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Shares in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBA) are up a modest amount after the company announced yesterday that it has agreed to be purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners. As of the time of this writing, WBA shares are up under 7% to $11.33. Here’s what you need to know about the buyout and share movement. Walgreens is going private After years of financial struggles, publicly traded Walgreens announced yesterday that it has accepted a deal from private equity firm Sycamore Partners to be bought and taken private. Rumors of the deal were first reported earlier this week. Under the agreement, Sycamore will take the pharmacy chain private. The move will give the 125-year-old Walgreens more room to maneuver a turnaround without having to answer to Wall Street investors, notes the Associated Press. Walgreens has faced a rough six months in particular. Last October, the company announced it would close over 1,200 stores due to falling foot traffic and increased online competition. And in January, the company’s stock price plunged after it announced that it would be suspending dividend payments to shareholders in order to redirect its capital allocation. Shares in Walgreens are down more than 49% over the last year. “While we are making progress against our ambitious turnaround strategy, meaningful value creation will take time, focus and change that is better managed as a private company,” Tim Wentworth, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, said in a statement announcing the acceptance of Sycamore’s offer. “Sycamore will provide us with the expertise and experience of a partner with a strong track record of successful retail turnarounds.” WBA stock is up—but not by a lot Some would expect that when a company receives a buyout offer, its stock price may soar. But WBA stock is up just under 7% in premarket trading, as of the time of this writing, to $11.33. The reason for this is likely due to the fact that the Walgreens-Sycamore deal will see Sycamore pay WBA shareholders $11.45 per share to close the deal. In other words, it doesn’t make sense for WBA stock to be bought above that price since shareholders would only get $11.45 per share if the deal does end up going through. Conversely, it doesn’t make sense for WBA stock to be sold below that price if the deal ends up going through because shareholders know they could get $11.45 per share from Sycamore when the deal closes. As for the Walgreens-Sycamore deal, though Walgreens Boots Alliance says it has accepted the offer, the deal must still be approved by WBA shareholders and also receive regulatory approvals. If the deal passes both those thresholds, Walgreens and Sycamore say its “transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter calendar year 2025.” If that happens, WBA shares will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq as the company will become private. View the full article

The discovery of a huge unexploded World War II-era bomb caused transportation chaos in Paris on Friday that included the suspension of high-speed rail links with London and Brussels and the closure of a vital road artery in the French capital, hobbling France’s busiest train station, dashing travelers’ weekend getaway plans and giving commuters a major headache. The cascade of transport woes spread from the rail to the road network, with Paris police announcing the closure of the A1 highway and sections of the capital’s always-busy ring road around the city, as bomb-disposal experts worked to make the half-ton explosive safe. Eurostar, operator of sleek high-speed trains through the Channel Tunnel that links England with the European continent, announced the cancellation of all its services to and from its Paris hub at Gare du Nord, France’s busiest rail station, and the U.K. and Belgian capitals. Travel plans were thrown into disarray. “There’s no solution. We’re going to call the hotel and stay one more day. And change our train ticket,” said Michel Garrot, a retired Parisian who found himself stranded in Brussels, which he’d been visiting with his wife. At London’s St. Pancras station, Eurostar’s London hub, travelers scrambled for alternatives. Fridays are invariably busy there with thousands of people leaving and arriving for weekend breaks. Passengers were advised to try taking trains to Lille in northern France, or fly to Paris. “We’re looking up flights, but our options are limited,” said Lauren Romeo-Smith, part of a group that had a birthday weekend in Paris planned. Another St. Pancras traveler, Lee Bailey, said that Eurostar had offered him a free rebooking or a refund, and an apology, but no compensation. “I’d like to go to a Michelin (starred) restaurant in Paris on their dime, but that’s not happening, apparently,” he told Sky News. Eurostar said that it “sincerely apologizes for the disruption and understands the inconvenience this may cause.” At Paris’ usually humming Gare du Nord station, bright red signs warning of disruptions greeted commuters. French national rail operator SNCF says the station habitually hosts 700,000 travelers per day, making it the busiest rail hub in both France and Europe. As well as towns and cities across northern France and the Paris suburbs, the station also serves Paris’ main airport and international destinations, including London, Brussels, and cities in the Netherlands. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said that the huge disruptions were caused by the discovery of a bomb that weighed half a ton. Workers found it overnight while doing earthmoving works near the tracks in the Seine-Saint-Denis region that borders Paris to the north. Bomb disposal experts were called. Tabarot said that a “a quite large” security perimeter was set up around the bomb-disposal operation and people were evacuated. He urged commuters to postpone rail trips. Bombs left over from World War I or World War II are regularly discovered around France, but it’s very rare to find them in such a people-packed location. The SNCF said that rail traffic was stopped at the request of police. Sylvie Corbet in Brussels, and Jill Lawless in London, contributed to this report. —Samuel Petrequin and John Leicester, Associated Press View the full article

UK regulator wants to loosen requirements for banks to test whether borrowers can cope with higher interest ratesView the full article

Looking for fresh content ideas? Explore these 14 uncommon types of digital content to spice up your marketing campaigns. The post 14 Digital Content Types You’re Probably Not Using Enough appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

America’s butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, a new study finds. The first countrywide systematic analysis of butterfly abundance found that the number of butterflies in the Lower 48 states has been falling on average 1.3% a year since the turn of the century, with 114 species showing significant declines and only nine increasing, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science. “Butterflies have been declining the last 20 years,” said study co-author Nick Haddad, an entomologist at Michigan State University. “And we don’t see any sign that that’s going to end.” A team of scientists combined 76,957 surveys from 35 monitoring programs and blended them for an apples-to-apples comparison and ended up counting 12.6 million butterflies over the decades. Last month an annual survey that looked just at monarch butterflies, which federal officials plan to put on the threatened species list, counted a nearly all-time low of fewer than 10,000, down from 1.2 million in 1997. Many of the species in decline fell by 40% or more. ‘Catastrophic and saddening’ loss over time David Wagner, a University of Connecticut entomologist who wasn’t part of the study, praised its scope. And he said while the annual rate of decline may not sound significant, it is “catastrophic and saddening” when compounded over time. “In just 30 or 40 years we are talking about losing half the butterflies (and other insect life) over a continent!” Wagner said in an email. “The tree of life is being denuded at unprecedented rates.” The United States has 650 butterfly species, but 96 species were so sparse they didn’t show up in the data and another 212 species weren’t found in sufficient number to calculate trends, said study lead author Collin Edwards, an ecologist and data scientist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I’m probably most worried about the species that couldn’t even be included in the analyses” because they were so rare, said University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Karen Oberhauser, who wasn’t part of the research. Haddad, who specializes in rare butterflies, said in recent years he has seen just two endangered St. Francis Satyr butterflies — which only live on a bomb range at Fort Bragg in North Carolina — “so it could be extinct.” Some well-known species had large drops. The red admiral, which is so calm it lands on people, is down 44% and the American lady butterfly, with two large eyespots on its back wings, decreased by 58%, Edwards said. Even the invasive white cabbage butterfly, “a species that is well adapted to invade the world,” according to Haddad, fell by 50%. “How can that be?” Haddad wondered. Butterfly decline as a warning sign for humans Cornell University butterfly expert Anurag Agrawal said he worries most about the future of a different species: Humans. “The loss of butterflies, parrots and porpoises is undoubtedly a bad sign for us, the ecosystems we need and the nature we enjoy,” Agrawal, who wasn’t part of the study, said in an email. “They are telling us that our continent’s health is not doing so well … Butterflies are an ambassador for nature’s beauty, fragility and the interdependence of species. They have something to teach us.” Oberhauser said butterflies connect people with nature and that “calms us down, makes us healthier and happier and promotes learning.” What’s happening to butterflies in the United States is probably happening to other, less-studied insects across the continent and world, Wagner said. He said not only is this the most comprehensive butterfly study, but the most data-rich for any insect. Butterflies are also pollinators, though not as prominent as bees, and are a major source of pollination of the Texas cotton crop, Haddad said. Driest and warmest areas are worst for butterflies The biggest decrease in butterflies was in the Southwest — Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma — where the number of butterflies dropped by more than half in the 20 years. “It looks like the butterflies that are in dry and warm areas are doing particularly poorly,” Edwards said. “And that kind of captures a lot of the Southwest.” Edwards said when they looked at butterfly species that lived both in the hotter South and cooler North, the ones that did better were in the cooler areas. Climate change, habitat loss and insecticides tend to work together to weaken butterfly populations, Edwards and Haddad said. Of the three, it seems that insecticides are the biggest cause, based on previous research from the U.S. Midwest, Haddad said. “It makes sense because insecticide use has changed in dramatic ways in the time since our study started,” Haddad said. Habitats can be restored and so can butterflies, so there’s hope, Haddad said. “You can make changes in your backyard and in your neighborhood and in your state,” Haddad said. “That could really improve the situation for a lot of species.” Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. —Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer View the full article

