🔍 Google introduces Preferred Sources feature to customize Top Stories in Search.

💼 Businesses can now sponsor any LinkedIn member’s posts that include a link to a LinkedIn event.

🤐 Confessions of a marketer on pulling every client off Google’s PMax.

📺 Want your ads on YouTube TV? Here’s what Google says you need.

👀 The ad industry is dumping younger workers.

🧸 Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bear plots art heist in mascot’s first animated film.

Volvo = safety. Coca-Cola = happiness. Nike = performance. Walmart = affordability.

This kind of singularity works for category leaders, but challenger brands can win by pairing two distinct ideas. “Multi-message” positioning offers more ways to stand out and feel fresh.

Here are the 3 benefits of multi-message positioning:

1. Differentiation: Unexpected pairings stand out from category leaders.
2. Dimension: Multiple layers keep a brand interesting and versatile.
3. Defensibility: A unique combination is harder to copy.

For example, New Balance is thriving by blending athletic performance with cultural cachet. And Joe and the Juice entered a health-saturated juice market with rockstar-meets-wellness.

Some tips for making it work:

• Pair unlike ideas. Look beyond your category norm for a distinctive blend.
• Build clear guidelines. Ensure both messages appear consistently across channels.
• Show up everywhere. Infuse your dual identity into every customer touchpoint.

Check out Embedded Brand Strategy for more.

The founders of Blackweek have launched Subculture, a social platform built exclusively for subject-matter experts, thought leaders, and creators with a point of view.

It’s meant to give you the tools to publish your ideas, grow a loyal audience, and get paid for your insight. It’s content, community, and commerce integrated into one creator-first platform.

Right now, it supports paid subscriptions, with more ways to monetize on the way: tips, e-commerce, digital downloads, ad revenue sharing, brand partnerships, live stream PPV, and more.

Shave brand Billie has partnered up with Chia Pet for a warm and fuzzy nostalgia play.

The $25.99 limited-edition terracotta planter features a Billie figurine whose armpits sprout lush green “hair” when watered, paired with the tagline, “Grow it and show it.”

“We wanted something whimsical and playful that still reinforced our message,” said Catherine Wolpe, Billie’s co-general manager.

Baby Ruth, 1940