Category Archives: Philosophy

DSP Transparency

Do your DSP(s) have any rebate agreements with ad exchanges or anybody else? If not, great! Is that explicitly laid out in the contracts you have with them, and do you have full audit rights? And if not, why not? … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on Thursday, 20 July 2017 7:07 am by | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Your Mission and Vision are Lousy

Posted on Friday, 30 June 2017 7:40 am by

I was talking about company mission and vision statements with Paresh Shah, a good and smart friend of mine. During the discussion, he gave me a simple rule to see if your mission was good or not: “Write out the … Continue reading →

Posted in Branding, Marketing, Philosophy, Product Development, Strategy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Automation and Digital Marketing

Why are digital marketing vendors so obsessed with automating the processes involved in advertising? Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on Monday, 22 May 2017 12:25 pm by | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why Are We Eliminating The Human?

Posted on Tuesday, 16 May 2017 9:57 am by

David Byrne wrote an eloquent piece yesterday, in which he said: “Our random accidents and odd behaviors are fun—they make life enjoyable. I’m wondering what we’re left with when there are fewer and fewer human interactions. Remove humans from the … Continue reading →

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Fake News Root Cause: Digital Advertisers

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

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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Autonomy: Kitchen Cabinet Installers vs. Office Workers

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

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 , , , | Leave a comment

Mayan Marketing

Posted on Friday, 21 April 2017 7:15 am by

“All you have to know is what it is.” Said Richard Feynman, in his introduction to his famous Sir Douglas Robb Lectures on quantum electrodynamics at Auckland University in 1979. Feynman’s brilliance in those lectures and his book on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Marketing, Media, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Competitors? Meh.

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

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 , , , | Leave a comment

100% Of The Money

In digital advertising comes from the advertisers. That means advertisers ultimately call all the shots: where they buy, how they buy, and what technologies they use.

Aside | Posted on Wednesday, 12 April 2017 11:07 am by | Leave a comment

Monday Morning Quarterbacking: The 8 am Meeting

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 →

Aside | Posted on Monday, 10 April 2017 11:25 am by | Tagged , , | Leave a comment