Did you know that many scientists believe it was the art of social gossip that first set us apart from the other animals? That’s how we formed intimate groups and learned more about the important things in life. We’d like to continue that tradition in our area of expertise, so here’s just a taste of what’s happened this week in the world of marketing:

Clever campaigns: Toxic mascu-marketing

If Gillette was looking for viral attention, their “toxic masculinity” campaign has been a resounding success. But a significant portion of that attention has been negative, to say the least. No, what’s really clever here is what we can learn from this campaign and its fallout.

Many brands are taking stands on social issues, but there’s an art to doing it well. Gillette, while being a brand that markets primarily to men, markets products that are primarily about keeping a man well-groomed. Whatever stance or cause a company chooses to support, it must be closely connected to the brand’s product and established persona in order to be well received by the public. Kudos to Gillette for being bold, but many people have a hard time connecting #MeToo with efficient razors.

Tools of the trade: Google spreadsheets

Being good at business is all about efficiency with your time and Google’s tools to help you out are the best on the market, especially Google spreadsheets. They work like regular Excel spreadsheets, but they’re accessible by anyone with the right link, making them infinitely more useable.

Use spreadsheets for all kinds of organizational tasks like scheduling, creating charts and preparing content. Above all, make lists! You can easily mark what’s awaiting approval, what’s still in progress, or just about anything else you can think of.

Keeping up with marketing

Marketing is on the move – and it’s evolving faster than ever before. The good news is that marketing gets better and better as it’s broken down and divided up into subcategories and targeted disciplines; the bad news is that it’s tough to keep up and learn everything you need to be good at it. With that in mind, here are 10 ways marketing has changed over time and ways to excel at it in 2019.