February figure was below the 160,000 forecast by economistsView the full article

Fans of the beleaguered retail chain Big Lots will be happy to learn that the first locations to reopen after its bankruptcy last year are currently undergoing a cleaning, remodeling, and re-merchandising process. Their reopening, the first in a series of four waves of “soft openings,” is scheduled for next month. Here’s what you need to know about when and where Big Lots stores will reopen. Big Lots ‘first wave’ locations Variety Wholesalers, the North Carolina-based retail company that has taken control of hundreds of the ailing retailer’s stores, has confirmed with Fast Company that it is gearing up to reopen some of the locations that it has acquired. As Fast Company previously reported, as many as 200 Big Lots stores were assigned to Variety Wholesalers as part of a deal with Gordon Brothers, the liquidation firm that took control of the retailer. The locations will reopen in four waves from April through early June. Fast Company has now learned that the first of those waves is underway. The first wave of Big Lots store reopenings will encompass nine stores in six states across the South. Those locations are: Kentucky 1342 Indian Mound Dr, Mount Sterling, KY Louisiana 755 Veterans Memorial Blvd, Metairie, LA Mississippi 2605 W Main St, Tupelo, MS 5778 Hwy 80 E, Pearl, MS North Carolina 1432 E Dixie Dr, Asheboro, NC Tennessee 1041 S Riverside Dr, Clarksville, TN 744 Nashville Pike, Gallatin, TN 220 Dickson Plaza Dr, Dickson, TN Virginia 2911 Hershberger Rd NW, Roanoke, VA Big Lots reopening date Jeff King, Variety Wholesalers vice president of sales and marketing, told Fast Company that the company began the necessary work on March 3 to reopen the locations. He confirmed that the nine locations listed above will have their soft openings on Thursday, April 10. The stores will remain closed for a period of time before then so Variety Wholesalers can perform necessary work, which includes cleaning the locations, as well as remodeling the stores and bringing in new categories of merchandise. King also confirmed plans for the second wave of Big Lots opening. He said that wave would include considerably more locations—another 70 stores—and that those stores would reopen on Thursday, May 1. Big Lots back from the brink It’s fair to say that 2024 was the worst year in Big Lots’ 57-year history. After suffering financial difficulties for years, Big Lots announced in December that it would be going out of business and closing all remaining 870 locations, and thus seeing the elimination of 27,000 jobs. Gordon Brothers purchased Big Lots and had been managing the stores’ closures when, in the final days of 2024, Variety Wholesalers swooped in, agreeing to buy at least 200 locations from the liquidator to keep the chain going under the Big Lots brand. Variety is the owner of several other discount chain stores, including Roses, Bill’s Dollar Stores, Super Dollar, and Bargain Town. Other states besides the ones listed above that are expected to see Big Lots stores reopen include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and West Virginia. View the full article

Google released its much anticipated AI Mode, which is in beta now, but it super cool. Google AI Overviews are now powered by Gemini 2.0. Google had more search ranking volatility this week. Google said they answered...View the full article

