• ONLINE SPIN
    'Tis The Season For Looking Back -- And Ahead
    It's that time of the year already. Turkey Day has come and gone. Your neighbors have put their Christmas decorations up. Stores play endless Christmas songs. So brace yourself for an avalanche of 2016 predictions and "best of 2015" articles. To get a head start, here's what I think these articles will talk about, so you don't have to waste your time reading them all.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Thanksgiving, A Smile, And A Little Red Cup
    As I sit here drinking tea from my little red Starbucks cup, I find myself reminiscing back just a few weeks to all the hullabaloo around the apparent "War on Christmas." It's strange and somewhat funny how a mere three weeks can provide such needed perspective on a topic that at the time dominated the news feed.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Giving Thanks For The Law Of Accelerating Returns
    For the past few months, I've been diving into the world of show programming again, helping MediaPost put together the upcoming Email Insider Summit up in Park City, Utah. One of the keynotes for the Summit, to be delivered by Charles W. Swift, vice president of strategy and marketing operations for Hearst Magazines, is going to tackle a big question:"How do companies keep up with the ever-accelerating rate of change of our culture?" After an initial call with Swift, I did some homework and reacquainted myself with Ray Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns. Shortly after, I had to stop because …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    To Procurement Or Not To Procurement
    I realize the headline for this article is not proper English. But I decided on it because Pepsi made headlines last week by announcing it was abolishing marketing procurement, and moved decision-making to a marketing Center of Excellence. And Madison Avenue partied late into the night.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Programmatic Media And The Blockchain
    It may sound crazy, but using a secure, decentralized and fully electronic currency like Bitcoin would dramatically reduce the costs associated with programmatic transactions.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Which Comes First: The Data Or The Story?
    The data-story debate has only just begun, but it has the potential to carry the same weight as that of the "chicken or the egg" conundrum. Different people answer this in different ways. Let me explain my point of view, which I consider the only correct response.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Step One: React
    We're learning what it means to be forced to be reactive. Sometimes, as on last Friday at 9:20 pm CET in Paris, France, we react with horror. But that's the new reality. Plan as we might, we can't predict everything. Sometimes we can't predict anything.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Five Golden Rules To Remember In Budget-Setting Season
    I thought this would be a good time to remind you of your aspirations to finally evolve your plans from where they have been for the past decade, making them more relevant to your consumers, and also building in some of the experimentation you've been saying you really want. Because, you know, you've had those intentions for a couple of years now - but nothing really has changed.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Move Over, Doc Searls: It's Time For A New Intention Economy
    We live, so they say, in an attention economy. Attention is the fundamental scarce resource we're fighting over, the key unit of value, the One True Ring. Our attention has both scarcity and value, and as a result it is under siege. Everyone wants a piece of it, and as the clamor of those who would claim it grows ever louder, it becomes harder and harder to be heard above the ruckus. But there is a breaking point -- and we're nearing it.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Silicon Valley Inspirations
    No matter how much time I spend in the Bay area, it never ceases to amaze me how special this place is. Companies, leaders and colleagues think and act differently here than they do anywhere else. And, as much as other parts of the globe try to copy and catch up to the Silicon Valley "way," folks out here keep pushing themselves further and faster. Here's s what I mean:
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