Serial Marketer Weekly

Serial Marketer #272: Tsup?

David Berkowitz — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:55:00 +0000

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SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 272: Tsup?
Brought to you by: AIMG’s new survey - take it to share your AI POV!
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Tsup?

It's hardly a secret that I've been quieter with the newsletter lately, and this summer things should stay quieter before I get back to a regular schedule here. See below for a few asks of mine, if you don't mind (and PLEASE share any of yours).

I'm still building out resources, but I have some different ways to share what I'm doing. Beyond client work (my day job), this includes but isn't limited to:

- The weekly AI Marketers Guild calls, often with amazing guest speakers, where marketers share a ton about what to do with the latest AI developments -- join when you can via https://lu.ma/aimg . I guarantee you'll meet some great folks and learn a few things.

- Sharing the calls with guest speakers, plus special sponsored events, on YouTube -- subscribe and watch: https://www.youtube.com/@aimarketersguild . I just uploaded a bunch. I think they're all pretty good, and a few of them are master classes. (Please don't make me play favorites here though).)

- Our new recommended tech guide from AIMG, where a lot of my favorite tools are listed -- bookmark this one: https://aimarketersguild.com/new-ai-tech/

- Weekly member-only newsletters for Serial Marketers and AIMG that curate all the juiciest stuff from the community, even if you're not spending time in Slack. Join the Slack directly at https://bit.ly/AIMGinvite .

- Calls with the FOAF team... more on that in a few

I am also working on a draft of a book about AI and marketing that I look forward to sharing more about soon. I'm trying to stick to my daily word count and forge ahead.

With FOAF, we have a few updates that are live or coming soon:

- An update to our cohort model, where we'll include more involved members in the Core, and then the expanded team in the FAM (Flexible, Adaptable Mobilization) network to respond to a greater array of clients' needs. We'll work on seeing how this plays out before adding more FOAFers (the next cohort won't be until Q4 anyway).

- A new website thanks to the team at WhatBytes

- Updated service offerings to reflect that some demand is for a fraction-of-a-fraction of someone's time, but other needs are for more flexible, nimble twists on the agency model.

As for my asks at the moment, I'll share three:

1) Know any space for an in-person event venue in NYC for 100-200 amazing marketers in AI? We've got some big plans for the speakers and agenda, and the kickoff AIMG conference could use a good home.

2) Take the new AIMG member survey

3) If you or anyone you know is trying to fill a leadership gap, however big or small, to get your business further along, the FOAF team is incredible, and I'd be glad to introduce you to the right folks there

That's what's up with me at the moment.

Tsup with you?

Even if I'm writing a little less these days in this format, I'm always happy to hear from you.

David

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WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
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Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

What Is AI Therapy? | Built In by Ellen Glover
How Diageo, Progressive and eBay Use Gen AI to Tailor Ads by Trishla Ostwal
10 Things You Need to Know about Colorado’s SB205 Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence by Airlie Hilliard & Nikitha Anand

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EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
7/10, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
7/11 (Zoom): The New Era of Persuasion: AI and the Art of Strategic Messaging. First 20 Registrants: Use code 20GET20 for 20% off!

HACKING ALGORITHMS AROUND FACTUALITY, BIAS, AND MISDIRECTION
July 9, New York, NY
"All Tech Is Human is a non-profit committed to building the world’s largest multistakeholder, multidisciplinary network in Responsible Tech. This allows us to tackle wicked tech & society issues while moving at the speed of tech, leverage the collective intelligence of the community, and diversify the traditional tech pipeline. Together, we work to solve tech & society’s thorniest issues. For our upcoming gathering, we are collaborating with Humane Intelligence to present Hacking algorithms around factuality, bias, and misdirection."
Register

THE LEAD SUMMIT
July 10 - 11, New York, NY
"The brand and retail attendees at The Lead Summit represent marketing, advertising, ecommerce, digital, stores, customer experience, last mile, data, cloud, strategy, innovation, and information technology. Attendees come together to learn how to grow brand revenue, online, across channels and in-store. They come to discover new strategies, new technologies, new methodologies and to make new contacts."
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BRAND INSIDER SUMMIT
July 22-25, Poconos, PA
"This summer’s Pharma and Healthcare Insider Summit will take a deep dive into adapting your marketing and digital strategies for this evolving patient experience. Join us for a three-day retreat where the best marketers in the industry come together for real, in-depth conversations. The Brand Insider Summit: Pharma & Health event is a three-day gathering that brings together the brightest minds in marketing to share leading-edge information and experiences in a think-tank environment, while exploring new technology, strategies and tactics for effective campaigns and initiatives in the pharma & health categories. "
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7 KEYS TO BUILDING A MORE PROFITABLE CONSULTANCY, WHILE SAVING VALUABLE TIME
July 25
"Interested in being a "fractional" marketer? Or are you ready to build your own high impact, high income generating marketing consultancy? Join me on Weds, July 24 at 2pm ET, when our partner, IndeCollective, is generously sharing some of the playbooks that have helped me and 100+ other marketers to launch and grow their own independent consultancies. At their FREE workshop, you'll learn from a cross-section of marketing consultants re: how they've productized their offerings, value-based priced their services, and built their own predictable pipelines of exciting client work. And for those who register this week, you'll qualify for scholarship funding to participate in IndeCollective's next 10-week bootcamp. To qualify, register this week and be sure to mention Serial Marketers upon signing up!"
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JOBS
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Keep checking out the #jobs channel in Serial Marketers for more. Also, check out the AI Marketers Guild job board. For other job resources for marketing jobs, see a long and regularly updated list here.

ONAROLL
Senior Account Executive
Remote - United States or In-Person
"As one of our Senior Account Executives, you'll directly impact Onaroll's mission to celebrate shift workers. You will be responsible for driving revenue through the acquisition of new customers, and will assit/support expansion of existing customers. Often, you will be the first point of contact for our prospects as you establish and manage relationships with key decision makers of qualified businesses. You will have the opportunity to leverage meetings set via our BDR team, manage and build your own pipeline, and own the full sales cycle from prospect to close. Success in this role means hitting and exceeding monthly and quarterly sales revenue targets."
Apply

ONESIGNAL
Growth Marketing Coordinator
In-Person - New York City, NY
"We’re looking for a junior marketer interested in helping our marketing team accelerate business growth through a mindset of continuous testing and iteration. We’re looking for someone to oversee our marketing website, drive technical and on-page SEO, own Google Analytics, oversee CRO and A/B Testing, landing page creation and more. This person will also be tasked with helping identify new marketing growth levers and working with functional owners to improve existing efforts through automation, efficiency and technology. This role requires a strategic and creative thinker who can work closely with a variety of marketing and cross-functional colleagues."
Apply

BILT
Manager, Data Analytics
In-Person - New York City, NY
"We are looking for an experienced data professional to join a renowned team that is transforming the future of renting. You will play a key role driving business growth by providing strategic & analytic insights, with an emphasis on identifying, modeling, and optimizing key metrics across the company. The ideal candidate has a proven track record developing data-driven product analytics solutions and key stakeholder relationships. You will work directly with Bilt’s leadership as a key influencer driving growth and strategy at Bilt. "
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GYNGER
Sr. Director of Marketing
In-Person - New York City, NY
"We are seeking a seasoned Senior Director of Marketing to lead our holistic marketing efforts. This pivotal role requires a visionary leader, with a proven track record, to level drive our marketing efforts forward while the business continues to rapidly grow and evolve. The right candidate will have a deep expertise in product marketing and the ability to formulate and execute upon effective marketing strategies that drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, and market expansion. This role encompasses the full scope of marketing across the business, including, email, social, organic content, PR, events, etc."
Apply

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THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
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David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

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PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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Serial Marketer #271: Hardware to Nowhere

David Berkowitz — Fri, 31 May 2024 15:26:29 +0000

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SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 271: Hardware to Nowhere
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I don’t need glasses normally, and I don’t need AI glasses either

Writing this initially with pen and paper on a bus ride accompanying more than 100 4^th graders on an overnight school camping trip, it’s a fitting time to reflect on why I’ve turned three AI-powered hardware devices in the past month or so.

One such manufacturer, Humane, seems to be heading for a fire sale, despite claiming they want a $1 billion buyer. As I wrote about before, their AI pin is a confoundingly bad and useless device. The only reason I bought it at all is simple: so you don’t have to.

The next to come and go: Rabbit’s R1, the most hyped device at CES even without a physical presence there thanks to a charismatic founder doing a compelling Steve Jobs routine. If only it was more than a bit – a hardware tease. Selling for a quarter of the Humane Pin price tag and without a monthly subscription, it more than paid for itself when they announced customers would get a year of Perplexity Pro with a purchase. At least it’s not a total loss.

The bunny branding, clever both in the launch video and the device’s on-screen iconography (it even managed to ship around Easter) was fitting for a magic show. Except this rabbit, instead of being pulled out of a hat, stayed hidden inside eating its own feces.

Even staying connected to the wifi seemed challenging for this Trixless rabbit; getting it to switch networks when I brought it to an event to demo proved impossible, so it stayed in my sport-coat pocket.

Then came the Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses, which at least worked as sunglasses. The camera and video recording were intuitive, though the image quality looked no better than what I captured with my old Snapchat Spectacles pre-pandemic. Those also looked cooler; the funkier Ferrari-themed Meta Ray-Bans were sold out by the time I got these. Playing music through the sunglasses worked fine indoors and outdoors; my Audible book was inaudible outdoors at the loudest volume. Voice commands, like asking it to recognize what I was looking at, were sporadically accurate.

All of these devices failed for similar reasons, and you’ll likely have figured them out so long ago that if you’ve heard of the devices already, you probably decided not to buy them.

But we’ll list them anyway:

1) They’re solutions in search of problems. The Ray-Bans in particular, which were the closest to delivering on their promise, may one day evolve into Mission:Impossible-style accessories. I’d like to be able to scan a room and see which people I know and how I know them. Or I could suck It up and, you know, talk to them.

2) The rich keep getting richer. In the past couple of weeks, ChatGPT showed off the 4o Swiss Army Knife, Google shared upgrades to Gemini and its AI-enhanced search results (even if it then faced some setbacks), and Microsoft revealed its plans for a hardware-software Copilot mutant (mutant a la X-Men – it’s a compliment). That R1 breakthrough demo in January seems quaint now. See also: why agencies and others trying to build their own tech in-house will have a hard time keeping up, and why they’ll mostly build on top of other platforms or reskin them.

I’ve still been pre-ordering other AI gadgets. A new wave takes the form of AI pendant-sized mics that listen to and make sense of whatever you’re doing. I may be flagged on some ‘do not sell to this guy list’ and may need to go under an assumed name – like David Berkowitz. But I have some fantasy that I’ll one day open an AI gadget box without worrying about how I will repack it for UPS.

