Cocktail Flavored Detergent, How Drones Affect Ownership and The Neuroscience of Trump's Victory

The US election is thankfully over, but it was hard to get past the coverage this week to find some truly interesting stories to share with you in this issue. I did include one piece about the neuromarketing lessons of the campaign this week, alongside the story of Coca-Cola's latest brilliant bottle idea just in time for the holidays, a fun new way of branding laundry detergent and some stunning predictions for the future from Google's Astro Teller. Want these insights before anyone else? Join my email list to receive a curated collection of the most under appreciated marketing stories of the week and useful insights like these every Thursday – a full 24 hours before they are published on this blog! 

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A Shirt Wash That Comes In Gin & Tonic Flavor ... 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1424"] Image Source: [TrendHunter][/caption]There is nothing like unique branding to bring an ordinarily boring category some new life. This collaboration between Tangent Garment Care and shirt manufacturer Another Shirt Please brings some intrigue to the detergent category, offers a great gift and most importantly for marketers it shows the power of telling an unexpected story to bring worlds together and stand out.

Read the full story on TrendHunter >>

The Simple Neuroscience Lesson From Trump's Victory

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="900"] Image Source: [NeuroscienceMarketing][/caption]This entire analysis from Neuromarketing blogger Roger Dooley is totally worth reading for his insights overall - but of particular interest are his thoughts about the difference in messaging strategy between Clinton and Trump when it came to immigration policy. Regardless of your political opinion, Clinton's thorough 9 point plan offered far less of a soundbite than Trump's signature "build a wall" 3-word policy. The lesson? Keep it simple.

Read the full story on NeuroscienceMarketing Blog >>

IKEA Replicates A Syrian Refugee Home To Support The Red Cross

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Image Source: [Brand Channel][/caption]I am always on the lookout for a social cause-related campaign that uses the unique capabilities of a brand to make a statement. This effort from IKEA certainly qualifies, as the brand reconstructed an actual refugee home as a way to create real empathy for refugees and raise funds for the Red Cross.  Smart, strategic and impactful ... just the kind of cause marketing we should all love to see.

Read the full story on Brand Channel >>

MIT Builds Engine That Can Predict Book Genre From Cover Designs

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="741"] Image Source: [MIT Technology][/caption]There are plenty of new uses for artificial intelligence but this interesting article illustrates how it can be trained to separate various types of books into genres based only on their cover design. The next step is for this AI to create book cover designs itself.

Read the full story on MIT TEchnology Review >>

Coca-Cola Creates Bottle Wrapper That Transforms Into A Holiday Bow

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Image Source: [Boing Boing][/caption]This short video is probably the coolest packaging design for the holidays I've seen recently, transforming an ordinary bottle label into a holiday bow.  You can almost picture the team in Japan highly trained in a combination of origami and package design trying to get this to work perfectly.  Mission accomplished.

Read the full story on Boing Boing >>

An Interview with Google's Astro Teller

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="900"] Image Source: [The Verge][/caption]Besides having the coolest name imaginable for an expert in innovation, Google's Astro Teller has plenty of fascinating ideas about the future and what technology will be doing for us in the coming months and years. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about the future of jobs, how drones will affect our notions of ownership and why our patent laws are outdated. This is one of those articles to print out and spend some time reading and thinking about during a longer train ride or when you can spare some time to really read and reflect.

Read the full story on The Verge >>

How Are These Stories Chosen?

Every week I review more than a hundred data sources to curate the best and most under appreciated marketing stories of the week. The aim of this email is to spotlight these “non-obvious” stories, along with a quick take on why they matter for you. I hope you find this email interesting and useful … and am always open to your suggestions on how I might make it better!

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