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.
Marketing’s Endless Excuse: Why ‘Company Narrative’ Is Just Another Lazy Grift for Investment
Marketing Week judges push the tired ‘company narrative’ line to justify spend, but it’s just another excuse for agencies to dodge real ROI accountability.
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ADWEEK’s Innovator 50 Opens 2026 Nominations — Another Round of Hype or Real Tech Impact?
ADWEEK’s Innovator 50 nominations for 2026 are open — but watch out for the usual buzzword circus. Real innovation demands real impact, not just marketing fluff.
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YouTube’s TV Facade: The Creator Show Grift Advertisers Should Fear
YouTube’s push to recast itself as a TV network with "creator shows" is less innovation and more a slick grift aimed at advertisers desperate for brand-safe media.
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Amazon Pulls Back on API Fees After Tech Industry Pushback — A Rare Win Against Corporate Greed
Amazon’s scrapped API fees after heavy pushback show how vulnerable tech firms are to platform greed. This is a wake-up call to build independence.
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YouTube’s Talent Exodus Ends: Why It’s Betting on Being a Creator Home, Not Just a Launchpad
YouTube is done being just a launchpad for creators fleeing to rivals. It’s pivoting hard to become a real home, investing in retention and community to keep stars from leaving.
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Stratacache Pulls the Plug on UK Digital Retail Screens—Another Sign of Retail Tech Overhype
Stratacache’s decision to liquidate its UK business reveals the retail advertising tech sector’s overhyped promises and failed digital signage strategies.
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Target Dumps Its Clunky Creator Program for Two Sharper, More Realistic Initiatives
Target ditched its clunky creator program and launched two new ones—Club Target and Target Ambassadors—aimed at real engagement, not influencer grift.
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MrBeast’s Creator Platform: The Quiet Coup for a Programmatic Creator Economy
MrBeast is flipping the script on the creator economy with a new platform that ditches lazy agencies and grift for programmatic infrastructure.
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Ad Tech’s OpenAI Lovefest: Déjà Vu or Strategic Sellout?
Ad tech’s rush to embrace OpenAI is less partnership and more panic — a replay of past mistakes where dependency leads to obsolescence. The future demands real AI ownership, not buzzword worship.
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Mail Metro Media Throws In The Towel On Ad Volume, Bets Big On PMP Growth And Stack Unification
Mail Metro Media is ditching the ad flood for a smarter, leaner approach, aiming for 300% PMP growth by unifying its ad stack and cutting ad volume.
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Warner Bros. Discovery’s Programmatic Upfront: How Lazy TV Ad Sales Are Getting a Tech Makeover
Warner Bros. Discovery’s move to embed programmatic advertising into its upfront deals signals a necessary shake-up in the outdated, lazy world of TV ad sales.
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Disney’s ‘Rivals’ Season 2 Partners with Waitrose to Weaponize Streaming Launches as Cultural Landmines
Disney’s partnership with Waitrose for ‘Rivals’ season two is less a creative win and more a symptom of streaming’s lazy brand synergy epidemic.
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Marketing’s Socio-Economic Pay Gap Hits Four-Year High — And It’s Killing Your Bottom Line
The marketing industry’s socio-economic pay gap has surged to a four-year high, revealing a deeper crisis that’s more than just a PR headache — it’s a fundamental business failure.
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Why 1950s-Era Workplace Systems Are Destroying Parents’ Careers—and No One’s Fixing It
The corporate world’s outdated parental policies are stifling careers and reinforcing archaic gender roles. The Marketing Week podcast pulls no punches on why 1950s-era systems must die.
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Liquid I.V. and FLO’s Retro Summer Campaign: Nostalgia Meets Hydration in a Marketing Gimmick
Liquid I.V. leans on a retro flavor and a British R&B group to sell hydration this summer—classic marketing laziness dressed as innovation.
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TelevisaUnivision’s Upfront Pitch: Super Bowl Hype Meets Latino Media Ambition
TelevisaUnivision’s upfront event mixes music, microdramas, and a bold Super Bowl pitch to shake up how advertisers reach the Latino audience during football’s biggest night.
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Adobe’s AI Fantasy: How Brand Control Becomes Brand Chains in the Name of Creativity
Adobe’s claim to boost creativity with AI is mostly a cage disguised as a playground, locking brands into walled gardens under the guise of 'brand control.'
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BuzzFeed’s Streaming Pivot Under Byron Allen Is a Desperate Play for Living Room Relevance
BuzzFeed’s pivot to streaming under Byron Allen reveals the harsh reality: digital media’s living room dreams often crash into resource and relevance gaps. It’s a desperate gamble, not a masterstroke.
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