Business leaders and people managers are looking for a new code as well. They're looking to unlock engagement, loyalty and determination in employees who've come to expect never-ending growth, a regular cycle of paradigm shifts, constant promotion and ultimate wealth. How do we build truly great teams and organizations to last? Our past approaches to career growth, diversity and lifestyle support was never built to code... and it cannot continue to stand. If we're to define what it means to build a satisfying, meaningful career in our profession over the decades ahead, we better start now.
As noted by the title of this post, today is Giving Tuesday -- the nobler offspring of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Among the many worthy options that will reach your inbox today, I hope you'll consider…
This is traditionally the time one would write a post that details all the things he's grateful for. This is not that post. The concept of gratitude deserves more than that.
In recent months I've gotten…
Occasionally someone asks about the origin of our company name - Upstream. I could go on about its deeper meanings, spiritual implications and more. But for purposes of today's post, there's a simpler meaning: Upstream is the opposite of the watering hole.
To radically adapt our professions as buyers and sellers would be to abandon the campaign mentality and embrace a perpetual cycle of problem solving and iteration. It would lead us to dismiss the illusion of budget stability and the silos and swim lanes it fosters. It would drive us to create and commit to new processes and structures for operating in what's now a mostly-unstructured world. Our professional lives will be spent proactively, left of budget and in service to marketers, the products they sell, and the customers they serve. Adaptation is hard. But extinction is permanent.
The good news: if you're selling digital advertising and marketing services today, you are in a position to make both a huge difference and a very good living. The bad news: it's a hell of a lot of work.
As we began the second quarter-century of digital marketing on Monday, I'm choosing to republish an essay I was invited to write for the University of Florida's "Captivate" program 5 years ago. Only the…
Today's Seller Forum in New York coincides with the 25th anniversary of web advertising. During the event, I'll be interviewing Blackbird CEO Ross Martin who consults with major brands and media companies…
As standard media has become more and more commoditized, publishers and media sellers have diversified their offerings. Rather than racing to the bottom on prices for banners and pre-roll videos, we've clambered up to the high ground of content creation, video programming, events, social optimization and data engineering. The switch can be a jarring one. The work is harder and more detailed, involves more people (account management, client services, creative, production et al), eats up more time and is far more expensive. The uninformed, unqualified RFPs that used to aggravate us in the banner age are devastating us today. Too many sales teams take the bait and engage in a full-blown idea-fest, spinning out fully-baked programs, proposals and bespoke ideas... great work that ends up going nowhere 80-90 percent of the time. There's a better way.
If I asked most Drift readers what they do for a living, they'd offer up a job title like chief revenue officer, account executive or regional director. If pushed for a more concrete job description, eventually…
Generally speaking, we tend to send badly-structured Emails that are too long, too predictable, to too many people. We use email as a blunt-force instrument, overwhelming our prospects and coworkers with unendurable detail and word counts. What was once a promising chance at immediate connection has jumped the shark and become a burden to all involved. It's time to stop the madness.
Late October will mark the 25th anniversary of advertising on the Web. Having been part of the team that ushered in those first primitive digital ads in 1994, I'll be using this space in the intervening…
