Don Draper’s pitch for Kodak’s slide projector, “The Wheel,” is considered by many to be the best pitch in advertising history. In the hit television show “Mad Men” set in the ’60s in an era when cigarette smoke filled boardrooms and hard liquor concluded every meeting, advertising executive Don Draper decided to pitch a very different campaign for Kodak’s slide projector. In this episode, Kodak executives had decided to call their…

There’s a problem in branding today, and the #1 reason why small businesses fail: a lack of the difference between branding and marketing and their relationship to sales. Ask Gary Vaynerchuk and he’ll tell you: “The difference between branding and sales is simple. Are you trying to convert or are…

Whatever happened to the best ads for companies? Remember ads like “Got milk?” or “Plop, plop. Fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is.” for Alka Seltzer? Or the timeless and always welcome “Just do it” ads for Nike or Apple’s “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC.” campaign? When did the best ads take a vacation and move…

There’s so much noise in today’s market. Even amongst the greatest minds and most extraordinary talents, the challenge every business faces is how to stand out. Yet the problem facing businesses is this: 99% of the content, courses and coaching programs on branding are setting up entrepreneurs and business owners to fail. After I wrote Brand Intervention, people approached me to create an online course.

Coffee is best when it’s fresh. Old coffee can only do so much. The same is true for a customer base that’s “grown old.” Eventually, it’s unconsumable. It’s no different for a brand. It’s a problem nearly every brand faces as it matures: how to reintroduce its brand to a new generation of buyers. After all…

Mike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco is the best-selling author of ROCKET FUEL — Convert Setbacks. Become Unstoppable and the powerhouse behind the top-rated “What Are You Made Of?” podcast. Mike also has an impressive following of 724K raving fans on Instagram. Recently, we sat down and had a true “fireside chat” where Mike asked me questions nobody had ever asked me before. In this discussion, we talk about: My Brooklyn childhood and growing up around a melting pot of…

To hear some CEOs, one might think there were no different types of brands. Nothing could be further from the truth. Recently, I outlined the 4 types of entrepreneurs I’ve encountered in four decades of helping businesses grow and building brands, generating over $7 billion in revenue worldwide. Businesses that don’t nail this end up choosing the wrong business partners. This leads to choosing the wrong customers to serve.

While I am not a fan of the term “YouTube Guru,” when the shoe fits… What if you could get inside the mind of someone who’s gotten 300 million views online? Who, in the last month, has gotten over 55 million views online? …