Every morning, after Richard J. Davidson meditates, he opens his calendar and sets an intention for each meeting. He brings each person into his mind and heart, expresses gratitude for their work in the world, and considers how he can best support them. I was inspired to try this practice. I reflected on the people that I planned to see that day and chose one thing that I’d like to thank them for. I was surprised that a simple “thank you” caused them to visibly light up. Davidson was right: It not only transformed our conversation, but the entire nature of my day. This is an example of microdosing well-being and its impact on ourselves and others. It’s also the heart of Davidson’s mission: Well-being doesn’t need to be left up to chance. It is a skill that we can train. Richard Davidson in the lab, 1990 [Photo: David Nevala] “When humans first evolved, none of us were brushing our teeth,” he shares. “Now, pretty much everyone on the planet brushes their teeth. It’s not part of our genome. We’ve learned to do this because we consider it important for our physical hygiene.” “If we spend even as short of time as we do brushing our teeth nourishing our mind, our findings and the findings of other scientists show that this world would be a different place,” he adds. “Most people would consider their mind more important than their teeth. Yet, we don’t treat our mind with the same respect.” As a world renowned neuroscientist, Davidson has devoted five decades to studying human flourishing. He is the founder and director of The Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he conducts groundbreaking research on emotions and the brain, as well as meditation and contemplative practices. Through the Center’s nonprofit, Healthy Minds Innovations, they translate their findings into evidence-based practices for individuals and organizations to cultivate well-being. In our conversation, he explains why our relationship to ourselves, each other, and the world are the product of the stories that we tell ourselves. He explains how to change your relationship to your thoughts, manage the activation of your stress response, and create structural changes in the wiring of your brain in as little as 20 hours. David Richardson [Photo: David Nevala] This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You shared that: “our brains are constantly being shaped, wittingly or unwittingly. Most of the time, we are unaware of the forces around us that are shaping our brains and have very little control of those forces. The one thing that we do have control over is our own mind.” Explain that last line, because we often don’t think that we have control over our minds. Every human being is born with the capacity to control her or his mind. The fact that many people feel that they don’t have control over their mind is simply a symptom of the degradation in well-being that we are seeing in the world today. But, we know with absolute scientific certainty that we can harness our innate capacity and control our mind. What’s amazing is that it doesn’t take that much to get a taste of this capacity. You don’t have to sit in any special posture or travel to the Himalayas. You can do this anywhere, anytime. It’s not just my opinion. It’s the results of years of scientific research. When it comes to neuroplasticity, what is the neurological impact when we commit to well-being practices? What we know from existing scientific research is that when we commit to well-being practices, the brain changes in at least two basic ways: One is what we call functional changes, which are changes in the patterns of activation of different networks in the brain. The second is structural changes, where there’s literally changes in the wiring of the brain. We can see functional changes in the brain after just a few hours of practice. We can see structural changes after as little as 20 hours of practice. When you think about learning a new sport, language, or instrument, those complex skills require quite a bit of practice. It doesn’t take much with well-being, because humans are born to flourish. We have all these capabilities within us. You highlighted research findings that “clearly suggest that people who are willing to question their own beliefs, and understand that their beliefs are not fixed, are less likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders and more likely to respond positively to treatment.” Explain this and how we can practice it. This is one of the core dimensions of our framework for understanding well-being. We call it Insight. It’s the idea that every human being has a narrative that they tell about themselves. What’s really important for well-being is not so much to change the narrative, but to change our relationship to this narrative. So, being able to see the narrative as a constellation of beliefs, thoughts, and expectations that is not permanent. These thoughts can change. They’re not all of who we are. Take pain as an example. We might say: I’m in pain. Does that mean all of me is in pain? Is there any part of me that’s not in pain? Who is the “I” when we say: “I am in pain?” Another strategy is, for a difficult situation at work or at home, we can ask ourselves: What might it be like for someone who has a different set of beliefs and expectations to be in the same situation? How might they perceive it? These are simple strategies to loosen the grip that the narrative that we carry may have and to help us appreciate that we are not our thoughts. On the Healthy Minds Program app, an instructor explained that he shifted from using meditation to try to destroy his anxiety to learning to accept and befriend his inner demons. How can we learn to befriend ourselves? This is part of our DNA in terms of how we introduce these practices. We’ve found, through the science we’ve done, that it is much more effective not to fight with your mind. There are some people who think: I’m going to meditate and get relaxed. I’m going to try to stop my distracting thoughts. It further increases their stress and agitation. Instead of having that approach, it’s much simpler to acknowledge that we’re human. We do have these distracting, sometimes upsetting, thoughts. So, rather than pushing them away, simply acknowledging them. We often use the analogy of the weather and the sky. You can have foreboding clouds. They will eventually go away. It doesn’t change the nature of the sky. The same is true with our thoughts and emotions. From the perspective that we are suggesting, our minds are pure in the same way that the sky is. But, there are all these clouds that come in. If we are able to look at them, as clouds in this way—they arise, change, and go away eventually—it helps us to loosen the grip that they have. Another analogy is that instead of being in this turbulent river, we can step onto the shore, and watch the river go by; And, even appreciate its beauty, even if it’s turbulent. In The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness, Roshi Joan Halifax said that self-criticism “only strengthens the self-hatred and self directed aggression. The thing that is going to transform it is not meanness, it’s love.” What does self-compassion look like in action? Self-compassion is a way to think about love. It’s accepting who we are with all of our imperfections, not pushing against it. To give a personal example, I’ve been meditating daily for 50 years. There are times when my morning practice will still be filled with distraction. I don’t get up from my meditation having a lot of self criticism about it. One of my teachers has this line that I love: The road to Lhasa goes up and down. What he meant is: The bad meditations are just as good as the good meditations. There are times when we can learn a lot from the distracting periods. Making friends with our mind or our anxiety is the most effective strategy in transforming them. Expectations are a common source of distress. How can we practice acceptance in situations where we hoped for a different outcome? Expectation is another kind of thought. We’ve done work in the laboratory where we’ve shown that we can create an expectation that a person will get a painful stimulus. In people that haven’t trained their mind, just the expectation that they’re about to get zapped with painful heat is enough to activate the pain circuits in the brain, even though there’s no painful stimulus. They’ve just heard a tone, which denotes that they’re going to get this painful stimulus. It turns out, in people who’ve done certain kinds of meditation practices, when we give them this expectation cue, nothing happens in the pain circuits in the brain. We can learn to let go of these expectations. Certain expectations are important for navigating everyday life. But, when we have an expectation, and it doesn’t come to fruition, we are less activated by the failure of that expectation to come to reality. It’s a learnable skill. Stress is toxic because it causes your brain to tell your body to prepare for immediate action. How can we decrease the propensity of activating our fight or flight response? This is a huge and important issue. To give context, we have this chunk of real estate in the front of our brain called the prefrontal cortex. It affords us the opportunity to do something that other species can’t do very much, which is what we call mental time travel. We can anticipate the future and reflect on the past; That confers a lot of advantage to humans. But, it also gets us into trouble, because we can imagine future threats. They’re simply imagined, but they hijack the machinery of our threat response and activate our biological systems as if they were a real threat. But, all that’s happened is we’ve had a thought or an emotion. The invitation, if you will, is: How can we harness the capacity of the prefrontal cortex and use it to our advantage? We can learn to harness this gift and control our mind in a way that would decrease the likelihood of us triggering these threat responses in contexts where they’re not necessary. We may feel calm after coming out of meditation. Still, it requires practice to maintain that calmness throughout the day. You’ve shared that your next frontier of work is around microdosing. What are a few practices we can try? We’ve talked about the microdosing of well-being. Research shows that one of the easiest ways to do this is if we pair these micro-practices or micro-supports around activities that we do every day. One of the things that most humans do every day is eat. If we spend even 30 seconds before we eat intentionally reflecting on all of the people that it took for us to have a meal and feeling the appreciation in our mind and heart, that’s an example of a micro-practice. You could do this a few times a day. It takes virtually no extra time. Some of us travel a fair amount. Walking through airports, for me, has transformed from something that many people consider stressful to this wonderful opportunity where you can look at people and just in your mind, you can wish people: May you be happy. That makes you happy, too. When you think about this, even for people who are living in objectively challenging circumstances, there are always going to be opportunities for this kind of microdosing. We just need to find what resonates with us and makes sense for our lives. Then, stick to it and really try to do it on a daily basis. Your team shares an invitation to improve our relationships: When we change the stories that we tell about people, our relationships with those people change. How do the stories we tell about others influence the quality of our relationships? What are a few ways we can shift them? This is part of our natural tendency to deploy narratives in how we operate, about ourselves as well as other people. I find myself having this issue all the time. There are often people who I’m scheduled to meet and I construct this image in my mind of who they are. We all do that. Most of us have had the experience, at least occasionally, of being surprised when we meet a person that we learn things about them that are inconsistent with the story that we’ve told about who they might be. It’s not that we should try to suppress the narrative, because that’s not going to work. But, having an appreciation that this is a story that we’re telling, it may not be accurate. There may be other stories that are more veridical. We use dreams as an important analogy. All of us dream every night. If we remember our dreams, we know that we have emotions in response to the dream events. But, we recognize that it’s a dream. It’s all constructed in our mind. It turns out that the way that we see the world is no different than the way that the mind processes dreams; Neuroscience teaches us that. We don’t actually see the world. When we interact with the world, what we’re seeing is our construction of the world. When we’re interacting with another person, we’re interacting with our construction of the other person. It’s not to say that there’s not someone there. But, we’re responding not to the physical elements that are there, but to our conceptual construction that we’ve made of who they are. When we recognize that, it helps to diffuse the grip that these narratives have and allows for much more spaciousness. You often express that there is an important distinction between happiness and wellbeing. Why is that distinction essential? If we lose a loved one, we’re sad; The sadness is real and healthy. It would be weird and kind of pathological to be happy in response to loss. It’s not about being happy all the time. Yet, if we have a loss and we’re sad, if we have high levels of well-being, we have this sense that everything is going to be fundamentally okay. There’s a kind of fundamental okay-ness. That’s what well-being is about. It’s not about being happy. It’s about knowing that it’s okay. For example, I’ve seen the Dalai Lama with this huge range of emotion. After someone described Tibetans in a Chinese prison being tortured, he was visibly crying. But, the next moment, he noticed something funny and started laughing. There’s this emotional fluidity. If a tragedy happens and you are sad, it’s having the ability to bounce back. You don’t stay stuck in the sadness for long periods of time. You have an appropriate response. But, at some point, it is no longer appropriate and you can have other emotions. Fluidity is one of the key markers of a person who is flourishing. What is your hope for the world today? The world is experiencing the devastating consequences of the failure to cultivate well-being; Many of the difficulties we’re having in the world—including the devastating consequences of polarization and greed—all of these problems are, at least in part, stemming from the same fundamental cause. My aspiration for the world today is that we can embrace the possibility that well-being can be learned, and that it’s not difficult. I feel like my role on the planet is to harness my platform as a scientist to help promote this idea and provide tools that can enable a large swath of the population to get engaged in this way. I think the very future of humanity depends on it. View the full article

