Gold. The toast v Door Dash comparison is 🔥. so many places offer both, and treat them as equal options. They don't push one over the other because they don't know what to do with the data when they have it. Even for bigger brands. Working with platforms like Meta and Google has hollowed out basic marketing knowledge. There’s a whole generation of marketers that only know how to hand money to the black box.
I was trying to point out to a team once that their company’s own data strongly suggested a path that was NOT “spend more on Google.” They told me I was wrong. They were going to spend more because “Google said they had to.” I was blown away. Their data analytics team produced a report that showed clearly that a big % of that budget was pure waste. They did it anyway.
I think about the marketers I worked with early in my career. If we went to them and said, “Forbes said you should double the spend in the magazine. Here’s their free measurement data that proves that out,” they would have laughed us out of the room.
But that’s what we do today. No one uses any judgment. Their favorite word. They put their money into a black box. They let the system measure it, and they follow the recommendations that hollow out their business.
What a wild time we get to live in and try and help others navigate. Appreciate finding another like-minded trying to make sense of it one conversation, one essay, one question at a time! Thanks for inviting me for a chat. As for all the expletives, what can I say -- I am fired up and want brands to take some POWER back!
one of the best (and succinct) conversations I've seen on any topic around marketing and AI recently. Great read!
Great conversation!
Really great points. It sometimes feels insane internally being so skeptical of classical attribution, so it’s nice to see it unpacked like this!
Gold. The toast v Door Dash comparison is 🔥. so many places offer both, and treat them as equal options. They don't push one over the other because they don't know what to do with the data when they have it. Even for bigger brands. Working with platforms like Meta and Google has hollowed out basic marketing knowledge. There’s a whole generation of marketers that only know how to hand money to the black box.
I was trying to point out to a team once that their company’s own data strongly suggested a path that was NOT “spend more on Google.” They told me I was wrong. They were going to spend more because “Google said they had to.” I was blown away. Their data analytics team produced a report that showed clearly that a big % of that budget was pure waste. They did it anyway.
I think about the marketers I worked with early in my career. If we went to them and said, “Forbes said you should double the spend in the magazine. Here’s their free measurement data that proves that out,” they would have laughed us out of the room.
But that’s what we do today. No one uses any judgment. Their favorite word. They put their money into a black box. They let the system measure it, and they follow the recommendations that hollow out their business.
There is another way…
What a wild time we get to live in and try and help others navigate. Appreciate finding another like-minded trying to make sense of it one conversation, one essay, one question at a time! Thanks for inviting me for a chat. As for all the expletives, what can I say -- I am fired up and want brands to take some POWER back!