Empowering communities of color with tools and training to build the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders is not just "good will", it is good business, argues Salim Holder, founder of 4th Ave. Market. At last month's D2C Brand Insider Summit, Salim outlined how his company is not just recruiting social influencers from HBCUs to build the 4th Ave. brand. He is offering a real exchange of value - a leg up on their own careers. None of this is new. It draws on two centuries of underserved communities understanding that community and commerce, profits and purpose, are entwined.

At this week's Brand Insider Summit - QSR, Insomnia Cookies' Brand Manager Nicole Geyer gave us the secret password to enter its hidden Cookie Lab. This "Sweet-Easy" format admits its brand loyalists literally into a hidden space in their South Philly location where they can experiment with cookie flavors in a trippy, neon-laced world. More than a cool concept that has lines forming down the block (because it's not so secret any longer), the Lab renders genuine customer intelligence and flavor combinations even the cookie scientists at Insomnia hadn't anticipated.

I have spoken to the Visible Wireless team a number of times since the Verizon-owned D2c cellular brand launched four years ago. One of the things I have noticed about talking with Pearl Servat, Head of Brand Marketing and Demand Generation, is that she answers all of my questions about marketing strategy ultimately by talking about product attributes instead. Pearl clearly believes that the Visible Wireless product itself is its best marketing tool. In her view, marketing is not supposed to "sell" the goods so much as get the prospect to the product experience as efficiently and clearly as possible. …

As millions of digital users tap the record button to their Instagram, YouTube and Tikok feeds, the old lines between consumer and manufacturer, viewer and creator are collapsing. Logitech for Creators is trying to market into that new dynamic. We spoke with the brand's CMO Erin Chin about what it means to truly "partner" with your own consumers in order to empower, not just sel,l to your target market. This is not about buying reach or influence. It is more about buying into the ambitions and values of your customer.

What do you do when performance CPMs balloon from $2 to $6? One of the largest manufacturers of licensed entertainment icons like Batman and Wonder Woman, Eaglemoss, gets creative. As Imran Hassan, Eaglemoss's VP of Global E-commerce & Marketplaces, relayed at last week's D2C Brand Insider Summit, this involved brand investments that made performance ads more efficient as well as thinking harder about Snapchat, TikTok and yes, even NFTs.