English-language keywords are becoming more competitive daily, making it harder to rank for popular terms – even with an unlimited budget. To maximize your efforts, consider alternatives like multilingual or international SEO. Before we dive in, let’s clarify the difference: Multilingual SEO involves multiple languages, regardless of the target country. For example, adapting a U.S. website into Spanish or Traditional Chinese for U.S. residents is multilingual but not international. International SEO targets different countries. A U.S. company expanding to Canada, the U.K., or Australia would be engaging in international SEO but not multilingual. This article covers both. Expanding beyond your current audience comes with challenges. With over five years in international SEO, I’ve seen many brands make common mistakes. Here’s how to avoid them. 1. No market research Sometimes, businesses notice traffic and sales from a specific country and assume they can simply AI-translate their content to rank. Since they perform well in their home country, they believe their authority and links will carry over. Wrong! Every country has its own industry landscape, which may not align with what you’re used to. Regulations on products, content, and marketing can also vary. Most importantly, your ideal customer may have different preferences or priorities in another country. A U.S. affiliate site for online casinos launched an international content effort but didn’t get the expected traffic. They targeted Germany, China, and Japan. Here’s what they overlooked: Online gambling is illegal in two of those markets and heavily regulated in the third. While people still play in unauthorized casinos, legal restrictions affect how businesses enter the market. The risk is lower as an affiliate, but companies selling products or subscriptions must confirm whether they can sell and whether their sales model is allowed. The market had strong local manufacturers and distributors that weren’t active elsewhere. Creating content around these brands boosted traffic. A social media influencer was trending in Germany for online slot play. Content focused on this trend ranked well and attracted visitors. Without market research, you’ll miss major opportunities to stand out – and you might even run into legal trouble, depending on your product and sales model. Dig deeper: How to use SEO to enhance your visibility within a specific geographic area 2. Poorly prepared base version If your primary language site is poorly built or optimized, those issues will carry over when you add another language. I’ve seen multilingual sites with no H1s, custom child themes that make content updates difficult, and internal structures that don’t scale well. Even a font choice can cause problems. A clear, consistent structure also helps translation software function properly. Most translation tools scan for text strings, but improperly tagged elements – like buttons, callout boxes, and other design features – may be missed. In the image below, the gray text appears on mouseover but wasn’t translated from the original German to English. Ensure your designers and developers create a framework that supports multiple languages, currencies, tax rates, and shipping options. When adapting from English to another language, allow extra space for text expansion. English tends to be more concise than other Western languages – and significantly shorter than Chinese or Japanese. This is especially crucial for navigation menus and buttons. A translation can break your design simply because there are too many words or one long word that doesn’t fit. Website navigation in English Website navigation in English You can’t predict every challenge, but a clean, well-structured site will make expanding to new markets much easier. Dig deeper: How to craft an international SEO approach that balances tech, translation and trust 3. No keyword research Many companies translate first and think about SEO later, resulting in multilingual content with no keyword focus. Conducting keyword research before translation helps your team incorporate key terms from the start. It also helps determine whether a term should be translated at all. Some languages, like German, often retain English terms, while French is less likely to do so. A quick check with a keyword research tool can show whether to translate, keep the original term, or use both. Keyword research can also reveal potential conflicts. For example, a company wanted to rank for “MDR” in German, referring to “managed detection and response.” However, MDR is also the name of a major German public TV and radio station – making ranking for the term impossible. Beyond choosing keywords, research helps identify local content clusters and plan accordingly. Poor keyword implementation Writing with keywords in mind is challenging in any language, and it becomes even trickier in a foreign one. Translators prioritize accuracy, not SEO. Where you see keyword variations, a translator sees inconsistency, which can lead to over-optimization. Working with a native writer instead of a translator allows for better flexibility and keyword integration. Dig deeper: 15 SEO localization dos and don’ts: Navigating cultural sensitivity Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. 4. Internal linking Too many websites overlook internal linking in their international content. Both navigational and in-content links must be fully localized to maximize their value. Many sites either link back to English pages or only to the target language homepage, missing key opportunities. This is primarily a user experience issue. When users land on unexpected content, it can be frustrating and lead to high bounce rates. You want visitors to take action, and you’ve invested in content – so it needs to perform. Users who can’t easily find relevant information are less likely to convert. From an SEO perspective, internal linking is one of the few factors you can fully control. With so many ranking elements out of your hands, taking advantage of what you can is crucial. As you develop your keyword list, create an internal linking strategy alongside it. Keep local preferences in mind. Your best-selling product in one country may not be the same in another, so adjusting your internal links accordingly can improve efficiency. Also, share your linking strategy with your translation team. Translators and transcreators can help create natural, localized links, but most translation software won’t automatically adjust links to point to the correct language version. A native-speaking editor is your best option for ensuring strong anchor text and proper link placement. Dig deeper: International SEO: How to avoid common translation and localization pitfalls 5. Only thinking about text Images and videos are powerful content tools, but if they’re not relevant or accessible to your audience, they lose their impact. The images you choose can shape how visitors perceive your brand. That’s why it’s important to have a local review them. Sometimes, it’s as simple as ensuring the people in your images reflect the local population. Other times, it’s more complex. Allegorical images, for example, may not translate culturally. Images localized for German, Czech, and Arabic-speaking customers. If you keep the same images, update your alt tags to reflect the local language and, if possible, include relevant keywords. For videos, narration can be highly engaging – unless the viewer doesn’t understand the language. In that case, it becomes alienating. Some companies opt for instrumental music and subtitles, allowing users to select their preferred language. If your videos are already produced, the easiest and most cost-effective way to internationalize them is by adding localized closed captions. Fully localizing or dubbing them is more expensive but provides a better user experience. These assets can also be repurposed for other targeted campaigns. However, if you’re hosting them on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, you must organize them properly to ensure seamless access. Dig deeper: 6 SEO considerations for a successful international expansion Going global successfully with smarter SEO Internationalization can feel overwhelming, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Taking the time to prepare – particularly with market and keyword research – can reveal significant opportunities and reinforce commitment to the project. With that foundation in place, it’s time to move forward with localization. View the full article

Google sent out emails to Local Service Ads advertisers notifying them that their Google Business Profile accounts are not affiliated to your Local Service Ads account. That means your reviews will only be accepted through your Google Business Profile link and not the Local Service Ads link.View the full article

Trump passes executive order for bitcoin reserve based on assets forfeited to authoritiesView the full article

Google Ads has updated its interface for when you select when you want your ads running in specific regions/locations. Now, it has a button to "add locations in bulk," which should help you add locations faster.View the full article

Google may be bringing channel reporting to the Google Ads Performance Max campaigns. I spotted this via Kirk Williams who posted a photo of a slide from Google Think event in Amsterdam where Arjan Schoorl attended. The slide says "Channel Reporting" will be coming to PMax and Demand Gen for increased transparency and controls.View the full article

Google has shut down, turned off, and disabled, its new page annotations feature. The feature where Google hijacked your content, placed links in your content, links you didn't add yourself, and directed your content to Google Search. It is no longer, Google shut it down. View the full article

Google has this new "Know before you go" section in the search results. I mean, it is new for search, not new for Google Maps and not new for local. But I've never seen a Know before you go box in the search results before.View the full article

Microsoft is now showing why it selects or chooses to show a specific ad directly in the Bing search results. When you click on the arrow down by the URL of the search ad snippet, you will get window dialog that may explain why the ad was shown.View the full article

