When we rolled into 2021, the collective sigh of relief was audible. Surely at some point this year the pandemic will be behind us and hugs will abound. Yet right now we marketers find ourselves with one foot anchored in unyielding realities while the other strides optimistically towards a promise of normalcy. What to do in this managerial purgatory? My answer: huddle. 

That’s right, huddle! Gather your ...

2020 has been a year that will live in infamy. I can’t recall a time that has changed how the world works so drastically. Practically everything I do, I do differently; eating, socializing—even simple things like getting dressed. To that last point, though, I don’t think society has ever dressed so comfortably on such a large scale (the sweatpant + buttondown combination is revolutionary). Unlike the new go-to ...

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With apologies to the late great Olivia Newton-John, getting physical is not exactly en vogue right now—hence the deluge of virtual events we’ve all been invited to in the past 7ish months (wow, it’s November already). Now, obviously it’s been an odd adjustment to make (no one would argue that this year has been ordinary), and some of the early-in-COVID events ...

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With apologies to poet Robert Burns, the best laid plans of mice and marketers often go awry. This was never truer than in 2020 as most B2B marketers scrapped their carefully crafted plans in favor of a “let’s try this” approach. Digital experimentation reigned as marketers scrambled to replace the lead flow often provided from physical events and customer entertainment. Agility was the word ...

This is an email about email. You know—the stuff that floods your inbox every day that you simply can’t delete fast enough. But rather than offer you just another opinion piece, I wanted to share a few takeaways from a comprehensive study of email that I received this week. The report is gated and ironically, requires your email address input to access, but if you’re willing ...

Blind to my ignorance, I write to you with the humility and uncertainty of someone who is trying to emerge from a lifelong cave. Up until two weeks ago, I had never even heard of the concept of anti-racism let alone understood its implications. Talking about this concept with a wide range of CMOs, I came to realize that it was new to many of them too, even those ...

The evidence is painfully clear. Exhibit A: A lacerated thumb smeared with Neosporin now bandaged. Exhibit B: A general state of crankiness due to a rude awakening at 2AM. Exhibit C: A lengthy neck crick. It’s been a rough 24-hours. Allow me to connect the dots.

Searching for the origin of the phrase, “every cloud has a silver lining,” I was of course disappointed that there was no linkage to my hero Ben Franklin. Nope. None at all. Turns out, John Milton penned a similar phrase in 1634 and four hundred years later, we’re still using it to evoke the potential upside of nasty circumstances, like say our current pandemic. And yes, though it’s ...