This post was created in partnership with TikTok Social media still has the power to reach consumers, but how it’s used along the purchase journey is changing, and brands must […] https://www.adweek.com/commerce/a-social-commerce-playbook-for-the-ai-era/
This post was created in partnership with Hootsuite Social signals are scattered across a fragmented media landscape, and the brands that win know how to find them—and put them to […] https://www.adweek.com/social-marketing/ai-is-changing-how-marketers-respond-to-social-signals/
This post was created in partnership with Collectively Brands that can capitalize on cultural moments will find new ways to engage consumers, but how can they keep up while also […] https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/how-brands-can-keep-up-with-the-speed-of-culture/
This post was created in partnership with Viral Nation While social media is constantly evolving, human nature hasn’t changed in millions of years. During a Brandweek 2026 session co-hosted by […] https://www.adweek.com/social-marketing/viewing-social-media-as-an-extension-of-human-instinct/
Kim Gravel made a career out of selling products on live TV. Now she’s building her own platform to empower other sellers to do the same.
At ADWEEK’s Brandweek event, the longtime QVC host spoke about her career as a founder and TV personality and her ability to sell fashion, home, and beauty products to a live audience.
Gravel got her start selling after being inspired by Joan Rivers, another longtime QVC host who sold bee pins that were similar to a pin given to Rivers by her husband. Gravel approached QVC with two products—a knit, denim-like fabric called Flexibelle and a plumping lip gloss—and asked for the chance to sell them.
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https://www.adweek.com/commerce/kim-gravel-wants-to-make-live-selling-the-new-appointment-tv/
As co-founder and CEO of the AAPI advocacy and cultural platform Gold House, Bing Chen knows about the power of niche communities—and how brands can speak to them in ways that they’ll listen.
In a Brandweek conversation with ADWEEK editor in chief Ryan Joe, Chen explored ways for brands to show up in culture authentically.
For Chen, sometimes less is more: Rather than comment on everything, brands should identify their core values and build conversations around those tenets.
“The product is the customer,” he said. “And not only is the product the individual customer, the product is the community of customers that they’ve been able to stoke through individual nodes and networks that then take off themselves.”
Brands should identify these niche communities that, with the investment of attention and time, can “evangelize” on their behalf. As monoculture has splintered along with the fragmented media landscape, culture is now comprised of hundreds if not thousands of niches Chen calls “polyculture.”
But it’s a fine line between authenticity and parachuting into a niche community only to announce a new product release, he said. Too many brands choose the latter route and consider the community as “inventory.”
“You have to give before you receive,” Chen said.
He outlined four pillars of what superfans crave: access to the brand, exclusive content, status designation, and experiences money cannot buy. And once a brand has identified its target niche, it must go one step further and understand adjacent niches.
He gave an example: If someone is eager to purchase the new Zelda video game on Nintendo Switch, it’s likely they may also be interested in “Dunesday” and comic books.
With the rise of niches, Chen said that brands need to look beyond global influencers like MrBeast to microinfluencers with expertise in a specific area.
“They’re too dilutive,” Chen said of large-scale content creators. “We’re moving to the expert economy now. No longer can you be a random charlatan pontificating on love or whatever. You have to be a credentialed leader within the niche, and those are the people that are going to be followed.”
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/monoculture-dead-niche-communities-bing-chen-gold-house/
Crocs chief brand officer Terence Reilly demonstrated the brand’s ‘audacious’ social strategy live at Brandweek. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/how-crocs-became-one-of-tiktok-shops-top-sellers/
Michael Law and Shivram Vaideeswaran on the ingredients to combine for staying relevant. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/how-brands-can-win-attention-in-a-fragmented-world-with-papa-johns-and-carat/
Plus, the role of creativity as AI and other technologies evolve. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/snaps-grace-kao-on-conversational-marketing-and-the-future-of-brand-engagement/
The intention economy, visual search, and a focus on user wellbeing are shaping digital discovery. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/offline-by-design-how-pinterest-turned-disconnection-into-earned-media/