Spotify just opened up a new stream of revenue for podcasters. That is, if they’re uploading video. What was once an audio-first medium, podcasting is now increasingly filmed and produced. That started on YouTube, which is now racking up one billion podcast viewers a month. While Spotify has hosted podcasts for a decade now, the company is suddenly racing to stay competitive, rolling out new features and monetization tools. That includes their Partner Program, which allows podcasters to earn money directly from the streams of premium subscribers, so long as they’re using a video aspect. “We decided to focus on video because that’s where we see a lot of audiences and creators trending,” says Jordan Newman, Spotify’s senior director of content partnerships. “We felt like it was something that we really wanted to encourage and incentivize our platform.” To find out how podcasters feel about the app’s video push, Fast Company spoke with creators on both sides of the aisle—those who have embraced video, and those who have stayed audio-only. The cost-benefit analysis of video podcasting For many podcasters, the shift to video is a financial and logistical leap. Producing a high-quality video podcast requires more than just a microphone—it demands cameras, lighting, editing software, and often a dedicated set. That investment pays off for some, but for others, it adds a new layer of complexity to an already time-consuming medium. Chris Williamson knows this trade-off well. As the host of Modern Wisdom, one of Spotify’s most popular self-improvement podcasts, he’s built a reputation not just for insightful conversations with guests like Andrew Huberman and Steven Bartlett but also for stunning visual production. Yet Modern Wisdom wasn’t always a cinematic experience. In its early days, the show was audio-only, with a basic equalizer graphic on YouTube. Fifty episodes in, Williamson started recording his Skype interviews. A hundred episodes later, he upgraded to professional-quality video. Now, he rents what he estimates is “a quarter of a million dollars”-worth of camera equipment for each shoot. So far, it’s paid off handsomely. Thanks to his polished, production-heavy style, advertisers flock to Modern Wisdom, and Spotify’s expansion into video has further boosted his revenue. Once his full back catalog is uploaded, Williamson expects to earn as much—if not more—from Spotify as he does from YouTube. “I think we’ve kind of gained a reputation in the world of cinematography and production and making a very beautiful podcast, and that makes me feel good,” Williamson says. “It’s not just something that is legitimate in terms of its content, but also in terms of its delivery and its packaging.” While most podcasters don’t operate on Williamson’s scale, video remains for all a big investment. Among the seven podcasters interviewed for this piece, nearly all cited increased costs—both financial and labor-related—as a major consideration. For independent creators, these costs fall directly on their shoulders. For those backed by major podcast networks, the burden is often shared. Diallo Riddle and Blake “LUXXURY” Robin, co-hosts of the music podcast One Song, were caught off guard when their network, Hartbeat, insisted on a video format. (Riddle jokes that, if he had known, he would have demanded they “pay for hair and makeup.”) But they have come to see the move as a fortuitous one. “By now, recording both has become the default,” Robin says. “Part of what podcasting is as a medium, I’ve only learned as we’ve done it, is that parasocial relationship. Getting to know the people, I think it helps when you see them.” The audio/video balancing act The biggest challenge? Making a show work seamlessly for both audiences. Some podcasts are visually stunning but incoherent in audio form; others treat video as an afterthought. The result is a growing divide in audience experiences. The hosts of Petty Crimes, which is also produced by Hartbeat, have been thinking about this drop-off in experience. Griff Stark-Ennis films in Los Angeles, where he’s surrounded by cameras, making it easy to “play into the visual aspect and sometimes forget the audio.” Ceara Jane O’Sullivan, who records simultaneously in New York, positions herself as a check on that impulse. “When we are reviewing episodes back, I always listen to the transcript audio-only,” O’Sullivan says. “You have to present your audio episode and present your video episode as if that is the assumed and correct audience. You never want anyone to feel like they’re being shorted or ignored in either medium.” No matter the issues—scaling costs, getting camera-ready, or remembering the audio listener—all of these podcasters were happy with their video ventures. They’ve all seen the audience widening that video has allowed them, something that Spotify’s Newman emphasized. “Shows with video are growing faster than audio shows right now,” he says. What becomes of the audio-only podcasters? Podcasting started as an audio-only medium—and many creators are sticking to that. In 2023, 32% of podcasters said they had “no plans” to record video, per the IndiePod Census. These creators are barred from that premium revenue stream on Spotify, though they still can earn money from ads. But video isn’t the be all end all; after all, only 30% of audiences are actively watching their podcasts, per Cumulus Media. And some podcasters have other priorities. “Video adds a layer of technical complication,” says Perry Romanowski, co-host of The Beauty Brains. “When I want to do a show, my partner and I hop on a zoom call and we record locally on both of our machines. Neither of us has to take showers and get gussied up. It’s just a lot easier.” Others film some video, but don’t upload it to Spotify. Gibson Johns films the interviews for his show Gabbing With Gib and uploads them to YouTube. But, to fashion these interviews into a podcast form, he records audio-only introductions and uploads the audio alone to Spotify. “I’m solid for now,” he says. “As far as I’m aware, there’s not a way on Spotify to upload a portion of your episode as a video.” Still, Johns is happy with Spotify’s creator experience; he earns the bulk of his money through their advertising. While Romanowski earns his money through Patreon, he’s content with Spotify, too. Neither haven’t felt the encroachment of video hurting their business. Podcasters now are at an inflection point. They must choose: To film or not to film. That choice isn’t just about preference—it’s about costs, and adapting to an industry radically reformed by video. View the full article

Every year, Employee Appreciation Day comes and goes, prompting organizations to rush into gratitude mode—offering lunches, shoutouts, and small gifts. But if March 7 is the only time leaders express appreciation to their teams, they’re missing the mark. It’s like only telling your partner “I love you” on your anniversary. If appreciation is absent the rest of the year, the sentiment feels hollow. In fact, a once-a-year show of recognition can do more harm than good, as employees may perceive these actions as insincere. Whether in relationships or the workplace, real appreciation is built through consistent, meaningful recognition. Recognition is even more critical as companies across industries are rolling back their DEI initiatives—a shift that could impact efforts to create more inclusive workplaces. Some organizations are quietly deprioritizing diversity programs, while others, like Meta, have made highly visible cuts to their DEI teams. As DEI initiatives shrink, rebrand, or disappear entirely, it’s more important than ever to reinforce inclusion through everyday practices. Recognition is one of the simplest and most effective ways to do this. When employees feel seen and valued for their contributions, inclusion becomes embedded in workplace culture—not just a corporate talking point. 4 ways to foster a culture of inclusive recognition Employees at organizations with highly integrated recognition—where recognition is frequent, meaningful, and embedded in the culture—are 10 times more likely to trust their organization and nine times more likely to believe their organization cares about them. Yet, many organizations still treat recognition as an afterthought rather than an everyday practice. Consider these four ways to make recognition a consistent and impactful part of your culture: 1. Make recognition a daily habit Think about the last time you thanked a colleague for their contributions. Was it last week? Last month? If you can’t remember, it’s time to make recognition a habit. Start by incorporating recognition into existing routines. Take a few minutes at the beginning or end of team meetings to acknowledge recent contributions. When providing feedback—whether in one-on-one conversations, emails, or project updates—call out specific actions that made a difference. Use digital tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to create a space for company-wide appreciation. Recognition doesn’t have to come from leadership alone. You should also encourage peer-to-peer appreciation so employees feel valued by their colleagues, as well. The more ingrained recognition becomes in daily interactions, the more it fosters a culture where everyone feels seen and included. 2. Recognize behaviors, not just outcomes If you’re only recognizing employees for hitting goals—like exceeding sales targets or completing big projects—you’re missing a big part of what makes teams successful. How employees work is just as important as what they achieve. Think about the employees who mentor others, uplift their teammates, or create an environment where all voices are heard. These behaviors drive long-term success, but they often go unnoticed. If you want to build an inclusive culture, make a point to acknowledge the ways employees support and collaborate with each other, not just their individual accomplishments. For example, instead of only celebrating the top performer in a department, recognize the team member who made sure everyone was set up for success. Call out those who took the time to share knowledge, advocate for a colleague’s ideas, or create a positive team environment. By shifting the focus beyond just results, you ensure that a wider range of contributions are valued. 3. Ensure recognition is visible and equitable It’s easy to default to recognizing the employees who are the most vocal or who work on high-visibility projects. But what about the ones who contribute just as much behind the scenes? Unconscious bias can lead to some employees receiving less recognition than their peers. Take a step back and assess who is getting recognized in your organization. Are the same names coming up repeatedly while others are overlooked? If so, make a conscious effort to expand recognition across teams, levels, and roles. Ensure that recognition is public and visible, whether it’s through a company-wide newsletter, town hall meeting, or a shared appreciation board. When recognition is equitable, employees across all levels feel like their work matters. 4. Use Employee Appreciation Day as a reflection point When recognition happens consistently, Employee Appreciation Day becomes a meaningful reflection of the past year’s achievements rather than a last-minute attempt to show gratitude. Instead of using it as the only time to celebrate employees, think of it as an opportunity to reinforce and amplify your year-round recognition efforts. Use it to tell meaningful stories of teamwork, highlight moments when employees went above and beyond, and showcase the contributions that have shaped your organization’s success. Framing the day as a reflection rather than a one-off event helps strengthen your culture of appreciation. This is also a great moment to gather feedback from employees. Ask them how they prefer to be recognized. Some might appreciate public shoutouts, while others prefer personal acknowledgments from leadership. Use this input to refine your approach and make recognition even more impactful. The goal is to ensure that employees feel valued all the time, not just when it’s expected. The bottom line: Inclusion is built daily If employees only hear expressions of praise and recognition once a year on Employee Appreciation Day, you’re missing out on the opportunity to build a more engaged, connected workforce. A culture of recognition helps strengthen workplace relationships, increase motivation, and create an environment where people want to do their best work. It’s also important to remember that recognition alone isn’t enough. Without a living wage, reasonable hours, and supportive management, praise won’t drive true engagement or job satisfaction. Recognition must be paired with a fair and respectful work environment. By making recognition a daily habit, celebrating behaviors as well as outcomes, and ensuring appreciation is visible and equitable, you can create a workplace where your employees feel valued every single day. View the full article

