Before social media showed us the importance of brand transparency, celebrity endorsements ruled the world of traditional marketing. Global giants normalized the practice to the point where few instantly recognized the oxymoron in an athlete’s endorsement of McDonald’s Happy Meals. Indeed, there are more than a few holdovers from the era of traditional marketing that still persist. We still have a soft spot for putting famous faces alongside brands. Even
Even if consumers really like a product or service, they’re not likely to share those feelings on Facebook or Twitter, new research suggests. Instead, social media users are more likely to express their opinions about products in face-to-face social situations, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Researchers said this is because most users usually have a wide range of friends or followers on social media
Canada’s economic future The Globe and Mail last night hosted a debate among Canada’s three main party leaders in the run-up to the Oct. 19 election. Read our complete coverage. Life in Toronto, Montreal Toronto has one of the world’s most expensive cities, yet pay levels are lagging, a new study suggests. And Montrealers have it much better, says the report from UBS. The annual study by the Swiss bank,
Almost 30 years ago I witnessed the first round of “disposable technology” where people were getting rid of old computers like they were disposable plates. You have to remember that at the time, there was no clear winner in the home computer wars and the machines were very expensive compared to today. In fact, most people didn’t even have a computer in their home yet. They definitely were not walking
Toronto sends five prospects to New York for a forward considered one of the fastest players in the NHL. The Maple Leafs got a whole lot better in many ways when they acquired speedster Michael Grabner from the New York Islanders as training camp opened Thursday. They gave up five prospects — none of them particularly high-end, all holdovers from the previous regime — for a skilled 27-year-old with one
The diminishing effectiveness of conventional advertising and the rise of social media have led more and more brands to embrace content marketing. More and more companies are seeing themselves not just as advertisers, but as publishers, launching digital newsrooms, podcasts, and other forms of branded content in order keep their brands, perspectives, and value propositions in front of customers. Yet even as companies have embraced their new role as content
Google is working on a new wearable technology effort known as Project Aura and is hiring consumer electronics experts from Amazon’s secretive Lab126 to jump-start the new group. Project Aura appears to have gotten started in June and is focused on reviving Google’s troubled Glass computer eyeglasses, as well as accelerating Google’s efforts to develop related wearable technology. Project Aura will remain within Google rather than being a standalone company
The time it takes a reader to engage with your marketing collateral has not mattered much—until now, because the average attention span of an adult shrank from 12 seconds to 8 seconds over the past decade, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute. You now have to capture your reader’s attention at the earliest stage of their journey with your company. If you don’t, you may never connect. So the
Dozens of cab drivers filled the seats of Toronto City Hall as officials met to discuss regulations for Uber. “The fact is that technology has changed this business,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said Wednesday morning. “I have great sympathy for the plight of taxi drivers and others in the business because their business is being changed by technology.” Tory made the comments as he arrived at City Hall ahead of
The Toronto Blue Jays will try to end a two-game slide when they face the Atlanta Braves in the second of a three-game set in Atlanta on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. ET. Although the Braves have won just four times in their past 28 games, they managed to hold the top five hitters in the Blue Jays’ lineup to one hit in 19 at-bats with eight strikeouts in the series opener, a 3-2 Atlanta win on