In short, you probably have all the AI-powered devices you need. I did get one truly useful device – a new HP with a zippy i7 processor and more RAM than any LLM I talked to said I’d need. Before, my older one was dragging, and I could barely run some AI apps I was downloading, let alone plugin-heavy Chrome.

So you will need some upgrades if you haven’t done so lately. I hadn’t paid that much attention to PC chip specs in 20 to 25 years. Back then, it was to play games like Sim City. Now, it’s to do my job- and this high-performing laptop costs half what I paid in 2000, even before adjusting for inflation.

That bodes well for Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell, and others who can make their best case in a generation for consumers, professionals, and businesses to upgrade their hardware.

Maybe one of those hardware titans will buy Humane – not for a billion dollars, but for the humane purpose of putting them out of their misery.

David

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WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
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Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

Humane AI Pin review: not even close by David Pierce
Adobe’s ‘Ethical’ Firefly AI Was Trained on Midjourney Images by Rachel Metz and Brody Ford
Not just ChatGPT: AI workflows & tools for marketers

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EVENTS
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UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
- 5/29: Catharine Montgomery, Founder & CEO, Better Together
- 6/12: Debra Aho Williamson, Chief Analyst, Sonata Insights
- 6/27: Judah Phillips, CEO, SmartCurrent on AI analytics
6/5, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
6/05, 3-5pm (NYC): Join AIMG for our NY Tech Week Stacked Startup Showcase. We'll feature 5 startups that marketers need to know, and we'll then follow it with our First Wednesday happy hour.
- Tech Week, (presented by a16z) is a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. NY Tech Week takes place June 3-9.
6/14, 12pm (Zoom): In this exclusive event with AI Marketers Guild and Captain, attendees can look forward to discover the role of AI in elevating content marketing through automation and personalization.
6/21 (Zoom): The New Era of Persuasion: AI and the Art of Strategic Messaging

DIGITAL MARKETING MASTERCLASS
June 11, New York
"Join us at the Digital Marketing Masterclass to dissect and discuss these trends in digital marketing and how they pertain to your marketing strategy. With snappy 10-minute expert presentations and intimate roundtable discussions, this Masterclass is the perfect forum for you to gain valuable insights and practical strategies on all things digital marketing. You will also have the opportunity to participate in conversation-driven roundtables on the challenges you're facing within digital marketing."
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SMX ADVANCED
June 11 - 12, Online
"Tap into the world’s largest training event designed exclusively by elite search marketers for elite search marketers: Attend Search Engine Land’s SMX Advanced, online June 11-12, for free. This once-a-year experience explores the most cutting-edge search marketing topics – from SGE to RAG – and connects you to a network of thriving SEO and PPC experts – including Mike King, Lily Ray, Glenn Gabe, Brad Geddes, Jessica Bowman, and more with hours of live Q&A and community meetups. "
Register

ECOMMERCE REDEFINED: RECAPTURED REVENUE
June 13, Virtual
"Join us June 13th at 2 pm EDT for our upcoming webinar where we’ll explore how brands can maximize revenue at every touchpoint of the customer journey. From leveraging personalized marketing strategies, identifying gaps through automated analytics and data, add-on subscription opportunities, and a revenue-driven post-purchase platform, discover how implementing these strategies effectively can drive sustainable growth and unwavering customer loyalty for your brand!"
Register

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JOBS
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ST. LOUIS, MO
Vice President Marketing and Communications
On-site/Full-time
"The Vice President of Marketing & Communications (VP) is responsible for developing and managing the implementation of all marketing, communications, and brand strategies to achieve LSS business objectives. This position reports to the Chief Administrative Officer and is responsible for overall brand stewardship, communications, marketing, and business insights for LSS. The incumbent will work with leadership to develop, refine, and execute marketing communications strategy as well as crisis communications and reputation management. "
Apply

FORBES
CDP Director
United States
"Forbes Media is seeking a tech-savvy Customer Data Platform (CDP) Director to join the Customer Experience Growth team. The ideal candidate understands the value proposition of the technology and has extensive experience with CDP strategy, technical support and stakeholder management. The ideal candidate will also have experience in the media, subscriptions, and/or publishing industries. The CDP director will work closely with leadership and stakeholders across multiple lines of business to accelerate our CDP usage to drive revenue growth at Forbes."
Apply

GATHER
Head of Marketing
In-Person - Palo Alto, CA
"We founded Gather a little over a year ago. In that time, we raised $12 million and built Genie, a free personal assistant that knows you through your data. A year from now, Genie will be the +1 you can’t live without, helping you tackle all of life’s administration, for example: + Remembering that two of your guests have shellfish allergies. Finding the best time to meet up with your two college besties. Checking online to see if the movie you picked is appropriate for kids. Ensuring you drink less coffee and more water. Tracking the items you need to list on Facebook Marketplace."
Apply

EVVY
Lifecycle Marketer
New York, NY
"We’re looking for our first Lifecycle Marketing Manager to work cross-functionally with Marketing/Brand and Product to own the end-to-end customer journey at Evvy. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on understanding how user needs manifest at all points in the lifecycle and wants to analytically and strategically optimize our consumer funnel, including conversion, retention, and reactivation. This role will be a crucial part of our growth, helping to build our LTV strategy throughout our patient journey. It’s a hands-on role that will work across a lot of different problems and products, and will lead both strategic planning & day-to-day creation, execution and optimization of lifecycle campaigns."
Apply

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THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
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SEND NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

JOIN SERIAL MARKETERS
www.serialmarketers.net

The most important rights reserved. You can have the other ones.
(c) 2023 Serial Marketer

PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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Serial Marketer #270: Inhumane on the Train

David Berkowitz — Fri, 03 May 2024 13:54:04 +0000

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SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 270: Inhumane on the Train
Brought to you by: AIMG’s 5/9 event with Neuralift —
AI for Segmentation: Unparalleled Precision with Transformative Time to Value
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What do Amtrak and the Humane AI pin have in common?

A wanton disregard of the customer experience.

One of them, at least, has enough going for it to survive despite their oversights. But with both, I was left wondering, “WHY?”

Amtrak is the brand you probably know better, so let’s start there.

Last weekend, I went on my third overnight Amtrak trip in the past year or so, all with my daughter who, last spring, suddenly wanted to take a train trip longer than 24 hours. That led us to Fargo, North Dakota – naturally. We then did another trip covering DC, West Virginia, New Orleans, and Chicago all by rail. Many packages of butter cake were consumed. Too many.

This latest trip was ‘easier’ – straight down by the Pacific on the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles for a solid 35 hours.

The train’s name is somewhat misleading, and I’m not sure if it’s more frustrating going south or north. As I was on the former route, it was beautiful passing through Oregon’s cloud forests and northern California farmland. But I didn’t get a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean until I was on the train for 30 hours. At least going south, it’s something to look forward to (I was mesmerized by those views); if you’re going north, you’re spending about 7/8’s of the trip wondering if that’s the last you’ll see of the coast (yup, sorry). Much of the rest of the trip still gives you plenty to look at, but there’s a reason the coast is what gives the line its name.

What Amtrak lacks isn’t scenery. They neglect so many customer experience fundamentals. For these overnight trips, I’ve done roomettes – tiny cabins where you better be best friends with whoever travels with you because you’re going to get to know them way better. They’re the perfect way to make New Yorkers’ bedrooms feel palatial.

For the Coast Starlight, I managed to submit a bid for an upgraded cabin that was accepted. I got the room, not the roomette, and for double the retail price, it should be double the space. In realtor parlance, the room was still “cozy.”

It’s not the tight quarters that bothered me, especially since I’d been on that rodeo, I mean railroad, before. Caveat emptor on that one.

It’s the disregard for all the little touches. There are a number of buttons and knobs in the room. None of them work. They literally do nothing. One adjusts the temperature. Another changes the volume of the speaker. Press them or turn them and nothing happens. And this has been true in all the cabins I’ve stayed in on Amtrak. They’re decorative.

The speaker didn’t work either. It worked, barely audibly, in the hallway outside the room. When important announcements were made, we passengers would stand outside our rooms to listen to them. This has been a consistent issue too.

It feels like a lack of care.

It’s also hard to know what you’re buying when you book one of these rooms. To really see the cabins, you need to visit blogs of others’ travelogues. There’s very little info on Amtrak’s own site.

Worse still, we’ve so far encountered two different kinds of trains. In certain cabins, there’s a window by where the top bunk unfolds, giving more room for a little person to sit in bed and take in the views. We’ve only seen these on the NY-Chicago line.

The other trains had what we wound up calling “coffins” – there’s less space, and there are no windows, so it’s like traveling the country in an MRI machine with an opening on one side. When you look at photos of rooms and rommettes relating to your trip, they’re all the same regardless of the different train lines – and they’re actually all the coffins. Retailers will now shoot dozens of photos of a single product – why can’t Amtrak post a few of each kind of room?

There’s so much more that could be done to modernize and revitalize the experience, and that means more than adding wifi to trains (the Coast Starlight doesn’t have it at all). Why not screens in the room with useful intel on the route, the landmarks outside, and amenities? Why not any attempt at entertainment? What about a little Amtrak souvenir for kids, in the same way airlines give young passengers wing pins? Despite all the hassles of air travel, airlines could never get away with what Amtrak does, and how little it does for the customer experience.

And it’s a shame because, cramped as it is, and hit or miss as the menu might be (a whole other story), and hit or miss as the staff might be (I’ve had many of the best customer service experiences on trains from their crew, but also a couple of the worst), it’s still a striking way to see the country.

Humane, however, is the misnomer to end all misnomers. What the actual inhumane device is this?

For those who’ve missed the scathing reviews (Marques Brownlee called it “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed… for now” and said “almost no one should buy it” – though he didn’t need the “almost”), it’s a magnetic pin. With AI. And a camera. And voice control. And it projects green monochrome images, Apple IIe style, onto the palm of your hand.

Wearing my new pin!

It took my daughter about 3.5 seconds of unboxng this to think I got rooked here, and not just because it starts at $699 (my style was $799), plus a $24/month subscription. That’s $1,000+ for the first year alone.

I think the business model involves getting people to buy it, and then when someone throws it across the room in frustration during the onboarding, the devices will be so damaged that they can’t be returned.

(Note to Humane’s customer service team processing my return: I did not actually do this! My pin is in great condition! Except that it doesn’t seem to do any of the things it’s supposed to! But that’s your fault, not mine!)

Humane’s pin involves using a series of hand gestures that take so much finesse and coordination, I could be fluent in American Sign Language before mastering its handful of gestures and device taps.

Adding a PIN to this pin is egregious. After I remembered what my code was on the third try, I had to keep shifting my hand back and forth to make the numbers go up or down, and then press my thumb down once I could confirm the number. But the device keeps locking, so as soon as you’re feeling masochistic and want to try using it again, you have to go through the process of moving your hand back and forth the right way repeatedly to unlock it.

Using the pin feels like an episode of “Silicon Valley” written by Kafka.