When I was 35, a ruptured brain aneurysm nearly killed me. My husband and I had just moved to a new city, bought our first house, adopted a dog, and I had recently started my own business. Life was running at 100 miles an hour and I thought this is what hustling was supposed to feel like. Living my best life, right? Until I collapsed, unconscious, on my bathroom floor. I miraculously survived. Recovery wasn’t always easy due to my new cognitive deficits. However, the experience taught me about the power of empathy to heal and how clarity and decisive action — especially when the stakes are high — can be the most compassionate things someone can do to alleviate stress, confusion, and anxiety. From staff supporting my husband in those crucial first hours to my care team treating me as a person—calling me by name and letting me choose my meals for six weeks—I felt seen, heard, and valued. Their kindness eased my stress and made a difficult time less isolating. According to a 2024 Businessolver State of Workplace Empathy Study, 37% of CEOs still believe empathy has no place in the workplace. This same study shows a marked increase in perceptions of workplaces being toxic. Clearly, we have a workplace conundrum that needs addressing. Engagement is down and mental health issues are up. Experts now cite loneliness as a health epidemic. It begs the question: Should empathy ever be put aside at work, or should we be doubling down on it? When we define empathy too narrowly, we overlook its power to build resilient, high-performing teams and boost engagement, collaboration, and innovation. Empathy means seeing, understanding, and, when appropriate, feeling another’s perspective—then using that insight to act with compassion. It’s a way to gather information, understand context, and take the next right step together. With this definition, it is safe to say that unless you are being physically or psychologically hurt, there are almost no circumstances where we should be putting empathy aside at work. Empathy at work includes practicing clarity, transparency, and decisiveness. Going back to my story — Above all, I credit my surgeon and care team for practicing the often overlooked aspects of empathy: decisiveness, transparency, and clarity. Can you imagine if my surgeon stalled on a decision to give my family a chance to research, analyze, or familiarize themselves with what was going on? He shared the information, clearly explained the risks and upsides, and patiently answered their questions, but he made a firm decision to move forward because he kept his eye on the ultimate goal: Saving my life. This kind of decisive action was exactly what my disoriented and overwhelmed husband needed at that moment. It was truly empathetic. Harvard Business School professor highlights the importance of decisive action when he writes, “A comprehensive study of compassion in the Clinical Psychology Review defines it as recognizing suffering, understanding it, and feeling empathy for the sufferer—but also tolerating the uncomfortable feelings they and the suffering person are experiencing, and, crucially, acting to alleviate the suffering.” Here are some ways that empathetic leaders can show up with greater decisiveness. Revisit your goal and purpose — often Leaders can often get caught up in the drama surrounding important decisions and lose sight of the goal. Create a way to clearly kick yourself in the pants as you make a decision: make your goal physically visible using a sticky note or by including it at the top of every discussion agenda. Read the mission out loud when you kick off meetings to reorient everyone to true north. Here are some tactics to try: Bake in goal-review processes: You can add goal statements to tracking paperwork, insist on reviewing the purpose at every major goalpost, or ask stakeholders to consider the overall goal any time they request a change or addition. Make goal-centricity a group endeavor: Ask your team members or colleagues to be accountability partners in remaining goal-focused. They can remind you, “Which option aligns with the larger purpose?” whenever they see you waffling. Practice transparency There’s no need to make all decisions in a secretive way and unveil them only when they are fully baked. Learn to be clearer quicker, and if possible, talk openly about the choices you’re making and have made. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know, but let’s find out together.” A study published in the Journal of Communication Management reveals how transparent communication significantly influences employees’ trust in their organizations. Here are some tactics to try: Share your failures: Being human with your teams means they’ll feel comfortable doing the same, which builds empathy in both directions. It also will slowly erode any anxiety you have about making “bad” or “wrong” decisions. Process with trusted colleagues: By allowing yourself to process with team members or other leaders verbally, you can reveal your thought processes and limiting factors. Solicit and synthesize input Practice soliciting input from others, but be clear that once a decision is made, naysayers will be asked to disagree but commit. At a certain point, we’ve all got to move forward together and still be committed to the mission. Focus on impact: While general feedback is important, if you want to be decisive by implementing input quickly, you need specifics. You can practice asking the feedback-giver to recommend one thing you could do that would make a difference to them Express enthusiasm for feedback: Ideally, soliciting input should be constant, not sporadic. Verbally reward and encourage feedback regularly. Start small: You can try a low-risk experiment, like asking everyone to vote for the location of the next off-site, department lunch. Leverage all that input to quickly make a call yourself, and practice communicating your decision back. Set a deadline In an article for Fast Company, psychotherapist Amy Morin recommends getting in the habit of setting deadlines for decisions that trip you up. If it’s a small decision—say, picking a spot for a business lunch—give yourself a few hours. If it’s weightier—a big investment or strategic pivot—think more in terms of days or weeks. Here are some tactics to try: Leverage tech: It may sound simple, but just putting a reminder in your phone or calendar can help you stay on track to make decisions in a timely manner. Schedule a decision review block each day: Consider setting aside thirty minutes or so each day to review and mull upcoming choices. This is also a good forcing mechanism for leaders who are overwhelmed by choices. Empathy isn’t just about listening and understanding—it’s about acting decisively, transparently, and with clarity when it matters most so no one is left anxious and scared in the dark. Leaders who embrace these qualities foster trust, reduce anxiety, and inspire collaboration, even during challenging times. View the full article

