There are two movies I, and probably most people around my age, quote when referring to marketing and sales: "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "Boiler Room." "Glengarry" gets quoted more often, so I decided to focus on only one analogy from that movie to discuss the marketer's role in this retail-heavy period of the year. The ultimate rule of "Glengarry" is A-B-C: Always Be Closing.

Recently, an article entitled "Peak Google" lit up Twitter, postulating that the business of search advertising, while not dying, is likely to be surpassed by an adjacent industry -- and soon. Why? As the author, Ben Thompson, points out, many of the most disruptive events in tech over the last couple decades have been made not by direct competitors, but by "eclipsing" businesses that tipped markets away from the incumbents. Speculating on the next big tech industry shift, Thompson theorizes that money funneled into search giants like Google will soon plateau, while money dedicated to "in-stream" ads will continue to …

If you think about it, marketers today simply can’t win when making a smart decision about where to place their ad budgets. TV used to be the steady rock in the marketer’s relationship with advertising: sizeable, trusted and to a degree predictable. But the once-steady rock today has many real and a few perceived flaws chipping away at its role in the media mix. Enough with the rock metaphors; allow me to explain. Despite the industry’s solid belief in GRPs, TV advertising is historically a medium with thin and crude measurement at its base. I have alluded in earlier posts …

My friend Hieronymus (not his real name) is kind of a hot shot. At the moment, he's working on pulling together an international conference for youth involvement in disaster risk reduction and response. He has a team of 40 helping him. They are in 16 different countries. He is pulling his hair out.

If you bring up the topic of television among industry folks these days, you're very likely to hear that the TV ad biz is on its last legs, with audiences and ad effectiveness evaporating into the ether of digital video, YouTube, smartphones and Facebook. Many say it's only a matter of time until the multichannel TV package goes the way of the milkman. (For younger readers: Yes, there was once a time when you got your milk and butter delivered to your door early in the a.m. by local dairies.).

Remember back in high school, when you got in trouble and they sent you to chat with your guidance counselor? One of the first questions was always, "What are your priorities?" It's still a very valid question when applied to the world of start-ups.

On Sunday Nov. 2, I attempted to run my first marathon ever. Of all the marathons I could have selected, it felt fitting that it was my home marathon -- the New York Marathon, arguably one of the greatest marathons in the world in inarguably the greatest city in the world. I failed. Well, let me clarify. I finished the marathon. Felt great. Sprinted the final mile and completed it with a very respectable (in my opinion) time of five hours, 11 minutes. Where I failed was in the social media part of the race.

Wall Street doesn't understand brand value. I am a great believer of a free and open economy, and I love making money. But I am increasingly skeptical about Wall Street's role in helping companies to grow and thrive.