Custom Ink Bets on Gratitude, Earned Media to Grow Its K-12 Business

Custom T-shirt and swag brand Custom Ink honored 10 kindergarten-12th grade school employees with an “Unsung Heroes of School Spirit” award as part of its latest marketing campaign. After soliciting nominations from the public for teachers or school administrators who go above and beyond, Custom Ink announced the winners Aug. 28 with videos showcasing these […]

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Inside Parker’s Decision to Ride a LinkedIn ‘Sell Me This Pen’ Wave

Marketers face the same dilemma every time a brand pops up in a social media trend. Jump in too fast, and you risk looking tone-deaf. Move too slowly, and the wave passes. Treat community creativity as free media, and you damage trust. That tension is sharper for premium products with small budgets and long purchase […]

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The Psychology of Almost There

The Sydney Marathon was last month, and as I tracked my friends getting over the finish line, one thing was constant: they all sped up for those last few hundred metres. That has happened to me too, and it is actually a psychological pattern called the goal gradient effect, the psychology of almost there. And […]

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Inside the Launch of the New L.L. Bean Rewards Program

Executive interview with Nick Wilkoff, Chief Marketing Officer at L.L.Bean Wise Marketer (WM): We recently published this press release announcing the new L.L. Bean Rewards program. The new program also includes news of a cobrand payment product issued by Mastercard. Can you describe the program overall? Nick Wilkoff (NW): L.L.Bean Rewards is our new loyalty […]

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#805: Inside the South African Loyalty Awards: What We Learned from a Year of Loyalty Innovation

Fresh from the 8th South African Loyalty Awards and International Leaders in Loyalty Summit in Cape Town, Lisa Brightwell sits down with Amanda Cromhout, CEO & Founder of Truth Loyalty and Chair of the South African Loyalty Awards, to reflect on one of the biggest moments in the South African loyalty calendar. Amanda shares the […]

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Ahold Delhaize USA: Rethinking Loyalty in the Age of Personalisation & AI

Let’s Talk Loyalty Episode #804 Ahold Delhaize USA is a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, operating multiple brands in the US which, taken together, comprise the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast and the fourth largest in the nation. In this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty (#804), Wise Marketer Group CEO […]

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You Are Using WhatsApp Like Email. Your Customers Have Noticed.

WhatsApp delivers open rates that email cannot match. But treating it as another broadcast channel is quietly destroying the trust that made it valuable in the first place. In 2023, a senior marketer at a major regional bank looked at their WhatsApp Business open rates — 60%, 70%, sometimes higher — and made a decision […]

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Simpli.fi Scales Localized Advertising for Multi-Location Brands With New Simpli. Hub Portal

On-demand advertising portal empowers local operators to launch pre-approved, high-performing campaigns while preserving corporate brand integrity FORT WORTH, TEXAS — SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 — Simpli.fi, the real-world media platform built for the age of immediacy, has launched Simpli. Hub, an on-demand self-serve advertising portal that balances corporate brand control with local execution, allowing multi-location brands, […]

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Inside Mortgage Solutions Financial’s ChatGPT Ad Experiment

In category after category, buyers are asking their first questions in AI tools instead of traditional search engines or brand websites. For marketers, that shift changes where discovery happens and which channels actually influence revenue. Mortgage might be the clearest stress test. It is a long, intrusive decision with high stakes and low trust. Yet […]

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Target Taps an Outside Voice as New CMO

Target is again shaking up its top marketer, as the retail chain recently announced Mark Weinstein is the new Chief Marketing and Guest Experience Officer. Weinstein joins Target after 16 years at Hilton, most recently as Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Luxury Brands. In this role, he served as the global marketing head for […]

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