Starting today, thousands of changemakers and leaders will descend upon Austin for one of the biggest festivals and conferences of the year: South by Southwest (SXSW). It’s the “level playing field” event where startups and Fortune 500 companies share the same stage to discuss the hottest topics and trends in film, tech, sustainability and travel, social good, and health and wellness. It’s where brands unveil new products, relationships are formed, and celebrities premiere their films. However, despite its popularity as a must-attend event, you won’t find SXSW in your Google Calendar app. You also won’t find two other cultural events in March: Women’s History Month or International Women’s Day (March 8), which ironically the start of SXSW often falls on or around. This omission isn’t due to a tech issue, either. It’s part of the Big Tech company’s attempt to get distance from what is now considered a dirty acronym: DEI. Last month, Google Calendar users noticed that cultural events and observances like Black History Month, Pride Month, and Jewish Heritage were no longer displayed on the app. And while the company claims that the changes were made in 2024, the recent response from users comes at a time when any and all changes—quiet or loud—tied to DEI are heavily scrutinized. In 2025, we have officially entered a DEI paradox where everyone—from consumers to employees to global brands—are navigating major backlash and uncertainty of how exactly we can and should use words like diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 2020, hundreds of brands were proud to share their commitments and promises to do better. In 2025, many of the same brands not only removed these promises from their websites but some have even gone so far as to completely distance themselves from any mention of DEI. What a difference five years makes. Google’s decision to remove cultural events like Black History Month and Women’s History Month from its calendar app is just the latest example a major company failing to understand the true value of DEI. As we kick off SXSW, let’s look back at where we’ve been but more importantly, where we still need to go. A Revolving Door of Diversity Officers and Changing Language In 2020, Google made the following commitments: improve representation of underrepresented groups in leadership by 30% and more than double the number of Black workers at non-senior levels by 2025. The next year, Google released its year-over-year hiring data with the following statement: “we’re expanding access to hiring opportunities for underrepresented groups in many parts of the world by centering racial equity across every part of our hiring process—for leaders, hiring managers, and all Googlers.” The Big Tech company didn’t even make it to 2023 before it cut dedicated staff and downsized its DEI programs. Easy promises to make, easy promises to break. And Google is not alone. Just look at the “revolving door” of diversity officers that have clocked in and out of major businesses since 2020: Pinterest, Apple, Zoom, Airbnb, Netflix, and Disney. All of these companies hired dedicated leaders attached to big announcements and pledges and all these companies saw high rates of turnover and DEI departures. Now in 2025, it’s become even easier to dismantle the work and efforts. Google recently announced its plans to end hiring goals for representation and its former Chief Diversity Officer, Melonie Parker, is now VP, Googler Engagement. Google’s Belonging website now includes phrases like “innovative hiring” and “reflecting our users.” The shift in language is reflective of a greater issue that has surfaced in recent months: the “urgent” need to comply with federal policies and executive orders that have reversed previous efforts from the past 50 years to address discrimination and increase diversity and inclusion. This has set a dangerous tone and precedent for 2025 that the great work and efforts from the past 50 years should be seen as a setback instead of a success. This is untrue and unacceptable. What we need from DEI in 2025 According to the World Economic Forum, at the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158 to reach full gender parity. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “accelerate action,” which is a call for urgency, inclusion, and transformative change. Imagine a world where instead of shining a spotlight on the critics, we shine a spotlight on the efforts and achievements that uplift and inspire women to strive for success without the restrictions of bias and discrimination. For companies, brands and leaders who are still committed to the work, here is how we accelerate action in 2025: Less Flash, More Substance: The foundation of DEI initiatives and programs goes beyond flashy titles, heritage months, and impressive speeches. Companies need to scale back and focus on important components like standardized hiring practices, recruitment from a wider talent pool, and regular pay-gap reviews for all employees. Learn from Mistakes, Don’t Dwell On Them: Women are underrepresented at every level in technology according to data from recruitment company Anderson Frank. Women still only make up 25% of the tech workforce. DEI plays a big role here. Companies need to provide and prioritize inclusive training opportunities, address gender diversity policies, and bring in more female leaders to act as mentors. Make Room for a New DEI Framework: It’s clear that an acronym has become too problematic. Lily Zheng, author, strategist, and outspoken advocate for DEI, recently shared that they hold DEI programs to the “highest standard of effectiveness” using a framework called FAIR, which stands for fairness, access, inclusion, and representation. Companies should consider this new framework as an opportunity for real change and progress. How can companies move beyond performative gestures to make a genuine impact? First let’s answer the question and then let’s get to work. View the full article

This week in branding news, Volvo released its first-ever entirely AI-generated ad, fashion brand Pretty Little Thing attempted to overhaul its brand image, and Crystal Light made a late bid on the canned cocktail craze. Here’s everything you need to know. Volvo veers into the uncanny valley The news: Volvo just released a new AI-generated ad, and it doesn’t include a single car. That was probably a mistake. Big picture: The ad, which aired in Saudi Arabia, is Volvo’s first spot made entirely with AI. Created by the agency Lion, the minute-long video used Midjourney for visuals, Runway editing software for touch-ups, and ChatGPT for narration. It’s essentially a slideshow of clips, including models gazing into the camera, kids smiling up at the sky, and, for some reason, sports fans gathering in a stadium. At no point does a Volvo vehicle appear in the work. Why it matters: The issue with Volvo’s new ad is not necessarily that it relies on AI tools (most advertising professionals will tell you that AI tech is bound to reshape the entire industry, whether we like it or not), but more so that said AI was used so clumsily. To start, the spot has no discernible plot, instead appearing to skip nonsensically between brief AI prompts with little apparent attempt to edit the shots together. The clips themselves display a clear disregard for the current state of AI-generated video by relying mainly on human bodies and expressions, two of the visuals that AI has yet to reliably recreate—resulting in plasticky, overly-airbrushed models that veer straight into the uncanny valley. Volvo’s choices in this ad are even more head-scratching given that we have evidence of an actually good AI-generated Volvo ad—one that was made nine months ago, in less than 24 hours, by a random guy. The speculative ad, created by colorist László Gaál, follows a Volvo vehicle as it speeds through a deserted city, bringing the crumbling architecture back to life by leaving a flood of greenery in its wake. Despite a comparatively tiny budget and time investment, the ad went viral for convincing many viewers, and even some marketing professionals, that it was authentic. The chances of a similar phenomenon occurring with Volvo’s official new ad are close to zero. Pretty Little Thing tries to glow up The news: The fast fashion site Pretty Little Thing (PLT) just rebranded to a new look that mimics luxury brands, and the internet is calling it the end of “the BBL aesthetic.” Big picture: PLT has swapped its former branding—a millennial pink-based design with a basic, sans-serif logo—for a chic new rebrand that uses a darker color palette, calligraphic wordmark, and monogram logo. It’s a full 180 shift that’s clearly taken its inspiration from high fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood. The move is an attempt to reposition PLT away from its reputation for cheap fast fashion and toward a new era as a slightly pricier site to find dupes for the “quiet luxury” and “clean girl” aesthetics. [Image: Pretty Little Thing] “[PLT has] removed the bbl fashion and it’s more clean girl aesthetic now,” one tweet with 67,000 likes reads. “Wow the bbl aesthetic is really out.” Why it matters: PLT’s transparent bid to distance itself from the visual trappings of fast fashion should not distract from the fact that there’s no evidence that its business model has actually changed. In 2023, the company received a meager 23% on Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index for poor labor standards, a lack of sustainability efforts, and little discernible effort to minimize animal suffering. “As it stands, the rebrand doesn’t entirely place PLT in the ‘affordable luxury’ sector,” Vicky Bullen, CEO at design agency Coley Porter Bell, told Creative Bloq. “While its refreshed design draws on some of the cues of luxury brands to create a somewhat more ‘sophisticated’ feel for the company, a brand is much more than just its logo and visuals.” Crystal Light goes boozy The news: Your mom’s favorite lemonade brand in the ‘90s, Crystal Light, is going after Gen Z. Big picture: In a bid to cash in on both its nostalgia-inducing branding and a growing interest in ready-made cocktails, Crystal Light is set to release an alcoholic take on its lemonade packets. The brand just announced a line of canned vodka refreshers, which, like the OG lemonade, will be low calorie and made with artificial sweetener. [Image: Kraft-Heinz] Why it matters: As household brands continue to vie for a piece of White Claw’s success, the RTD space is becoming increasingly oversaturated. Over the past few years, we’ve borne witness to Sunny D vodka, spiked AriZona Iced Tea, Fresca Mixed, and alcoholic Dunkin’ drinks—and, honestly, Crystal Light’s late bid on the space feels a tad bit desperate. “The bladder isn’t big enough to handle them all,” Gary Stibel, CEO of New England Consulting Group, told AdAge. “A few will succeed, but the ones that succeed will be based upon good marketing, not just good product.” View the full article

The true causes of growth are one of the great mysteries of economic thoughtView the full article

