In the elder days of Art Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part, For the Gods see everywhere. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In his pithy and spot-on book, On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt writes about the above lines of poetry, “The point of these lines is clear. In the old days, craftsmen did not cut corners… These craftsmen did not relax their thoughtful self-discipline even with respect …
Healthy Teams Make Great Things
Collaboration is the key that unlocks creative greatness. The best films, music, food, advertising, media, and so on, are all made by teams. Therefore, joining a highly functional team and learning to be a productive member of the team is the way forward for ambitious makers. Two professors at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas wanted to bring this message to their students and the world. Mike Wiggins …
When Content Degrades and Distracts, Advertising Suffers Too
Advertising is a parasite that depends on the blood of its host—news and entertainment content—for its survival. When the body or in this case the media industry is sick, the parasite too will suffer. This is the conclusion, although not the language, of Mike Follett, managing director of eye-tracking company Lumen Research (and a former agency-side account planner). He spoke to Nathan Heller of The New …
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Did Stephanie McCarty Just Say What Other CMOs Are Thinking?
Stephanie McCarty is chief marketing and communications officer at Taylor Morrison Homes, a home builder based in Scottsdale, Arizona. McCarty is top of mind for a lot of agency leaders at the moment, because she used her LinkedIn page to speak some hard truths about the agency business. When her LinkedIn post went viral, Adweek commissioned an article. In the Adweek article, McCarty makes it clear that "the whole …
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AI Is Not the Problem, Lack of Original Thinking Is the Problem
How many times have marketers been told—mostly by other marketers—that the new tech is the best tech? So many times...remember when every brand had to have a home in Second Life? It was an absurd thing to say then, as it is today when the new new thing has to be tested, twisted, and made useful to real people. Nevertheless, promoters gonna promote. And Fast Company is a favorite media vehicle of promoters. For …
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The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts
It's Customer Contact Week and hundreds of people who are responsible for delivering better customer experiences are gathered this morning at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin. Neil Hoyne, chief strategist at Google, Wharton fellow, and author of Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers' Hearts is this morning’s keynote speaker. “I get people to click on pictures,” he humorously and humbly says from the …
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Influential Voices in the Marketing and Advertising Industry Today
Last year I tried to resist AI. I had my reasons, and have them still, but I'm adopting a different, more curious, and accepting posture now. That's what led me to ask my AI Assistant, Claude, to name the 10 most influential voices in the advertising industry today. Claude quickly named Seth Godin and Bob Hoffman, plus unnamed heads of trade organizations like the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), American …
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Close the Perception Gap and Find A Way to Get On the Customer’s Page
How well do today's marketers know their customers and prospects? It's not a new question, yet it remains an important one. Data is having its moment and the moment seems (to me) suspended in amber. But data is not knowledge nor is it intelligence. Data is the raw material that human beings can use to make meaning and in some cases that meaning may grow into the sort of knowledge that provides a competitive edge in …
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