Author Archives: markpilip

2 LLCs and an SFDU: A Merge/Purge Fail

A couple of days ago, I was reminiscing about a great piece of direct mail I received last year. Yesterday, I received the opposite. This falls under the category of a merge/purge fail. As you can see here, there are … Continue reading

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“Guessing is a Dumb Man’s Job”

I was watching a Richard Feynman lecture from 1964, during which he described the scientific process. As usual, he did it in a way that even I could understand. Tell me if, in the next roughly 32 seconds of this … Continue reading

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Yes to “No”

We marketers are easily distracted by the next shiny thing. If the thing is truly innovative, and truly shiny, it will be there tomorrow or next week or next month. Take care of the here and now. Continue reading

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The ANA was running ads on the hate site Breitbart. The attributed it to “an unintentional result of a programmatic buy and it has been removed.” This happened just days after Bob Liodice said “We as leaders should not accept … Continue reading

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Re-Seal the Deal: Category Repurchase

Three years ago today, I wrote about a great piece of direct mail I received from a local driveway sealer company. The piece had everything needed to make a purchase decision: a great offer, strong call to action, and perfect … Continue reading

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The next time you hear an executive parroting the “data is the new oil” line, sit them down at your own CRM for a few hours. Eyeball a few of the records your own company’s people created and supposedly cleaned … Continue reading

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Checklist Marketing: Digital Media List

Bob Liodice and Marc Pritchard took to the bully pulpit at the ANA’s Masters of Marketing conference yesterday, and kept up the pressure on the adtech shysters who steal our money. As Liodice said,  “CMOs operate in the most nontransparent … Continue reading

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Ads.txt: Cui bono?

Ads.txt is not the answer to solving the widespread problem of fraud in the digital marketing ecosystem, but it’s a small step in the right direction. I was glad to hear that MediaMath announced that it will begin rapidly rolling out … Continue reading

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Social Media: “Testing Ugly Early”

An old adage of direct response marketing is “test ugly early.” The reason is that ugly disturbs. And that breaks through and triggers response. The other benefit is that ugly is cheap and quick to produce. Ugly, disturbing, and cheap. … Continue reading

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Bots in the Walled Garden!

I’ve been getting a spike in “likes” every week for my Facebook business page over the last 4-6 months. They’re all clearly bot likes, as they appear to come from India, where I do no business nor have friends or … Continue reading

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