People Hate Ads

Times Square
There’s an article in today’s New York Times with the title, “The Advertising Industry Has a Problem: People Hate Ads.” It says, “the advertising industry faces an ‘existential need for change,’ according to a blunt report published on Monday by the research firm Forrester. Now the agencies must ‘disassemble what remains of their outmoded model’ or risk ‘falling further into irrelevance,’ the report concludes.” Continue Reading →
Marketing 401: Correlation vs. Causation
There are two basic camps in the world of marketing: numbers camp and pretty pictures camp. I live in both camps, and you should too. If you live in the numbers camp, I’m going to confirm what you already know. If you live in the pretty pictures camp, buckle your seatbelt, because this is going to be a fast, bumpy ride. Continue Reading →
To Google or To Amazon? Search is the Answer
According to eMarketer, the U.S. search ad market is expected to grow to $55.17 billion (up 18% YoY). Roughly 73 percent (approx. $40 billion) of that goes to Google. But Amazon is on fire. Its search business is growing fast and it is expected to reach almost 13 percent this year and nearly 16 percent Continue Reading →
Facebook: Platform, Publisher, or Ministry of Truth?
Facebook is being pilloried for its unwillingness to remove a paid advertisement by President Trump’s reelection campaign after Facebook was notified by the Biden campaign that the ad contained false statements about Joe Biden and his son. On the surface, this seems simple, and Facebook’s decision not to remove the ad seems wrong. But there is much more to the story. Continue Reading →
Google France
Online publishers in the EU were all excited about Article 15 of the EU’s copyright directive which allows the press to request money from platforms like Google and Facebook when copyrighted material appears on their respective sites. France transposed the EU’s copyright reforms into a national law that takes effect October 1st. There’s only one Continue Reading →

What is a Radio Brand?

PLJ 95.5
Cumulus Media confirmed that New York City's iconic FM radio station 95.5 PLJ will sign off for the last time on Friday, May 31. Clearly, there was no longer a profitable business to be made using FM radio broadcasting technology to aggregate and monetize the PLJ audience. Radio stations change ownership all the time and, as you know, media M&A has become a blood sport in the past 24 months. Still, this particular sign-off signals something significant. Continue Reading →

Facebook and Common Sense

Mark Zuckerberg is founder and chief executive officer of Facebook, the world’s largest population. In reading his op-ed in the Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg: The Internet needs new rules. Let’s start in these four areas, I was struck by its similarities to Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, which for all practical purposes incited the Colonies to rebel against the King. Both of these manifestos deserve to be read in their entirety. Continue Reading →