I’ve been a fan of Randall Rothenberg for 14 years now–even since he introduced me to A.J. Liebling’s unforgettable quote, “fortune swims not in the mainstream of letters, but in the shallows, where the suckers moon.”
The author and journalist now heads the Interactive Advertising Bureau. As such, he makes important speeches from time to time. He made one yesterday in Manhattan at the Audience Measurement Leadership Forum inside the Roosevelt Hotel. Ad Age says, he went on “a bit of a rant.”
What’s wrong with that? A good rant might be just what’s needed.
Rothenberg called on the industry to address the fact that audience-measurement concepts and techniques have become so incomprehensibly complicated that the majority of marketers still use guesswork to determine their annual media strategies.
Given that ROI is at the basis for just about every client decision, I’d have to say Rothenberg has every reason to rant. We have to get this right. Or else.