the weekly ramble

Crossing the country and back, I passed through five really sad airports. All were dirty and rundown (although all were making efforts at renovation). Services were spotty; food was old school and unhealthy… and one even still utilized the people movers of the last century to take people between terminals. I won’t comment on security,…

Can a border be closed off? Can a population be locked in or locked down? Seems that the topic is much in the news these days…all around the word. It got me thinking. Physical and political barriers—fences and road blocks—did used to keep people locked in…and locked up. Without going too far back in time,…

Amazon had yet another great earnings call, wowing the market with their growth. But these earnings have nothing to do with e-commerce, as MarketWatch explained: “E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.’s earnings surge in the first quarter was largely due to major acceleration in its Amazon Web Services business, which is powering the bulk of Amazon profits…

On Friday, I met with a business acquaintance, an investment banker type, who was insisting that Brands were no longer important…as he pontificated from the depths of his brand-clad and covered self. On Saturday, I was in the local park with my granddaughter Goldy, when I noticed that she and half her friends had on…

Create viral assets. Design experiential moments. Used in one sentence, or better, used as one ask, “I want an authentic experience that will go viral.” Raise your hand if you have been in a meeting where you have heard something similar. Hmmm…I thought so…I have too. These days, we hear a lot about the need…

I don’t know about you…but frankly, it’s easy to fall into a funk and be depressed about today’s so-called Hi-Tech. So-called, because while there is a lot of real Hi-Tech out there somewhere, what we call and overvalue as such is really data sales, media, retail and transportation…with occasionally fraudulent biotech thrown in for good…

Maybe it was the confluence of Passover and Easter, or perhaps it was the continuing news saga of Taliban atrocities, young African-Americans shot in the back, fleeing refuges, hate crimes all over the world juxtaposed to stories about what exactly is Alexa listening to and what is really happening with all that data being collected…

What would you do? If you were a 100+-year-old company in a dying category, surrounded by hip new offerings and critics, analysts and pundits who opined on the category in ways that made you wonder why you were in business…what would you do? You could declare, “Disruption,” “digital transformation,” “millennial focus,” “mobile first,” “VR/AR and…

We use filters on filters on filters to enhance our world. Even ‘natural’ has a special filter to apply. But despite all these perfected images, Stephen Hawking still stood out. When Hawking was a graduate student in 1963, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neuromuscular wasting illness also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease,…

There is no app for it. There is no market “disruption” in play, shaking the foundations of business as we know it. And no one has said to put it first. I am referring to Diversity—with a purposeful capital D. This has been top of mind recently. Y&R is involved with a lot of great…

On the internet, no one knows you are a dog. Close to 25 years after the iconic cartoon, this still holds true. Back in 1993, illustrator Peter Steiner had little knowledge of this newfangled thing called “the Internet” or “World Wide Web”—but what he did know was that it was easy to throw up a…

On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 17 people were killed and 14 more hospitalized, making it one of the world’s deadliest school massacres. A terrible tragedy, to be sure. A seemingly avoidable tragedy. And sadly, a tragedy that has become mired…

If our marketing research was as off as political polling continues to be, then the Brandscape of the world would look significantly different. Companies would invest money in the wrong products and services, spending on meaningless messaging, squandering on irrelevant media, and generally wondering why the “wrong” Brands seemed to win. As I have written…

The PIVOT: a move made more famous by Digital/Internet startups than by sports stars. The agility, openness, hunger and passion to succeed (read: passion to make money) gave these tech entrepreneurs the impetus to switch direction and focus quickly…and most importantly, without ever looking back. Think about the companies who said they were ‘pure digital…

There was a time when Brands were like trusted family members. They lived in our homes, partnered in our lives, and were a fully intimate part of our daily routines. They sat on our breakfast tables, guarded our bathrooms, drove us to school and work, and protected us from illness. We trusted these Brands to…

It’s likely to be the biggest lottery win any of us will ever see…like breaking the bank at Monte Carlo, or the Holy Grail. Think of it as a pot of gold–or Bitcoins, or whatever’s trending today–at the end of the rainbow. Haven’t guessed yet? Then I need to know where you are placing bets….

Back in the day, when the Viking longships with their fearsome prows were seen on a coastline, local residents ran and hid. They knew what was coming. Typically, carnage and pillage. When a delegation arrived in your country sporting a standard with S.P.Q.R., boldly displayed, you knew you were about to be conquered and subsumed….

At the recent Golden Globes Awards in Hollywood, the women in attendance mostly wore black as a sign of protest, in solidarity with the #MeToo movement that has roiled the entertainment industry. Many men also wore black…although not to be cynical, but most tuxedo-wearing men are usually in black anyway. To be clear: Fashion, in…

It’s no wonder that so many companies are swirling around in their results when you take into account the following: – Record numbers of CMOs are losing their jobs because they are unable to demonstrate the true business impact of huge marketing budgets. – Over 50% of top advertisers will be reviewing their marketing/media agency…

My crystal ball is as cloudy as ever…maybe even more so as we head into 2018. Yet, I do believe we gained insight in all directions last year, as we watched media in turmoil and the changing narrative around TV and Programmatic. As our tools dramatically advanced and drones and wearables faded into the background,…