Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the first glimmers of Spring (at least, in the Northern Hemisphere), along with the start of daylight savings time (for most of the people in the US). It’s difficult to believe, but Q2 is only a few weeks away, Memorial Day, Graduation & 4th of July events are well into the planning phase, and a few of our clients are even scheduling calls for back to school planning. Put another way: 2025 is off to a rolling start. As we get into all of...
18 days ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday (+ Happy March), Everyone! We’ve officially survived the shortest month of 2025 - and while it isn’t officially Spring (in the northern hemisphere) yet, things are looking up if you like warm weather, golf & more sunshine. Speaking of things looking up – after the incredible response to last week’s issue, we’re back with Part 2 of the “2025 Hot or Not: Marketing Edition.” If you didn’t get a chance to read last week’s edition on the stuff that is NOT working, I’d highly recommend...
25 days ago • 16 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! As both 2025 budgets and conference season have kicked into high gear, there’s been one question I’ve heard more than anything else: what should we be doing and what should we be avoiding in order to hit our growth/profitability goals for 2025? It’s a question I spend a significant amount of time thinking about, both for our agency and our portfolio companies, as well as for our clients. And, over time, I’ve developed a running list of things to avoid (the “Nots”) and...
about 1 month ago • 11 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! As a marketer, today is one of my favorite days of the year: it’s the Big Game™. In a few short hours, a total of ~$650M will be spent on ~100 0:30 ad spots: ~60 in-game commercials (at a reported price of $7M to $8M per spot), and ~40 commercials before and after the event (at a reported price of $3M to $5M per spot, depending on placement). And that’s just the actual cost of the spot – it doesn’t include the production cost, other channel deployments (like social,...
about 2 months ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! With January (thankfully) in the rear-view mirror, I’ve found myself thinking about Valentine’s Day – not because I particularly care for it as a holiday (it’s kind of lame), but because it marks the first major “marketing moment” of 2025 – New Year’s feels like it shares custody with 2024, and the other federal holidays (President’s Day, MLK Day, Inauguration Day) aren’t real moments (unless you’re selling furniture or mattresses). Valentine’s Day - like it, love it...
about 2 months ago • 11 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all doing well, staying warm, and enjoying the weekend. This week’s issue marks number 100 – a milestone I was unsure this little newsletter would reach when I pressed “send” way back in 2023. Since that first send, the newsletter has grown from just 152 subscribers (for Issue #1) to 6,164 (and counting). Along the way, this has sparked more conversations than I thought possible, led to awesome opportunities with dozens of incredible brands, and - most...
about 2 months ago • 21 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! 2025 is officially in full swing: we’re already having Spring/Summer planning meetings with clients (yes, the groundwork for those Easter, Spring Break & Memorial Day campaigns is laid in snowy, rainy, cold-as-Cruella DeVille’s heart January), a new administration officially takes power Monday (with some massive plans for both tech & the broader economy), and TikTok may (or may not) live to see either of those two things happen (though Pres-Elect Trump has recently...
2 months ago • 10 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! 2025 is officially in full swing (somehow - it feels like the holidays were just the other day), brands are already talking about Valentines’ Day, Spring & Memorial Day, summer camps (if you have kids, you know) have opened for registration, and Meta’s health data restrictions are officially rolling out into thousands of ad accounts. One of the main predictions I made for 2025 was that the value and importance of exceptional, differentiated, business-relevant data...
2 months ago • 15 min read
Happy New Year (+Happy Sunday), Everyone! I hope 2025 is off to a marvelous start for all of you – January is probably my favorite time of the year. It’s a fresh start. A chance to do something new, different or exciting. An opportunity to get out of your comfort zone. And it’s that concept of doing something new and different that leads to this week’s topic: the influencers you should double-down on for 2025. For most of the last ~three months, I’ve spent way too much time in way too many...
3 months ago • 10 min read