Fun & Humor

Take a break for some fun and humor.

  1. CPG: HBC

What’s the Marketing ROI?

At the Cannes Lions a few months ago, Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar and CFO Sachin Mehra gave a joint talk on the CMO/CFO relationship called “Happy Tension.”  Raja described the typical dynamic this way: “It’s shocking that less than 40% of the finance people think that marketers can make sound commercial decisions, leaving the remaining […]
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  1. Department: Nonfood

Productively Unproductive

Dwight D. Eisenhower reportedly prioritized his work life by classifying tasks as important or not important, and urgent or not urgent.  The resulting two-by-two graph became known as The Eisenhower Matrix and it influenced a lot of thinking in work productivity.  We generally spend far too much on work that is urgent but not important. […]
3 min read
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  1. Corporate Strategy

Ratings Fatigue

Net Promoter Score (NPS) turns 20 later this year.   What Bain consultant Fred Reichheld first introduced in a HBR article in December 2003 is now ubiquitous. The “how likely are you to recommend” question is asked endlessly after customer experiences, large and small.  The metric that this question generates is now tracked by two-thirds […]
3 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Generative AI Adoption

I love the analogy of ChatGPT that Hubspot CTO Dharmesh Shah shared at the start of the year: “Netscape was to the Internet what ChatGPT is to Artificial Intelligence. “The Internet existed before Netscape. But the browser helped millions of mere mortals connect the dots on what could be done, and dream of what could […]
2 min read
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  1. Corporate Strategy

Third-Party Cookiepocalypse

Nearly 10 years ago, I drew one of my most popular cartoons that showed a Peeping Tom looking through the window of a living room at a couple. One says, “Don’t worry, it’s only marketers collecting our personal data so they can create more relevant advertising for us.” Third-party cookies have been at the center […]
3 min read
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  1. Corporate Strategy

The CMO Role

“In some organizations, just the expectations of CMOs are just so out of whack with the reality of what a CMO can really deliver on the timelines, and with the resources and with the headwinds that they have… “I think that in some organizations, you’re just being set up to fail, right?” Gartner analyst Chris […]
2 min read
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  1. Media & Marketing

Brands on Threads

Meta debuted their own version of Twitter a couple weeks ago called Threads.  The launch created a fire drill for many a marketing team, deciding whether to jump in and if so, in what way. Part of the alarm was caused by the record user growth of the app.  At 100 million users in five […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Crossing the Chasm

I’ve drawn a few different cartoons over the years riffing on Geoffrey Moore’s 1991 classic, “Crossing the Chasm.”  I once had the opportunity to give him the original of one of these when we spoke at the same Silicon Valley conference. Given the faddish nature of conventional wisdom in marketing, I particularly appreciate models like […]
3 min read
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  1. Media & Marketing

5 Stages of Price Promotions

“Price promotions are a drug. They are the crack cocaine of marketing. I hope we’ve seen an end to the senseless promotions that we’ve seen.” Les Binet, group head of effectiveness at adam&eveDDB, shared these thoughts at last year’s IPA’s Global Effectiveness conference.   Much of the spike in sales that brands see during a […]
3 min read
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  1. Media & Marketing

Innovation and TikTok

The WSJ had a great feature last week on Chipotle and the “Keithadilla.”  It was a fascinating case study on the state of innovation in the age of TikTok trends. In late 2022, a TikTok influencer named Keith Lee reinterpreted the Chipotle Quesadilla as an off-menu hack that included a DIY sauce combining Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette […]
2 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Impact of ChatGPT

Salesforce recently found that 67% of senior IT leaders are pushing to adopt generative AI across their businesses in the next 18 months, with one-third naming it their top priority.   At the same time, a majority of these senior IT leaders have concerns about what could happen. Among other reservations, the report found that […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Virtual Reality

Scott Galloway had an interesting take on Apple’s Vision Pro announcement last week: “It will officially be the most elegant final nail in the coffin of this sort of headset-driven VR consensual hallucination.” If it’s a “headset-driven VR consensual hallucination,” it includes not only the tech players, but all of the brands that jumped on […]
2 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Push Notification Fatigue