Tyler, the CEO of an early-stage technology company, reached out for executive coaching support at the recommendation of a college friend: “Give it a try,” she encouraged. He was skeptical about anything “touchy-feely” and wondered if coaching could offer his leadership an “edge.” After we reviewed his 360 results together, Tyler’s skepticism took center stage. His feedback consisted of descriptors like controlling, arrogant, and dismissive. Tyler was unmoved. He asked, “Why should I care about what people think of me if we’re getting great results?” Tyler’s not an anomaly. There are leaders everywhere who behave badly interpersonally but exceed sales goals, secure investor funding, or get a product to market in record time. As executive coaches who have supported hundreds of senior leaders, we believe this one-dimensional focus on results is seductive, but eventually self-sabotaging and shortsighted. Today’s leaders need to focus on results and interpersonal relationships for long-term success. Here are some reasons why: Competitive and collaborative leaders get the strongest results Tyler has been successful to-date, and he believes that will continue even if he keeps deprioritizing relationships. Of course, research says that’s unlikely. A study of sales organizations that the National Bureau Of Economic Research conducted found that there is a cost to promoting stars who haven’t built skills in collaborating with or developing people. Their teams will make, on average, 30% fewer sales than sales teams with collaborative managers. Bad behavior reduces long-term effectiveness Tyler, as a start-up CEO, can “get away” with bad behavior now given his results. However, over time toxic leaders contribute to reduced productivity, decreased employee performance, increased turnover, and increased legal fees, according to a study in Health Psychology Research. These consequences are a drain on resources and tenured employees. Bottom line, bad behavior catches up with leaders. Tending to relationships and results secures more longevity in senior roles. Caring is a worthwhile investment Tyler’s strategy might be working now, but leadership strategies need to be resilient to professional and personal change. One senior leader, Alexandra, who routinely delivered impressive results, did so at the cost of her team’s morale (For example, she didn’t take their complaints to HR seriously). Then, Alexandra’s aging parents’ health concerns required her to routinely fly cross country to manage their care. When Alexandra’s capacity shifted, her team resisted stepping-up to assist her. Alexandra’s nonexistent social capital with her team ended up costing the company floundering results. The company demanded intensive leadership coaching for Alexandra and a commitment to change. She eventually shifted her leadership style in accordance with research—where cultivating an environment that prioritizes people and relationships is good for business. How to course correct: There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to move from challenged to successful people leader. However, here are three steps to begin excelling at both financial and people development metrics. 1. Focus on self: shift intimidating behaviors First, identify the specific behaviors that inhibit the people you work alongside. Pay attention to feedback like, “She dominates the conversation with her opinions,” or “When I ask clarifying questions, he gets exasperated.” Years of research on psychological safety illuminates the downsides of leading through fear. Ultimately, this contributes to lower levels of effectiveness and engagement. Once you’re clear on your unproductive behaviors, pick small new behaviors that invite learning and new perspectives versus fear. One effective way to form stronger connections with colleagues is to ask curious questions. Some examples include, “What else do you want me to understand?” or “Can you tell me more about how you see the challenge?” or “What’s your perspective?” 2. Focus on others: invest in developing your people Taking time to engage with your employees and have meaningful career development conversations builds loyalty. People want to perform well for leaders who support their long-term career development. Set the stage by letting your people know you’ll find time twice a year to explore their career aspirations. Send questions like these in advance to prime the pump for a meaningful conversation. Where do you hope to see yourself 10 years from now? What other roles do you see in the company that interest you? If you could design your next role at the company, what would you want it to look like and why? What is one skill (technical or soft) that if you were to develop, would benefit you greatly for the next five years? Start the conversation by stating your intention: to help your employee develop in ways that are meaningful to them. Then, discuss your employee’s answers to the questions and layer on your own thoughts. You might say, “I also see you as Marketing Director in the next few years and could see you overseeing Sales too given your creative mind and focus on data.” It’s affirming to have your manager share what they envision for you along with validating any strengths. Finally, discuss ways to get more on-the-job experience in their areas of interest over the coming months. Your employee should leave with a plan of action for how to make progress on their career goals and an understanding of how you’ll support their efforts. 3. Focus on team: build interdependency Often team leaders with a high need for control rely on a hub-and-spoke model of management where every problem goes through them. This is inefficient and loses the benefits that interdependent teams can give their organizations, the chance to outperform competitors and increase profitability. No leader will perfectly tend to results and people. But understanding the importance of both often leads to organizational success. When Tyler agreed to explore this, he found himself inspired in new ways. He dove into the challenge of defining how to demonstrate care for his people while simultaneously holding them to a high bar. It’s not easy. But as the leaders we’ve worked with have found, it’s much more fulfilling to drive results together with their team, rather than at their expense and well-being. View the full article

Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. While it’s not clear what President Trump’s ever-shifting tariffs attack on Canada might ultimately achieve, it has already done one thing for certain: ticked off a lot of Canadians. That’s taken the form of anti-Trump and anti-American sentiment (including the booing of the U.S. national anthem before various sporting events being played in Canada). But it’s also taken the form of renewed Canadian pride—as witnessed by a reported spike in buying, and flying, Canadian flags. Naturally, official symbols of Canadianism aren’t the only option for expressing devotion to the Great White North: Consumer brands are a big part of that conversation, too. Last month, during the reprieve between Trump’s initial threat and the 25% tariff on Canadian imports kicking in Tuesday (which Trump already paused again on Thursday), a survey of Canadian consumers found 85% said that they planned to replace some or all of the U.S.-made products on their shopping lists. (Interestingly, 41% said they would avoid shopping on Amazon.) And now, it seems, many are acting on that pledge. On Reddit and other online forums, fans of Canada-based consumer-goods companies have gathered to tout brands in seemingly every conceivable category—from Hawkins Cheezies snacks (“I can’t believe anyone would eat a Cheeto if they had the option of Hawkins Cheezies,” one fan enthused), Cove carbonated drinks as an alternative to American sodas, Stanfield’s underwear (founded in 1856, it bills itself as “Canadian even before Canada”), hipster-luxury denim brand Naked & Famous and Heartbeat Hot Sauce (“On Hot Ones many times,” a Redditor says) to Boo Bamboo personal-care products made with organic bamboo extract. A “Look for the Leaf” sign near the checkout counter of a store in Toronto, March 4, 2025, guides shoppers to look for maple leaf labels, which mark made-in-Canada items. [Photo: Michelle Mengsu Chang/Toronto Star/Getty Images] A slew of roundups and listicles have followed, showering attention on a range of Canadian brands. The Toronto Star, to pick one example, published a “How to buy Canadian” primer, which recommends Savör eggs, GoodLeaf Farms produce, and Royale toilet paper and tissues. “Look for [dairy] products with the Blue Cow logo,” the paper advised, “which means they’re made with 100% Canadian milk and ingredients.” There’s also a website, Made in CA, that compiles Canadian goods. Canadian grocer Loblaw’s CEO Per Bank has been posting on LinkedIn about its tariffs experience, noting that weekly sales of Canadian products were up by double digits in mid-February, and recently announcing the rollout of new in-store-display features to guide shoppers to Canadian wares. The combined desire to boycott American goods and support Canadian alternatives is, in some cases, clouded by intertwined global markets that have developed over decades of free-trade boosterism. “People are directly writing into customer service asking detailed questions on whether [products] are Canadian, where they source from,” and so forth, the CEO of Vancouver-based “superfood latte” brand Blume told Modern Retail. (Blume has been playing up its Canadianism on its site and social media lately.) But that consumer challenge is creating its own market: Several new apps with names like Buy Beaver and Maple Scan promise to reveal how Canadian a product is—where it’s made, what it’s made of, etc.—by scanning its barcode. That said, there are plenty of symbolic gestures, too, like rebranding caffe Americano as “Canadiano.” And there have been more directly punitive responses including canceling U.S. vacations and pulling American brands from Canadian liquor stores (a move the maker of Louisville, Kentucky-based Jack Daniels calls “worse” than a tariff), along with retaliatory tariffs on many American imports. The underlying sentiment isn’t a matter of wonky economics; it’s emotional and visceral, based on a belief among many that the tariffs have nothing to do with border-security demands (as claimed) but are a blunt attempt to damage Canada’s economy, and ultimately absorb the 158-year-old nation. (Trump has derisively referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor.”) If Canadians are acting like they’ve been betrayed by an old friend, they have good reason to feel that way. Hours after the tariffs went into effect, CTV News interviewed several Canadian-citizen shoppers who sounded determined to defy any trade strong-arming and indeed take it as motivation to seek out Canadian-made alternatives they’d ignored or overlooked in the past. “I think we should really cut them off,” said one Halifax resident, speaking of American brands, “and we should stay [buying] 100% Canadian.” Of course, that also could mean ultimately punishing brands from other countries that have nothing to do with the U.S. tariffs. But at least one American export appears to be catching on in Canada thanks to this trade flare-up: economic nationalism. View the full article