Ideas, insights and inspirations.

ChatGPT, the latest AI tool, has taken the world by storm. Should under-staffed and under-resourced marketing teams use it? And can it make marketing teams more productive? Before I answer that, let’s just review how this artificial intelligence (AI) tool works. How ChatGPT Works ChatGPT does not have a mind of its own, nor does it have its own thoughts. Instead, its responses are based on the collective memory of humanity, embedded in billions of web documents – imbued with the entire spectrum of humanity’s truthful, partially true, baseless, misinformed, racist and sexist points of views. Based on existing written sentence and document structure patterns, it completes or predicts word and sentence combinations weaving them together into authoritative-sounding, smooth, somewhat verbose and human-like answers.  Next, an army of human reviewers — with their unique personal biases — manually fine-tune the responses by ranking for quality. Using ChatGPT For Marketing Let’s examine how chatGPT fares in various components of marketing: S T … Continue reading

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What was once considered high-priced influence — to change customer buying habits, or impact voter behavior — is now within reach of anyone with a smart phone and a few hundred dollars. I see this commoditization from multiple angles — as the CEO of a digital marketing agency, as a digital policy wonk (computer science/Cornell, business/Carnegie Mellon), lifelong reader of all-things psychology, and as someone who grew up in a country where foreign governments routinely influence elections. Digital tools, like all tools, are inherently neutral. Whether they are used for greater good or nefarious ends depends on who uses them. Some data-informed digital economy innovations have been embraced by consumers (Amazon, Netflix and Spotify recommendations engines). Other uses of data and digital reach (Target’s “are you pregnant” algorithm) proved to be more invasive and presumptuous. Not every woman who buys large cotton balls, scentless soap, hand sanitizers and washcloths welcomes coupons for baby products. Still other uses of data and … Continue reading

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As a Millennial, I have been fortunate enough to reap the benefits of the invent of the internet for basically my entire life. While I do know of a world without the internet, smart phones, and Jimmy Johns online ordering system, I recognize the value that these seemingly small conveniences add to my life. Flashback to the fall of 1997. It’s an ordinary Monday morning and my mom’s getting me ready for my first day of Kindergarten. How will she know exactly what time it’s going to rain today? Will I need my rain boots for recess? Will she know what time to leave to beat the traffic and ensure that I’m not late for my very first day as a kindergartener? After all, Waze won’t be invented for nearly another decade! If we get a flat tire on the way to said school, how will she call for help without the Progressive roadside assistance app, let alone, a cell … Continue reading

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A new year is always the perfect time to evaluate personal and professional goals. Which explains why the article, 10 Resolutions Marketers Should Make —And Keep — In 2017 caught my eye. I thought this article included some good advice: Marketers should resolve to prioritize the mobile customer experience. Marketers should resolve to stretch and exercise more. Marketers should resolve to stop combating ad blockers. Marketers should resolve to create seamless experiences. Marketers should resolve to partner more closely with the startup community. Marketers should resolve to spend more time actually interacting with customers. Marketers should resolve to leverage mobile location data. Marketers should resolve to invest more in video. Marketers should resolve to truly get to know their customers. Three of these resolutions, prioritizing the mobile customer experience, investing more in video and getting to know customers are topics Elliance often discusses with our clients. Instead of making resolutions at work or in your personal life, consider focusing on … Continue reading

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For an ad lover and athlete like myself, the olympics are like super bowl, but better — I get to experience great ads for two weeks straight. (The only difference is the advertisement restrictions that the International Olympic Committee for non-sponsors but this isn’t a blog about those rules. This is a blog about the awesomeness that has unfolded in the last few weeks.) I’ve shared my top three from the 2016 Rio Olympics: Bronze: Samsung Samsung took a bit of several national anthems — the parts that talk about unity — and mixed them into one song. Stuff like this gets me every time. Silver: Google Photos #relatable. #toorelatable. Gold: Nike – The Iron Nun Nike’s UNLIMITED ads knock it out of the park, and this one is my favorite. Their ability to combine together professional athletes with 9-minute-mile schmoes like me has forever earned my brand loyalty. I love the concept of breaking the fourth wall. And how the narrator and athletes interact. Also watch … Continue reading