Braze recently reported that the average smartphone user receives over 40 push notifications a day.  The Atlantic pegged the daily number of push notifications even higher, between 50 and 80. Here’s how Atlantic staff writer Amanda Mull categorized push notifications last week: “Push notifications may indeed be the smartphone’s defining feature. They are, if nothing […]
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  1. Corporate Purpose

Media Context and Brand Suitability

Where an ad appears can sometimes communicate more than the ad itself. Keith Browning, LinkedIn’s brand marketing global lead, shared an interesting analogy a few years ago on the relative importance of content and context.  He recounted an experiment by Joshua Bell, one of the top violinists in the world. One day, Joshua stepped onto […]
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  1. Corporate Strategy

Social Listening and Consumer Insights

“The plural of anecdote is not data,” the old aphorism goes.  I think the inverse is also interesting: “The singular of data is not anecdote.”  Marcus Collins, Head of Strategy at Wieden+Kennedy New York, made the following observation a couple years ago: “Though the amount of data available to marketers has increased exponentially over time, […]
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  1. Data & Insights

Focus Groups and the Oracles of Eden Prairie

This cartoon is less about focus groups than how we often use focus groups.  Or really any type of market research.    Years ago, I overheard some agency friends joke about “the Oracles of Eden Prairie.”  Eden Prairie is a suburb of Minneapolis, where a lot of focus groups happen.   These agency friends went […]
3 min read
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  1. Retail Ecosystem

Podcasts for Everyone

In 2019, I drew a cartoon poking fun at the explosion of new podcasts, with one podcaster saying to another: “Thank you for being a podcast guest on my new podcast about podcasting for podcasters starting podcasts to podcast to other podcasters.” At that point, Apple claimed 700,000 unique podcasts on iTunes.  Then came Covid.  […]
2 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Navigating AI Hype

My cartoon last week, “AI Written, AI Read”, has already become one of my more widely shared cartoons ever — nearly a million impressions on LinkedIn alone.  Generative AI is clearly on a lot of our minds right now. Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO, voiced the level of hype related to Generative AI at a […]
3 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Do Something

There’s a counter-intuitive Buddhist line that has stuck with me: “Don’t just do something, sit there.” It’s particularly useful in times of uncertainty or even panic, when the temptation is to follow the herd, or take action for the sake of taking action.  Sometimes the best action to take on a situation is no action […]
2 min read
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  1. Media & Marketing

Maslow’s Hierarchy

In last week’s cartoon, I parodied some of my favorite clichés in marketing presentation slides.   With just six panels in that cartoon, I had to leave a lot on the cutting room floor.  One of my other favorite used and abused slides is the ever-present framework, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Psychologist Abraham Maslow first […]
3 min read
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  1. Media & Marketing

Marketing Planning

Marketing plans too often sound alike, even for completely different brands in completely different industries with completely different objectives.  I’ve tried to capture a few common marketing plan slide clichés in this cartoon, but marketing plans can easily swell to hundreds of slides and appendices.  They often take the form of what Garr Reynolds once […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

The AI Pivot

What a difference a year (or even a few months) makes.   Just last January, I drew a cartoon showing a couple marketers (as legless avatars) standing in a virtual world under a banner that reads, “welcome to our brand experience in the metaverse!”  One is saying to the other, “I’m sure consumers will show […]
3 min read
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  1. Corporate Strategy

AI-Generated Sameness

Ian Whitworth recently described AI-generated content as “infinite words nobody wants.”  He observed: “ChatGPT is here to make us all the same… The Great Same-ening is upon us… “ChatGPT, Jasper and all the rest are powerful conformity machines, giving you the ability to churn out Bible-length material about yourself and your business that’s exactly the […]
2 min read
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  1. Department: Food

