Data collects, mostly into piles of digital rubble. Yet, data is prized and those who provide it are revered. The high priests of data analytics have the floor right now, which is understandable and ridiculous at the same time. It's understandable that clients are scared to death of their own intuition and risky creative ideas from the agency. And it's ridiculous because marketing is for the brave. A degree …
There’s Just So Much Digital Smoke Being Blown Up Our Asses
If you haven't yet found time to read BadMen: How Advertising Went From A Minor Annoyance To A Major Menace by Bob Hoffman—his "frightening and highly entertaining look into the hidden, corrupt, and dangerous world of online advertising"—may I suggest an audio preview on the topic, care of Radio New Zealand? “There is a huge criminal underworld that knows how to fake online traffic and fake online clicks and …
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Digital Advertising’s Frankenstein Is Wreaking Havoc and Damaging Democracy
"We need a digital economy where our data and our attention is not for sale to the highest bidding authoritarian or demagogue." -Zeynep Tufekci What has the digital ad man wrought when the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information? Zeynep Tufekci an associate professor at the School of …
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Will The Quants’ Conquest of Adland Be Short Lived?
In marketing circles, propeller heads rule the day, or so some say. They rule because they can quantify their work, parse the data, draw charts, and speak MBA-to-MBA. On the other side of the conference table, you have the creative firm and their bold ideas. The problem is bold ideas from the agency don't exactly instill confidence, in fact, they often do the opposite. Bold ideas are seen as risky, whereas …
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Define Drivers: Keys To A New Caddy; A Bespoke Chocolate Egg; Dinner at La Banane
Cadillac Canada has partnered with renowned Toronto chocolate maker Brandon Olsen on a direct mail campaign that puts a decadent twist on the standard test drive invitation. Working with its lead agency Red Lion, the automaker tucked away keys to new Cadillac CT6s inside the hugely popular “Ziggy Stardust Disco Egg” from Olsen’s trendy Toronto restaurant, La Banane. https://youtu.be/TRrBQc0e7R8 Cadillac …
Do You Know the Difference Between A Click and A True Connection?
DDB chairman Keith Reinhard is a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame. Reinhard gave birth to the Hamburglar and the other denizens of McDonaldland. He was responsible for McDonald's "You Deserve a Break Today" and for the Big Mac tongue twister, "Two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions, on a sesame seed bun." He also penned State Farm's long-running theme, "Just Like a Good Neighbor, …
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Ad Making Is Not Manufacturing, It’s A Discovery Process
Martin Weigel has been Head of Planning at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam since 2009. He has some sharp ideas to share about the business. Like this one: When we succumb to the fantasy that we can professionalise creativity, that we can extract the play, unpredictability, and human element out of the process, that it can be treated like the manufacturing process, repeatable and reliable in its methods, and …
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Awareness – Interest – Desire – Action
In 1898, Elias St.Elmo Lewis developed a model that mapped the consumers’ journey. Today, we call his framework the sales funnel. Some Marcom philosophers posit that the sales funnel is dead on arrival today. But Beth, an Associate Professor of Advertising at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication says not so fast. What has changed is both how and how fast consumers move through …
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