There’s a lot going on in the world right now, so perhaps this e-briefing can be a means to refocusing your attention on your digital marketing passion and using it to do good for yourself and others. And speaking of doing good, our spotlight this week shines on someone who is doing a wonderful job of making things better from his own unique point of reference: Deacon Willie Davis of Paterson, NJ.

• I talked with a really cool innovator named Lee Kim last week. I heard her on the Dan Nestle show talking about design thinking and was curious about how she uses it in her role at Pfizer. Have you seen Lee? You can’t miss her. Her “Wearable Tracy” pipe cleaner crowns bring her lots of attention and are a ready-made platform for sharing the core concepts of design thinking. You can listen to the episode that caught my attention here.
• Did you know Think with Google has a YouTube Channel? Of course it does. Check out this week’s video from The Insights Jam team as Google researchers explore search trends around education, real estate and cars (aka Life’s Big Moments) for a sampling.
• eMarketer has behind-the-camera peeks at 2021 budgets for original content at the top 4 streaming services. E.g., Netflix spent over $6B to draw and keep new subscribers. But is it worth it? The story says maybe not given AppleTV+ and Disney+ saw subscriptions drop 50% within 6 months of their start dates.
• We digital marketers are in the know about Meta and the Metaverse (sounds like an 80s band) but apparently only 40% of Americans are very or somewhat familiar with it. Thanks to Marketing Charts, we also have awareness and usage data compiled from Ipsos and Scalefast surveys. The data is not only for the Metaverse but also for NFTs, IoT, and other emerging tech categories.
• And Bloomberg reports Meta isn’t keeping up with new types of social media.

Do Good Spotlight on Green Acre Community Garden (Paterson, NJ)

We learned about Deacon Willie Davis from Jason Ellinger of Beard & Bowler, a video story-telling agency. As we were chatting with Jason about his company, we mentioned our weekly do-gooder segment of What’s Hot Wednesday, and Jason said he had a great recommendation for us, and here we are.

Take a look at this video Beard and Bowler did several years ago when Deacon Willie Davis was just getting the community garden started: and then spend some time on the website where you can learn about the programs, locations, goals, and more.

• You know when you think you’re pronouncing a product’s name right, but then, you’re not? Here’s a fun—and educational—list of beauty brands that you may not be saying the right way.
• In person conferences are on the rise. Are you going to Digital Summit this year?
• Microsoft announces new ad type for professional service providers (think insurance agents, realtors, etc.). These ads are being piloted in the US and Canada…

That’s it for this week. Let’s do what we can to help people locally as well as support the people of the Ukraine and everywhere there is warfare and strife. Do what you can, think ripples that make waves, and remember to stay strong for you and the people counting on you.