SUM NEWS: 💸Budgeting Tips, 🍂 Fall Trends & 🚫 TikTok Flops

Mid-week marketing updates for your inbox

September 18, 2024

This week, we’re diving into everything from fall consumer trends to budgeting strategies for the year ahead, plus the one thing managers can do to alleviate stress and burnout for their teams.

IN THIS ISSUE

  • 🎙️ The Martial Art of Marketing

  • 🍵 Tea Time with David Fossas

  •  💸 Budget Planning for Marketers

  • ☎️ Call for Content

  • 👩‍💻 Is the Term “Webinar” Outdated?

  • 🌐 Around the Web

SUM Disruptors Podcast: Episode 3

This week, Mack and Heidi sit down with BERA’s Jessica Baum to unpack her 20-year journey from secretary to CMO—a rise driven by grit, resilience, and a roll-up-her-sleeves attitude. The trio discuss the critical—and often misaligned—relationship between marketing, product, and sales, and why product marketing sits at the center of it all.

Tune in to learn how Jessica breaks down silos, tackles research when resources are scarce, and why she believes a product marketer should be the first marketing hire.

Budget Season is Coming! 💸 

SUM Advisory Board member Alex Stonehouse shares three key strategies for startup marketers to navigate annual planning and budget segmentation: Sprinkle 💦, Tentpole 🚩, and the Four Burners Strategy ♨️. Get a breakdown of the pros and cons for each approach, along with advice on where to invest—and what to cut. Read More

💡 Have insights to share? SUM members can submit content and contribute to our growing community of marketing experts.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Tune in for Tea Time

Join us tomorrow (9/19) at 3 pm ET for an exclusive Ask Me Anything-style conversation with seasoned CMO David Fossas, who will share strategies on building marketing functions from the ground up, aligning with company goals, and sustaining long-term brand equity. As the first C-Suite hire, David brings invaluable insights on category creation, brand development, and scaling operations.

Ask your questions in real-time, or send them ahead of time to [email protected].

🔗RSVP

ICYMI: Tea Time with Walton Smith

The founder of Black Woman Owned shared her organic social strategies, leveraging AI, digging into the data, and identifying the right channels for a business. Learn how Walton grew her LinkedIn following from 900 to 18,000 in less than a year, her recipe for virality, and the social media myths she has debunked along the way.

👀 Watch the recording.

ICYMI: 5Cs of Personal Knowledge Management to Unleash Your Creative Potential

Last week, Dr. Michael Becker covered the 5Cs of Personal Knowledge Management – Collection, Curation, Creation, Collaboration, and Contribution – as a framework to boost your creative potential. Modern output software like PowerPoint and Excel often limit creativity by forcing you to formalize ideas before they’re fully baked. Instead of spending time aligning bullets in a presentation, Becker offers a new approach: keep content independent of structure and get your hands dirty with the data.

👀 Watch the recording.

SUM POLL

👩‍💻 Is the term “webinar” outdated? Should marketers stick with the classic moniker or try something fresh?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

AROUND THE WEB

From brat summer to Brit fall, TikTok unpacks Autumn's biggest consumer trends.

—

Consumers are driving most brand-related conversations on social, according to Brand Watch’s 2025 State of Social report, with brands initiating just 1.11% of the conversation about them on X. This highlights the importance of actively listening and engaging with your audience to stay relevant and help shape your brand’s narrative.

—

The vast majority of brand posts on TikTok (84%) fail to generate strong positive emotions, capture attention, or enhance brand recall. Learn what marketers can do to turn those tides.

—

A new report from Gallup and Workhuman finds employees who get meaningful recognition for their work are 45% less likely to leave their jobs. Those who felt recognized also reported lower levels of stress and burnout.

SIGN UP FOR SUM

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or fresh out of school, elevate your marketing game, build your network, and bridge skill gaps with SUM – the first marketing ecosystem built by startup marketers, for startup marketers. Start your 30-day free trial to unlock 60+ downloadable marketing templates, 20+ active community spaces, and live expert sessions.

IN THE MEME TIME …