Here is an excellent perspective on the value and importance of developing a great creative brief to launch a new initiative. It is all about open collaboration and focus. We couldn’t agree more, which is why we created the question “what is your initiative’s Soul Song?” Our Soul Song approach fosters the client collaboration in a fun and different way, while driving to the central focal point for their overall initiative. The selection of the Soul Song during the creative brief exercise becomes the beacon for all creative decisions going forward. In essence, it’s the tiebreaker when creative decisions are at a deadlock. Have you picked a Soul Song for your initiatives in 2018? Dare to try a new approach for better results in 2018. Defy. Fly. With Yalo.

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Adidas Teams with City of Berlin on Limited-Edition Sneaker That Gives Access to BVG for Entire Year

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The marketing industry has been talking about disruption for years, but 2018 is looking like a year for rearranging the decks.

In the past 12 months we have witnessed many developments that will surely shape the future of marketing. First, artificial intelligence—along with its promise to spark a creative revolution—will lead to more out-of-the-box marketing programs. In addition, the fact that now nearly every consumer carries a smartphone will influence strategies for 2018 and beyond. New consumer behaviors and expectations will also play a role, making personalization strategies a must in 2018.

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In both whisky and business, it pays to play the long game.

An adept entrepreneur must understand the fundamentals of business — things like cash flow, value proposition, and marketing tactics — in order to build a foundation for a thriving company. But, more than one astute observer has made the comparison between a startup’s success and a chemistry equation.

Here are five surprising parallels between the centuries-old distilling craft and the process of starting and maintaining a new business in today’s fast-paced startup world: Read more.

Get comfortable with failure and learn from loss.

Forget about your old rack stereo system where you were forced to listen to whatever your radio station was feeding to you. In the online world such as with Spotify, you have absolute freedom to choose what you want to listen to. And if you happen to run out of things to listen to, Spotify will personalize a new playlist weekly just for you based solely on your listening patterns and preferences. Moreover, Spotify is also helping the artists to channel to their top listeners to build even stronger fan bases. That’s we call using data good, not evil! #Bigdatajams

Click Here To Read Forbes Article

We here at Yalo love many things retro, including classic muscle cars. Nicely curated collection Patrick Peterson! We are envious. #torque

The Cardinals’ Pro Bowl cornerback has a 14-car garage stocked with custom sports and muscle cars, everything from a 1973 Camaro to a 2013 Ferrari 458. 

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It is amazing how simple events can become cultural icons, permanently lodged in our psyches for years and even decades. Great storytellers create indelible memories. Bravo Walter White.

Read the full story here!

If you like art and you like sports, then you are going to LOVE this new USTA ad for their young generation initiative, Net Generation. It is a very interesting piece showing the collision of art and tennis. Really smart stuff. 

Check the spot out here!

After debuting at last year’s Wacken festival in Germany, a hologram of late heavy-metal singer Ronnie James Dio will set out on a world tour, backed by musicians who played with him, this fall. The trek, dubbed “Dio Returns,” will kick off with a European leg of performances in theaters on November 30th in Helsinki before hitting South America, Australia and Asia. The tour will arrive in the U.S. in the spring of 2018 and hit select festivals next summer.

The Yalo team loves the hologram concert series and ideation – a great entertainment experience all around and brands should take note!

Read the full story here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ronnie-james-dio-hologram-plots-w…

Get an advance look at the cutting-edge virtual-reality experiences that await attendees of this year’s Panorama fest! 

Some summer music festivals toss in virtual-reality booths as an afterthought, entertaining fans coming down from fist-pumping DJ sets. But Panorama, kicking off Friday at New York’s Randall’s Island, makes cutting-edge technology the star of the show, almost as prominent as headliners Frank Ocean, Solange and Nine Inch Nails.  

Read the full article here on Rolling Stone.

Here comes Samsung’s upgraded VR with a controller that will enable greater VR interaction at a much lower cost than HTC Vive and Oculus. We are looking forward to this release! Read more here.

Whether you have a single target persona or a few key ones you want to sell to, it’s important to make sure these idealized characters reflect actual characteristics of your buyers. Fifteen Forbes Agency Council members offer their best advice for businesses that are creating their first user personas. Read more here.

As in the games themselves, statistics tell just how wide the disparity is in the conversations about the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals. Data should drive every decision you make. Learn how to transform raw data into actionable insights, and watch your campaign success skyrocket. Read more here.

The convergence of technology, brands, and content has created a “smoothie” of customer experience that is required to earn and retain our attention as customers both B2C and B2B. This “smoothie” is how we live our lives on a daily basis, both at home and at work. Here is a great article from McKinsey on this topic. Read more here.

The GLORY kickboxing league had to scrap its way up. Read more here.

As customers become accustomed to AI-powered solutions, they’ll expect the same from their local businesses. Read more here.

 The AR market is going to blow up our reality in a few years. Very interesting comments from Zuckerberg in this article. Read more here.

Many people assume that VR is just for gaming, or watching movies, but there are plenty of companies, researchers, and technology developers using VR to improve the quality of life for many people, make products better, and undertake new scientific research. Here are just a handful of real-world uses for VR that are already in existence. Read more here.

A really smart article that we completely agree with. And we even believe that this not only applies to B2C brands but B2B brands as well. We also encourage our clients to dig and think deeper on how to leverage music to inspire their brands and marketing to new heights. Read more here.

The key to any successful marketing or branding campaign starts with understanding your audience. Read more here.