'Twas the week before Christmas, when alone in my house
I was finishing shopping, with a click of the mouse;
Then I cleared out my browser cache, cookies deleted,
In hopes of
nefarious snooping, defeated.
Yea, the whole ecosystem lay snug in their beds,
While visions of cookies alit in their heads;
But these weren't the cookies you baked, or you ate,
That you left out to cool, on a red and green plate.
No, these cookies told advertisers about you,
About all of the things that you wanted to do.
Did you buy electronics, a guitar
from Fender?
Were you that most precious, an auto intender?
In what Zip did you live, And in what DMA,
And to whom were your eyeballs worth the most, today?
The consumer press had
quite a panic created
Over issues of privacy wholly invaded
And now there was talk about some "Do Not Track"
Which the whole ecosystem feared would set us back.
Well, my head was a whirl with this "What They Know" chatter
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
So I reached for my smartphone, and issued a tweet,
And let
Foursuare know too, since friends might like to meet.
Then I made my way down to the yard, in the snow,
Keeping Facebook appraised, as along I did go.
When, what to these cynical eyes
should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
The sputtering, cursing driver gave pause,
But I knew right away this was ol' Santa Claus.
So I asked
him, "Good sir, on this crisp winter's night,
What has caused you such anguish? You do look a fright."
More rapid than eagles his answers they came,
And he heaved up, and
listed each of them by name;
"Oh pixels, Oh DSPs, real-time bidding,
Oh persistent cookies, oy! Who are we kidding?
Aggregators, exchanges, oh optimization,
Analytics, ad
servers, and verification!
Ad Ops, infrastructure, and technical specs --
And we wonder why people think this stuff's complex?"
He was on a roll now, and I stared at
him, rapt
For I knew that the things he was saying were apt.
And the more that he spoke, well, the more he became
Rolly, jingly, and jolly, befitting his name.
"But
what are we to do then?" I asked the great man
And he smiled at me, and said, "Josh, I've got a plan."
"Yes, I thought that you might," I said back to Saint
Nick,
"But I've used up my word count, so spell it out quick."
Fleshy hand on my shoulder, we walked through the snow,
And he said, "Let me tell you the things that I
know.
"When you're building a brand in the digital space,
It isn't a big algorithmic arms race.
It's still about people, like me, and like you
And telling
them just what your product can do.
And for heaven's sake, son, when you're doing the telling,
It matters a lot if the telling's compelling.
(In fact," he
confided," that's why it's called selling.")
"So impressions to cookies efficiently sent
May help some in the ecosystem make the rent
But the way to break
through all that marketing chatter
Is to use the websites that your prospects think matter
And compelling telling on those websites' pages
With whom your best prospect most deeply
engages."
It all sounded so simple, so logical too,
That I knew I just had to come share it with you.
So I turned and said "Thank you, and now I must go" --
But he'd vanished, and I stood there alone in the snow
Not a sign, not a footprint, not one broken twig,
Like he'd never been there, 'twas no Santa Claus gig.
But
I tell you the truth of what happened that night
And I can't rightly say, was he wrong? Was he right?
That's for you to decide, in this season of cheer,
I'll just wish you
the best, and a happy new year.
Nice job Josh.
Thanks Paul.
Take the rest of the year off - this is awesome Josh!
Thanks Joy.
Spectacular!
Super !!! May all of you holiday cookies be tasty !!!
Well, I'm confident I couldn't be this creative if I had a week to put it together. Fantastic.
Outstanding and beautifully constructed.
fantastic!
worthy of Congressional testimony!
And Rebecca, Paula, Keith, Rodney, Cheryl, Max old pal-- thanks too for the kind words. And Season's greetings to all!
epic!
Very nicely done Josh. Very nicely done. Here's wishing you and the team at comScore an awesome 2011!
On the one hand, well done, Josh. On the other hand, I'm a little worried that this is going to escalate into some sort of rap battle a la 8 Mile between you and Goldman.
Well done - standing ovation!