Blog

I have a teeny-tiny rant. More of a crank, really. It's this: Many media and marketing articles online have a quirk I find annoying. It's the pop culture headline reference. You've seen it.

What I Learned from <Inception, Sun Tzu, my dog, Indiana Jones, Bridget Jones, Alice in Wonderland> about Social Media Marketing

7 Things <Captain Kangaroo, Game of Thrones,...

My 12-year-old is onto something. When shopping at a mall retailer whose name prominently includes the word “American,” my son observed their clothing ironically was manufactured overseas. This didn’t make sense to him, and it doesn’t to me. But I’m encouraged by a new

With Halloween here, I’m reminded of an incident that took place about this time last year at the previous company I worked for. One of our suppliers was located in Mexico and Karen, one of our sales reps, called the Naucalpán office asking the Spanish-speaking phone operator to speak to Carlos, our contact there. “Sorry, Carlos no is here. They dead.” “What?!...

Evangelical; adjective. Also, e•van•gel•ic. 1. pertaining to or in keeping with the gospel and its teachings. 2. Marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause.

I am evangelical about Netflix. I am a loyal and enthusiastic member. And they have been a great client to Hacker Group.  One of the things that is core to any strategic discussion...

I’m spending my day traveling to the DMA 2011 Convention – but the road has been much longer than a simple flight from Seattle to Boston.

Many months ago, I made a speaking submission to the DMA. I thought of a snappy title. (At least it seemed snappy at the time.) I put together a few bullet points. Sent it in. Waited.

Just as soon as I had completely forgotten about it,...

The website you’re looking at was just launched this month. We’re awfully excited about it.

But enough about us . . . what do you think about us? (I love that line. It’s one of the only redeemable moments from the movie Beaches.)

One of our big goals was to make sure to give our audience the experience they’re looking for. If you’re...

Selecting a marketing agency is a high-stakes, high-risk process. While marketers often find it exciting and enjoyable to have a cadre of smart people present new ideas to them, the final decision must be made both emotionally and rationally.

In general, it comes down to answering two questions: Can these people do the work? And do I want to work with them?

Of course, compensation...

Everyone talks about it. But few agencies are doing much about information security.

To be fair, few creative agencies have in-house data processing departments. Because Hacker Group has always taken the approach that data is critically important to the success of our marketing programs, we’ve done our own data processing almost since the beginning of our agency.

And now we’re...

I’ve been thinking about the BP oil spill – in part because I can’t escape its omnipresence in the news. In fact, this story is so ubiquitous even I was asked  by CNNMoney.com to give a quote about the new apology ad. If you’re interested, you can

A new Ad Age opinion piece, “Why Ad Agencies Need to Embrace Value-Based Compensation,” suggests that agencies should be “compensated above their basic costs if they achieve or exceed results as measured by agreed-upon metrics.”

This is an interesting approach – and...

.this semi-rant in Ad AgeWe’re just finishing up a HUGE round of year-end/first-quarter agency RFP requests and apparently we’re not alone, according to

As the person in our company who drafts the initial round for RFI information...

Several weeks ago, I was focused on completing a home project and looked in my messy toolkit for a carpenter’s square, a basic tool for any homeowner.

After searching the garage, I was unable to locate the tool (I would later discover my 6-year son used it for one of his many “construction projects”). So, I used my best judgment and eyeballed it. The end result was a completed...

Few things (marketing-related) raise my blood pressure like the waste of money and energy involved in getting a third party involved in taking a so-called survey on behalf of your pet cause that purports to prove . . . something.

Disraeli said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I think of that quote every time I look at a PR puff piece that tells...

For those of us who like our decisions to be cut and dried, marketing can sometimes be messy. When looking for success models, you can always find counter-examples to your examples.

Should you specialize and "stick to your knitting," like Radio Shack? Or should you broaden your appeal and pursue a more all-things-to-all-people approach, like Amazon.com? Which is feasible? Or credible? Which...

I have enough self-confidence to know my company has done well -- and has always done well, even through some sticky economic downturns. But I’m of Greek heritage, so a small shiver of panic hits me if I think I might be bordering on hubris.

That’s why it takes some guts for me to come out publicly now and say Hacker Group is hiring.

I just read an article in ClickZ...

Ow! Got a little burned by the acid in the CMO comments in an Ad Age article today.

Agencies are getting "in the way" of advertisers, rather than smoothing the path with online media companies. Advertisers have to do their own strategic briefings with the online ad networks. Advertisers are laying down the law and calling...

There’s no guarantee of life-long employment at the same company. Our economy is becoming increasingly challenging and employees are looking to go where the jobs are. As the recruiter for Hacker Group, my job is to look for qualified and, often, experienced people. And sometimes those experiences bring baggage. Heavy baggage. A recent management study at NYU examined hundreds of employment...

Lots of behavioral targeting start-ups are going away or slowing down, according to Online Media Daily until "Congress sorts through the rulings."

Part of the problem is fear -- privacy issues haven’t been completely addressed -- and part is that BT hasn’t proven its worth to...

Nothing seems to have been posted here in a while.  I can testify that it’s because our agency is in the middle of one of those high-pressure crunch periods.  We seem to have several campaigns that need to drop by October 1 to impact fourth quarter numbers.  Yoiks!

So I feel particularly out of touch when skimming through Ad Age and seeing "

Smart people tend to depend on their smartness and don't necessarily think about luck. Since none of us is perfectly smart all the time, a little good luck is a wonderful thing. Being smart can't always help you with things like timing.

No one is lucky all the time either. In that case, having brains can pull you out of some scary-bad situations.

And intuition is something else...

Does that surprise you as much as it does me? I don't think I'm career-obsessed and I know I'm no workaholic,...

1. You need an inspiring goal. Something everyone can relate to; get excited about and channel their passion. Be it DM print or interactive. Help your employees to cultivate that goal. Reaffirm it on a daily basis (e.g., we do what's best for the client). A mantra.
2. You...

Lots of us will be giving thanks on the big day. But once a year doesn't go far enough.

A sense of gratitude — every single day — is a tremendously positive way to make your company grow.

I start with customers. The...

Hacker Group has a distinctive work culture. It works extremely well for some people. It's a little too intense for others.

Since the beginning, we've focused on win-win -- for our clients, for ourselves, for our employees and for our vendor partners. We do this by throwing ourselves into client service. That's where...

I don't win every argument. Not by a long shot. And I despise compromise. But I don't hate disagreement.

In the creative world Hacker Group has built, conflict usually means my work is about to get better. Whenever...

Does it really matter?

I guess it would be helpful for marketers to know who they're talking to — warts and all. We may have wart remover in our product line-up, after all. (But maybe Facebook isn't the place to be marketing wart remover.)

If Facebook or other...

The reason for this space on our Web site is to get some smart people to talk about what they know best in marketing. It’ll come in bite-size chunks, so you can take...