How to Give Creative Feedback

David Ogilvy famously said: “Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.” That observation from the Mad Men era still rings true today. The inherent dynamic of committees to to sand the edges. That’s the path of least resistance. Yet… Read More

Talk to the QR Code

One of the customer experience legacies of the pandemic is the QR code. From ordering in restaurants to finding product info in stores to getting help while traveling, the QR code is now ever-present in our daily customer interactions. Once dismissed as niche, the QR code is gaining steam.  Scanning increased 25% in 2020, 15% last year, and is predicted… Read More

Building a Moat

An entrepreneur friend of mine shared that one of the most invariable (and overused) questions he gets asked is what the “moats” are for his start-up. He described the question as a crutch that VCs go to when they don’t know what other questions to ask. As my friend put it: “More troubling is that they are looking for… Read More

The Innovation Funnel

Most organizations use some version of an innovation funnel to bring ideas to life. It starts with lots of ideas at the front end and then launches whatever survives all the way to the back end. Yet this Darwinian process of bringing ideas to life doesn’t necessarily lead to survival of the fittest ideas. If we’re not careful, the innovation… Read More

False Choice Between Brand and Performance

In a volatile business environment like this, there’s often pressure to shift gears (and budgets) from long-term brand building to short-term performance marketing that drive quick sales. I recently re-read Tom Roach’s excellent 2020 essay called “The Wrong and the Short of it.” His piece goes after one of the classic “false choices” in marketing — a binary decision between… Read More

Chief Something Officer

Unilever is the latest major company to rename the Chief Marketing Officer. Having added the word “Digital” in 2019 as “Chief Digital and Marketing Officer”, they got rid of the word “Marketing” altogether last month to announce the role as “Chief Digital and Commercial Officer.” Announcing her new role, Unilever CDCO Connie Braams said: “And no, before you ask, we’re… Read More