Advertising technology companies as a category are bad at marketing. Instead of creating customers, we too often create confusion in the marketplace.

A startup is strapped for cash. Its founders hear about a program whereby they can get some cash. The cash dangles in front of them. It is so shiny. They walk toward it. It is right there. It is so beautiful. Some thorns brush at their sleeves, but they don't notice. The cash seems a little farther away now, and just around a bend, but they can still see it and they keep walking. After many miles of walking and many twists and turns, they reach it. They are so happy. They look around. They have no idea where they …

What role does the Super Bowl play in the new age of television? Simply put, the Super Bowl is the last bastion of appointment viewing in the United States: event television that amasses a large audience at a single time. We used to have the Grammys, but lots of people watch that on delay through their DVR. We used to have the Oscars, but not a lot of people watch that anymore. The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of all things television!

A few of my friends from New Jersey and Pennsylvania were lamenting sarcastically how New York City's Pennsylvania Station, once among the world's most majestic railroad stations, had become the Seventh Circle of Hell. The New York Times' Julie Bosman named the razing of the original station and construction of the new one as one of the city's greatest architectural disasters. Even on a hygienic level, the station is desperate for a rehab. Meanwhile, I love my weekday commute through Grand Central Terminal, 10 blocks away from Penn Station. In fact, Grand Central Station inspires me tremendously. It really gets …

On Aug. 20, 2011, Marc Andreesen published a now-famous article in the Wall Street Journal under the headline "Why Software Is Eating The World." It was a bold, inspired and scary statement: After software and robots have eaten the manufacturing industry, the same will now happen to the rest of the economy.

Every time I meet an entrepreneur, I ask them how they're doing. I do my best to make it clear I'm genuinely interested in the answer: looking into their eyes, giving them time to formulate a response, implying in my tone that the answer may well be lengthy, complicated, and full of despair -- the way you ask people who have suffered a recent bereavement how they're doing. Without exception -- and regardless of the real or apparent success of the endeavor -- the answer is the same: some variation of, "It's hard work. I'm exhausted, anxiety-ridden, and full of …

"TV Everywhere" is a term used to describe the ability to have a TV-like experience from any device in any location by using one set of credentials (most likely tied to your cable account). While the surge of connected mobile devices in recent years has provided consumers with any number of TV and video viewing possibilities, TV Everywhere has struggled. Part of the problem is that people don't know where, when or how they can access it, much less remember what their account login and password is for their home cable account -- do you? That said, I would argue …

Will in-store ads really make you buy more? More than "Should I invest in these new technologies?," this is the question many retailers are faced with answering because of the rise of in-store delivery mechanisms, of which iBeacon is highest on the buzz factor.

All companies require cross-functional collaboration to succeed. Even if you're the chief, you need to win the hearts and minds of colleagues to accomplish big things. When it comes to accomplishing big goals that require engaging disparate teams (or entire companies), a few best practices can make a world of difference. The following have worked for me:

In a previous Online Spin, "The Opportunity Cost of Inertia," I wrote about a keynote I delivered to a room filled with senior brand marketers. I challenged the audience to do one thing in the remaining six months of the year: test or pilot an innovation program that took them out of their comfort zones and allowed them to experience an emerging technology or perhaps just one platform they were deficient in. I invited the brands to call me on New Year's Eve, saying I would be close to my phone and looked forward to hearing a first-person account of …