Plugged In / Online IRL

Brand Anarchy is not terrifying chaos, but instead the new order that emerges when old paradigms and playbooks crumble, giving way to unexplored creative and cultural potential. And honestly, it’s just a more fun and human way of doing things.

Something sinister happened over the past algorithmically driven decade: brands took a sharp turn toward efficiency and benefits mindshare, often focusing on a laundry list of functional and emotional whoop-de-doos.

It’s this paint-inside-the-lines mentality that stokes irrelevancy and meaninglessness. And the whole point of a brand is to create an ... See more

Many newsletter creators offer services outside the scope of their newsletter. These are “digital goods”: training modules, white papers, access to private communities, etc. As lifelong learning becomes an absolute necessity to remain competitive in a constantly changing world, these digital goods could also be monetized with brands by tapping into... See more

To systematically build iconic brands, companies must reinvent their marketing function. They must assemble cultural knowledge, rather than knowledge about individual consumers. They must strategize according to cultural branding principles, rather than apply the abstracted and present-tense mind-share model. And they must hire and train cultural a... See more