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I had a great time talking with the people who attended my session at the DMA!

I always find I learn more by preparing to speak and then discussing the topic than I ever would by attending even the best possible sessions. So I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to present.

Since I was talking about multi-channel marketing, it’s not surprising that I got a couple of questions...

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,...

I was right.

Two years ago, I said in Adweek that a Digital Agency of the Year was a bad idea.

Now I read in Ad Age that the Cannes...

New technology is loaded with pitfalls. All of us ought to know that by now.

One of our competitors began calling themselves mobile marketing experts. They sent out a news release announcing a new website dedicated to “mobile marketing best practices and thought leadership.”

I went to check it out. The site itself is not optimized for mobile viewing.

I’m...

I’m currently championing mobile marketing with our clients – and I have several good reasons for doing so, even though early results may not immediately justify my enthusiasm.

Did I say that? I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone to ignore results before!

However, in this case I believe our short-term thinking is likely to get in the way of our long-term...

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...

I wrote a guest column published in Adweek’s online edition yesterday that’s gotten some interesting reaction.

I suggest that awarding a "Digital Agency of the Year" is an anachronism, because we’re now at the point where every marketer...

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...

Back on June 16, I posted a piece about better targeting for cable television advertisers in response to a Wall Street Journal article. The article’s writer was concerned about tighter targets meaning less advertising dollars going to cable. I thought this was short-sighted. If I may quote myself here:

I see this as an opportunity...

Buy low. Sell high. Now that’s wisdom for the ages.

It’s pretty clear we’re going to be hitting bottom in the economy one day soon.  And we may be hanging out at the bottom for a while.

That’s an opportunity to buy.  As a marketer, you may be able to pick up market share on the cheap.  But it takes guts.  You have to believe you’re...

It’s not funny . . . but I had to laugh.  According to a study by Aegis Group’s Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) reported in Ad Age, nine in 10 financial executives don’t use return-on-investment metrics to set marketing budgets.  Why?  They don’t believe the numbers.

That’s...

The June 10 Wall Street Journal had an article about how six cable companies have developed new technology that will help advertisers better target TV watchers.

I think this is great news -- both as a marketer and as a TV watcher.  If I'm going to spend money...

One of my favorite marketing challenges is helping our clients find new customers.  But in an economic downturn we can't forget the enormous problem of losing current customers.

Formerly loyal customers can be tempted away by a competitor's lower prices. They may even decide to forego your product or service altogether, if the value proposition isn't clear to them anymore.  It's...

What is it about fast food that makes people think corporations ought to sacrifice profits for creativity? 

I talked about Wendy's decision to (finally) pull their ads featuring a guy in a red wig a couple of months ago in The Madison Avenue Journal.  Now

This month the CMO Council came out with a new report suggesting that marketers are "struggling with amassing and strategically applying data and customer insights to effect substantive business growth and strategic gain."

In other words, they don't know their own customers well enough to keep them --...

Ever since the beginning of online advertising, marketers have been trying to get a grip on measurement. We can all agree that there are too many data points to absorb and act on, if we're going to retain our sanity.

It's old news that click-through rates are not the key. (Marketers started saying that just about the time when click-throughs started dropping through the floor.)

Brandweek...

The articles about marketing mind-readers are starting to scare me a little. Brandweek just published another one . . . this time about using hypnosis in focus groups.

Why...

It seems like everything is being offered free -- and I'm starting to get worried.

It started in 1984 with "information wants to be free" -- which, according to Wikipedia, was said by a computer hacker first. The guy actually said that the right information in the right context is extremely valuable, but our means of disseminating information is getting cheaper. Regardless of what...

I'm all for jumping on big, dumb ad agencies. You've seen me do it right here in this blog.

But who really does get social media as an advertising channel? Even the social media owners trip up -- as Facebook did when they decided to publish details about what you buy online to your friends....

That was the big question on Monday when Wendy's International gave their fourth-quarter report on a conference call to stock analysts. When the analysts start asking about your marketing strategy, it's got to hurt.

The honest answer would have to be that they have no idea how good their new advertising...

One evolving theory: that advertisers should pay more attention to people's viewing patterns than to their demographics, such as whether they are a twentysomething or a male. Fans of the NBC Universal show "Heroes," for example, whether...

My view is that this is almost always a vanity play — often on the part of both advertiser and agency. I guess ego is as good a reason as any to follow a particular strategy . . . unless you have a good faith responsibility to do your best to bring in a profit for your company....

Now we must be multi-channel marketers. There's no choice in the matter. It's to the point where it's just about impossible to depend...

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...

On the other team are those who always look for the breakthrough idea that will bring them fame and glory. If it's been done...

Everyone's talking about the environment here in Chicago at the DMA. But is anything really happening?

After the first full day of the conference, we've certainly gotten an earful about going green. There were lunches and breakout sessions. John Greco announced 15 green initiatives on behalf of the DMA itself in a keynote address.

Those of us here from Hacker Group were ready to fill...

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...