Category Archives: Business

Coors Light and National Geographic Discover What’s Next

Leave a reply

Screen Shot 2018-09-26 at 2.13.41 PM.pngThe Benefits of #BrandStorytelling #branding #brandjournalism #partnerships #storytelling

Storytelling has become an invaluable tool for brands across all industries. For ‘My Next,’ in particular, the initiative and partnership allowed Nat Geo to help bring the story of what’s next for both Coors Light and National Geographic Explorers to life. And, like its brand partnership vetting process, Nat Geo has a very specific way that it approaches brand storytelling.

Wiese noted, “We look at brand storytelling the same way we do with any content across our global television, digital, social, and print channels. Great stories have the power to transform the way we understand the world and our role in it. Nat Geo stories focus on humanity, authenticity, curiosity, and purpose.”

However, beyond the visuals, Wiese noted that excellent brand storytelling must have a protagonist or hero who audiences inherently want to follow. “And, we’re lucky to already have those heroes in our explorers, photographers, scientists, and creators. They have made National Geographic the globally revered media company it is today and for the past 130 years.”

Read More (Forbes)

 

 

Do You Owe Back Taxes? Why You Should Stop Panicking and Start Planning.

Leave a reply

tax-forms_400If you owe back taxes to the IRS, some amount of panic is understandable. After all, the Internal Revenue Service has the power of the federal government in its corner, something no other debt collector can claim. They are considered the most brutal collection agency on the planet.

It’s easy to freeze up and just do nothing when you owe back taxes to the IRS, but hiding from, or doing nothing about, your tax debt will not make it go away. In fact, ignoring the taxes you owe will only make the situation worse, since interest and penalties can really add up.

You also risk having your paycheck garnished (the IRS does not need a court order to do this), your bank account levied, and the IRS can also file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien making it all but impossible to obtain financing for a car or home.

So instead of panicking about your tax debt and hoping the problem will go away, you need to take some proactive steps. Now is not the time to panic and hide – now is the time to start taking action.

Click to Find Out More

My Take at Brownie Bytes

Michael Miller is a friend of mine.  Known him for years.  He’s smart, honest, fair, and works really hard.  He’s a rare breed of lawyer and CPA – law and tax accounting.  He specializes in #TaxResolution and he cares about his clients.

I’ve watched him take calls on his cellphone when we’re having lunch and walk clients through how to resolve their issues with the IRS.

He’s asked me to produce some articles to help folks with their tax problems so he can put them on his blog.  This is the first form me but he has many more that he wrote that you might find interesting.

If you have unpaid taxes, can’t get a passport because of IRS problems, need advice in dealing with the IRS, read his articles and give him a call.

 

Design of Everyday Things

Leave a reply

DesignOfEverydayThingsOne of my favorite books: The Design of Everyday Things, Revised and Expanded Edition  By Don Norman [@jnd1er] – jnd.org

From the Preface: “This is a starter kit for good design. It is intended to be enjoyable and informative for everyone: everyday people, technical people, designers, and non-designers. One goal is to turn everyone into great observers of the absurd, of the poor design that gives rise to so many of the problems of modern life, especially of modern technology. It will also turn everyone into observers of the good, of the places where thoughtful designers have worked to make our lives easier and smoother. Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”

See More (jnd.org)
https://www.jnd.org/books/design-of-everyday-things-revised.html

My Take From Brownie Bytes

I’ve used these principles for every product, marketing, website, and content I’ve ever worked on – since the first edition of this book. You would be wise to do the same.

Cool London Hotel Identity Campaign [videos]

Leave a reply

AssemblyThe energetic identity for London-based hotel brand Assembly invites visitors to get up and go explore the city.

The affordable hotel category isn’t giving travelers what they want. Airbnb has raised the bar by offering genuine, relevant experiences, but, bland, cookie-cutter budget hotels have so far failed to respond. Assembly is looking to change that with a brand that removes the pointless extras, in favor of what really matters to its audience.

@Ragged_Edge @MaxOttignon @CommArts

See More (Communication Arts)

My Take From Brownie Bytes

Max Ottignon and his team at Ragged Edge faced the branding of this affordable urban hotel head on. Folks don’t go to central London to hang out in a hotel room. So they invite guests to get out!  Great concept.

AbbVie Announces $100 Million Donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities to Support Hospitalized Children and Their Families | AbbVie Newsroom

Leave a reply

AbbVie Announces $100 Million Donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities to Support Hospitalized Children and Their Families | AbbVie Newsroom
— Read on news.abbvie.com/news/press-releases/abbvie-announces-100-million-donation-to-ronald-mcdonald-house-charities-to-support-hospitalized-children-and-their-families.htm

I’ve never heard of AbbVie but this remarkable donation is amazing. #KidsHealth #FamilySupport #RonaldMcDonaldHouse

New Study Suggests that Google Collects More Consumer Data than Users Think (Way More)

1 Reply

GoogleWatchingYouBy Garett Sloane [@GarettSloane] Published on August 21, 2018

Google sucks up consumer data in ways users might find surprising—such as when browsers are in “incognito” mode—according to an analysis of the company’s data collection by a researcher from Vanderbilt University.

The study, released Tuesday and commissioned by the trade org Digital Content Next, looks at how data is gathered from all Google products, including Android mobile devices, Chrome web browsers, YouTube and Photos. In addition to incognito data collection, the study looked at other “passive” means of collection, where “an application is instrumented to gather information while it’s running, possibly without the user’s knowledge,” the report says.

Many users assume that when they’re in the incognito setting, their online footprints are hidden. But Google could retroactively link the private browsing to specific consumers, the report points out.

As the reports puts it: “While such data is collected with user-anonymous identifiers, Google has the ability to connect this collected information with a user’s personal credentials stored in their Google Account.”
——
“While such information is typically collected without identifying a unique user,” the report says, “Google distinctively possesses the ability to utilize data collected from other sources to de-anonymize such a collection.”

Read More (AdAge)

Our Take by BrownieBytes

You knew they were doing it didn’t you?  Of course.  Instinctively we know they all do…. Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… They all do it.  Interesting article.  Worth the read.

Study from Vanderbilt professor finds Google tracking is even creepier than you thought

https://bgr.com/2018/08/21/google-spying-on-users-new-study/

Google to Warn Enterprises of Potential Attacks on G Suite Accounts

Leave a reply

Google has added an optional new feature in G Suite’s Admin Console that alerts customers of cyber-attacks on their accounts.

Administrators of Google’s G Suite collection of cloud-hosted productivity apps can now get alerts from Google of potential government-sponsored backed attempts to break into their account.

The company has added a new feature to the administration console in G Suite that will trigger an email alert to enterprise customers any time Google’s threat-detection system detects activity that might be related to a government backed cyber-attack on users’ computers or accounts.

The feature is entirely optional. Administrators can choose to disable it or they can set it to send default notifications to specified users in their organization. When the feature is first activated, the default setting is for the alerts to be sent via email to the primary administrator for G Suite, according to an August 1 announcement on the G Suite Updates blog.

Google has been warning individual Gmail users since 2012 about any malicious activity targeting their accounts that the company believes may be the work of government-backed attackers. Now this service is being integrated into the G Suite admin console.

Read More (eWeek)