A photo I took with the Humane AI pin

Once unlocking the device, it just felt like all kinds of randomness. Yes, I tried learning the commands and gestures. But I was walking around Park Avenue and then inside my apartment trying to get it to respond to simple voice commands like telling me the weather, and it refused. I’m not sure why it took photos at some points and not others. I don’t know why it gave me the option once to select a video instead of a photo.

Ever interact with a two-year-old who has a mind of their own and that mind doesn’t want to do anything you want it to? The Humane pin is that toddler clipped to your shirt.

The form is a big part of the problem. Consider other attempts at wearables. Smart glasses will work for some people, in some circumstances. There are advantages. You always have an idea of where glasses are looking, and any lens display is right in front of your eyes. A ‘pin’ magnetically attached to clothing that beams a green light on to your hand is something else entirely. Something way worse.

There’s also the fashion aspect that Google Glass couldn’t get over. Remember Glassholes? If Humane ever gained enough cultural cachet, its wearers would need a name of their own.

I suggest: “Pinheads.”

I kept wondering what people on the street must have been thinking as I frantically tapped the gadget on my chest as if it were a defibrillator.

If it was a defibrillator though, I’d have been in big trouble. During one of my sessions, I took it out of its charging case (I kept thinking the battery must have been the issue, not the UX). Within a minute or two of me trying to use it, it informed me it would have to stop because it was overheating. What? And it did feel very, very hot. Clearly, it’s my fault for making it work too hard.

And still I didn’t yeet it across my living room.

Here’s my best advice for a gadget. Give it to a fourth grader. If she can’t get it to work in 30 seconds, and if in 2 minutes she can’t figure out five of its best features on her own, it doesn’t work.

My daughter couldn’t wait to unbox this one, but I’ve never seen her want to rebox something so quickly.

When I saw that the pin would arrive during our vacation, I was bummed that I wasn’t going to be able to test it out on the trip.

Now that it came, I’m so glad I didn’t have it with me then, turning me into a Pinhead. Trying to figure out the controls of the Humane pin and an Amtrak cabin at the same time would have made me need a whole other vacation to recover.

David

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WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

How the Ad Industry Is Making AI Images Look Less Like AI by Katie Deighton
How One Marketing Team Made AI Part of Its Daily Work by Michelle Taite
The Untapped Potential of AI in Telecare: Transforming Remote Patient Monitoring by David Berkowitz in Medhealth Outlook

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EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
5/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
5/8, 11am (NYC): Marketers' Coworking Event. Connect with fellow marketers and exchange ideas in a casual and collegial setting.

SOCIAL COMMERCE SUMMIT
May 8, New York
"For Brand Leaders obsessing over, and wanting to figure out, what is going on in the landscape of Social Commerce. Join industry-leading conversations and learn the key insights, tactics, and strategies that are shaping the future of marketing in 2024."
Register

ETAIL CONNECT
May 14 - 15, Copenhagen
"At eTail Nordic Connect, you’re in control. You’ll customise your schedule to ensure you enjoy the benchmarking and learning that’s most valuable to you and that you’ll only meet the solution providers you want to meet. We only invite the most senior-level budget holders from the top online retailers, ensuring you will: Brainstorm real and practical ideas to transform your business through private, closed-door sessions led by market leaders.."
Register

CONVERSATIONAL AI INNOVATION SUMMIT
May 9-10, San Francisco
"The Conversational AI Innovation Summit 2024 is your gateway to delve deep into the latest trends, breakthroughs, and best practices that are redefining how we as humans interact with technology and each other. As we navigate a world where our expectations and business landscapes are rapidly evolving, understanding and harnessing the power of AI and natural language processing is no longer optional but essential for staying competitive and relevant."
Register

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JOBS
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MARK ANTHONY GROUP
Brand Director
Chicago, IL (On-site)
"The Mark Anthony Group of Companies is one of North America’s most diversified and successful private beverage company. The Director of Brand Commercialization (White Claw) has/is: Proven marketing leader with experience strategizing and deploying commercial brand plans Analytical with involvement reviewing pricing strategy and budgeting reports, business and product management, and campaign execution..."
Apply

INSYCLE
Head of Demand Generation
New York, NY
"The modern way to organize, cleanse, and update data in multiple platforms - all in one place. The Head of Demand Generation has/is: 5+ years B2B SaaS experience with familiarity with product-led growth and self-serve software products. Experience with marketing automation, personalization tools, and Hubspot Analytical, scrappy, high energy, driven, detail-oriented and a team player..."
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Serial Marketer #269: Meet the AI Native Generation

David Berkowitz — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 12:55:00 +0000

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SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 269: Meet the AI Native Generation
Brought to you by: AIMG’s 5/9 event with Neuralift —
AI for Segmentation: Unparalleled Precision with Transformative Time to Value
----------------------------------------------------

Think generative AI is impactful now?

Wait until you meet the AI Native generation. As the future of society and work transform thanks in part ot the impact of AI, these AI natives will be at the vanguard of it.

You're probably familiar with their counterparts, digital natives. Digital natives don't remember life without the web or email.

That generation is growing up. They're starting to turn 30 now – they’re the trialing millennials and the entirety of Generation Z.

Consider someone born in 1994. They don't remember much before 1999, and the rise of Google coinciding with their elementary school years led some to panic about how they'd ever remember anything again.

There’s another wave that we don’t talk about much but should: mobile natives.

Mobile natives’ lives have been shaped by the ubiquitous access to information, and the explosion of consumer choice. YouTube and Netflix’s streaming service launched right around when the iPhone did (the first model debuted in 2007).

Given how all those technologies took a few years to become ubiquitous, the mobile generation won’t recall much of what life was like before 2010. So, if they entered grade school around then, mobile natives are just starting to turn 20.

The speed of AI adoption means that Generation Alpha is the AI Generation. I know a little bit about this, and I have a claim to fame here: I was the first person to write about Generation Alpha in Ad Age back in 2016, and I did so two years before the next reference there.

It’s one of my favorite pieces – and it’s the only satire Ad Age let me publish (thanks to the trust from then editor Michael Learmonth). My “13 Things to Know about the Alpha Generation” skewered the inanity of typical cohort research. It started after inspiration from a joke I made to a colleague about what we can infer about a whole generation based on observations of my toddler.

I wrote in Ad Age, “They hate the sharing economy. Anyone you meet in the Alpha Generation is likely to be decidedly anti-sharing. In fact, ethnographies have revealed that not a single member of this generation wants to share anything.”

All of Generation Alpha will be AI natives. My daughter was in third grade when ChatGPT debuted, and her peers will have a hard time remembering what it was like before you could digitally create anything you could imagine.

It will be like my memory of life before cordless phones, answering machines, cable TV, and CGA displays. We know what it’s like, but it feels like ancient history. (Remember when we went from CGA to EGA to VGA? Some of you, my people, are bursting with nostalgia vibes right now. I can feel ‘em from here.)

That means that we’re making native generational leaps every decade, and we could take it back steps further too. Someone born in 1984, for instance, probably doesn’t remember what life was like before they had easy access to personal computers. But let’s keep looking forward instead of back.

Looking at trailing Gen Z’ers (the mobile generation), they’re just about to enter the workforce. They will never know what work was like before generative AI. And they will in turn not know what it was like to have a source of disposable income without AI.

They will not have gone on dates post-college without AI. Most will not have bought a car on their own without AI built right into the dashboard, let alone all the sensors throughout. And they’re used to platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok powered by machine learning algorithms that are designed to give you exactly what you want – even if you didn’t know you wanted it.

So what’s that going to mean for businesses trying to hire an AI-native workforce and market to an AI-native consumer base?

A lot, but we can expect a few trends:

1) Personalize or Perish: What’s the ideal call-to-action to put on your homepage? What is the right mix of perks and benefits to offer a new hire? What does a menu even look like at a restaurant? AI-powered personalization will pervade all kinds of touchpoints. In the past, chains like In-N-Out might have used secret menus to juice word-of-mouth marketing. Soon, you’ll be getting secret menus customized only to you. Lindsay, Corey, Beth, and Gary might be eating at the same table, but they’ll all see different specials designed for them (pasture-raised protein and organic veggies for Lindsay, soup dumplings for Gary).

I’m a big believer in Newton’s Third Law of Motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We will be driven by competing forces of hyperpersonalization while joining the masses to be part of global spectacles like the Eras Tour. It won’t just be one or the other, and Newton would likely say you can’t have one without the other. Newton was pretty bussin’ like that (as my source of Gen Alpha intel would say).

2) Harness the Tools: Were you at one of those companies in the 2000s, maybe early 2010s, that would tell staff they couldn’t use social media at work? If anything, that accelerated mobile adoption of apps like Facebook. The same will apply to ChatGPT and other conversational AI platforms. There is a lot of work that should not be done using AI, but increasingly, a lot of busywork can be offboarded to AI in ways that don’t pose any security or privacy threats. Tell an AI native that’s forbidden, especially at a place that doesn’t have the same security protocols as the Pentagon, and you’re all but asking for someone to figure out a workaround.

That means you won’t be able to come up with a list of all the tools that can’t be used and all the ways that they’re forbidden. Instead, you’ll have to come up with lists of all the ways you’re providing access to best-in-class tech, and how staff can use that to their advantage.

3) Skills and Interests Become Fungible: Your best data scientist in the future may not have any data science training – they might be a journalist who knows the right questions to ask of the data. The most creative strategy might come not from a strategist but someone on the legal team who now has more creative ways to storyboard bold ideas that still fit within what’s kosher at that organization. The most rabid fan of a Civil War saga might not be a history scholar but someone who’s been geeking out on having conversations with Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

The downside is that people will be harder to pigeonhole. The upside is that if you can recognize how to harness skills and passion, you can unleash that in ways never before possible.

It’s like how I always say about my resident Generation Alpha’er that I know her about as well as anyone possibly could, but she manages to surprise me every single day.

A lot of surprises are ahead for us all with the AI generation. For those of us who count ourselves as digital natives, PC natives, and earlier cohorts, we can work on tapping into their strengths and adapting to their needs.

We’ll have to be nimble though. As I said about Gen Alpha in Ad Age:

“They’re constantly changing. It's hard enough targeting this cohort, given the differences between leading and trailing alphers. What's worse is that they're changing all the time. By the time you complete a creative brief, they're exhibiting new behaviors… Alphers [and now the AI generation] have a way of vexing even the most seasoned marketers.”

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

How the Ad Industry Is Making AI Images Look Less Like AI by Katie Deighton
How One Marketing Team Made AI Part of Its Daily Work by Michelle Taite
Humane AI Pin review: not even close by David Pierce
The Untapped Potential of AI in Telecare: Transforming Remote Patient Monitoring by David Berkowitz in Medhealth Outlook

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EVENTS
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Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
5/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
5/8, 11am (NYC): Marketers' Coworking Event. Connect with fellow marketers and exchange ideas in a casual and collegial setting.

