Marketing and Sales

As Instagram nears its Oct. 6 birthday, perhaps its overseers are experiencing the commercial version of the seven-year itch. Though they have a highly popular social networking platform on their hands, with more than 800 million users and over 200 million devotees to its eponymous Stories feature, they know, like every other business should, that…

Amazon Business, the e-commerce titan's B2B marketplace for everything from staplers to suspenders, launched in 2015, replacing a previous iteration of the service known as Amazon Supply. That first year, Amazon Business generated a tidy $1 billion in sales. Just three years later, it's already set to top $10 billion...

Taek Sung, senior vice president of sales and marketing for iClick, joined the show to talk about PopSockets, content marketing and the unexpected speed bumps that accompany 275 percent year-over-year growth. (Such as: Do you have enough parking spaces? What about bathrooms?) Plus, Sean and Brendan discuss Colorado Timberline's sudden closing due to a ransomware attack...

Last week, One Direction's online merchandise store shut down. That might not seem like a huge deal, but there's actually one legitimately fascinating aspect to it, especially for promo professionals. Stick with me here...

For a recent Supreme apparel drop, the company unveiled Horizon five-panel hats with its own take on the logo of Farmland, a bacon company—font and graphic included. But instead of taking the company to court, Farmland took the high road and went into full-on hilarity mode for a huge marketing win...

When we heard creative agency ban.do was collaborating with Starbucks for yet another collection of drinkware and other merchandise, we were expecting autumn leaf designs or maybe even some quirky Halloween-themed items. So we were surprised to see floral prints highlighting the collection, and even more surprised at how well the designs work...

Proforma’s "The Steps" 2018 Convention and Family Reunion concluded with another stellar year of attendance, attracting more than 800 industry professionals to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This four-day event was a gathering of top print, promotional and marketing professionals, who were challenged to "Step Up" to the next level of success by learning…

In promo, things are going to go wrong. But, believe it or not, there's a way for distributors to turn mistakes and unfortunate circumstances into big business wins. BrandVia's Eric Nelsen told us how, sharing an example of a promotion that went off the rails...

Brand awareness will never stop being a big deal, with companies going to great lengths to craft eye-catching and impression-retaining logos. Hello Velocity, a marketing agency based in New York City, has acknowledged that phenomenon of brands holding our attention spans, creating a typeface consisting solely of corporate logos, with many of the businesses that we have highlighted on our website receiving placement in the attractive font...

BrandVia Alliance was a big riser on our 2018 Top 50 Distributors list, jumping eight spots from No. 31 in 2017 to No. 23 this year. Sam Brown and Eric Nelsen joined the podcast to talk about that growth, plus a look at company culture, customer experience and (a recurring theme) getting sh*t done. Plus, Brendan and Sean discuss the fake Warren Buffett Twitter account that captivated the internet...