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.
Mastercard’s AI Bet: Building for a Future Where Machines Make the Calls, Not Humans
Mastercard is engineering a future where AI doesn't just assist but fully drives decision-making, signaling the end for outdated human-led financial models and traditional advertising.
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The Funnel Is Dead: Why Marketers’ Most Trusted Myth Just Flatlined
The marketing funnel is dead, and brands like Sephora and Liquid Death are proving why clinging to it is a losing game in today’s chaotic consumer landscape.
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FCC Targets Disney’s ABC Stations with Early License Renewals After Kimmel Joke Controversy
The FCC has ordered eight of Disney’s ABC TV stations to file early license renewals following scrutiny over a controversial joke on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, signaling a rare regulatory crackdown.
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Omnicom’s $3.2B Agency Fire Sale Reveals the Cracks in Big Holding Company Glamour
Omnicom’s plan to offload $3.2 billion in agency revenue is less a strategic focus and more a confession: the big holding company model is broken and bloated beyond repair.
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Trade Desk’s Jeff Green Tries Damage Control After Publicis, WPP, and Dentsu Walk Out
After months of acrimony with major agency groups, Trade Desk’s Jeff Green extends a cautious olive branch—but this isn’t reconciliation, it’s damage control. Agencies beware.
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CMOs Are Still Playing Second Fiddle to CEOs Despite Talking Big Game on Strategy
Despite claims of strategic contribution, only 8% of CMOs are seen by CEOs as actual strategy leaders, exposing marketing’s ongoing struggle for executive influence.
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Walmart’s Scintilla Data Push: A Half-Baked Self-Serve Illusion for Agencies and Advertisers
Walmart’s Scintilla data platform teases self-serve access for advertisers and agencies but falls short of true transparency, locking users into controlled, half-baked data releases.
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Soul-Destroying Stagnation: Why Most Marketers Are Trapped in Career Quicksand
Most marketers today are stuck in soul-destroying career stagnation, trapped by lazy agencies, misleading SEO grifts, and an industry obsessed with meaningless metrics.
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Budweiser’s World Cup Ad Leans Hard on Emotion—and Football’s Biggest Names to Pour Out the Feels
Budweiser’s World Cup campaign ditches cleverness for raw emotion, starring Erling Haaland and Jürgen Klopp with a blunt message: let the feelings—and the beer—pour.
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Marketers Aren’t Just Embracing AI — They’re Freaking Out, And It Shows
Marketers are caught in a panic cycle over AI, driven by fear and hype rather than real, honest adoption. The future belongs to those who treat AI as infrastructure, not magic.
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CEOs Are Finally Waking Up: Marketing Is Not a Magic Bullet, It’s Overhead — And They’re Calling It Out Loud
Marketing is shedding its mythic halo and being recognized by CEOs for what it often is: overhead. The latest survey shows CEO frustration with CMOs has hit a new high.
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WPP CEO Cindy Rose Ditches Q1 Earnings Call as Revenue Takes a Nosedive
WPP reported an 8.9% revenue decline and CEO Cindy Rose skipped the Q1 earnings call, signaling leadership’s reluctance to confront tough questions amid turmoil.
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Chipotle’s Bold Bet on Fernando Machado: Can a Burger King Marketing Wiz Rescue the Brand?
Chipotle’s new Chief Brand Officer Fernando Machado, ex-Burger King CMO, is tasked with shaking up the brand’s tired marketing to execute a bold growth turnaround by 2026.
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Yoast and Rank Math AI Features: Overpromised, Underdelivered, and Totally Useless
The AI “features” in Yoast and Rank Math aren’t revolutionary tools—they’re half-baked gimmicks designed to distract you from their real problem: lazy SEO.
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Why Your SEO Agency Is Worthless Without Real AI Expertise (And Most Aren't)
If your SEO agency can't tell GPT from a keyword stuffing bot, congratulations—you’re throwing money at clueless hacks. AI isn’t a magic bullet; it’s a scalpel.
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IndexNow Is Still a Joke: Debunking the Hype About Instant Indexing Impact
Everyone’s losing their minds over IndexNow like it’s the second coming of SEO salvation. Spoiler: it’s not. Instant indexing doesn’t mean instant ranking, and here’s why the hype is horseshit.
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Netflix’s Adtech Gamble: Why Betting on Third-Party DSPs Exposes a Streaming Giant’s Weakness
Netflix’s embrace of third-party DSPs for its ad-supported tier reveals more than convenience—it exposes a strategic weakness in its adtech ambitions. The streaming giant risks ceding control and growth to competitors in the ad ecosystem.
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Meta and Pinterest Pivot Hard on CTV APIs at Miami’s Ad Tech Circus
Meta and Pinterest paraded their CTV APIs at Miami’s ad tech jamboree, but beneath the gloss lies the same old scaling and measurement headaches. APIs aren’t magic.
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