Category Archives: Leadership

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 →

Posted in fraud, Leadership, Marketing, Philosophy, Rants | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fake News Root Cause: Digital Advertisers

Autonomy: Kitchen Cabinet Installers vs. Office Workers

Posted on Monday, 1 May 2017 11:03 am by markpilip

I’m listening to the kitchen cabinet installers upstairs working on my new kitchen and it dawned on me that they have more autonomy than a typical cube- or open-plan dweller in an office. As Dan Pink points out, it’s mastery, … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral economics, Leadership, Organization, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Autonomy: Kitchen Cabinet Installers vs. Office Workers

Competitors? Meh.

Posted on Thursday, 20 April 2017 10:29 am by markpilip

I saw a post on LinkedIn today about the importance of doing combat with your competitors. That’s misguided and wrong. When you devote resources to something, you are by definition taking them away from something else. Every bit of time … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Care, Leadership, Organization, Philosophy, Product Development, Sales | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Competitors? Meh.

No Monday morning quarterback ever threw an interception or missed a receiver. No Monday morning quarterback ever wore a Super Bowl ring either. Continue reading →

Posted on Monday, 10 April 2017 11:25 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Monday Morning Quarterbacking: The 8 am Meeting

Are You Running These Ads? Why?

Posted on Friday, 24 March 2017 4:20 pm by markpilip

Go to your digital marketing team and your advertising agency and see how many of those people are using ad blockers so they can get their work done. You might be surprised and you should be embarrassed. Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Are You Running These Ads? Why?

Advertising Needs More History Majors

Posted on Monday, 20 March 2017 10:15 am by markpilip

In the United States in 2014, only 1.7% of the undergraduate degrees awarded were history degrees. In the period since 1971, the share of history and social sciences degrees has declined from 18% to 9%. 1 Why study history? According to … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Marketing, Philosophy, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Advertising Needs More History Majors

We used to call this stuff “advertorials.” It was easily identifiable, except to the most gullible reader, and was usually purchased by the most gullible advertiser. The digital crew call it “native advertising” but it’s the same thing. Two questions: If … Continue reading →

Posted on Tuesday, 14 February 2017 9:52 am by markpilip | 1 Comment

Marketing dashboards are poor maps of where you’ve been. You need first-hand experience with the terrain you’re now encountering, not more lousy maps. To improve your marketing, don’t hire a cartographer. Hire the hiker who’s seen the terrain up close. … Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 3 November 2016 11:45 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Dashboards are Lousy Maps

There Are Always Trade-offs

Posted on Tuesday, 21 June 2016 5:45 am by markpilip

As CMOs, we often ask our staff and agencies “is it possible to..” Update that deck weekly Track performance of that number daily Have a quick weekly check-in to discuss another metric The answer, of course, is yes. It just … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Leadership, Marketing, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on There Are Always Trade-offs