Game 6 of the World Series is tonight. As a Yankee fan I admit to having a chronic case of Northeast provincialism when it comes to baseball, and sports in general. Basically, that means I believe that no championship contest truly matters unless a New York team is participating. But you’re not here to read … Continue reading In Praise of Small Ball
Marketing
Posts about opportunities and challenges marketers face today
Your Back of the Business Card Brief
What is a “back of the business card” brief? It’s one of the earliest lessons I learned in marketing: if you can’t capture the ultimate goal of a project succinctly on the back of a business card then you’re doing something wrong. I’ve been a big fan of this approach for many years. It’s an … Continue reading Your Back of the Business Card Brief
Open Spaces & Shiny Objects
Soccer is often referred to as the “beautiful game.” I’m no expert, but even as a layman I can see why true fans feel this way. Watching two teams of eleven skilled players competing to maneuver a single ball in an enclosed space can be riveting. The best teams perform like a symphony where every … Continue reading Open Spaces & Shiny Objects
No Problem, No Job
One of the most important marketing lessons I ever received came from a television sales executive. It was the holiday season of 2000. I was part of the team at ESPN/ABC Sports working on a huge Bowl Championship Series sponsorship program for one of the company’s largest auto clients. The BCS, as it was known, … Continue reading No Problem, No Job
Lessons from a Busted Bracket
How’s your bracket looking? Mine’s a wreck, thanks to a wild weekend of upsets. All the same, I couldn’t be happier that the tournament is back this year. The win or go home nature is what makes it so great, and the perfect platform for bracket pools. However, the truth that real basketball fans know … Continue reading Lessons from a Busted Bracket
It’s Not Brain Surgery, but…
Perhaps you've heard the saying before about pencils: there are two sides and the one with the eraser is much easier to use. Pencils aren't used as much these days. But in a similar vein, maybe you noticed that the delete key on your keyboard is twice as big as the letter ones. Photo by meo from Pexels … Continue reading It’s Not Brain Surgery, but…
The Illusion of ROI
A marketer without a keen sense of the ROI (return on investment) of their campaigns and other business driving initiatives won't be employed very long. It's particularly important in our "Covid economy" where businesses are failing, revenue is down and operating budgets are constricted. Moreover, today's marketing technology and data collection resources have set an … Continue reading The Illusion of ROI
Your Elevator Pitch Won’t Work
"What's your elevator pitch?" It's a question practically anyone whose worked in sales or marketing has been challenged with at least once. But here's the deal: I've taken countless elevators during my professional career and have never sold a thing in one. Nor do I know anyone who ever has. Photo by Michael Morse from Pexels Fair enough, … Continue reading Your Elevator Pitch Won’t Work
Don’t Be A Name Caller
Labeling and branding. We see a lot of the former and not nearly enough of the latter. That's a problem, not just for marketers but for our society as a whole. Let's first get the definitions correct. Words matter. Language seems to evolve overnight in the digital age but if definitions becoming purely subjective we … Continue reading Don’t Be A Name Caller
Let’s Turn Around and Take the Hill
Marketing is in full retreat in 2020. As an industry we are on the run. On one level it is understandable. 2020, the year from hell, has thrust unexpected and unprecedented challenges on the entire world. Needless to say the impact of the pandemic on the state of marketing pales in comparison to the much … Continue reading Let’s Turn Around and Take the Hill
How To Win By Not Playing
The boycotting of games this week, playoff games no less in some cases, in the NBA, WNBA and MLB is unprecedented in modern sports history. The players who instigated the boycott were justified in expressing their outrage and frustration and were appropriately supported by leagues, networks and sponsors. Another shooting of an unarmed African American … Continue reading How To Win By Not Playing
How Big Business Can Help Save Small Business
Fortune 500 companies can play a huge role in saving local businesses that may hurt financially short term but will pay dividends in the long run
What Brackets Can Teach Us, Even in a Year with No Tournaments
Below is written version of the video blog I posted on Monday, March 16 which you can see here. My first draft of this post was written before they canceled the NCAA basketball tournaments. Rather than kill the idea, I decided to revise it in an effort to still share the point I originally wanted … Continue reading What Brackets Can Teach Us, Even in a Year with No Tournaments
VIDEO: What Brackets Can Teach Us, Even In A Year With No Tournaments
TikTok vs Snapchat – A Guide for Marketers
Here's a link to invaluable overview for marketers of two of the most popular apps for younger demos from Charles Kush.
Customers Come Second
You could spend the rest of your life reading and not get through half of the books ever written on the topic about how marketers, and companies more broadly, win by putting customers first. How many times when a company relaunches a brand have you heard corporate leaders say "we started with the customer?" Near … Continue reading Customers Come Second
How Great Advertising Can Sink Your Brand
Yesterday I was talking with a friend and veteran industry exec who has held top level positions at world class brands and agencies about Mike Bloomberg's exit from the presidential campaign. He's worked closely with some of the top agency people involved with the campaign and can vouch that Bloomberg 2020 had access to the … Continue reading How Great Advertising Can Sink Your Brand
“Hey Fred, why should I give a sh#t?”
That was what the voice on the other end of the phone said to me almost 30 years ago. I was working for an organization that built housing for the homeless in New York. We were pitching a community in Westchester county, one of the more expensive collection of zip codes in the country, for … Continue reading “Hey Fred, why should I give a sh#t?”
On Big Data and Big Ideas
Big data. Big ideas. Both are the realm of marketers these days. It seems like most of the talk in the industry these days is about data. But which one is more important? To clarify, by ideas I mean concepts for campaigns designed to inspire, engage and persuade the people with which a brand wants … Continue reading On Big Data and Big Ideas
What Marketers Can Learn From Bad Football
From My LinkedIn Blog - 1/17/19 January is great time for football, unless, like me, your team is the Giants. If you’re in the same, sad boat, you might hear something like this from the head coach at the team’s year-end press conference: “We’re going to trade all our offensive lineman and only hire skill-position players on … Continue reading What Marketers Can Learn From Bad Football
TV’s Marketing Problem
Television is still the #1 brand builder, but it needs some brand building for itself. Television, the #1 brand builder, has a marketing problem. Nothing gets your business known like TV. And yet, many of the same businesses that would benefit the most from the affordability and undeniable effectiveness that TV advertising offers don’t consider … Continue reading TV’s Marketing Problem
For What It's Worth 