BRAND SAFETY SUMMIT
April 30 - May 1, London
"This is your opportunity to engage with top experts from across the media landscape. Join senior-level brand marketers, digital platform leaders, media buyers, and ad tech executives — all insiders of the brand safety space. They'll provide you with the latest and most relevant information to do your job best. Plus, don't miss the chance to network with peers from agencies, brand advertisers, ad tech companies, and more."
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AI FOR MARKETERS MASTERCLASS
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"Unleash the power of AI in marketing by joining us at the highly anticipated AI for Marketers Masterclass. Prepare to embark on a transformative journey as esteemed AI Experts, armed with their invaluable expertise, reveal the secrets to harnessing AI for campaigns that leave an indelible impact, optimizing performance to new heights, and maximizing growth. The AI for Marketers Masterclass is meticulously designed to provide you with an immersive and enlightening experience. This event begins with snappy presentations delivered by our thought leaders, who possess a deep understanding of AI's application in the marketing sphere. Topics will range from understanding customer behavior though advanced data analytics, to personalizing campaigns through AI algorithms, and more."
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GIVECAMPUS
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Remote/United States
"GiveCampus is the world's leading digital fundraising and volunteer management platform for non-profit educational institutions. The Sr. Product Marketing Manager has/is: 5+ years in Product Marketing for a B2B SaaS company ideally with an early stage startup or high growth company. Experience 0-1 as a PMM. Skilled product marketer with strong GTM experience Experience in influencing product roadmaps, developing and executing on marketing campaigns to drive product launches, revenue and growth..."
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GOPUFF
Vice President, Ads
New York, NY
"Gopuff is the go-to solution for immediate everyday needs. The Vice President of Ads has/is: An accomplished, innovative and proven partnership and/or growth executive with an outstanding record of building and leading commercial organizations globally. Industry experience in retail media, eCommerce, adtech or broader data company experience. Deep success in brick and mortar operations and proven ability to increase KPIs such as traffic, conversion, and retention. Demonstrable track record of developing and closing strategic deals that have made major impacts for organizations and achieved strong outcomes for consumers and business results."
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Serial Marketer #268: The 80-100-20 Rule

David Berkowitz — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:11:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 268: The 80-20-100 Rule
Brought to you by:
How Agencies are Using AI for Ad Data Analysis (join us!)
----------------------------------------------------

You know the 80-20 rule, right?

Ever since reading Richard Koch’s book “The Natural Laws of Business” in 2001, I have seen the rule everywhere.

But as I’ve journeyed into fractional CMO work, I discovered a dimension of it that I previously didn’t appreciate.

The rule, known as the Pareto principle, states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.

The simplified result is that by focusing on the 20% of your causes that lead to those 80% of outcomes, you can prioritize resources to address what matters.

It’s one of those equations that’s like the image of the Fibonacci sequence proportions. You keep seeing it pop up everywhere, and it feels like it can be infinitely applied.

Fibonacci Spiral, via Romain, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve been thinking about it way more since launching the FOAF.pro fraction-of-a-fractional CXO network a year ago. Can the FOAF model endure?

Not everyone thinks it does. I got on a call recently with a prominent voice and organizer in the fractional CXO space, and they were so skeptical about the FOAF value proposition that they told me I was giving fractionals a bad name.

Naturally, I loved that.

The model is also based on experience where even working with some clients an hour or two a week on a fraction-of-a-fractional basis, you can become part of a team over time and then pitch in more as needed.

A big reason it works is that it isn’t just the 80-20 rule at play, getting 80% of the value of working with someone for just 20% of the time.

The numbers themselves need to be adjusted for the FOAF model – it might be more about getting 50% of the value for 5% of the time.

The reason any of it works is that no matter what portion of time you hire someone for, you get 100% of their experience. Their insight. Their wisdom. Their network.

You might not get all the output. Someone isn’t going to build and run a department for you in a few hours. A lot of output takes time.

But expertise? You can get 100% of that. And if you can harness it well, that makes all the rest of the output more effective.

This is why there’s so much upside to the fractional workforce that hasn’t been fully realized yet. And it’s why models like FOAF that make it more accessible to buyers and sellers alike are only starting to communicate the value.

We’ll never get 100% of the way there, but if we even get a fraction of the way, it will make big strides in transforming organizational value.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

Real-World Perspectives on AI Adoption from Marketing and Business Leaders — A Video Anthology by Spark Novus
The Untapped Potential of AI in Telecare: Transforming Remote Patient Monitoring by David Berkowitz in Medhealth Outlook

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EVENTS
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UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
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Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
5/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.

GLOBAL AI SHOW
April 16-17, Grand Hyatt Dubai
"Global AI Show is the premiere platform where thought leaders from AI & ML space and projects gather under one roof to share their insights and discuss future opportunities in this evolving space. This event brings together the global AI & ML humans and creates exceptional opportunities like networking, learning, leadership sessions, project showcases, Knowledge sharing and much more. The Global AI Show will help you explore what’s new, and upcoming in this space.."
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SUNNY
Sr. Product Manager
United States
"Sunny is a first-of-its-kind technology application that suggests simple, science-based actions to help power human. The Product Manager has/is: Background: 5+ years of product management experience with at least 3+ years of experience working for a consumer facing mobile app and understands b2b2c. Proven track record of developing and launching successful products, with experience taking products from concept to launch and ideally has seen growth. Strong proficiency in data analytics, with hands-on experience using tools such as Amplitude to derive actionable insights."
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GREEN & TONIC
Chief Marketing Officer
United States
"Green & Tonic was established in 2012 in Darien, CT as a healthy option for those seeking balance and harmony via food. The Chief Marketing Officer has/is: 8-12 years of marketing experience within a fast-casual or QSR restaurant brand that has scaled from 5-50+ locations. Drive thru, delivery, vending experience a plus. Extensive marketing experience within G+T’s target demographic; elevated brand experience with a focus on product-market fit, customer growth, and branding. Results-Oriented with a Track Record of Driving Results; Player-coach with the ability to both lead strategically and drive execution."
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DUDE WIPES
Brand Strategy Leader
Chicago, IL
"Back in the day, we founded DUDE Products out of our apartment in Chicago. The Brand Strategy Leader has/is: 3-5+ years in brand marketing; 10+ years overall in marketing. Industry Experience: Disruptive CPG startup. Proven ability to develop brand and marketing strategies and communicate recommendations to executives either for a singular brand or across a portfolio of brands within a singular vertical. Values fit: Self starter, hands off, detail-oriented."
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David Berkowitz, publisher
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Serial Marketer #267: AI, What Is It Good For?

David Berkowitz — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 12:35:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 267: AI, What Is It Good For?
Brought to you by:
How Agencies are Using AI for Ad Data Analysis (join us!)
----------------------------------------------------

AI, What Is It Good For?

By David Berkowitz

“What’s the methodology for how you collected responses?” a community member asked during this week’s AI Insiders call.

“Uhh, I put up a Google Form and asked some people to fill it out?” I said.

The answer’s more involved than that. Over the past year, I’ve been building a new community that now has more than 1,000 forward-thinking execs from brands, agencies, tech startups, and others trying to make sense of how AI applies to marketing.

I’ve learned a lot from this community, but I wanted to learn way more and then share all that. So I fielded a survey.

If you happen to have tens of thousands of dollars around, you can pay a research firm to do this.

I went another route:

I worked with ChatGPT to come up with questions, edited them, built a Google Form, asked my communities to respond, solicited partners for AI-themed prize drawings, got a guy from Fiverr to help with chart templates, redid all his work when I caught all the errors, ignored all ChatGPT’s suggestions for headings for the chart slides, tried to create the report in Beautiful.ai but couldn’t get it to work, produced the report in PowerPoint, used Ideogram to create the report cover (it worked well but took so many tries that I blew through my free credits), had Claude write a press release, pitched it to the press (it’s covered in MediaPost), built a landing page in Brevo to download it, and put the release on the wire.

Pretty simple.

So what’s in the "Marketing AI Adoption Report: Q1 2024 Trends” report?

A lot. Just a few highlights lest I regurgitate too much:

• Time saved was the top metric used to evaluate the success of AI in marketing (73% of respondents), followed by cost reduction (30%) and ROI (23%).

• The overall impact of AI on business performance was rated positively, with 76% of respondents assessing AI's impact as favorable.

• AI is being applied in other business functions beyond marketing, with 39% using AI in R&D, 36% in operations, and 33% in sales.

• 93% believe AI competencies will be most beneficial for content-related roles, while nearly two-thirds see similar value for analytics and creative professionals.

Also, a favorite little tidbit about the respondents: 96% have 11+ years of experience, and nearly two-thirds have 20+. This is a group that has SEEN things.

On the AI insiders call, we had a vibrant discussion, and I shared some thoughts about what I expect to change as we run future studies:

1) Only 17% said AI is being applied in customer support roles at their orgs. I’d be surprised if that didn’t reach near 100% within a couple of years – or at least 100% of orgs that have dedicated customer support.

2) ChatGPT with Dall-E 3 is by far the favorite app, even of an audience of more AI-savvy execs. More than 56% said it’s their favorite. The next closest only had 7% -- a tie between Claude and Perplexity. I’d be very curious to re-ask this question next time, but also ask a second version where respondents can pick up to three options and then see if a dark horse like Adobe gets a way bigger share. Granted, with Sora coming out, OpenAI sure as heck isn’t slacking, and we’ll have to ask about video next quarter.

3) Metrics are bound to change. “Time saved” dominated this survey, but there’s going to be more of a pressure for AI to also deliver more tangible cost savings and ROI.

4) We’ll see more interest in data and creativity. About 2/3s (80/115) of marketers say they use AI for creative / design, nearly double the next responses (personalized content delivery – 45 respondents, campaign optimization – 41). But 66% said in response to another question that AI competencies are most beneficial for marketing analysts and data scientists – the #2 response to that question after content creators (93%). Expect more marketers to actually be using AI for data and analytics in future surveys.

5) Only 40% of those hiring for marketing roles are including AI competencies in job descriptions. Or maybe that’s a lot, given we were probably at close to 0 a year ago? That’s going to keep going way up.

6) One sign that I’m very curious about is the impact of AI on business performance. Three-quarters of marketers said it’s a positive impact, and only 1 of the others said it was negative (the rest were neutral). As investments in AI go up, that will lead to disruption. This disruption will not only cause job losses for some, but it will lead to other organizational changes. Those changes may be objectively bad – like the idea that Wendy’s would use AI to implement ‘surge pricing’ (the chain said it meant ‘dynamic pricing’ to offer deals… sure…). Or it could just mean there are changes that some people won’t like. I just don’t see a scenario where those numbers stay so rosy.

Your turn now.

What would you like to see included in future surveys?

I’d love your input!

Meanwhile, two quick shout-outs: Thanks Ken Yeung for this wonderful story, “AIMG: The Community Helping Demystify AI for Marketers.”

