This week, Forrester analyst Nate Elliott wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg expressing concern that Facebook is essentially failing marketers. Elliott cites a recent Forrester study, which surveyed 395 marketers across large companies in U.S., the U.K. and Canada. Personally, I'm surprised it's taken anyone this long to reach a conclusion that I've been fairly consistent on throughout my soapbox antics of the past few years: Facebook is not a media channel. It is the world's largest and greatest "non-media" connection engine. So how on earth should we be expecting returns on our media dollars for a platform that …

I might be a bit behind on this one, but I think the 3MS initiative on "making measurement make sense" makes a LOT of sense and is long overdue.

Love them or hate them, listicles have skyrocketed in popularity with the rise of blogging and digital publishing. Publishers will rely on them so long as readers reward them with page views. While listicles have their place -- and some are magnificent -- they've become too popular. Well, let's be honest: they're overused, abused and have jumped the shark.

A few years ago, I achieved an unexpected level of financial security. For a decade I had worked in media planning, an industry not known for its exorbitant salaries. But through some basic techniques I was able to secure a decent nest egg. Here's what I learned along the way:

These Invisible Blind Spots Can Completely Derail Your Work “Here, stand up against the wall,” said the optometrist. “I’m going to measure your blind spot.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but complied willingly enough. “Let me know when the eraser disappears. There? Cool. And reappears there? Excellent.” I looked at the marks he had made on the paper. They defined a circle about the size of a golf ball -- a circle that represented an area of such total invisibility I hadn’t even known it existed. When I look around, the world seems contiguous to me, but that’s …

We talk all the time about what the future will look like, and this past week I heard some fascinating conjecture about the future of smart devices and the "Internet of things" during a jaunt across the pond to London for an IAB UK event. That kind of discussion is what fuels most of us in this business because we feed on the promise and excitement of what's coming. But the question remains whether or not each of us will be ready for it when it arrives. To embrace the future requires a change in behavior, and that's not always …

There is art and science that goes into branding and rebranding. The best, authentic branding reflects a company's purpose, its culture and the attributes that make it unique and better than any other in the world. Here's the nuance that gets the least attention but matters the most: You can come up with a brilliant brand strategy in your laboratory, with deep insights, deliberation and all the best intentions. But if your closest stakeholders -- especially employees -- don't buy in, the whole effort won't matter.

What generation comes after the Millennials, the massive generation that is now swamping the U.S. workplace with people born between 1980 to 2000? The Homeland Generation. Born after 9/11, the oldest members of this generation are now entering middle school. I have two Homelanders living under my roof, boys aged 9 and 11. They are unique compared to other generations that have come before them. Here's how:

In just a few short hours, the curtain will go up on our fourth major TEDx event in my home city of Christchurch, New Zealand. I've been working with our speakers for months now, to make sure they shine as brightly as they possibly can on our stage, and there's something I've noticed: the first idea is generally not the best. Often it's not fully formed and needs evolving. That's to be expected. But often in the process of evolution, the idea changes altogether, taking an unexpected turn and morphing into something wholly unrecognizable from the starting point.

I think the ability to react or "proact" in real time is a worthy -- and aspirational -- goal, but it's pretty much elusive for about 99% of the entire market. Instead, brands should focus on being more agile in general. Real-time marketing is a philosophical and cultural imperative, not a tactical checklist.