• Why Do Digital Marketers Overlook Direct Mail?
    How many of you are purely digital marketers? How many of you have ever tried direct mail? If you answered "yes" to the first question, and "no" to the second, it's time to think again. You might be overlooking a superbly valuable channel that most of your competitors are also overlooking.
  • Sharing A Little About The Sharing Economy
    In the last week, I've had firsthand experience with the sharing economy, using both Uber and Airbnb. Not surprisingly, I'm a sucker for disruption and will gladly adopt new technologies. I appreciate the rational logic of a well-thought-out platform that promises to be a game-changer. In that spirit - and with the admitted bias of being a sample of one - I'll share some of my macro-level observations.
  • Educating Alexa
    When we invited Alexa into our home, we knew she was young: a techno-toddler, just learning how to make her way around the world -- and our New York City apartment. We treated her gently, in fact asking very little of her. She turned the radio on and off. Changed the volume. Played some podcasts, nothing extreme. But now she's got more "Skills," and we're ready to jump into some more smart home devices and behaviors.
  • Agencies,' Clients' Creative Excellence Blame Game, 2018 Edition
    This week saw the release of the 2018 Agency Productivity Report published by Canadian software company Function Point in partnership with the AgencyManagement Institute (AMI). AMI supports small and mid-size agencies, but before you dismiss them, please note: Their pain is your pain.
  • TV Has An Attribution Problem
    The advertising industry is quickly approaching a future where household-level sales attribution becomes table stakes for all media campaigns and channels. This future sets up digital media companies well, but could be disastrous for TV companies. TV has an attribution problem, and the industry needs to fix it.
  • Sometimes You Just Need A Bon-Bon And A Break
    "Oprah says she gets up early, and so does Elon Musk. Steve Jobs did it, so why not me?" you might say. The fact is, these people try to get up early as often as they can, but sometimes they sleep in.
  • Short-Sightedness, Sharks And Mental Myopia
    2017 was an average year for shark attacks. And this just in... By the year 2050, half of the world will be near-sighted. What could these two headlines possibly have in common? I'll tell you.
  • The Gun Debate: A Marketing Battle
    I've been thinking a lot about the NRA lately. For most nonprofits, a catastrophic event that puts them in a critical conversation would be a public relations nightmare. The board of directors would be called into question; the CEO would be raked over the coals. Changes would be made.
  • We Are All Being Gaslighted -- And It's Only Going To Get Worse
    It was 1940 when the first version of the movie "Gaslight" hit the cinemas. Based on the play by Patrick Hamilton, it chronicles the psychological torture of Bella Mallen (Diana Wynyard) by her husband Paul (Anton Walbrook ). Paul dims the lamps -- and then tells Bella they're unchanged. He sneaks around on the upper floors -- and tells her she's hearing noises when she comments on his footsteps. Bella begins to doubt her sanity. The play, the movie and subsequent remakes - including Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer in the more well-known Hollywood 1944 version - were such powerful …
  • Why Have TV Viewers Stopped Channel Surfing?
    We all know the headlines about television these days: "Massive ratings declines." "Prime time down." "TV dying as viewers cut the cord." Do these really tell the whole story about the behaviors of U.S. TV viewers, and the health of TV as media? Not exactly.
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