[A slightly edited version of this post appeared in Ad Age] Aspiration in advertising is about great creative that stands on its own, and has all the best qualities of editorial content – a voice, a point of view, and a larger purpose. It’s work that is worth sharing. This philosophy has stuck with me and defined the key elements [...]

In the old days people would clip newspaper articles and send them to each other. And now we use Twitter, Facebook, email, IM, etc. But one thing remains the same, those articles are always the most relevant, interesting, and trusted. At BuzzFeed, we believe that sharing is at the heart of today’s media – that all media is now social [...]

I was reading Martin Lindstrom’s new book, Brandwashed, and this quote really struck me as being relevant to digital advertising: We’re sick and tired of picture-perfect babies and flawless models. Why do we love YouTube videos so much? Because they’re imperfect, amateurish, and the people in them remind us of us. This is why, in places like Whole Foods, we’re [...]

    If you sell digital advertising, you need to join SellerCrowd immediately.  It’s a community that lets digital ad sellers communicate about RFPs, brand contacts, agency contacts, etc.  It operates right now as a simple Q&A platform, but I imagine they’ll be rolling out reputation and answer scoring at some point.  I’ve been reading about the verticalization of professional communities, and SellerCrowd [...]

Creating a content portfolio is becoming the gold standard for branded content creators.  Instead of trying to make one piece of content “go viral”, the smartest brands are focusing on creating as much quality content as possible.  If you create medium to large size pools of content, some pieces will see viral lift and some will not, but over the [...]

[A shorter version of this post ran on Digiday] Roughly ten years ago, while in business school, I decided that I wanted to be a professor of economics. My senior thesis (see page 43) had a some discusion of behavioral economics, and I was intent on writing, researching, and teaching on the subject. Behavioral economics holds that rational economic models [...]

One of the most common mistakes in adapting consumer web products for brands is to jam the product down people’s throats.  Often I’ll ask people who have built a consumer web application how they’ll monetize, and they respond by saying they’ll let brands feature their products in posts.  For example, a blogging company might say, “We’ll let people take pictures [...]

I don’t believe that influencer targeting is an efficient and scalable advertising strategy. Influencer theory holds that for each campaign or product, the brand should seek to convert thought leaders to use and evangelize its product. The challenge is that for every product or message, you need a different pool of influencers. If you’re selling a toaster, you need to [...]

There is a coming creative revolution in digital advertising. Despite the DSPs and RTBs, most RFPs from major brand advertisers proclaim things like “what can you do custom, unique, and high impact!” This clear and crystal messaging on many RFPs is often accompanied with the comment “standard display units as value add only!” I believe we are returning to the [...]

Most brand marketing sites are like wet nerf balls. A wet nerf ball hits the ground with a thud. It’s similar to a partially deflated basketball – you get the point. In the case of brand sites, a lack of bounce means a lack of sharing. People land on these sites and hit them with a thud; there is no [...]