May 2011

Is marketing becoming a math state? Is that good?

There’s a fascinating debate raging in the DigitalNext section of Ad Age that captures some of the current “culture wars” on Madison Avenue between marketers (“mad men”) and technologists (“math men”). A few weeks ago, Kendall Allen wrote a piece titled: The Dangers Of Online Advertising’s “Math State” that begins with this shot across the bow: Ever notice that in online advertising no one talks about the message? It’s all about the mechanics, how an …

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Put strategy and creative ahead of marketing technology

Where should marketing technology live in the marketing organization? I agree with Forrester’s recommendation of creating an office of marketing technology within the department — headed by a marketing CTO or chief marketing technologist, reporting to the CMO. (For smaller companies, that “office” might consist of a single marketing technologist with many hats.) But what should be marketing technology’s relationship to the rest of the marketing team? The above diagram proposes one possible structure: Leadership …

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5 Strategies for Business, Life and Really Hard Math Problems

These are remarks I’m delivering today for the Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony at my alma mater, the School of General Studies at Columbia University. Since these five strategies come in handy in my work nearly every day, I thought I share them here as well. When I arrived at Columbia, a 30-year-old software entrepreneur with a chip on his shoulder about never finishing college, I was pretty fearless. Tackle art history, no problem. Learn …

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Forrester: Establish a marketing technology office

A recent Forrester report on Understanding The Marketing Technology Buying Process (which is also available from Neolane) had a few exciting revelations. Their survey of 137 customer intelligence professionals — whom they see as a new breed of marketer — showed that marketing is now starting to lead the buying process for marketing technologies. I know, that probably sounds obvious — marketing leading marketing technology decisions. It’s like asking who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? But …

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From marketing specialties to marketing mash-ups

Written version of my Search Insider Summit presentation today: In the beginning, there was marketing. Simply marketing. Then, in the era of Mad Men, the marketing universe split in two. Suddenly, we had brand marketing, building a brand image, a position in the market — marketing above the fray. Versus direct marketing, right down in the frothy fray of persuading individual prospects to do something, the origin of calls-to-action and conversion rates. Specialized galaxies of …

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A Few Good Marketers

Jessep: You want conversions? Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to them. Jessep: You want conversions? Kaffee: I want the clicks. Jessep: You can’t handle the clicks! Son, we live in a world that has web pages. And those web pages have to be built for persuasion. Who’s going to do it? You? You, IT manager? I want greater usability than you can possibly fathom. You weep for FrontPage software and you curse user-centered design. You …

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