And, thanks to AIMG’s sponsor and supporter Akkio for joining us April 4 to discuss How Agencies are Using AI for Ad Data Analysis. We have more than 100 people who RSVP’ed for this.

We’re just getting started with the Guild, so reach out anytime with ways you want to get involved.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

Digital retailers want to use AI to get hyperpersonal in 2024 by Meaghan Yuen
Why Starbucks' elimination of its global CMO indicates an evolution of the role, not 'a canary in the coal mine' by Kristina Monllos
Media 3.0: Do Advertisers Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Joe Mandese

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EVENTS
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UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
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Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
5/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.

ECOMMERCE SUMMIT
April 11, Denver
"A local gathering of Denver’s top eCommerce experts and decision-makers across retailers, brands, merchants, and solutions providers. Our program is designed for high-impact impressions, sharing ideas, education, and networking. The day consists of panel discussions, presentations, and one-on-one meetings across eCommerce strategy, marketing, operations, customer experience, payment, shipping, loyalty, and more.”
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Serial Marketer #266: The Future of AI Will Be Ad-Supported

David Berkowitz — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 13:25:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 266: The Future of AI Will Be Ad-Supported
Brought to you by:
How Agencies are Using AI for Ad Data Analysis (join us!)
----------------------------------------------------

Where is AI going next?

Two words: Madison Avenue.

There’s a funny thing about this avenue – which I know very well, as I actually live here.

No one trusts marketers

Everyone wants to block ads.

And yet everyone comes crawling here whenever their other monetization plans fail.

Sometimes, it’s opportunistic. Microsoft earned $12 billion in ad revenue last year out of $212 billion. Now, if you earn $100K one year, you’ll probably feel good earning another $5K-$6K on top of that, but maybe not if you have to learn an entirely new career to get that bump.

Sometimes, companies need to hedge bets. I asked Perplexity what Netflix’s ad revenue was last year compared to total revenue, and it said, “Netflix's ad revenue last year was not material compared to its total revenue.” Ouch. But give it time.

Facebook and Google were the epitome of new-millennium Silicon Valley companies (yes, I know Google was founded last millennium – just chill, please). And since then, I hear they’re in the ad business?

This brings us to the AI era. Web 2492482.91381 – it doesn’t matter, since no one can tell when web 2.0 ended, and few want to relive the dawn of web3.

You’ve got businesses emerging with very low headcount but very high expenses. These include:

Computational resources – you need a lot of bandwidth to train and run these models
Energy – it’s hard to think about sustainability when powering up all these servers
Data acquisition – either pay now to license data from publishers, or pay later in court

Will there be enough enterprise subscription dollars to cover all that, especially when Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all in amazing positions to bundle AI offerings with the rest of their B2B businesses?

That’s a tough hill.

Oh, and for consumers, a lot of AI apps are replacing search engines and visiting free news sites. $20 a month may not seem like a lot if it’s saving a worker who earns $20 an hour just one hour every month. But that’s still another hill. Basic access to the major AI platforms is free. And like we’re seeing now with the streaming wars, there are limits to what most people will pay for.

While streaming services once felt like the death knell for TV advertisers but now are ramping up ad inventory and rolling out ad-supported plans, we’ll see that happening in AI too.

Microsoft Copilot offers a great example of this. I’d share links to my research, but you’re going to have to try this out yourself because of a funny conundrum:

I have the paid version of Copilot, and when I’m logged in, I can share searches, but I’m not seeing any ads at all, no matter how commercial my searches.

But when I’m not logged in, I can’t share my Copilot exchanges. And when I’m not logged in, when I ask questions like, “What’s the best car insurance,” there’s an ad unit that appears below.

Granted, I tried asking the least commercial search I could think of at the moment: “What does a moose like to eat?” There were no ads. Kind of disappointing.*

(If you wonder who the heck should advertise against that query, let me enter into evidence the delightful children’s book by Oliver Jeffers, “This Moose Belongs to Me.” I can have my digital twin read it to you sometime.)

As we read about Doomsday scenarios for many businesses with predictions like Gartner saying search engine volume will drop 25% in just two years, I’m a big fan of preparing for the worst-case scenario.

In a world where you can’t use search ads or SEO, how would you build an audience and attract customers?

In a world where no one searches, what would you do?

In a world where everyone gets everything they need from a ChatGPT-like engine, what would you do?

In a world where an AI Everything Engine can predict what people need before they even ask for it, what the heck are you gonna do then, bub?

Scary stuff. But yeah, get on that. Disruption is real.

But maybe the sky isn’t falling just yet, and maybe it won’t at all.

New York City, despite what you might read, is booming with life. There are some vacancies on my stretch of Madison Avenue though, and I have a feeling I’ll be getting some new neighbors soon.

If you’re moving in, stop by. I often have freshly baked cookies here, and you can show me your brand spanking new ad units.

David

*PS: A more commercial version of the search, “Where can I get a pet moose?”, did not deliver any ads. Copilot called this “an intriguing idea” and then said, “In many places, keeping a moose as a pet is strictly prohibited.” I wonder if the Moose Pet Libertarian Bloc will vote for Biden or Trump.

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

AI Prompt Engineering Is Dead by Dina Genkina
Marketers Are Tracking a New Metric: Share of Model by Jack Smyth
3 reasons not to block GPTBot from crawling your site by Nikki Lam

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
4/02, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
- This month, brought to you by Grappa!
  Grappa is an invite-only network for early-stage founders, investors, and senior talent. Join the waitlist!

ADOBE SUMMIT
March 26 - 28, Las Vegas
"The future of experience starts at Adobe Summit. Learn from global innovators across industries, connect with other leaders, and discover the latest in generative AI, personalization at scale, and more. Explore the latest digital trends and expand your skillset with more than 200 sessions and hands-on labs, across 12 different tracks.”
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ARCH
Senior Sales Director
New York City, NY
"Arch is a Series A financial technology company that automates the management of private investments, improving access, understanding, and the human experience of investing across asset classes. We are hiring a high performing Senior Sales Director to drive sales execution across enterprise and strategic accounts. We’re a product first company with significant commercial traction and we continually reinvest in our product. As Arch’s Senior Sales Director you will play a pivotal role in meeting, understanding, and serving core accounts, to accelerate our market presence and revenue growth."
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COUNTERPART
Marketing Lead
Remote
"Counterpart is a management liability insurance platform for the 21st century workplace. We offer products and services to help companies align the risks and incentives of creating great organizations. As an early member of the team, you will create relevant, impactful content that helps small businesses and the brokers that support them be the best version of themselves. You will work closely with the business development, insurance, data and products teams to deliver industry leading content for the different stakeholders involved in the purchase and sale of our novel insurance products and services."
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Serial Marketer #265: When AI Came for Camelot

David Berkowitz — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:49:39 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 265: When AI Came for Camelot
----------------------------------------------------

King Arthur is toast (image via Microsoft Copilot)

The latest victim of the generative AI era?

King Arthur.

No, not the legendary figure who, if he lived, has been dead for 1,487 years (source: Perplexity.ai).

I meant the bakers.

Since the pandemic started, they’ve guided millions of home-based bakers (and probably quite a few professionals) via their adept social following (they’re at more than 900,000 followers on Instagram alone, with 6-figure followings on Pinterest and YouTube), plus their robust web-based recipe catalog, and their print cookbooks (I own two).

Seeing their brand name on products in a store is a seal of quality; you know you’re getting the good stuff if it’s King Arthur.

But can they survive the age of AI?

My own experience this weekend makes me nervous for them, and for so many others.

I hosted a birthday party for my cats. They turned three. E-cards are welcome. Make them out to Buddy and Cash.

My daughter had some friends over, and she wanted to bake sugar cookies using her cat cookie cutters.

But what recipe? We always go back to the Toll House recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but we don’t have the same option for sugar cookies.

So, I opened the “King Arthur Baking Companion” print cookbook and found the sugar cookie recipe.

It described how to make the perfect cookie. I’m sure of it. But it called for ingredients like shortening, buttermilk or sour milk, and nutmeg – none of which I had. And it all seemed a bit much for kids’ sugar cookies. I wanted a homemade version of the stuff you’d get out of a tube in the dairy aisle – not the final course at a Jean-Georges restaurant. Plus, I didn’t have time for shopping.

I figured I’d skip web searching and give ChatGPT a shot. Prompt engineers could come up with more sophisticated inputs, but I like my prompts like I like my cookies – sweet and simple. I opened the mobile app and entered:

“Best ever sugar cookie recipe?”

Five words.

That’s the point of ChatGPT and its promise. You shouldn’t need a degree in linguistics to operate it.

Sure enough, ChatGPT responded, “For a truly delightful sugar cookie experience, this recipe balances simplicity with the richness of flavor, perfect for decorating or enjoying on their own. The key to these cookies is the use of real butter and pure vanilla extract, which provide a depth of flavor that's hard to beat. Here's a recipe that's been cherished and tweaked to perfection over time.”

You can find the recipe here for “Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe.”

You’ll see in the thread I then halved the recipe. And I also, mostly for fun, asked what happens if I don’t chill the dough (cat birthday parties are a lot of work, and it’s always best to avoid testing the patience of fourth-grade girls).

We baked the cookies. We ate the cookies. And every single minor and adult who tried them thought they were perfect.

Still, I felt guilty after. And not the usual guilt I have from eating too many of my daughter’s cookies. This guilt hit different.

What I did might be perfectly legit. I’m even paying OpenAI, plus tax.

But think of all the losers.

There’s Google and its ad revenue from sponsored listings. Few will feel bad to hurt a monopoly, but still, they’re affected.

Then there are all those random cooking sites that make you scroll through 20 screens worth of gibberish just to get to the recipe; all around that gibberish are potentially dozens of ad units sold on a per-impression basis. None of those impressions were served. You could argue that most of those sites deserve a slow and painful one-way ticket to hell’s kitchen, and you could even argue that they brought this upon themselves. Still, such publishers will feel pain.

Then there are the advertisers who can’t reach me if I’m using subscription-based, ad-free apps to get information. Maybe if they’re lucky, I’ll download a custom GPT of theirs in the ChatGPT store. I suspect, for most users, the general ChatGPT will be just fine.

And there are companies like King Arthur Baking, which may be in those previous two categories. Maybe I’ve already transacted with them. King Arthur has a “Cookie Companion” cookbook. Do I need to buy this if the AI companion can give me a recipe for whatever I want? Plus, I can talk to AI to customize the recipe based on my preferences and what’s in my kitchen.

I can even get a recipe for a Croissantosaurus!

Here’s how ChatGPT said to bake one – though it stressed that getting the details so perfect is unlikely after I initially showed it the image.

This all leads me to wonder about the ethics of my action.

Was it right to do what I did?

Was there anything wrong about what I did?

Do I owe something to those I’m indirectly hurting?

My gut is that the ethics are similar to shopping at Amazon or Wal-Mart. It’s not amoral, unethical, or illegal to go the big box or quasi-monopolistic route. Most of us do so, even if we are wary of the harm done to local businesses and other smaller e-commerce companies.

