May 2014

I was delighted to learn that the Financial Times — an international newspaper for senior executives and financial types that makes The Wall Street Journal look like light pop reading — dedicated an 8-page special report on the intersection of marketing and technology, officially released this morning. Recognition that marketing has become a technology-powered discipline has now reached the highest echelons of boardrooms and executive suites. This is a big step forward — albeit a …

Financial Times reveals the executive view of marketing technology, an evolving relationship of marketing and IT Continue Reading »

Having spent many years in the “conversion optimization” subdiscipline of marketing — a forerunner to what is now known as “growth hacking” in some circles — I’ve mulled over the inherent tension between innovation and optimization for a while. They’re two different mindsets. At its best, innovation is about exploring a wide range of bold, new ideas that challenge the status quo — often questioning assumptions that an organization takes for granted. Many of these …

The 4 quadrants of marketing management, a 2×2 model Continue Reading »

The incredible change we’re all experiencing these days is highly fractal. Similar patterns are emerging at many levels, and we can learn a lot by zooming in and zooming out. For instance, we can talk about how marketing technology is changing — which it is, at a phenomenal pace. But we can also go higher up and examine how marketing overall is changing. We can go even higher up and realize how businesses, industries, and …

How The Second Machine Age will transform marketing Continue Reading »

Most readers of this blog know I wear two hats. I write this blog — a labor of love — but I’m also the co-founder and CTO of a marketing software company, ion interactive. However, I rarely write about my company here, because (a) I prefer to use this space to explore bigger themes in our industry, and (b) I assume that you’re here for those bigger themes too. So over six years of writing …

Why we bet our whole company on marketing apps Continue Reading »