What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
AI Is Not Magic — It’s the Retail Media Wake-Up Call Brands Desperately Needed
AI isn’t a magic wand for retail media — it’s a brutal efficiency tool forcing brands to finally link ad spend with real sales. CVS Media Exchange shows how lazy legacy models get disrupted.
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The Marketing CEO Myth: Why Leadership Isn’t About Branding — It’s About Not Being a Clueless Suit
The marketing CEO fad is just lazy leadership wrapped in buzzwords. True brand stewardship demands ruthless clarity, data-driven decisions, and ditching the agency grift.
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CNN’s NewsNight Erupts as Scott Jennings and Adam Mockler Trade Barbs — Meanwhile, Newsmax Tries to Buy Credibility with Greta Van Susteren Podcast
Scott Jennings and Adam Mockler’s heated CNN segment was less debate, more spectacle, while Newsmax bets on Greta Van Susteren’s podcast to boost its credibility. Both moves highlight the media’s ongoing descent into partisan theater.
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YouTube’s Creator Data Gambit: A Half-Baked Gift Wrapped as a Game-Changer
YouTube’s new creator data access is being hailed as a breakthrough, but it’s really a half-measure designed to keep marketers locked in, not truly empowered.
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Baller League Exposes the Myth That Reach Equals Real Fandom — Here’s What Marketers Are Getting Wrong
Baller League’s growth method debunks the lazy marketing myth that reach equals fandom, proving that authentic communities sell franchises—not just clicks.
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Marketers’ Tech Myopia: Why Ignoring Your CTO Is Marketing’s Dumbest Move in 2024
Only 4.6% of marketers value their relationship with the CTO, exposing a massive blind spot in marketing’s tech strategy amid the AI revolution.
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Lucky Yatra: How Indian Railways Turned Ticket Fraud Into a Marketing Masterstroke
Indian Railways’ Lucky Yatra lottery proves gamification crushes fare evasion where heavy-handed enforcement fails. It’s time marketing stopped punishing and started rewarding.
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Specsavers Finally Ditches Its Stale 22-Year-Old Tagline—But Did Anyone Ask For This?
Specsavers has tweaked its iconic 22-year-old tagline to reflect a broader range of services, but this rebrand barely scratches the surface of what the brand really needs.
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Pinterest’s New CMO Bets on Storytelling to Mask Mission Drift and Drive Offline Usage
Pinterest’s new CMO, Claudine Cheever, leans hard on storytelling to promote a mission of offline living — but this feels more like a marketing smokescreen than a strategy.
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Chess.com Hits 250 Million Users and Tries to Pawn Off More Ads Without Killing Subscriptions
Chess.com just hit 250 million users and is trying to boost ad revenue without annoying its paying subscribers. This isn’t your typical lazy ad play.
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Possible 2026 Unmasked: Why the Industry’s Favorite Buzzwords Are Still Mostly Hot Air
Possible 2026 trotted out the usual suspects — outcomes-based pricing, agent orchestration, AI discoverability — but beneath the buzzwords, it’s the same tired industry grift. Here’s what really matters.
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Applebot-Extended Visibility: Why This Overlooked Crawler Could Make or Break Your Site
If you think Applebot is just some background noise, you’re playing yourself. Ignoring Apple’s crawler is SEO malpractice in 2024 — and here’s why it’s the real deal.
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Krispy Kreme’s UK Brand Blitz Is a Case Study in Fighting Back Against Regulatory Smothering
Krispy Kreme’s first UK brand campaign under strict advertising rules shows how brand-building is the only real defense when your product’s marketing is restricted to near-nothingness.
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Silicon Valley's Power Play and Peloton's Desperate Gambit: The Week Tech Broke Marketing Again
This week’s tech roundup exposes Silicon Valley’s ruthless AI power struggles and Peloton’s desperate marketing misfires, proving the industry’s hype machine is due for a reckoning.
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Forrester’s Bombshell: Two-Thirds of B2B Buyers Pick Vendors Before Marketers Even Get a Shot
Forrester reveals that two-thirds of B2B buyers decide on vendors before engaging with marketing, turning buying into a confirmation act rather than a selection process.
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NBC’s 100th Anniversary Promo Leans Hard Into Kentucky Derby Hype—But Is It Enough?
NBC’s 100th anniversary campaign leans heavily on a Kentucky Derby promo, but it’s a tired, surface-level stunt that misses the mark on meaningful storytelling.
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Antonio Lucio’s PayPal CMO Hire: A PR Stunt Amid a Fragmented Future
Antonio Lucio joins PayPal as CMO amid a corporate split into PayPal, Venmo, and crypto divisions. But this restructuring masks deeper strategic failures.
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Fox News Surges While Competitors Stumble Post-White House Correspondents’ Dinner Drama
Fox News was the only cable network to post week-to-week viewership gains following the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, exposing the stagnation and complacency of its competitors.
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