One can also argue that it’s way more important to feed and take care of one’s family the best (moral/ethical/legal) way possible. If that means prioritizing convenience and cost, those are substantial considerations.

And maybe there’s even some version of how this plays out where LLMs like ChatGPT become gateway drugs to new pursuits. I might be fine with AI for a quick recipe for a kid’s playdate, but when I want to learn the skills to create a life-sized cat cake next year, I’ll need to learn from subject matter experts like King Arthur and other baker-creators.

I did ask ChatGPT about the ethical quandary. It told me:

“Using ChatGPT for recipes isn't unethical, especially for personal use or learning. However, considering the broader impacts on creators, the importance of accurate and safe cooking instructions, and respecting cultural significance can help guide ethical use. It's also beneficial to use a mix of sources for your culinary exploration to support creators and ensure a diverse and enriching cooking experience.”

Sound reasoning, sure. But it’s also beneficial for me to eat more kale instead of cat cookies. That doesn’t mean we tend to go by what’s beneficial – or we even think about who benefits and how.

I’m curious to hear your take. I also hope to hear from Kristina Martin and Paul Chaney who publish AI Marketing Ethics on topics like this. We need to have more of these conversations, and we will in forums like AI Insiders where Kristina and Paul recently joined as guest speakers.

Given all these qualms, will I use ChatGPT next time I need a recipe?

Did I tell you just HOW good those cat cookies were?

David

PS: Yes, I’ll be at SXSW next week. Let me know if you’ll be out there.

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
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Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

Creating Marketing Copy with ChatGPT by Shelly Palmer
Our Favorite 5 AI Marketing Tools Right Now and Why
Hacking Reddit - My Learnings after 1.5M Views and 10K Upvotes. by Russ Halilov

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Serial Marketer #264: An Open Letter to the Fractional Movement

David Berkowitz — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 13:15:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 264: An Open Letter to the Fractional Movement
----------------------------------------------------

Since I launched FOAF nearly a year ago, I’ve received all kinds of feedback – praise, skepticism, constructive and non-constructive criticism, offers to help, and so much more.

But I never received a message like the one that arrived in my LinkedIn inbox this week, and it’s one I must respond to.

The context: I got a LinkedIn connection request from someone whose name I know well – someone who’s a leader in the fractional executive world.

I quickly accepted and sent a personal response praising their work with a detailed note, saying that they are well respected by many members of my communities, including FOAF.

Here’s what they said, after a few brief pleasantries:

“FOAF has come up a few times...Many of us feel it actually hurts the fractional movement since it belittles what we do and bring to the table.”

That’s one hell of an introduction.

And I respect it. I thanked them for their candor.

“I appreciate your candor,” I said.

Let’s break this down though, shall we?

“FOAF has come up a few times…”

Okay, that made my day.

If I felt like maybe I wasn’t marketing FOAF enough, this is the best validation that our message is getting out in some of the right circles.

So, thanks for that. You made a founder and marketer’s dream come true.

“Many of us”

Manna, manna, manna! Let it rain, baby. I’m here for all of it.

I have no clue who the “us” is, mind you. But there are many!

“feel”

And more importantly, the masses (is that a stretch?) FEEL something.

I don’t know if the number one rule of marketing is “don’t be boring,” but it’s up there.

“it actually hurts”

My initial note to them was all “Love, Actually,” but the sequel is “Hurts, Actually,” and that doesn’t sound like a box office draw.

I went through five stages of something seeing that h-word.

And it doesn’t just hurt, but it actually hurts?

After my note about the candor, I told my new connection, “It’s meant to be a way of creating more opportunities for fractional execs - or even execs who don’t see themselves as fractional talent.”

This expands the pie, not contracts it.

Serial Marketer #263: Is Google the New Google Killer (Again)?

David Berkowitz — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 13:32:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 263: Is Google the New Google Killer (Again)?
Brought to you by: IndeCollective (save $1K on their bootcamp)
----------------------------------------------------

Google vs. Google (via Microsoft Copilot / Dall-E 3, ironically

I was wrong.

And I was right.

And I was right for the wrong reasons.

In November 2012, I wrote in Ad Age about how Google was disrupting itself. In one of the ballsier predictions I’ve ever written, one I’d have sworn never came from me if I didn’t reread it, I said the “war whose most interesting battle will be the one Google is waging against itself” and added, “I predict that search will be dead in 2020.”

Whoa, was I wrong on that one.

But the rest of the column is all too relevant today.

I wrote, “… Google is exploring other business models that may diminish its cash cow of search engine marketing. The bet that Google is making is that consumer behavior will shift so Google needs to stay relevant and profitable however those shifts happen, even if it means disrupting itself.”

The column focused on the shift from desktop-centric data to richer mobile-centric data, and beyond the failed prediction itself, the rest of it feels prescient. Consider this section:

Predictive recommendations could potentially preempt the need for a lot of the more vague and broad "head terms" in search such as "new car," "mortgage," "flowers," or "hotels" if technology can predict when people will be in the market for such products. A lot of the changes should also happen with the infrequent and specific "tail" terms. Instead of typing "one dozen roses free shipping," the data engine would already know that, when this shopper sends flowers, it's usually a dozen roses from a company that doesn't charge shipping fees – so for that customer it's just a matter of recommending flowers at the right time. People will train technology with their behavior, and the technology will train people as the relevance of its recommendations increases.

Not bad, right?

Just look at the last sentence there. Could I have really written this in 2012? It feels far more apropos for 2024.

Welcome to the age of generative AI.

Search remains Google’s cash cow – or Alphabet’s cash cow.

With AI chat, there currently are no ads.

Google, its hand forced, launched Bard, which delivers content you’d not just have to search for that’s surrounded by search ads, but often gives you answers without making you go to ad-supported sites.

Google is disrupting itself constantly.

So does this mean Google’s dead?

No.

Alphabet, perhaps most like its peer Microsoft, is a survivor. Both have outlasted what should have been existential threats and emerged stronger.

For Google itself, the nature of search has already changed. Retail searches commonly start on Amazon. Millennials and Gen Z tend to turn to TikTok and Instagram for a lot of the content they previously would have searched for.

Yet Google’s “search and other” (mostly search) revenue reached $48 billion in Q4 2023 – a single quarter. That’s up nearly 13% over Q4 2022, and a percentage point higher of the share of Google’s ad revenue for the quarter ($65.5 billion most recently).

If Google’s search business is really dying, I hope I look that good when I’m on my way out.

But Google is at least entertaining the idea that if generative AI trends will disrupt search, it wants to be the one disrupting itself. It wants to control its own fate, forcing it to invent new monetization models.

It doesn’t help that the glut of content produced through automation tools is contributing to what many see as a worsening search experience. You might have seen headlines such as those in Vice – “A ‘Shocking’ Amount of the Web Is Already AI-Translated Trash, Scientists Determine,” and Mashable – “It's not just you, Google Search really has gotten worse.”

If more of that automated content is being created by Google’s tools like Bard, it is one hell of a way to die — by asphyxiating on its own cud.

But what about external threats?

OpenAI’s ChatGPT would seem to be the most natural challenge to Google, as would Microsoft which invested in OpenAI and uses OpenAI’s tech to power its own Copilot suite.

The tech cognoscenti that I know, however, point to Perplexity as the real Google killer.

Consider this LinkedIn post two months ago from investor and prognosticator Jeremiah Owyang:

“Perplexity is so much better than Google search. Period. I use Google search only as a backup now. 20 years of behavior unlearned in just a few months. Massive disruption, sorry Google friends. Innovate as fast as you can!”

Coincidentally, as I wrote this column, The New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose came out with this column: “Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? It Has for Me.” The subheader? “A start-up called Perplexity shows what’s possible for a search engine built from scratch with artificial intelligence.”

It’s a timely read, and fittingly, it ends with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas discussing their odds of being a Google killer:

Srinivas told me in an interview that while he believed Google was a formidable competitor, he thought that a small, focused start-up could give it a startle.
“What makes me confident is the fact that, if they want to do it better than us, they would basically have to kill their own business model,” he said.

Google’s team seems to appreciate Srinivas’s view.

If any company is going to kill Google, Google would prefer it be Google.

David

PS: I wanted to share this offer from my friends at IndeCollective (where I joined the last cohort -- and got a ton of value out of it):

If you're already consulting -- or if you're interested in learning how you can build a 6 or even 7-figure marketing consultancy -- don't miss out on 2 exclusive resources that we're making available to Serial Marketers through our partnership with IndeCollective! Through our partnership you receive 1) A complementary value-based pricing workshop -- led by a fellow marketer, who has built his own 7-figure consultancy -- and 2) Partial scholarship funding to participate in IndeCollective's Spring Bootcamp ($10K value, on us)! Check out all the resources here.

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

24 Trend Predictions for 2024 - Chameleon Collective
AI Answer Engines Are Eating The Search Engine World by Chris Guest
How AI Can Be an Asset, Not a Threat, to Creative Work by Nikki Koppers

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Serial Marketer #262: Win Every AI Argument

David Berkowitz — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:25:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 262: Roomba vs. Furby
Brought to you by: IndeCollective (save $1K on their bootcamp)
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Generated by Microsoft Copilot

“So now I know when people say they’re going to therapy in Brooklyn, they mean a wine bar.”

That’s a zinger I wrote in my notebook while speaking on a panel, Demystifying AI, with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce this week.

I wrote it after the host said they’re having an event at Therapy Wine Bar, but if I never got to use the line. You have to time your zingers.

Still, some of my other lines I jotted down made it in, including a callback to the Chamber lead’s opening remarks about how 84% of businesses in Brooklyn have 10 or fewer employees. I used that one early on to share how I feel their pain as I have such a business, and I need to navigate AI in ways similar to the people in the room.

It was the first event where I was at where I was actively employing some of the lessons I learned from

Mehdi Hassan’s book “Win Every Argument.”

There was no argument to win here, but panels - even overly collegial ones - are the closest I get to playing competitive sports. We may be all on the same team (except for speakers who like to bludgeon or bore audiences to death — they are on the opposing team), in that we are (supposed to be) there to make sure it’s worth attendees’ time, money, and attention. But there’s a rush from keeping up with your peers and putting on a good show.

Hasan’s book is perhaps the best guide I’ve read not just on rhetoric and speaking well but how to connect with audiences. Seasoned speakers and rookies should give it a shot. For people trying to use the book as verbal jujitsu with romantic partners, it might help too, but use it at your own risk; most such arguments need not be “won.”

I had some fun during this panel. It was one of three talks I gave on AI this week alone, the first of which being my first-ever paid-only event, "AI Marketing Tools to Save You Time & Money," covering 30+ of the best SMB and enterprise technologies to use, and tips on how to use them. If you want the recording and aren't a premium member yet, you can get it as a one-off purchase here for the same rate that other attendees had (gotta be fair to them, of course).

