The Innovator's Mic

Is there anything more frustrating about the Internet than advertisements? Pop-ups, banners, videos – they interrupt the browsing experience and may even grind your page load times to a halt (and drain your monthly mobile data plan, by the way). At the same time, online advertisements are a valuable source of revenue for publishers, who have seen revenue from print advertisements largely dry up.

Enter ad blocking software. These controversial tools are common among Internet users, and they're sure to become even more popular after Apple permitted the use of ad blocking software on its devices, as part of its most recent iOS update.

This leads to a number of questions. What are the ramifications for publishers if blocked ads suppress revenue opportunities? Are paywalls and contributed content viable alternatives? What about other collateral damage of ad blocking (goodbye Google Analytics tracking)?

We explore all the ins and outs of ad blocking on this week's episode.

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

HubSpot's INBOUND isn't quite like other business events and conferences. Yes, it attracts thousands of attendees (15,000+ this year), is hosted by a world-class city, features show-stealing keynote addresses (Aziz Ansari, Seth Godin, Brené Brown and Chelsea Clinton) and provides educational sessions – not unlike, say, Dreamforce.

What's different about INBOUND, and what's been proven over six annual events, is that HubSpot's ambition is to create a movement.

To get an inside look at INBOUND 2015, we sent two correspondents (and former guests of Hacks and Flacks), drew Wallace (Episode 2 and Episode 12) and Matt Moretti (Episode 7). In this episode, drew and Matt report back, explaining how INBOUND manages to serve up "brain fuel for marketers" that goes well beyond tactical marketing strategies and right to the heart of  human emotion.

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how valuable is video? Visual storytelling can be a powerful medium, as it often allows you to convey messages, invoke emotions and inspire action far more effectively than the written word alone.

Brendan Reilly is a believer in the power of visual storytelling for B2B marketers. He should be, considering he is, after all, the Director of Video Services here at March Communications. In this week's episode, he sat down with us to share some of his favorite examples of corporate video marketing, covering the good (Chipotle, GoPro) and the questionable (lookin' at you, Wrangler).

Brendan also breaks down the types of videos you can use to bring new life to your marketing, answers technical questions around equipment investment and proper aspect ratios, and offers tips on how to avoid creating boring corporate videos.

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

The last time you went shopping, did you actually drive to a store, or did you just stroll over to your couch and log into your computer or phone? If you bought online because the cost was lower, did you wish you had an opportunity to pick up and preview whatever it was you purchased?

Even though websites and mobile apps have taken some traffic away from brick-and-mortar retailers, customers still crave an engaging in-store experience, and that desire has helped some of these stores undergo a renaissance of sorts.

This week, we were joined by Marcus LaRobardiere, Assistant Marketing Manager at Bouncepad. Marcus explains how he tells Bouncepad's story, in part by sharing how some of its marquee customers – from McDonalds to Tommy Hilfiger – use its tablet enclosures to create captivating in-store experiences for customers.

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

It's been a busy summer in the world of media and journalism.

The "New York Times" made some news of its own, after topping 1 million digital-only subscribers and rolling out its "live journalism" program. Bill Simmons left behind writing for ESPN in favor of a multi-platform gig with HBO. Digital media companies continued to trend toward unionization, and Gawker in particular experienced some of the greatest growing pains, following an editorial controversy that split its newsroom.

On this episode, we finally do come summer catch-up, working our way through these stories and more.

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

It's like a success story you'd read in a business book. Less than four years after launching your startup, you've built a dedicated community of supporters, expanded well beyond your core product offering, and received coverage from the likes of Buzzfeed, TechCrunch and Mashable. And you've done it with only a handful of employees.

Jack Neary, Head of Community at Litographs, is living this story. In this role, he's has helped bring exposure to the popular Boston-based company, known for its stunning collection of posters, t-shirts and tote bags, with designs comprising the full text of novels.

Jack stopped by to explain how he's blended media relations and social media marketing to bring exposure to Litographs, how the Boston startup community has lent a hand, and how his own interest in literature has helped him to authentically market and sell to "the Bookternet."

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

When thinking about how social media analytics and reporting has evolved, it's helpful to borrow an example from the world of sports. In baseball, traditional statistics like batting average and runs batted in are equivalent to retweets, likes and favorites on social media − they provide some insights, but they don't tell the whole story.

In his work with Crimson Hexagon, customer success manager (and baseball fanatic) Justin Gagnon uses social listening tools to dig deeper than surface-level analytics and help companies understand trends on social media. On this episode, Justin pulls back the curtain on the social data Crimson Hexagon provides, by showing us how podcasts are perceived on social media, and specifically how social media reacted to President Obama's recent appearance on Marc Maron's show.

Justin also explains how social listening is a new, modern form of market research, and why the successes of prominent brands like Always and Uber show that hashtags may still matter.

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

So, we have a podcast. We want to promote it. A social media strategy was in order, and we figured why not give you, our listeners, an inside look at its development.

Step 1 was to meet with drew Wallace, Hacks and Flacks alumnus (Episode 2) and digital marketing guru. On this episode, you'll hear our first conversation with drew, as we work with him to identify our audience, brainstorm content for our target social platforms, and assign metrics. We also experimented with live broadcasting through Periscope and Google Hangouts on Air, and even posed for our first Hacks and Flacks Instagram pictures.

Be sure to check out our new Hacks and Flacks accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We'll have drew on again in three months to update our progress.

Show Notes:

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

Whether as Employee No. 11 at HubSpot or in her current role as VP of Marketing for Toast, Ellie Mirman has always taken a data-driven approach to marketing. By measuring everything they do, marketers can better communicate results – what Ellie calls the "universal language" across the entire business.

Ellie joins us this week to chat about the differences in marketing for HubSpot and Toast, how she uses agile marketing and "sprints" to align with the goals of the sales department, and what she looks for in resumés when hiring for marketing positions (hint: it involves data).

Show Notes:

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

Attracting attention on the Internet today is an artform. Sometimes, a compelling story alone isn't enough to break through the noise. You may need a "clickbait" headline, a timely topic, and the right means of distribution.

For Blaise Lucey, Content Marketing Manager at Movable Ink, email has become his distribution channel of choice. Just back from Las Vegas for Content Marketing Conference 2015, Blaise joins us this week to explain how email marketing, when coupled with excellent stories and other means of distribution like social media, can help marketers reach and grow their audiences.

He also chats through the value of "content unicorns," why good marketers can spend up to 80 percent of their time on research, and why marketers are increasingly acting like journalists.

We also bring in March Account Executive Jenna Burpee, who just returned from Nashville, where she provided photography support for client SiriusDecisions (and keynote speaker Magic Johnson) during Summit 2015.

Show Notes:

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!