Thomas

How automotive brands can win over the always-on consumer

[as published in Campaign] With self-driving vehicles and ride-sharing apps, car marketers must adapt to an ever-changing, technological landscape. Tesla sets a pre-order record without a working prototype, Volvo is going 100 percent hybrid, Ford partners with Amazon and millennials don’t even want a car. While it feels like a Schrödinger’s cat experiment, by leveraging […]

CRM: the dance of tasks and gestures

[originally published in Internet Retailer] Tasks are the baseline of service every brand is expected to deliver. Gestures are things you do that provide value beyond the expected. Think of any good relationship and you’ll find that the partners have some things they do that are expected. They work, clean up, and agree to share the […]

Modern CRM

[originally published in Contagious] Modern CRM and how to differentiate your brand on an endless digital shelf You’ve done it. Your online retail presence is top notch. Your brand’s website is best in class. You have squared away your product detail pages across every digital channel. Your smart, segmented media campaigns are filling your funnel, and […]

Why can’t creatives and technologists be friends?

[originally published on Campaign March 2017] While the industry embraces data and creativity, it often leaves the tech team behind. Killjoys, buzzkills, the “no” guys—meet the unofficial titles brand leaders sometimes give to technologists. The reason is fairly simple. Often, a creative team comes up with an idea based on a loose understanding of what […]

6 ways to put an end to the ‘press 1 for…’ customer experience

[As published in The Next Web] Human beings have a love-hate relationship with automation. Some of the time we love it, and the rest of the time we absolutely hate it — without much daylight in between. We love DVRs, learning thermostats, and Dollar Shave Club. We hate subscriptions we don’t want, memberships we don’t use, […]

What The History Of Search Tells Us About The Future Of AI

[As published in Contagious] In the wake of AlphaGo’s recent victory over top Go player Lee Sedol, we’ve seen a lot of chatter about artificial intelligence, better known as AI. For consumer, and especially non-Go players, that typically means voice-activated bots, like Amazon’s Alexa or Facebook M. For brands, that brings up the inevitable question: if our customers will […]

Battlefield tested: Marketing lessons from the military

[as published in Campaign] Years before I began my adventure in the advertising industry, I served in the Marines. I began as a telecommunications specialist and then served in the security detail at US embassies around the world. You might think that digital advertising and the Marine Corps have little in common, but I constantly […]

A Buyer’s Guide to Digital Innovation: Silver Bullet or Albatross?

[as published in The Huffington Post] Walmart’s recent acquisition of Jet.com is certain to be a historical business school case study either on buying innovation, or on poor diligence and overconfidence about integration. That said, it’s far from unique in today’s marketplace. We’ve seen many traditional and not-so-traditional companies pay heavily for an upstart that’s perceived as innovative. […]

The connected home: The final digital frontier

[Originally published in The Next Web] The irony of the Internet of Things (IoT) is that it’s pushing new boundaries in large part so we can stay home. Want dinner delivered? Talk to Amazon Echo. Don’t want to go outside? Let an IoT sprinkler water your lawn. Hate shopping? IoT fridges can already restock your […]

Time Is the New Currency

Five Ways Brands Can Stop Wasting Customers’ Time — And Give Some Back [originally published in Ad Age] If you look at life-hacking sites, you’ll find that people today will do just about anything to regain a little time. The reason is simple. We’re busy. The average full-time worker in America is on the job […]

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