Bad Impressions

Attention Deficit World-Order

You should be using your media operation to buy attention, as a measurable and finite quality, if you're actually trying to do this right. The good news is you can simplify your thinking by cutting "brand safety" out of the equation, because it isn't real! That's what we learned this week with Marc Guldimann (CEO) and Zach Kubin (head of sales) at Adelaide (https://adelaidelift.com/).

 

We also talk to new regulatory environment for digital media, and how maybe it actually gets better...or worse?...it's gonna be both and which one will depend on your perspective. We talk all things crypto in fascism and digital media, as well as "blockchain." Zach has a great story about the time he found out he was basically Steve Carrell in "The Big Short" by trying to log into an ad agency's wifi.

 

David testifies to congress than an algorithm is an editorial position. Randy gets sued live on the air for saying our podcast is "good" and the best defense she can come up with is that it has 12 five star reviews on Apple Podcasts.

Community, Eh?

Are you building a community online? Are you sure? What does that even really mean? How do you know if somebody is part of that community or not? How do THEY know if they are part of it or not? Do they even think in those terms, or really consciously think about it at all?

 

If you are trying to build a community, how do you do it, and how do you do it equitably for not just the money grubbing stakeholders on the company side, but also for the members of the community that are not part of your enterprise directly, i.e. most of them?

 

We address all of these with Michael Engert, President @ VeryGoodLight (verygoodlight.com), who is an expert in these matters, even if he is a little shy about admitting it.

 

We also talk merging content + commerce, from the brand side, and the publisher side!

 

Other discussions are also had, such as: Randy loves to read and thinks books are a community. David thinks being suspicious of anybody saying they want to create a community, is a community. Lee thinks living in a sewer where you scheme up anti-community crimes with your friends, is a community.

Exit: Strategy

We talk to Darren Fike about a potential DoorDash crash, plus why Air B'n'B could successfully rent the average consumer their own gutter and still get a five star review. The gang REALLY wants you to know that they're big tippers, but also that adding a tip line to everything is the ultimate scam du jour that ends up stiffing workers and scapegoating consumers for business's unwillingness to sort out their own labor costs. Agency strategy is usually a nebulous fog, which is weird because it's a nebulous fog that gets promoted very fast, so you think somebody would hold these vapor clouds atop C Suite mountain accountable for fixing this. Until the clouds come home, agencies imitate management consultancies, which won't work, because get this...the consultancies' brands are too strong. Randy eulogizes defunct ride sharing service Juno, and her VIP status with them. Lee bleeps multiple brand names from the episode, some because he likes them, and some because he doesn't, the guy is out of control.

Measuring Your Ugly Babies

We talk to analytics + product + general genius Shayna Stewart about how the only thing your children will ever model is data, but that's okay, because the Key Diagnostic Indicator (KDI) is here to free us from the tyranny of the KPI. There's a patently non-VC take on Salesforce, the thing so boring nobody even knows what it does because they fall asleep three seconds into anyone trying to explain it to them, buying Slack, the work tool so fun nobody ever gets anything done on it because they get distracted three seconds into anyone explaining anything in a Slack channel. We also touch on Facebook's acquisition of Kustomer, which we assume is a CRM company for GoKart manufacturers...we will not be researching this assumption any further because: who cares? Shayna says data isn't telling you anything, you're telling yourself things about the data, and KDI's can help sort this out. Marketing is about relationships between people, relationships between data, and relationships between data people. If you're about to say "uh, actually" why don't you shut up and go smoke a cigarette, throw a baseball through a window, feel your body living in the physical world such that you develop a healthy respect for your own mortality. Randy can make a report say anything she wants, you can't stop her. Implementing Agile at your company is a great way to meet ex-rodeo clowns. Marketing personas are for the birds. We have sick new pod mood music from Church Girls (https://soundcloud.com/churchgirls).

The Furthest Thing From A Ramblin' Wreck

This week we speak with Olivia Hawkins about what you can learn from working on ads in Gainesville, GA besides 236 ways to spell the name Grayson. We address that basically nobody knows how to handle their business, or if they can trust their young-uns with money talk. The importance of continuing adult education comes up, which lightly confounds the more anti-book learnin' half of the podcast (Lee, who is half of the podcast by weight, and 1/21st by intellect). Randy explains how she knew everything she needed to know for her first ever job when she showed up on day one. Yahoo! Answers and the classic anime "Prince of Tennis" are discussed. David graciously lets an insult against the greatest college town in America pass uncontested.

It Sure Did Quickly Bite...The Dust

People who produce a podcast discuss the importance of being egoless (ha), which our guest says was extremely important to finding success at a startup, based on his experience at Quibi (HA). Small teams rule, big teams drool, leave your flunkies at home to do your laundry because nobody wants them in this meeting. Machines are gonna take your jobs, not ours though, because we've been here longer. Job interview tips from a master. Hustle culture stinks.

Tightly Rolled KPIs

We talk to Sean Langton about his KPI for a perfect burrito, and also his KPI for things that win hearts and minds on the internet. The gang also talks the Inspire Brands purchase of Dunkin' and whether or not it's making William Tecumseh Sherman spin in his grave. Randy thinks Air Bud is an "award winning film."