Tweet Everybody thinks their business writing is great. Everybody’s wrong. It’s just a question of how much. The world of business writing is awash with: Emails with mysterious subject lines like “Here it is”; Blog posts that begin with a faulty premise, then veer off into a bramble of unrelated […]

Tweet Will billions of dollars of Ad Tech investment and painstakingly built marketing automation tech stacks be undone by a $130 ad blocking box? Probably not. But… maybe. Meet AdTrap. It’s a router-level ad blocker that also works on wi-fi. Like their website says, “just plug an AdTrap into your […]

Tweet In The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adams present a strong case for a sales/business development effort that challenges prospects to think differently about their business challenges. We agree. We’ve seen it work time and time again. But it only works when […]

Tweet Technology, perhaps more than any other area of marketing, requires having a strong brand story. (This goes double for ad tech. Finish reading this,  then click over to our “Winter Is Coming” site for more about how we can help.) Everything is in a constant state of flux: your […]

Tweet 1) There is no such thing as an advertising audience anymore. Attention has been permanently scattered to the four winds. This will only get worse. 2) Yet, advertising continues to work.  Because its true purpose is to either: a) let the world know something exists; or b) remind the […]

Tweet I met recently with the global director of digital for a big, well-known brand. He wanted to talk about analytics and insights. Or to be more accurate, the abundance of analytics and the paucity of insights. “I’m out of ideas for what to add”, he said with a frown. […]

Tweet A heuristic: the hotter the opening salvo in any discussion, the lower the potential for intelligent debate. It’s human nature to push back, but remember: you can’t put out fire with gasoline. Instead, cool things down so progress is possible? Start here. Rage Face Illustration Credit: Thoth (Creative Commons) […]

Tweet Here’s a bold prediction. Or, more accurately, a mediocre one. The future of media is OK. Not amazing. Not awful. Just… OK. Average. It’s not because people don’t care anymore, or that the good old days were some sort of magical time in which everything was awesome. Mediocrity has […]

Tweet Have you seen the recent video of the really cool stunt where some bank gives away surprise gifts to customers through their ATMs? I’ll bet that viral video is getting a ton of views. They might even get some through this blog post. Hooray, social media! Sure, it’s kind […]

Tweet   Simplicity makes users happy. But it tends to make organizations stupid. People worry their bosses won’t think they’re working hard enough. Users, of course, do not give a damn about this. People who think the project will succeed have the urge to put their thumbprint on it. Users, […]