Gordon Hotchkiss

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• Gordon attended OMMA Global at Advertising Week, September 27, 2010
  
  

Articles by Gordon All articles by Gordon

• Rethinking Media in Media Insider on 08/14/2018
  

  If Google and Facebook are a duopoly, what is the market they are controlling?

• What A Shock: Marketers Don't Like SEO! in Media Insider on 08/07/2018
  

  This is not about SEO being hard to understand. It's about SEO being hard to do.

• Drifting Alone On The Social Network in Media Insider on 07/31/2018
  

  It was a long Facebook post, written by somebody in deep pain who laid their soul bare for their entire network to see. What were the possible unintended consequences of this online confessional?

• The Pros And Cons Of Slacktivism in Media Insider on 07/24/2018
  

  Lately, I've grown to hate my Facebook feed. But I'm also morbidly fascinated by it. It fuels the fires of my discontent with a steady stream of posts about bone-headedness and sheer WTF behavior. As it turns out, I'm not alone. Many of us are morally outraged by our social media feeds. But does all that righteous indignation lead to anything?

• Why Do Good People Become Bad Online? in Media Insider on 07/17/2018
  

  Whether we like it or not, online connection engenders some decidedly bad behavior. It's one of those unintended consequences that I like to talk about -- a behavioral side effect that's catalyzed by technology. And, if this is the case, we should know a little more about the psychology behind this behavior.

• Why The Paradox Of Choice Doesn't Apply To Netflix in Media Insider on 07/10/2018
  

  Humans in almost every circumstance prefer the promise of abundance to scarcity. It's how we're hardwired. The variable here is our level of confidence in our ability to sort through the options available to us. If we feel confident that we can heuristically limit our choices to the most relevant ones, we will always forage in a richer environment.

• My View From Pier 21 in Media Insider on 07/03/2018
  

  This week, we celebrate our countries on both sides of the 49th Parallel: Canada Day on July 1, and U.S. Independence Day on July 4. But what exactly are we celebrating? What is it that we're patriotic toward? The whole idea of a nation is a rather nebulous one. Exactly what is this thing we call America or Canada?

• Cannes: In The Can in Media Insider on 06/26/2018
  

  Edificial industries tend to foster appropriately representative events. If you're in the business of running the world, Davos is the place to be. If you're in advertising, it's Cannes. Or it was. This year, the cracks -- even from my vantage point far, far away -- were more apparent than ever.

• Strategies For Getting Off The Grid in Media Insider on 06/19/2018
  

  We're rapidly approaching summer vacation season. This time of year - perhaps more than any other - encourages us to unplug and drop off the grid. Summer seems to justify a little more distance from our daily to-do list. I, myself, am writing this while I'm on my way to Nova Scotia to do one of my "bucket list" bike rides, Cape Breton's famed Cabot Trail. Today, having spent several years looking for my own exit from the grid, I wanted to lay out some strategies for unplugging and unwinding in these lazy hazy days of summer.

• Trump's Twitter Trade War in Media Insider on 06/12/2018
  

  Speaking of the unintended consequences of technology -- which I do, a lot -- Trump is launching a trade war via Twitter. Actually, it's not so much the launching of the trade war that is unintended. Trump seems pretty intent on that. It's the way that this particular war may play out that may hold a few new twists. We've never had a president like Trump. And we've never had major policy dictated through a communication medium restricted to a relative handful of characters.

Comments by Gordon All comments by Gordon

• Advertising Meets Its Slippery Slope by Gord Hotchkiss (Media Insider on 05/08/2018)
  

  George...I agree with you from a purely transactional basis - this type of data is more actionable. I was looking at this from more of a branding/psychological basis. If there's one thing we've learning about marketing - it's that it's happening at all levels and on multiple fronts. For me, the selective segmentation of markets based on belief proclivity and then manipulating the information fed to that segment is a canary in a coalmine.

• What The Hell Is 'Time Spent' With Advertising, Anyway? by Gord Hotchkiss (Media Insider on 04/03/2018)
  

  Jack...sure..content deserves to be paid for. I'm not arguing that. What I'm arguing against is the oversimplification of the answers to that problem.

• Too Many Fish In The Sea: The Search For Brand Love by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 02/21/2017)
  

  Thanks Esther. Ordered and in my Kindle "to read" queue. Stay tuned!

• The Vanishing Value Of The Truth by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 01/24/2017)
  

  I should have let Clint write the column..as he has much more expertise in Alternate Facts than I do. Your link is taken from an angle to show a full crowd. A much more objective analysis is here:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/fact-check-inauguration-crowd-size/96984496/. But at the end of the day..I'm probably not going to change what you believe based on verifiable facts..and that was the whole point of the column.

• When Evolution (And Democracy) Get It Wrong by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 11/01/2016)
  

  Paula and John - very interesting thread you've started. I think I'll follow up on this in next week's column.

• The Rise Of The Audience Marketplace by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 08/30/2016)
  

  Thanks all for your comments. I actually just submitted tomorrow's column before the recent round of comments. There's a lot of potential follow up here..especially Esther and Doc's contributions. I'll be ruminating further on this.

• Media Buying Just Tip Of Advertising's Disruptive Iceberg by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 08/09/2016)
  

  Thanks Ed and Maarten...great points. Regarding the "Hub" concept, I probably didn't add enough of my own thoughts on this topic, as it wasn't the main point of my column. Rather than a hub, I would place my bets on an aggregated media marketplace that is more democratized than our current models. I think audience identification and customization based on multiple (and smarter) segmentation criteria will move media buying to "audience" acquisition. These thoughts are admittedly off the top of my head. Perhaps I'll fully bake them in a future column. Regarding Maarten's comments on filtering - we essentially agree. I meant "objectivity" and "reliability" in terms of what the consumer perceives those things to be. There are all kinds of biases and personal preferences still in place, but I do contend that we are looking for information sources that we perceive as objective and reliable.

• Trump's Bump: The Scary Appeal Of The Authoritarian Father by Barbara Lippert (Mad Blog on 07/28/2016)
  

  Barbara..in reading this, I was reminded of something I had read in the past. It took me a bit to dig it up..but found it: "From the standpoint of social development, the family cannot be considered the basis of the authoritarian state, only as one of the most important institutions which support it." Another quote, "(the goal is) producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation. At first the child has to submit to the structure of the authoritarian miniature state, the family; this makes it capable of later subordination to the general authoritarian system." It was from Wilhelm Reich. The work was the Mass Pscyhology of Fascism. It was written in 1933.

• Why Marketers Love Malcolm Gladwell -- & Why They Shouldn't by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 05/24/2016)
  

  A few additional comments..First..Kenneth - you're absolutely right. Mea culpa. Now..to Ted. Absolutely word of mouth and influencers is a huge factor  - my point - and Duncan Watt's point - is it's not nearly as simply or predictable as Gladwell makes it out to be. Anyone could be an influencer, given the right context. You cite a Fast Company article defending influencer marketing - here's one on the opposite side worth a read: http://www.fastcompany.com/641124/tipping-point-toast. Watts discredited? Not really by any credible academic source - just a lot of marketers pissed off because he's poking holes in their business model. And he's certainly got a lot more empirical evidence behind him than Mr. Gladwell.

• Why Marketers Love Malcolm Gladwell -- & Why They Shouldn't by Gord Hotchkiss (Online Spin on 05/24/2016)
  

  Jeanne - Watts is a very able writer. His prose is accessible - but he is an academic at heart and so doesn't have a habit of jumping to satisfying conclusions, unlike Gladwell. Watts tells things as they appear to be, backed up with empirical evidence, rather than as we wish them to be.

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