The calendar year is halfway over and we can’t believe it, either. It feels like just yesterday we were making our end-of-2018 predictions about the big theme for 2019 (brands as publishers, if you need a reminder).

Since then, we’ve seen major cultural events, unexpected surprises and big developments in tech and marketing come and go. Here’s a quick recap of our highlights for the first half of 2019.

1 - The Super Bowl

America’s biggest sporting event of the year gave us a chance to reflect on content marketing lessons from Super Bowl ads of the past.

It also gave us a lesson in going viral from David Portnoy (aka El Presidente) - the founder of major sports media site Barstool Sports - who hijacked the Super Bowl by getting himself purposefully arrested.

2 - Fyre Fest

While the actual fraudulent disaster that was Fyre Fest was meant to take place in 2017, the aftermath continued to play out well into this year. The fiasco spawned not one but two major documentaries, but it also gave us the gift of some very important social media lessons.

3 - March Madness

The spring brought us yet another phenomenon of American sporting events - the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness. The tournament is as famous for the excitement of competition as for the (questionably legal) betting pools it spawns across the nation.

If you’ve ever been in one of those pools, you might know what we’re talking about when we say that marketing strategy is like a bracket.

4 - Kanye's Sunday Service at Coachella

Oh, Kanye. Can the man go more than six months without making headlines? This April, the music (and publicity) mastermind pulled out of a headlining slot at Coachella, only to return to the festival last minute for a unique Sunday Service performance.

We concluded that, whether he knows it or not, Kanye is a marketing genius.

5 - Google’s New Mobile SERP

Not all of the highlights had to do with pop culture. When Google announced they were restructuring the way they displayed mobile search results, our chief of all things Google weighed in on what it means for SEO and SEM.

6 - Instagram Branded Content Ads

Google wasn’t the only major platform to announce an impactful change. Instagram recently gave influencers a way to give brands controlled access to boost their posts via Branded Content Ads. Naturally, we made some predictions.

7 - Father's Day

And then there was Father’s Day. We took a look at some of the best Father’s Day campaigns and why they were effective.

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There you have it! The biggest highlights from the first half of this year. We’ll see you in six months for highlights from the second half.