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Does anyone feel that the current crop of social media apps and tools resembles the produce section at your local supermarket? There are so many social media channels to choose from and just like fruit and vegetables, you need to choose the right ones for a delicious dish. Core social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are the standard bearers and like the lettuce in a good salad. Some social media tools such as Instagram and Pinterest share the same premise but function with a different flavor and heat like all of those colorful peppers in a green grocer’s case. Have you ever noticed those weird shaped alien looking fruits and vegetables like Buddha’s Hand or Romanesco? They look really cool but you just can’t find a good use for them yet… sort of like the social media tool Chirp. Then there are various types of hybrid fruits like the the pluot (plum and apricot) and tangelo (tangerine and pomelo) … Continue reading

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Take a look at this video. It was passed around our office recently.   We had a long discussion about it in one of our weekly staff meeting. If you were there, you could easily tell that it struck a nerve. I think that is because the core message in this video encapsulates what we try to do. In the video, Ole Scheeren, an architect, explains how he solved architecture problems differently. In each case, he could have built something standard to meet the need. He could have built just another big tower in the case of the Headquarter for China’s National Broadcaster. Or he could have built a group of towers to build 1,040. Both would have been sufficient and solved the problem at hand. But he looked deeper at the experiences and at the stories involved. He found that there were other problems to solve. Another tower wouldn’t become a pop icon figure and a piece of culture. … Continue reading

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Almost two decades ago, I attended a lecture by an Internet engineering pioneer, Scott Bradner, justifying the Internet’s implementation of IPv6 (an IP address scheme capable of assigning an astronomical number of addresses per every square inch of our planet’s surface) to prepare for a massively connected world. I remember him offering pacemakers and toasters connected to the Internet as examples of what to expect. Two decades ago this talk solidified in my mind the then nascent Internet’s promise, to become the Internet of Things. That was twenty years ago. And yet, my toaster is still not connected to the Internet and the world has yet to adopt IPv6, limiting us to IPv4’s modest 20 or so addresses per square mile. Many people think the Internet of Things is approaching quickly, but I wonder why it isn’t already here? Today, the Things market is about $30 billion, so the Internet of Things must have arrived for someone. Until recently, industries … Continue reading

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I bet I can explain all the talk about the Internet of things (IoT) and the phrase “smarter planet” in a few short paragraphs. Thirty years ago, I co-oped at GE. Our goal was to improve the efficiency of a fluorescent lighting assembly line. We implemented a four-step process: Step 1: Install Sensors: we installed 200 tiny sensors at 200 different stages of the assembly line; the sensors detected whether the fluorescent tube on the assembly line was defect free or not. Step 2: Network the Sensors: we created a local area network that enabled connectivity between the sensors. Step 3: Let Sensors Share Intelligence: our sensors sent a signal to the next stage of the assembly line telling it whether the fluorescent tube was still defect free or not. If the signal said the tube had gone bad, it told the assembly line to do nothing to it and let the tube move on. On the last step of the … Continue reading

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I was asked to write a blog.  ‘Write about what you love,’ they said. Well, I love many things, but the two things that came to mind, besides my wonderful family of course, were my job (a project manager with an advertising agency) and fantasy football.  Now you may think how in the world could someone come up with similarities between the two?  That was my initial thought as well, trust me.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how alike they can be.  Not to mention the start of a new NFL football season and the chance to finally win the coveted fantasy league trophy, which make it even more appropriate. Big Picture Thinking: Like everything, you have to start somewhere and with fantasy, it’s the draft.  You review your options and player prospects, run through scenarios on who to fall back on if this player gets picked, what bye weeks I need to worry … Continue reading

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