Things that made us go ?? #13/2024
???? Hi, I'm Pat and here's a selection of things we’ve recently read, watched, learned and enjoyed at?TakeFortyTwo.
?? Nothing is real
Dunder Mifflin, Umbrella Corporation, Los Pollos Hermanos. Brand design makes us go <3, even when the brands are fictional.
This is an archive of brands that don't really exist. The structure of The Fictional Brands Archive follows brand design principles and offers a comprehensive view of brands we've seen in films, series, and videogames.
Useful for branding exercises, brainstorming sessions, analyzing branding creativity and storytelling, and just nice to browse. Take a dive.
?? Bad news/Good news
Everything is broken, but you can fix things when you know they don't work.
This survey found that 65% of B2B executives think their ecommerce is broken. The main challenges? Incomplete, inconsistent, inaccurate, unstructured, or outdated platforms and data strategy.
To address these issues, respondents identified three key priorities: enhancing automated and personalized support for online shoppers (80%), boosting demand generation (75%), and improving the collection and utilization of zero-party data (73%).
?? Let me count the ~ways~ words
I found this super handy word and character counting tool to keep our words within limit, with the extra bonus that it also counts paragraphs and calculates estimated reading and speaking time.
Great for ad copy, email subject lines and preview texts, blog posts, podcasts, and even speeches, if that's your thing.
?? Good Generative
In a previous issue, we shared Gary Hustwit 's work on the omnipresent Helvetica. Now I bring you ENO, not a conventional documentary about Brian Eno's career, but "the first generative cinematic documentary" ever. Yes, I read "generative" and I cringe too, but this is good.
Hustwit and Brendan Dawes developed Brain One, a proprietary software system (and anagram of "Brian Eno") that creates different combinations of scenes, interviews and footage, leading to a different version of the movie every time it's played.
If this approach doesn't honor Eno's own artistic style and innovative approach, I don't know what would.
领英推荐
(Best experienced with headphones or earpods).
And here's some good New Space ambient Eno (which I am playing in the background as I type this). In the Zen zone.
??And now, Partner News,
Alokai (previously Vue Storefront) shared their July newsletter, which comes with events, details of new console features, and two great guides on customization and performance optimization for developers and business owners to make the most of the platform. Check it out.
Dotdigital 's Ultimate Guide to Lead Scoring helps you take the lead and lead your leads to conversion. Ok, I'll stop.
The guide covers the basics of lead scoring, as well as key strategies, practical tips, and real-world examples. Download it here.
??Medal Season,
Though the Olympics have barely begun, we are already celebrating some partner golds.
BigCommerce got 24/24 total medals?in?the?2024?Paradigm?B2B Combine Enterprise and Midmarket Editions for the second year in a row, and outscored all other participating platforms in the Midmarket Edition, with 8 gold medals. Congratulations on another Big Win!
And Storyblok got over 50 badges in G2's Summer 2024 report, earning recognition as Momentum Leader across all categories and leader status in Enterprise, Mid-Market, Mid-Market EMEA & Europe, and Small Business, among others, and above all, "Best Relationship" and "Users Most Likely To Recommend". Well done!
?? And a little autobombo on the side.
Last week, Santiago wrote about three things B2B companies can focus on other than how badly everything sucks right now.
Subscribe to get uplifting, hopeful, and useful B2B eCommerce insights like these in your inbox every two weeks.
?? Aaand that's a (healthy) wrap!
Hope you enjoyed this issue. If you have any suggestions, opinions, or comments, I'd love to hear them. Well, read them. You get it.
Credits & Acknowledgements