is a very big deal for the millions of consumers who want the option to receive paper notices from their service providers. And it should ring alarm bells at companies that are removing paper choice, charging fees or switching customers to electronic delivery without express consent. The mere act of opening an email often unknowingly shares the recipient’s email address, triggering unwanted interactions with numerous third parties, which in turn enables additional tracking across the web that can potentially link the email to online activities without consent. Third party data brokers are sophisticated in creating extensive behavioral profiles across devices and even offline channels, all linked to consumers’ email addresses. And to make matters worse, popular free email services such as Google’s Gmail scan messages to collect data on things like purchases, travel details, even what bills are coming due.

When we create a new brand, or refresh an existing one, we’re tapping into brand clarity, conveying that key, driving purpose. When we’re creating marketing assets on behalf of a client, the brand has to be in the forefront of our minds. With each touchpoint, each interaction, we know that when we’re reinforcing what you stand for we’re going to connect in a much deeper way. So it’s no wonder that branding, and our clients’ brands, are a huge part of what we think about, talk about and write about. We’ve rounded up this collection of our favorite musings on branding that gives some insight into the thinking, passion and creativity that goes into everything that we do. Enjoy. go to: https://www.jschmid.com/branding-best-practices/