With increased digital exposure, it's become more common to hear statements like "you're always on now," or "the meter is always ticking" or the "world is always watching." These statements imply that it is important to always be on your best behavior because someone may be watching or listening.

My friend David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, just wrote an opinion piece titled "Why Brands will Focus Less on Startups in 2014." In the piece, he cites (1) clutter, (2) too much P.R, and (3) lack of results as the three reasons why "brand and agency love for startups is going to fizzle." What David is referring to is a sickness that seems to strike many marketers and is passed on to their agencies (or perhaps it is the other way round): namely TNBTS, or The Next Big Thing Syndrome.

I was so moved by the speeches at last month's memorial service for Erwin Ephron that I bought a new copy of his extraordinary book on how media works, "Media Planning: From Recency to Engagement," hoping for a quick refresher. Surprisingly, I got much, much more than that.