The second talk was a private discussion for a tech company where they had me as a guest expert on AI. The first question, I kid you not, was, "Who are you, really?" because some attendees Googled me and expressed concern about David Berkowitz participating in a corporate on-site. I wish every session started with such an ontological question. I mean, who are YOU, really?

(An aside: I heard that the Infillion interview I did recently made some people wonder if the company was resorting to base ways to get a few more clicks. I told Caroline McCarthy that she could expect some of the wrong kinds of traffic.)

Then there was no sleep till Brooklyn.

Perhaps my favorite contribution during the Brooklyn panel came during a question from the moderator about robotics and whether robots were all AI-powered. While one panelist explained how robots are AI-powered, I offered a different take -- an example I never used before.

I'm not an expert in robotics by any means, so I stuck to two examples I was familiar with and hoped most attendees could relate to: Roomba versus Furby (also, a BattleBots match-up I'd pay to see). Roomba, purpose-driven as it is, has the intelligence to recognize that a certain object collecting dust on the floor is actually part of a cat, and that it should not vacuum Fluffy's tail.

Furby, in its various generations, would gain conversational abilities the more one interacted with it, but all of that was programmed rather than learned. It is thus possible to have extremely 'dumb' robots. Furby had the notoriety of lacking both intelligence and an “off” switch, proving that dumb robots can be way more frightening than smart ones.

I did repeat myself a few times over the few days. I like to talk about superpowers, even if I'm fatigued by Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Four (the multiverse is the worst trope to hit movie sequels since Jar Jar Binks). There are the superpowers we have that AI can enhance (for me, using AI to help with writing is one example, even though not a word of this is AI-generated — just the image).

Then there are the superpowers it gives you for skills you don't have, like how Opus.pro can help me act as a video producer. I'm reminded of the chapter in Richard Farson's ever-quotable book "Management of the Absurd": "We want for ourselves not what we are missing, but more of what we already have." That alone is a powerful psychographic segment worth testing if you're an AI-powered tech company.

Thanks to everyone who joined any of the events this week, along with Paul Chaney and Kristina Martin, authors of the AI Marketing Ethics newsletter, who joined our weekly AI Insiders call this week. I can't stress enough how those Insiders sessions (free and open to you even if you're not otherwise engaged with AIMG -- just RSVP) have become a highlight of my week. As Paul said on LinkedIn, "And the attendees -- wow! -- are one smart group of people!"

No argument there, Paul.

Thanks also to Caitlin Kelly of EZ Newswire for connecting me with the Brooklyn organizers.

Lastly, thanks to Tom Deierlein, founder of the TD Foundation, for hosting yet another meaningful and memorable TDF Gala this week. Tom is one of the few true heroes in the ad industry, and he’s the biggest-hearted Purple Heart honoree. Shot and wounded in Iraq by a sniper while on a military tour there where he was securing humanitarian aid, he started TDF to provide aid to children of wounded warriors and fallen heroes. If you don’t know of it, read the full story on the site. And better yet, hear Tom talk about it at next year’s gala, my favorite ad industry annual reunion.

Please donate directly if you can. BUT… if you’re already planning on getting the webinar recording (way less important than supporting TDF directly!), I’ll also split any of the proceeds coming from it with TDF, so maybe we can all do some good together. If you were going to join AIMG as a Fellow or Champion (details on the Join page here) , I’ll split that with TDF for the next week too (doesn’t matter if it comes in via this newsletter).

TDF comes first though. I don’t expect anyone to argue with me on that either.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

AI Art is The New Stock Image by iA Inc
State of Generative AI in the Enterprise 2024 by Deloitte
WSJ News Exclusive | Jeff Bezos Bets on a Google Challenger Using AI to Try to Upend Internet Search by Miles Kruppa

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
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UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
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Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
2/07, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
- This month, brought to you by Nostra!
  Nostra Turns Visitors into Customers. ‍Faster.
Nostra's Edge Delivery Engine and Crawler Optimization products combine to drastically reduce latency and improve core web vitals, leading to improved CVR's & CPC's.
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WHAT'S HOLDING BACK YOUR MARKETING TEAM'S FLOW?
January 30, Online
"Change is the only constant in B2B today. And it's your ability to navigate change successfully that determines your go-to-market success. But how do you pinpoint the challenges and obstacles that stand in your way? If you find yourself asking questions like, "Why does it take so long to launch anything?" or "Can my team be more productive?" then you need to understand how to diagnose the underlying issues. Join our upcoming webinar, “What’s Holding Back Your Marketing Team’s Flow”, with Matt Heinz and Tom Swanson, as they walk through the first step of marketing orchestration: the discovery and diagnostic stage. They’ll discuss overcoming challenges such as stagnant communication, acquisition hurdles, change resistance, and more."
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CONTENT MARKETING COORDINATOR
Part Time Role
"Velvet Suite, Inc. is a high-growth leadership innovation firm on a mission to change the way we live and lead with purpose. We are looking for an immediate B2B Content Marketing Coordinator ready to help us launch our annual event in just 7 weeks. This is a part time role starting at 20 hours with the potential to expand to more hours and become long-term or even full time after proven delivery over the 90-day project period. The B2B content marketing coordinator role exists to deliver standout value through engaging content for prospects and customers to drive leads and brand awareness to our annual virtual Summit. We are looking to bring 50+ leads to attend our annual summit experience."
Apply

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
Senior Manager- Influencer Marketing Strategy
Santa Monica, CA
"We are seeking a Senior Influencer Manager to shape Call of Duty: Mobile and Warzone Mobile’s content creator strategy. You have a vision for the intersection of content and product and are ready to make it come to life. You are a superstar marketer, stellar communicator, and an analytical problem-solver. You are a team player who can easily balance structure with dynamic environments. You will understand where the market is headed and the trends of content creators, as well as community growth. You are also responsible for amplifying the go to market for Call of Duty: Mobile and Warzone Mobile and developing additional lanes for consumers to connect in meaningful ways with our game."
Apply

THRILL ONE
Director, Partnership Sales
Las Vegas, NV
"As part of a restructured Commercial team, Thrill One is looking to identify a Director – Partnership Sales, to drive the next phase of our growth across Thrill One’s entire portfolio of properties. The Director, Partnership Sales will be a member of the Commercial department. She/he will be responsible for driving revenue through all available commercial inventory across the portfolio utilizing industry-leading IP, live events, media, content, and talent assets. The successful candidate will have a proven track-record in building effective partnerships, as well as an established reputation for driving commercial success through multi-property and multi-platform businesses."
Apply

WINDSTREAM
Marketing Director, Product Design
United States
"The Director of Product Design for Kinetic will lead the Marketing team in creating and evolving innovative web products for our customers. This role will have one direct report and is responsible for overseeing the entire product design process, from conducting Product Discovery and brainstorming initial product ideas to creating the final designs and high-fidelity prototypes. The Director of Product Design will also work closely with other departments, such as engineering, product management, marketing, and sales to ensure our products meet customer needs and align with our company goals."
Apply

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SEND NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

JOIN SERIAL MARKETERS
www.serialmarketers.net

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(c) 2023 Serial Marketer

PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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Serial Marketer #261: Demystifying AI (easy, right?)

David Berkowitz — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 13:18:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 261: Demystifying AI (easy, right?)
Brought to you by: AI Marketing Tools to Save You💰 & ⏰
----------------------------------------------------

Here’s a roundup of what’s been going on and what’s ahead this past week.

First off, next week, I’m trying something new and giving a paid talk on AI marketing tools. It’s a showcase of so much of the great tech and a lot of best practices I’ve been pulling together, much of which I’m an avid user of. It’s only $49, and if it doesn’t wind up giving you a few new ideas to run with or saving you a chunk of time, I’ll refund the price of admission.

Even if you can’t make it Tuesday, all attendees will get the slides and video. Hope you can join me there. https://lu.ma/aitools

Next, I did an interview with Caroline McCarthy, and I didn’t realize I got to be the very first Q&A on their blog. I wound up talking a lot about how GenAI fits in with various forms of marketing:

The AI algorithms known as large language models (LLMs) are getting their information from several ways, such as publicly available digital data, sources that the LLM’s owner pays for (e.g., OpenAI doing a deal with Axel Springer), and search engines (Google runs Bard, ChatGPT plugs into Bing). While LLMs can hallucinate (make things up), most of the info is coming from other sources, so having strong SEO and PR programs may prove to be more important than ever to ensure that a given brand is the source of truth for the LLMs.

Be sure to read the full interview if you can’t get enough of all my hot and cold AI takes. ALSO… this is the very first time I found a great nugget of info by searching the exact date of a website’s change via the Wayback Machine at Archive.org (hint: it’s one of Google’s products). Can you fault me for being a little proud of that one?

Alright, next up, I was at a little show called CES last week. I shared some slides with my show recap, specifically around AI & brands, on LinkedIn, but this version is more current, so download away.

And if that all wasn’t enough, there’s yet another AI event next week where I get to share a few things. About AI. And stuff. It’s free, 1/25 12pm EST both in-person in Brooklyn and hybrid, with Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Thanks Caitlin Kelly for the referral! RSVP here.

Oh, and one more heads up for you…

Our next First Wednesday, Feb 7, is sponsored by Nostra.ai, which turns customers info visitors, faster. It’ll be a nice one. Meet them, and catch up with your old FW friends. RSVP: https://lu.ma/firstwed

I thought CES was exhausting, but somehow this newsletter makes me even exhausteder.

