Data-Driven Thinking Archives

Bid Collision Is Dead, Long Live Smart Retargeting

Bid collision is a song of the past. Go ahead, use multiple retargeting partners. Just make sure they’re different in kind. In performance marketing, practices that were once best-in-class can quietly create blind spots. Not because marketers get complacent but because the mechanics underneath strategies invisibly evolve, and the mental models often lag behind. Almost […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

How Vanity Metrics Stole Marketing’s Credibility – And How CMOs Can Get It Back

Vanity metrics have been a sugar rush for marketers for nearly two decades, but they’re ultimately unsatisfying. Clicks, likes, page views and time-on-site may look impressive on a dashboard or great in a deck, but they rarely correlate to true success where it matters: revenue, growth and long-term business performance. These surface-level metrics give a […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The Mirage Of Reach: Why Festival Marketing Exposes Everything Broken In Media Measurement

Every April, something fascinating happens in the desert. Brands spend millions activating around Coachella. Then they spend the next three months trying to figure out if any of it actually worked. This isn’t just a festival problem; it’s a reflection of our industry’s broken approach to measuring media effectiveness. And while it’s true, it isn’t […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The Real Growth Strategy: Blending Brand And Performance For Long-Term Impact

For marketers today, the traditional playbook isn’t cutting it anymore. Clients expect marketers to deliver hard business outcomes – and fast. With AI reshaping creative and media workflows, finance teams slashing “nonessential” spend and boards demanding accountability, the role of a marketer has morphed from a brand steward to a growth operator. Holding companies are […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Quality Over Time: The Long And Short Of Digital Ad Measurement

For much of the digital advertising era, the industry has raced to the bottom on price and quality. But in the past five years, more advertisers have been explicitly incorporating media quality into their measurement and buying practices. As buyers increasingly prove that high-quality media delivers better value, even at premium prices, the market for […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The Death Of The DSP? How Ad Tech’s Cash Flow Crisis Threatens The Entire Ecosystem

Programmatic advertising is experiencing a dramatic shift. Conversational and agentic AI are here, and their effects are already being felt. Microsoft announced the shuttering of its DSP in May, stating that the current DSP model no longer aligns with its AI-powered priorities. As ad tech barrels toward automation, companies of all sizes along the supply […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Fresh Meat: Cannes Lion Festival In Retrospect From An Industry Novice

Early last Wednesday evening, I found myself in a closed courtyard off the Croisette in Cannes at an exclusive event co-hosted by a publisher and a tech company. Who am I and why was I there? I’m just a dude with a passion for interesting tech accompanying my girlfriend as she navigates her industry’s largest […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Cannes Lions 2025: A New Era Of Tech-Enabled Creativity And Collaboration

In 2025, the Cannes Lions festival entered its third era of creativity. The first era focused on the creative itself: the work that inspires consumers to change their behavior. Then media entered the mix, and the creativity tent grew to include how publishers, platforms and brands cultivate consumer engagement. This year, it was clear that […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Retail Media’s Growing Pains: How To Push For Transparency Before The Bubble Bursts

We’ve seen this movie before. A new tech-fueled, transformative business opportunity emerges; irrational exuberance takes over; and the bubble ultimately bursts. This is what happened 25 years ago with the dot.com era and then, much less spectacularly, with the programmatic, personalized digital advertising era and its poster boy for bad behavior, retargeting. When it comes […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Pivot, Don’t Panic: How Smart CMOs Turn Market Volatility Into Growth

In times of economic uncertainty, marketing budgets are often the first target for cost-cutting. Nearly half of marketers now report feeling significantly less optimistic about the US economy compared to the previous quarter, reflecting heightened anxiety across industries. Yet, indiscriminate cuts can undermine long-term strategic goals and may ultimately cost businesses far more than they […]

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