Marketing to the CFO

Whenever budgets are under scrutiny, marketing is one of the first items on the chopping block. Those conversations are more difficult when marketing and finance speak a different language.  One of the most important target audiences that marketers need to learn how to market to is their own CFO. I’ve always liked the brand management […]
3 min read
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  1. Department: Consumer Durables

Evolution of Smart Products

One of the most popular cartoons I ever drew was about the Internet of Things, right after Google announced the acquisition of Nest in early 2014. “I think my Nest smoke alarm is going off,” one character tells another.  “Google Adwords just pitched me a fire extinguisher and an offer for temporary housing.” iRobot later […]
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  1. Corporate Strategy

More with Less

Doing “more with less” is emerging as a sort of business mantra for 2023.  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella used the term externally and internally this week to talk about the overall business climate.  In a memo to staff announcing layoffs, he looked outward:   “As we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, […]
3 min read
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  1. Agencies & Vendors

Definition of Marketing Insanity

I’ve drawn a lot of cartoons about the tendency of marketers to want to change everything, all at once, and all the time.  There’s an old marketing truism that “marketers get tired of their advertising before consumers do.”  The same instinct to change for the sake of change goes for every aspect of marketing, from […]
2 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

AI Tidal Wave

On May 26, 1995, Bill Gates wrote the famous “Internet Tidal Wave” internal memo at Microsoft.  This was a huge wake-up call for the desktop software company at the time.  It immediately shifted priorities and resources for Microsoft to go after the nascent World Wide Web. I thought of this “Internet Tidal Wave” moment when […]
3 min read
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  1. Agencies & Vendors

Reinventing Marketing

My last cartoon before the holidays was about playing it safe.  The other extreme is complete reinvention. There’s truth in Bill Gates’ classic 1996 observation: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” Organizations can get get stuck in […]
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  1. Agencies & Vendors

Safe is Risky

I drew this cartoon partly in response to two studies that came out this week.  They seemed to capture the mixed signals that businesses are grappling with as they look at 2023. The Deloitte “CFO Signals” report partly tracks the risk aversion of CFOs over time.  Deloitte found that only 29% of CFOs say this […]
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  1. Department: Consumer Durables
  2. Department: Consumer Durables
  3. Corporate Strategy

Lego Abandons One of Its Projects To Make Oil-Free Bricks -FT

Danish toymaker Lego has reportedly abandoned a prominent initiative to eliminate oil-based plastics from its bricks. This decision comes after the company discovered that the new material, recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET), would result in higher carbon emissions. Lego’s CEO, Niels Christiansen, mentioned that extensive testing revealed it was challenging to find a material that met…
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  1. Channel: Drug
  2. Shopper & Customer
  3. Trends & External Forces
  4. Stores & Formats

CVS Is Permanently Closing Hundreds of Stores for a Surprising Reason

As the pandemic’s impact on brick-and-mortar retail lingers, the U.S. drugstore landscape is undergoing significant changes. CVS, the largest drugstore chain in America, is implementing a policy change that will lead to the closure of hundreds of stores over the next three years, aiming to optimize store locations based on population shifts and consumer buying…
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  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital
  2. Corporate Strategy
  3. Media & Marketing
  4. Data & Insights
  5. Shopper & Customer
  6. Technology & Innovation
  7. Trends & External Forces

Amazon Invests $4 Billion in AI Company Anthropic

Amazon will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic and gain a minority ownership position in the company, part of a deal that will have Amazon Web Services (AWS) become Anthropic’s primary cloud provider. Anthropic will make its future AI foundation models accessible to million of developers, as well as provide AWS customers with early […]
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  1. Channel: Marketplace
  2. Partnerships & Alt Profit
  3. Media & Marketing
  4. Retailer Media

Shopify Audiences Adds Criteo, Its First Open Web Ads Partner

Shopify Audiences debuted last year with only Google and Meta. In January, Pinterest was added to the mix. Now TikTok, Snap and, notably, Criteo will be able to plug into The post Shopify Audiences Adds Criteo, Its First Open Web Ads Partner appeared first on AdExchanger.
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