Advertising & Marketing

There's a relatively new acronym in the media business: FAST. It stands for Free Advertiser-supported Streaming Television. For all practical purposes, FAST is good, old-fashioned broadcast television delivered over the public internet (as opposed to via an antenna or cable or satellite). In the not-so-distant past, this kind of delivery was called "over the top" or OTT, but the defining differences are that FAST is free (except for the cost of your internet access), and the programs are scheduled at specific times, exactly the same way linear, broadcast TV channels are scheduled. Does it matter how the signal is delivered to consumers? Think about this... Continue Reading →

Elon Musk and Twitter are probably going to court over whether he should be forced to buy the social media company for $44 billion. He's trying to back out of the deal because he thinks Twitter is lying about the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. But it's not just about the bots. Twitter has not had a substantial increase in users since 2016 – which makes you wonder why Elon ever considered buying the platform. But the story gets worse, because Twitter's woes are not even a little bit new. Continue Reading →

A little more than 246 years ago, our forefathers used the best technology available to inspire colonial proto-Americans to revolt against King George. At that time, the "best" technology available was the printing press and the "best" social network required the use of "word of mouth" in Public Houses. Grog was the lubricant that facilitated this communication and the rest, as they say, is history. Continue Reading →

At a dinner party the other night, a very accomplished business person told a story about how he and his wife were certain that their devices were listening to their conversations. “I was talking to my wife about a pair of designer shoes that she wanted to purchase, and not 10 minutes later while she was doing some online research for work, she saw an ad for that exact pair of shoes. She hadn’t searched for the shoes; the ad just appeared. Clearly, our computers or our phones are listening.” Some people nodded in agreement, and others began to chime in. Continue Reading →

Outside of limiting the government’s powers, is there such a thing as “freedom of speech”? And if there is, should we regulate big tech platforms to allow anyone to say anything? Shelly Palmer, advanced media professor in residence for the Newhouse School’s New Media Management program, hosts a panel discussion of industry leaders will explore freedom of speech and what it means in today’s political and tech landscapes. Continue Reading →

This past week, DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) invited me to keynote at SportsInnovation 2022. With the football (soccer) pitch at Düsseldorf’s Merkur Spiel-Arena as the backdrop, rival teams played live games as various technologies were demonstrated in real time. Here’s a look at some of my favorite tech from the event. Continue Reading →

Netflix says that roughly 100 million households use a shared password. For years it encouraged the practice because the network effect (more people watching Netflix) had a positive impact on subscriber acquisition. That was then. Now, Netflix is facing headwinds. It is losing subscribers and share prices are heading in the wrong direction. So, among other things, Netflix is going to try to increase revenue by cracking down on password sharing. Will it work? And, how will it work? Let’s explore. Continue Reading →

On the morning of January 23, 2022, I saw a tweet about purchasing a Bored Ape NFT for 135 ETH that I assumed was completely fake. It turned out to be fake. But the transaction was absolutely real. How do I know? The Ethereum blockchain is a public ledger. Transactions are viewable by anyone (including you and me), so let's do a little exploring and see who spent $337,500 (1 ETH = $2,500 at the time) to get their Bored Ape. Continue Reading →

Consumers can’t possibly adopt a preference for custom or personalized manufactured goods and services in big enough quantities to upset mass manufacturing and distribution … can they? Continue Reading →

I’m thrilled to announce our new Web 3 training facility at Metacademy.xyz. Together with our partners, Blockchain Foundry and Catbotica, we’ve created a free-to-use, risk-free hands-on tutorial that will teach you the correct way to set up a crypto wallet, mint your own NFTs, learn how to buy and sell them, and much, much more. Continue Reading →