September to Remember If you only cared about Digital Ad Spend, and not (gesturing broadly at everything) anything else, well, this has been an amazing end to the summer and Q3. At this point, Ad Spend is outperforming our expectations. In my last newsletter, we talked about getting past flat. Well, we got past it ...continue reading
This is Today. Today is Yesterday. And Tomorrow is also Today. It’s official. Our new normal is no longer new. It’s just normal. If you have an internet connection, or cable television, you have heard those words more in the past few months than your own name. “The New Normal” will be the Time Magazine ...continue reading
Keep on Keeping On Momentum is important. You don’t realise how important it is until you lose it. In this business, we like to talk about momentum using expressions like “tailwinds”, “flywheel effects”, and the crown jewel of them all – “growth”. In a world where flat felt like progress, forward movement feels like a ...continue reading
A Big Change Since we started this newsletter, our friend, Tom Hanks, has been an unofficial mascot of our COVID-19 analysis. His diagnosis represented a dividing line of sorts between the pre and post-pandemic world. His recovery was our recovery. He was the Woody to our Andy. The Turner to our Hooch. The Jenny to ...continue reading
Al Fresco Nation For the past couple of years, my running has been on a slow and steady decline. I can blame it on travel, work, and any number of distractions, but the truth is I just wasn’t able to keep a consistent routine. There wasn’t really anything materially different other than my motivation had ...continue reading
100 Days, 100 Nights There are a lot of good headlines coming out of the trades. Advertising is expected to recover and grow in 2021. Programmatic, in particular, is fighting its way back to pre-COVID levels. We are settled into our new routines. In some respects, it feels harder to imagine what it was like ...continue reading
Viva Las Vegas? It’s the beginning of June, and Ad Spend continues to recover. Even the most hard-hit Ad categories, like Travel, have started to gain momentum. All verticals are up since April 1st, and green shoots are sprouting across the ecosystem. We still have a ways to go, but collectively things are getting better. ...continue reading
Due to current events, and acts of injustice, it feels inappropriate to share a newsletter this week. Instead, I am including a list of resources that feel relevant and important. You won’t be wrong to start anywhere on this list, but I found Ta-Nehesi Coates We Were Eight Years in Power to be the most ...continue reading
Sometimes You Get What You Need… It’s funny how you don’t know you need something until you get it. I really didn’t think an extra day off for Memorial Day would matter all that much. I wasn’t going anywhere. I am in the same place I have been for the last 10 weeks. Days are ...continue reading
Pretty, Pretty, Pretty… Good While the COVID curve flattens, ad spend is starting to pick back up. Before anyone starts doing cartwheels, ad spend is still down compared to pre-COVID levels but the trend lines are starting to move in our favour. This ain’t no disco, but it ain’t fooling around either… it’s good news. ...continue reading
Alone, Together I can’t help but to think we are uniquely suited to this moment. We are being asked to stay at home when it has never been easier to be at home. Sometimes it feels like the last decade of tech has been moving in a straight line towards the reality we find ourselves. ...continue reading
Some Things Can’t Be Shipped, for Everything Else Use Programmatic Now that we have a full calendar month wrapped under COVID, my optimism largely remains intact. When preparing for April, it was hard to predict how advertisers would respond. Remember – it was not just the start of a new month but a new quarter, ...continue reading