What Coke Can Teach McDonald’s About Love

I should have loved McDonald’s ambitious Super Bowl ad promoting the idea that customers could pay with “lovin’” instead of cash. Any marketer should.  It’s bold, innovative, and takes a stand.  McDonald’s believes we should be nicer to each other and have a little more fun. What could be a better brand message than that?

Continue reading »

Batkid, Bollywood and the Rise Of Everyday Stardom

On the morning of November 15, 2013, most of San Francisco woke up with no idea that their city was about to be saved by a superhero.  The fact that this particular superhero happened to be less than four feet tall and was only five years old were details most of the city would only

Continue reading »

How To Predict The Non-Obvious Future

I have spent a lot of time over the past few months thinking about the future. I passed the two year mark of starting my own business. I just turned forty years old. Those alone are plenty of cause to get you thinking about things on a different time scale. When you add to that

Continue reading »

Best and Worst Of Superbowl 2015 Marketing Strategy

There are a surprising number of people who believe that I don’t like puppies. Every year the day after the Super Bowl when the votes are tallied rating all the ads, the ads with puppies always mainstream favorites.  Meanwhile, for the past four years I have published my own list of winners and losers based

Continue reading »