johnny marr + microsoft.

wes anderson holiday brilliance.

mary meeker's internet trends 2016.

2016 Internet Trends Report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

2016 state of digital marketing by industry.

CMO.com's 2016 State Of Digital Marketing Infographic from Adobe

bing ads presents the art of advertiser science.

powerful new microsoft campaign.

microsoft and virgin atlantic bring santa onboard.

Microsoft Advertising and Virgin Atlantic recently teamed up with Santa to bring spread holiday cheer 30,000 feet up in the air. Great idea and even better execution. Here is the full story.

3d robotics iris+ drone. want.

bing video shows how the 12th man boosted the Seahawks

brands with personality: old spice & taco bell

Brands should have personality. They should have a voice and allow us to connect with them on an emotional level (and when a brand is truly connecting they create a Lovemark). We love it when brands respond to our posts, tweets, etc. but let's be honest, it is even better when two brands interact. Here is the fantastic exchange between Taco Bell and Old Spice on Twitter that takes this idea to the next level...

red bull: the content marketing machine

Mashable recently did a fantastic feature on Red Bull. You may have heard of them. Little blue and silver can? The kids mix it with vodka? Right. You know what else they make that you can consume besides an energy drink? Content. Lots of content. In fact, they have an entire division (more like a company) dedicated to this content. The Red Bull Media House churns out bite sized morsels of content goodness. They produce print, television, online, mobile, music, games and feature film content.

Their dedicated website for content is called the Red Bull Content Pool and it is aimed at producers, editors and journalists looking to quench their content thirst. What they have done a masterful job of is putting their product second, a distant second. The real focus is the content which in turn builds brand loyalty which eventually equates to sales.

The Mashable piece also highlighted a solid report by the Altimeter Group. They have done a great job of categorizing what stage companies are in with regard to content marketing using an exercise analogy (stand, stretch, walk, jog and run). Check it out, it is well worth your time.

nearly half of all website traffic comes from natural search.

Conductor just completed a fascinating study where they analyzed traffic to 30 websites across six industries. They looked at inbound traffic over a one-year period, analyzing over 310 million visits in total. And what they found was that natural search drives the most traffic of all channels (47%). What this demonstrates is that SEO is still king when it comes to driving traffic. It is interesting to note that social comprises 2%, which might not seem like a lot but I bet this an increase over the previous year. And if they conduct the same study next year I bet there would be slight increase again.

video on instagram.

jony ive introducing ios 7.

Here is the Apple promo video introducing iOS 7 to the world. It is narrated by Jony Ive, its creator.

mary meeker's 2013 internet trends.

Always a treat...

The latest edition of the annual Internet Trends report finds continued robust online growth. There are now 2.4 billion Internet users around the world, and the total continues to grow apace. Mobile usage is expanding rapidly, while the mobile advertising opportunity remains largely untapped. The report reviews the shifting online landscape, which has become more social and content rich, with expanded use of photos, video and audio. Looking ahead, the report finds early signs of growth for wearable computing devices, like glasses, connected wrist bands and watches – and the emergence of connected cars, drones and other new platforms.

2013 state of inbound marketing (via hubspot).

Hubspot has conducted their annual state of inbound marketing survey and the results are in. They surveyed 3,339 marketing professionals from 128 countries. I wouldn't go as far as to say that these are discoveries that will disrupt marketing forever (as Hubspot does) but the findings are worth noting. Among them:

• 100% more website conversions result from inbound marketing versus outbound tactics
• 11% of executives lend full support to inbound marketing and 1 of 4 companies align marketing with sales (it is unfortunate these numbers are not higher...but you have to start somewhere)
• 200% cheaper costs-per-lead were driven by organizations with formalized marketing-sales handoffs

HubSpot's 2013 State of Inbound Marketing from HubSpot All-in-one Marketing Software

what's the future of business? (by brian solis).

seth godin: how to get your ideas to spread

An oldie but goodie. Worth making a remark about.

review: harry's (the men's shaving service)

Want a great shave, a stylish razor and inexpensive blades that are shipped to your doorstep all while helping others? Well then I have the answer for you.

Harry’s is a new venture from the folks that brought you Warby and Parker. You know, the stylish glasses that cost around $100 a pair? Well, they saw an opportunity and moved into men’s grooming. With the popularity of Dollar Shave Club, this comes as no surprise. The market lacked a more upscale sibling to the bargain basement approach of that club. Harry’s brings style, elegance and a sense of humor to act of shaving your grizzly mug.

Let’s start with their website. Simple and elegant, just like their razors. And what a logo. Kudos to the design team. The site is easy to navigate, very informative and sells the product well without feeling "salesy". I wonder what their conversion rate is because I know I had no intention of buying razors on the internets and when I ended up on their page I was sold. Great images, solid copy and a sweet price point. I opted for the full meal deal, the Harry’s shave set with the orange Truman razor.

I eagerly awaited the package. I tracked it and made sure I had some good stubble going when it arrived so that I could immediately put the German engineered razor blade to the test.

Then it arrived. Cue angelic choir.

As you can see from the photo, the packaging is fantastic. The kit comes with shave cream, two spare razors, the razor handle with a razor attached and some great shave tips in the form of a shave guide. Oh, and the shave cream has a lottery number on the back. Not sure what that is all about yet...

I chose the Truman with the orange handle which feels very solid in your hand.

I read the shave guide, lathered up and put it to the test. Probably the best shave ever. No joke. Shaving can go so wrong but when it goes right it is a real pleasure. And these razors are fantastic. Must be that German engineering. Thanks Harry's, I now look forward to shaving.

what your instagram filter says about you.

Here is a fun infographic created by Column Five and Marketo that takes a look at the which types of folks use which filters on Instagram. While it is difficult to discern exactly how they put the profiles together, other than their source list, it does provide real insight into which filters are the most popular, how many active users there and how many photos are uploaded each day. And for those marketers looking to reach the 18-24 demographic, it appears that 54% of Instagram users fall into that age bracket. What brands do you think are making good use of this channel?