Category digital marketing

The Difference Between Brand And Performance Marketing? Time.

Say you’re a founder, CEO, or a new CMO tasked with setting the strategy for your company’s marketing. Do you invest more heavily in brand marketing or performance? Peter Fields and Les Binet define performance, or sales activation marketing as “Any activity that aims to get an immediate response: usually a piece of information, an […]

Mary Meeker And The (Non) Death Of Industries

Over the last 25 years, governments all over the world have banned or severely restricted the production and use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. Once the refrigerant of choice for air conditioners, CFCs were discovered to threaten the planet’s protective ozone layer. Less damaging hydrochlorofluorocarbons soon replaced CFCs in nearly every use case. Production of CFCs ended, […]

Avoiding The Career Obsolescence Trap

Four years ago, I had a conversation about career obsolescence I’ll never forget. I was catching up with a friend and former colleague who had left her job at an advertising agency around 2008 to be a stay-at-home mom. This woman is the best account director I’ve ever known. She is tough, comfortable defending her […]

This Headline Badly Distorted An Important Message To Marketers

“Facebook, Twitter and Instagram massively over-rated by marketers, says Prof Mark Ritson.” So wrote The Syndey Morning Herald last week. Aside from the fact that source material for this “news” is in fact over four months old, the headline writer managed to distill a nuanced and critical message all marketers need to hear into a […]

How Digital Marketers Created A Broken Advertising Ecosystem

Everyone knows someone who prides himself on buying stuff on the cheap. I’ve been that guy from time to time. Three years ago, my then-five year old declared herself ready to learn to ride a bike. Not wanting to drop hundreds on a bike she’d out-grow in a year, I bought the cheapest model that would […]

Essential Blogs And Newsletters For The Mobile, Digital Or Social Marketer

Ever since I started blogging, the number of blogs and newsletters I read has exploded. That’s because the more I write, the more I have to work to find the next thing to write about. I’ve had a few recent exchanges with colleagues about what we most like to read, so today is all about sharing […]

The Rise Of Big Data Will Be Nothing Compared To The Return Of The Creative Class

The 2014 U.S. midterm elections illuminated for me a very clear and compelling vision of the world marketers seek to master. That vision looks like this: Big Data is more important and useful than ever, but someday soon, Big Data will become a commodity, available cheaply to anyone. Real, lasting marketing value will lie in the power […]