Are you going for distance? Or are you going for speed? Yes, technically the answer is both (or yes). Going a certain distance as fast as possible. But you can only focus on one. Go for speed. Burn it all up. Blaze of glory. Go for distance. Pace yourself. Embrace the tortoise. What race are you …

Scrolling through “old” notes, found this from early on in the Elon-Twitter saga about why I was (at the time) thinking about it so much. It’s had so much promise and seems to have been led by people that couldn’t find it if were at the base of a dayglo lighthouse in the middle of midwestern …

Brandodon

At this point, any company working on a metaverse presence* should probably spin up their own Mastodon server and hire a community moderator to run it. The Stanodons probably won’t like this, but it’s not about corporatizing the fediverse. People checking out Mastodon as a Twitter …

The answer to brand safety and post-cookie targeting may be the same: contextual advertising. Everything old is new again.

Search Still Splintering

The trend of splintering search continues. I’ve wondered why Google seems to be getting increasingly opinionated about Search. Partly it’s because that’s where most of their money comes from, so it’s kind of important to them. But the other part must be because search is no longer a platform or an …

Motivation is fuel, and sometimes your gauge is empty.

Social is Composting

Composting turns something once ripe into good dirt for the next crop to grow from. The process of composting is basically rot, so it smells and doesn’t always look so great and generally gets hidden from polite company in a container or at a dedicated location (shout out Atlas Organics). And…what …

Commitment is easier when the motivations are internal and the parameters are clear.

A ritual is a habit made sacred through intention and attention.

Customer acquisition is sexy, but retaining customers is where it’s at. The best part of actually caring for your customers? That care can flow back out to be used as the foundation of acquisition efforts.

If you want to be known for something, repeat it. If you want to create a habit, repeat it. If you want to get good at something, repeat it. If you want to find out “why,” repeat it. Invention is fun. Repetition is key.

New and novel can be like catnip to marketers. “Everyone is there so I need to be there” is an easy excuse. Some questions to ask: Is your audience there? Does your message work there? What are you trying to achieve by being there? Do you even want to be there? Don’t neglect what’s working for …

You want your marketing to deliver a consistent message. But you don’t want to tire your audience out. When does it become annoying? 6 times a week is a good place to start. Repeat yourself, just make sure it doesn’t become that one joke you tell at every gathering.

Where does the value lie in a franchise? Sure, the brand has value. The McDonald’s name and logo would be worth something if it hit the market. But the true value lies in real estate. McD’s is one of the biggest real estate companies in the world. Brand value could go to 0 and the holdings would …

Are you the knight in shining armor? Or a Don Quixote wrapped in aluminum foil? It’s only an issue if you think you’re one when you’re actually the other.

When you’re making your thing, what do you leave on the cutting room floor? How do you make those cuts? Why? Can you do anything with the “scraps”?

Have we replaced a cultural mindset with a memeset? Not sure where I’m going with this yet, just popped into my head, but I may keep noodling on it.

The Evolving Ecosystem that is Earth will require us passegners of Spaceship Earth to adjust and adapt. Both our expectations and baselines along with our behaviors. A big part of that is going to be agriculture: what we plant and what we eat. It pmoises to be easy and well-understood and fairly …

Do your policies and procedures approach your customers, users, and/or employees from a place of trust or suspicion? If you reap what you sow, then I recommend…

What are Display Ads for?

Google divides its ad network into 3 sub-networks: Search, Display, and YouTube. Most campaigns will deliver on only one, though they do have a feature that allows you to run your search ads on the Display Network if you have extra budget. Gmail used to be a kind of hybrid network/placement, but …

How much data do you need to be certain? Do you need to be certain to make a decision? or Why are AI generated images for “certain” so ominous? Chain link fencing and barbed wire and ominous amulets in a strange language.

The point of a hypothesis is not to prove it, just to test it. A data insight that doesn’t align with your expectations isn’t wrong (unless the data is wrong, of course). Test to learn, not to confirm your belief(s).

As I thought about today’s word for Microblogvember (echo), three thoughts kept coming to mind. Are all your various marketing messages extensions of your core brand beliefs and story? Shouldn’t they be? All hypothetical tomorrows are echoes of the decisions we make and the actions we take today, …

When doing creative work. Or working at the edge of generally accepted practices. Exempt yourself from being beholden to what others (might) think and imposter syndrome. Mass culture is dead. So create for you, then find the others.

A Series of Questions on Admiration

Do we admire people for having wealth or for how they accumulated it? Do we admire brands for what they sell or how they sell it? Do we admire people for what they built or how they built it? Do we admire brands for their mission or for their motive(s)? Do we admire people for having large …