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Why social media is becoming less social

Social media was built on a simple idea: keeping up with people you know. You logged on to see a friend’s holiday photos, catch up on family news or find out what people in your wider circle […]

Horizon scanning: a practical framework for spotting reputational risk before it’s a headline

The Institute for Crisis Management has been categorising corporate crises since 1990, and year after year its data shows the same thing: most of them smoulder. In its latest annual report, roughly […]

The best social teams aren’t content creators. They’re cultural analysts.

The brands winning on social today aren't simply creating better content, they're making better decisions. They know how to read a cultural moment before deciding whether to join it, what to say and […]

Measuring executive impact beyond the boardrom

Do CEOs affect company value? Strategy academics have spent four decades measuring exactly that, and the answer is yes, substantially. Studies that decompose company performance attribute somewhere […]

The social media updates to know in September 2026

September has arrived, and with it comes a very specific energy on social media. Kids are back at school, the last of the summer holiday photos are still trickling into feeds, and every platform in […]

B2B Marketing vs Corporate Marketing: Why getting this wrong costs you

Ask most marketers whether B2B marketing and corporate marketing are the same thing, and you'll get a confident answer. The trouble is, half will say yes. They're not the same, but the confusion […]

Brandnation partners with Mikuyu Tanzania to help drive lasting change

Creative agency pledges funding, content and communications expertise to support community-led charity tackling rural poverty in Tanzania. Brandnation has announced a new long-term partnership […]

The Social Sport Boom: How low-barrier sport is rewriting how we move

Something interesting is happening in sport. Padel courts are booking out months in advance. Pickleball has gone from niche American import to weekend fixture. Run clubs fill city parks every evening, […]

The Golden Circle: What sales enablement is missing without corporate communications

In 2009, Simon Sinek stood up at a TEDx event in Puget Sound and drew three circles on a flip chart. The talk that followed has been watched more than 70 million times, and its central claim has survived […]

Why the most valuable audience is the one that doesn’t follow you

Most brands still report on social performance as if follower count were the scoreboard. It isn't. The audience that drives brand growth is an audience that has never followed the account at all. That's […]

Direct mail marketing in 2026: Why brands are investing in print again

Rising digital advertising costs, stronger first-party data and better attribution are giving direct mail a new role in the marketing mix. We look at the latest UK direct mail statistics, ROI and performance […]

Polyfunctional crisis preparedness: planning for the crises that don’t take turns

Somewhere in your organisation, probably in a shared drive nobody has opened since it was approved, sits a crisis communications plan. It likely describes a single, well-behaved crisis that follows […]

The social media updates to know in August 2026

Social media might not be on holiday like the rest of us (apart from the social media managers posting poolside - we see you), but it certainly seems to be having an identity crisis. AI is improving […]

Your Most Valuable Audience Doesn’t Follow You. Here’s Why.

Most brands still report on social performance as if follower count were the scoreboard. It isn't. The audience that drives brand growth is an audience that has never followed the account at all. That's […]

Sphere™ takes its creator community into the great outdoors

Sphere™ is Brandnation's global influencer marketing studio, building spheres of influence for brands. By combining AI with human expertise, we create culturally relevant influencer programmes that […]

The Creativity.Multiplied. Edit

The August edit Upcycled kimonos on Centre Court. A tote bag that's gone from grocery run to global obsession. A spaceship where a home cinema used to be. Welcome to our favourite corner […]

Navigating snake oil in GEO

Key takeaways Guaranteed AI citations are not possible. Large language models are probabilistic, so identical prompts can return different cited brands from one run to the next. The […]

Why nostalgia hits hardest for Gen Z and Millennials

The two most online generations in history are also the most nostalgic. According to GWI, 15% of Gen Z say they would rather think about the past than the future, with millennials close behind at 14%. […]

Can you learn taste?

Key takeaways Taste is built through accumulation. It develops through sustained exposure to great work, and to work that fails, plus an understanding of why. Input […]

Why PR effectiveness is often underreported, not underdelivered

The same slide appears at the end of many PR reports, and most of us have made one. It lists everything that increased: coverage, total reach, a big audience number, and maybe an advertising value equivalent […]

The rise of social publishers: Why the best brands are becoming media companies

There is a shift happening in how the most successful consumer brands think about social media, and it is more fundamental than a content calendar refresh or a new platform strategy. The brands pulling […]

Why WhatsApp Communities are becoming the most valuable brand communities

Public social media is getting harder to navigate. Organic reach continues to fall, algorithms dictate what gets seen, and consumers are spending more of their digital lives in private messaging apps […]

Jeremy Clarkson | A masterclass in executive profiling

Twenty years ago, Jeremy Clarkson topped a Channel 4 poll of Britain's most hated public figures. Today, he's the face of British farming's fight against Westminster, the presenter of one of Prime Video's […]

Brandnation shortlisted at the Creative Moment Awards

Brandnation has has been shortlisted at the Creative Moment Awards in the Best Creative Experiential of the Year category. Rave in a Cave, for Columbia Sportswear, was built around a simple but […]
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