Category Archives: Leadership

Self-Deception in Thought

Posted on Friday, 9 February 2018 11:59 am by markpilip

“The wish is parent to the thought, and that is why nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each person wishes, that they also believe to be true.”  Demosthenes So Dr. Robert Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, starts … Continue reading →

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…properly-trained marketers focus on improving business performance. A bigger marketing budget might be a second order effect.

Posted on Wednesday, 24 January 2018 7:10 am by markpilip | Comments Off on No Real Marketer Wants Their Budget Increased…

Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Posted on Friday, 29 December 2017 9:36 am by markpilip

Market only to humans. If you only change one thing about how you undertake your marketing in 2018, let it be this one. According to the U.S. Census bureau, there were about 252.8 million adult (18+) humans in the U.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral economics, Data, digital marketing, Direct Response, fraud, Leadership, Media, Philosophy, Predictions, Privacy, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Yes to “No”

Posted on Saturday, 14 October 2017 9:20 am by markpilip

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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Social Media: “Testing Ugly Early”

Posted on Monday, 2 October 2017 9:50 am by markpilip

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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Profit Maximization, Humanity Minimization

Posted on Friday, 15 September 2017 8:28 am by markpilip

Facebook stepped in it again, this time by allowing users of their advertising platform to target users via vile anti-Semitic terms. Do I think the people or the company is anti-Semitic? Of course not. I think the company* is anti-human. … Continue reading →

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AdTech: The Worst Server Room Ever

Posted on Thursday, 14 September 2017 11:29 am by markpilip

We get a kick out of images like this one at the left. How in the world could somebody let a system get so out of control? When Alan Kay shows this picture, he points out that every wire was … Continue reading →

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TIKI: You Could Have Been Firmer

Posted on Monday, 14 August 2017 10:08 am by markpilip

Imagine your brand being co-opted by an odd mix of right-wing frat boys with funny haircuts, toothless old men with grey beards and beer guts, and sniveling shifty-eyed wanna-be soldiers. In other words, the Master Race, same as they ever … Continue reading →

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Imagine this: A set of large screens in your corporate lobby running, in real time and randomly, the actual digital ads you are running on the pages the ads are being displayed on. A viewer would also be able to stop … Continue reading →

Posted on Wednesday, 31 May 2017 11:59 am by markpilip | Comments Off on A Thought Experiment: Lobby Ads

Fake News Root Cause: Digital Advertisers

Posted on Wednesday, 10 May 2017 9:32 am by markpilip

Somewhere in our rush to use digital media, we got obsessed with reach and the size of audiences (the magic word again) and impressions. We got taken for a ride by the ad tech industry hucksters, who built an almost-perfect money-making machine on top of fake inventory created on phony websites. Continue reading →

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