• ONLINE SPIN
    A Minor Rant On Substance And Distractions
    It's hard work to stand up for what you think is right. The darkly satirical UK miniseries "Black Mirror" has an episode called "15 Million Merits," set in a not-so-futuristic world reminiscent of Gattaca or The Island, where identically dressed residents live a gamified existence, exercising on stationary bikes to earn "merits" while being continually distracted by game and reality shows.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    If Obama Had Focused On Content When Placing TV Ads, He Wouldn't Be President Today
    Incredibly, political advertising seems to have surged ahead of the general market in using data and technology in TV ad buying. This past weekend, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story about the Obama reelection campaign's use of data in buying and targeting more than $400 million in TV advertising.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Using What You Know To Power What You Do (No Buzzwords Allowed)
    There's a theme in marketing today that can be summarized very succinctly: marketers can finally use "what they know" to power "what they do." The concept is not new, but the execution absolutely is. Cavemen started it all; if they heard a load "roar," they ran. That's a simple example of using what you know (i.e. a saber-tooth tiger is approaching) to power what you do (i.e., run like hell).
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Keep Your Content Marketing Focused On Sales
    Content marketing is the wonk word du jour. But don't let your content marketing wander off the ranch.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Karping About Creativity
    Last week I attended True University, a two-day seminar for startups hosted by True Ventures, the West Coast venture capital firm. At the same time this event was happening in Palo Alto, a continent away the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was taking place. David Karp, founder of Tumblr, was clearly drinking from the Cannes Kool-Aid (rose?) when he said to attendees, "You guys are more talented than any one in the Tumblr office or in Palo Alto or Sunnyvale." Like many people, I was surprised by Karp's comment.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Google's Project Loon: Internet For Everyone
    Last week, in Christchurch, New Zealand, Google launched a world-changing initiative: Project Loon, balloon-powered Internet for everyone. "Sometimes," the cute kid narrating the launch video said, "everyone doesn't mean everyone." Like when we say "everyone's" online, despite the fact that two thirds of the world's population doesn't have access to the Internet.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Awarding Versus Rewarding Innovation
    My sense is that the industry "feels" that the bridge between Madison Avenue and Mountain View is either already important or will become increasingly important. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's still early days in the space and as a "grizzled old-timer" who has lived (barely) through the rise, fall and resurrection of digital and subsequent dj vu all over again of social and mobile, I can attest to the fact that the learning and adoption curve is still a fairly steep and arduous one.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    'I'm Not A Businessman, I'm A Business, Man'
    What would you do with three minutes of prime airtime during the NBA Finals? If you're Jay-Z and Samsung, you take that time to announce a new album released in a whole new way.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Keep One Foot In The Clouds And The Other In The Trenches
    Rising professionals face a big conflict: putting one foot in the clouds while keeping the other in the trenches. When you excel as a practitioner, your success lands you in managerial and administrative roles. With "senior-manager responsibilities," you rightly begin to focus on things like strategy and performance, and team and resource management. Those are important things, to be sure. But they remove you from the everyday practice and nuances of the tactile problems you were solving in the first place.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    More On Crossing The Series-A Chasm
    After weeks of meetings with various venture capital firms, I found myself on the main stage of VC deal-making: the Monday partners meeting. The VC partners meeting is an industry tradition, a day when perhaps a half-dozen promising startups present to the firm's partners, associates and advisors.
« Previous Entries