BANKNOTES minted by #paid

“Mr. Condom” may not have been the nickname Mechai Viravaidya aspired to have, but it’s the one he got — and he’s honored.

In 1974, Thailand tackled poverty with an unconventional approach: promoting the use of condoms. That same year, the average Thai family had seven children. Women didn’t have many opportunities outside the home, and supporting a large family was next to impossible on small wages during a recession.

Most of your customers will trust your brand’s “About Us” page as far as they can throw the writer. We all know marketing and slick copy when we see it.

But people still trust each other. That’s why DTC brands that leverage user-generated content are thriving.

Take Viome, for instance. They’re a health and wellness company on a mission to digitize the human microbiome and solve chronic illnesses. They do this by sending a self-testing kit to your home, analyzing your blood and stool samples, and sending back personalized data, health recommendations, and a custom list of supplements designed uniquely for your biology.

In an eCommerce world constantly shouting about faster website launches and one-click checkout, Kelsey Hunter is betting on an economy not dependent on websites but rather conversions via direct messages across social media.

As founder and CEO of Paloma, Hunter has long understood the power of DMs. In 2018 she launched Paloma’s first product, which allows merchants to connect their backend catalog with their Facebook and Instagrams DMs. This essentially streamlined the discovery process for customers who engaged with brands via DMs, pointing them to the right products and aiding them in checkout.

If you’re a TikTok fan, you’ve likely seen awesome ads from creators promoting up-and-coming movies.

You may have even participated in some of the viral, movie-related TikTok trends, including the “Voice of Ghostface” sound, the “Big Red Dog” effect on TikTok, or the branded “#GhostYourProblems” effect.

When I learned how QYOU leverages TikTok’s tools to partner with creators on viral social media campaigns for some of the most beloved pop culture films, I knew I had to talk to their team.

Instagram is officially doubling-down on its product tagging feature, recently announcing it will be rolling out the functionality to all users in the United States, no longer reserving it for just brands.

Instagram has already well documented how an increased cadence of tagging increases a brand’s on-site conversion rate: Tag a product at least five times across a month’s time and almost double your purchases, per Instagram.

Ecommerce personalization and customer experience platform Nosto has announced the release of shoppable Instagram functionality, adding its product to a growing market of softwares looking to help brands make the most of their creator partnerships and user generated content.

There are two ways to think about Anine Bing: as the influencer-turned-brand-owner or the brand itself.

Regardless of which you choose, you’re bound to be impressed by the trajectory of Bing’s influence over fashion and social media.

Like millions (literally) before me, I first learned about the Anine (pronounced A-nina) Bing brand on Instagram. From the editorial feed to classic styling, Anine Bing Official strikes that perfect balance between curated feed and the use of trending tools to keep followers engaged and interested.

How brands position and talk about cultivated meat — meat that was grown from animal stem cells — will in part flow from how it’s regulated. In the United States, regulators aren’t sure how to classify cultivated meat. Is it science or is it food? The answer matters because the FDA regulates foods that are the product of cell culture, whereas meat is regulated by USDA.

Tampax didn’t invent the tampon. Throughout history, women have been soaking up their periods with everything from paper (Japan) to moss (Europe).

Earle Haas, however, did invent the first tampon with an applicator. In the late 1920s, Haas, an osteopathic physician who struck it rich with his previous invention of a flexible ring for a contraceptive diaphragm, wanted to invent a better period product than the rags his wife used every month to manage her period.

Remember when Slack launched and enthusiasts thought it would make us all more productive? They couldn’t have been more wrong. Now we struggle to keep up with our Slack messages while our inboxes continue to overflow.

Something similar happened to women during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Between 1860–1965, we saw the invention and mass adoption of the electric washing machine, dishwasher, and vacuum cleaner. Paper towels reduced the amount of rags to clean. Liquid soap and germ-killing disinfectant sprays made it easier to sanitize surfaces.