Welcome to Signals, YCanary’s monthly forecast of easier marketing.

There’s a growing frustration with AI among strategic marketers. The truth is: most generative AI tools weren’t built for marketers.

For anyone who follows sports, there is Adrian Wojnarowski, and everyone else. But being "him" comes at a price we don't always see.

Expert marketer and our newest partner Bruce Turkel is kicking off a series of intimate workshops exclusively for The Republik.

In the marketing world, Seth Godin is a gold mine of knowledge. His deep dive on strategy is one of the clearest breakdowns we’ve seen, so we thought we'd share it with you.

Today, we rarely see cohesive marketing plans. Top-down strategic initiatives have taken their place. They are objectives, strategies and tactics all rolled into one. Why?

With a lackluster 2024 in the rearview mirror, and favorable forecasts for the year, it’s pretty easy to convince ourselves that doing anything right now, especially in a competitive marketplace, is better than waiting. We would tend to argue the opposite.

Apparently, not having a marketing plan is the new norm. Well, maybe not so new. In fact, over the past 20 years or so, we've worked with some really big companies and not a single CMO or VP of Marketing had a written marketing plan for their brand or company. Is it just a sign of the times or our bad fortune?

As RTDs reshape the spirits landscape, the parallel to craft beers’ rattling of Big Beer is undeniably eerie. What Big Beer didn’t understand then was that the market share they lost were audiences searching for something uniquely different. In the same sense, the consumer choosing High Noon over straight vodka isn't a lost customer - they're a different customer entirely.

Much of our client work focuses on crafting authentic brand voices. This week, maybe unsurprisingly, the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie got us thinking about the branding truths that lie behind the fourth wall.

It’s easy to cook up a viable strategy that suits today’s market. But what happens when a wrench hits your plans?

What started out as a conversation with our resident apprentice Georgie about the merits of brands supporting Pride Month, turned into a more meaningful dialogue about brand strategy.