Hope you have a restful weekend, hope to see you at one of these events virtually or in the flesh.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier by McKinsey & Company
AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans by Christina Criddle
My 5 Favorite AI Prompts for Writing by Peter Yang

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
01/23, Zoom: AI Marketing Tools to Save You. First 20 get 20% off. Any premium members here get in free.
2/07, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
- This month, brought to you by Nostra!
  Nostra Turns Visitors into Customers. ‍Faster.
Nostra's Edge Delivery Engine and Crawler Optimization products combine to drastically reduce latency and improve core web vitals, leading to improved CVR's & CPC's.
Book a demo at Nostra.ai

WORLD LOGIC DAY
January 21, Austin, TX
"Join us this year to engage, collaborate with, and learn alongside the decision-makers building a brighter future together. For 2024 we expect over 1,500+ attendees and will gather in Austin’s beloved Long Center for the Performing Arts. Over 30+ community local and global partners have already committed to celebrating and joining us for UN World Logic Day in Austin, TX this year (see list below). We are thrilled to announce our Local Co-Chairs Anika Chokhavatia (UT McCombs & 2023 World Logic Day Award Winner) & Emily Gupton (Austin Women & Technology) & our Global Co-Chairs Nisaa Jetha (Founding Chief UK Member), Olivia Dell (Cometa & NOVA Impact), & Sofia Sunaga (Intergen Family Office) who embody and champion logic and impact in their professional and personal lives."
Register

RETAIL FEST
January 24 - 26, San Diego
"If you are over the enormity of events, join Retail Fest for a boutique approach that commits to connection, content and community that continues long after you’ve taken your flight home. We are for the people who live, eat and breathe retail. If you are a brand owner, leader, professional or someone who wants to push the boundaries and do things differently, then this event is going to expand your networks, grow your knowledge and explode your brand.”
Register

--------------------------------------------------------------
JOBS
--------------------------------------------------------------

BOX
Sr. Product Marketing Manager
San Francisco, CA
"Box is the market leader for Cloud Content Management. Our mission is to power how the world works together. As a product marketer for key content management and workflow capabilities at Box, you're responsible for developing positioning, messaging, and integrated go-to-market plans to drive awareness and adoption, and have fun while doing so! You'll get to partner cross-functionally and bring together product management, business development, sales, and customer success to blow our customers' minds. And you'll help define what the future of work looks like - both at Box and for our customers."
Apply

UDEMY
Corporate Communications Manager
San Francisco, CA
"At Udemy, we're on a mission to improve lives through the power of learning. We're a leading global learning company and one of the world's largest education platforms, with more than 59 million learners. We're looking for a creative and tenacious Corporate Communications Manager to help promote our corporate narrative--raising Udemy's visibility as the learning platform of choice to help individuals and organizations transition toward a skills-based economy--and elevate the company's external engagements through executive positioning, media and stakeholder relations. You have a proven track record of growing a company's profile and you're results-driven, with a passion for winning at an increasingly competitive media relations game. You're hands-on and on top of the details. You love writing content that motivates and inspires. You enjoy working cross-functionally and with agencies to flawlessly execute corporate communications programs."
Apply

-------------------------------------------------------------
THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
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SEND NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

JOIN SERIAL MARKETERS
www.serialmarketers.net

The most important rights reserved. You can have the other ones.
(c) 2023 Serial Marketer

PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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Serial Marketer #260: Overheard at CES 2024

David Berkowitz — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 13:03:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 260: Overheard at CES 2024
Brought to you by: AI Marketing Tools to Save You💰 & ⏰
----------------------------------------------------
I’ll have a lot to say about CES coming up, but you’ll get a slice of life below with some of the best quotes I heard out there.
Before diving in, I have a few more resources to share in case you missed them:
- Join the AI Insiders recap (whether or not you’re in AI Marketers Guild) this Wednesday at 12pm EST for more.
- You can see some of my recent CES thoughts on LinkedIn, including my favorite tech I used out in Vegas, what CES would look like for pets (starring Bears, Kimchi, Cash, and Buddy), and my foolproof 5-step plan for how to get all the benefits of CES without actually going.

Meanwhile, here are four quotes I heard that stand out from CES. They’re not exactly overheard – they were said to me directly, or in a small group where I was conversing.

Sources are omitted to protect them, but if you really want to be known as the butthole person in my column, I’ll give you proper credit next time around.

1) “I’m not a go getter. I’m a go gooder.”

A recruiter I met was describing his ethos when he heard I’m a fractional CMO (okay, fraction-of-a-fractional…) and wanted to explore how to collaborate.

It is my favorite line I’ve heard in a long time, and long-time readers of this column can appreciate why it strikes a nerve.

He said it modestly, actually noting it’s how a friend of his described him, and how he wants to provide value to others even when he won’t make a dime from it.

A goal in life is to surround myself with as many go gooders out there. I think a lot of them are go getters too, in all the best ways.

2) “In 2021, everyone was looking to maximize upside. Now, they’re all looking to minimize downside.”

An Israeli startup founder I met with was sharing his take on the job landscape, especially when I mentioned a friend very happy in a safe job even if it wasn’t as challenging as they liked.

I’d heard in the past how maximum upside with minimum downside was the ideal risk to take – specifically in corporate innovation contexts.

The recession mindset, even if we weren’t in one, led to a greater yearning for safety. As interest rates drop, presumably with inflation manageable as well, we’ll see how much more job seekers look for risk and upside.

3) “It’s like Oura for your butthole.”

The most disgusting conversation I wound up in, fortunately well after dinner ended, was about smart toilets. It did involve a participant who manufactures smart toilets, and we were at CES, so this wasn’t the most ridiculous thing to talk about.

Scatological as it was, we wound up coming up with a theoretical four-part framework for how toilets could analyze data and report back on it. It goes something like this:

i) Toilets give you personalized health feedback, like, “Drink more water,” and, “You need to eat more fiber this week.” Hence the “Oura for your butthole” remark. We hypothesized that many would appreciate these recommendations from a smart toilet.

ii) Toilets give diagnostic health information, like, “You have a high probability of colon cancer.” This would probably discourage people from buying smart toilets, even if a small subset of the population would welcome having such alerts. Most people don’t want to be confronted with their own mortality every time they flush.

iii) Toilets share anonymized data with the public and non-profit entities, albeit with some localized parameters. The most obvious analogy is the value of wastewater testing for Covid outbreaks. I hypothesized that the more liberal the area, the more likely they’d opt in; conversative-skewing households would never go for this.

iv) Toilets share data with brands. This idea was posited but universally derided. Granted, I might enjoy seeing more ads for beets (#IYKYK).

If you’re holding a smart toilet summit, please invite me to flush, I mean flesh, this out as a talk. Did I mention I’m the son of a gastroenterologist? What better credentials could you ask for?

4) “The job of the CMO is the worst. You’re the first to get blamed and the last to get credit.”

I think there are worse jobs out there than being a CMO, but will anyone reading this disagree with the sentiment?

Figured.

---

To all of you who shared your wisdom, thank you for the conversations.

To everyone I didn’t quote, you’re welcome.

See you at CES 2025, but hopefully way sooner. If I miss you, it’s because I’m at the other end of the Strip.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

AI Briefing: Creative ways companies used AI in advertising in 2023 by Marty Swant
These are the eight priorities for CEOs next year — and AI tops the list, according to McKinsey
AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans by Christina Criddle

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
01/23, Zoom: AI Marketing Tools to Save You. First 20 get 20% off. Any premium members here get in free.
2/07, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.

AUTOMATING FOR EFFICIENCY: AI AND NON-AI TOOLS
January 17, Online
"Learn how to choose the right tools to simplify workflows, reduce repetitive tasks, and create more space for creative genius. This strategic perspective ensures that the selected tools align with immediate needs and contribute to the organization's growth and innovation over time. And discover the art of striking a crucial balance between machine efficiency, AI, and the irreplaceable human touch in creative work. Pam is a marketing strategist, tech unicorn, and founder of Simply Magic Marketing. With over a decade of experience in the online space, she's known for finding smart, sustainable, innovative ways to help businesses grow and be more profitable.”
Register

--------------------------------------------------------------
JOBS
--------------------------------------------------------------

COMMONWEALTH FUSION SYSTEMS
Head of Internal Communications and Engagement
Devens, MA
"Commonwealth Fusion Systems seeks a creative and seasoned internal communications leader to join our mission of enabling limitless clean energy. As the Head of Internal Communications and Engagement, you will steer our company's internal narrative, ensuring our mission, strategy, and values are clear and resonate throughout the organization. With a pulse on what’s happening, you will keep the team informed, engaged, and inspired and ensure that employees understand the rationale behind decisions. Collaboration is paramount, whether partnering with the CEO or working with individual contributors. You'll play a pivotal part in shaping our vibrant company culture, and contributing to our overall success."
Apply

-------------------------------------------------------------
THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
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SEND NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

JOIN SERIAL MARKETERS
www.serialmarketers.net

The most important rights reserved. You can have the other ones.
(c) 2023 Serial Marketer

PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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Serial Marketer #259: 2 Types of Marketers

David Berkowitz — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 13:27:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 259: 2 Types of Marketers
Brought to you by: AI Marketing Tools to Save You💰 & ⏰
----------------------------------------------------

I was on a call with an Israeli startup founder who noted how hard it is for companies there to find strong marketing & sales leads in the US.

He said the ones that make the most noise usually aren’t the ones who do the best work.

I told him that it’s funny because often the best sales & marketing people I know, including most of the roster of FOAF, are usually too focused on marketing their clients or employers to properly market themselves.

Both sides have something to learn from the other.

If you’re going to build a personal brand, you’ve got to be able to back up your claims with capabilities, and the burden of proof may be even higher that you can do what a given job calls for.

And if you’re so heads down with your work that you’ve all but disappeared, you may miss out on some of the best opportunities.

Balance, right?

Meanwhile, I’m gearing up for my 15th Consumer Electronics Show. Going? Let’s meet up there, or compare notes after if we can’t.

Also, email me so I can send you my collection of event/party lists, and possibly a few other invites.

Meanwhile, I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start. I was home New Year’s Eve, a 15-minute walk from Times Square where my billboard for FOAF was running right between the Old Navy and McDonald’s.

Thanks Five Tier for the ad plays, and thanks FOAFer Andy Brenits for the new logo. (The ad itself was my doing… in a rush to find something, I adapted a Canva template of a milk ad and rewrote the copy.)

Meanwhile, a bit after returning from CES, I’ll be giving a talk, AI Marketing Tools to Save You💰 & ⏰ . I’m sure I’ll be prepping it until it’s time to go on, but so far, I can tell you that I’m packing a ton into this one, and even if you can’t make it live, I’ll send you the recording and deck. Hope you can check this one out.

See you in Vegas, the next First Wednesday (we’ll have a sponsor, and it’ll be a fun one), in one of the communities, or anywhere else.

Here for you as we kick off this year right. You can check out my roster of resources here: http://bit.ly/howdavidcanhelp.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

[Main Report] Navigating the Generative AI Marketing Revolution. Access valuable insights from contributions by marketing leaders and experts by immersing yourself in this main report from Generative AI Series. Unearth the strategies for adeptly navigating the landscape of generative AI-driven marketing.
How to Build, Evaluate, and Iterate on LLM Agents by DeepLearningAI
AI Marketing Video Is a Bit Spooky: Introducing Creatify.ai by John McElhenney

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
01/23, Zoom: AI Marketing Tools to Save You. First 20 get 20% off. Any premium members here get in free.

CES
January 9-12, Las Vegas
"Flip the switch on global business opportunity with CES, where you can meet with partners, customers, media, investors, and policymakers from across the industry and the world all in one place. Don't miss your chance to be a part of the most powerful tech event in the world.”
Register

WORLD LOGIC DAY
January 21, Austin, TX
"Join us this year to engage, collaborate with, and learn alongside the decision makers building a brighter future together. For 2024 we expect over 1,500+ attendees and will gather in Austin’s beloved Long Center for the Performing Arts. Over 30+ community local and global partners have already committed to celebrating and joining us for UN World Logic Day in Austin, TX this year (see list below). We are thrilled to announce our Local Co-Chairs Anika Chokhavatia (UT McCombs & 2023 World Logic Day Award Winner) & Emily Gupton (Austin Women & Technology) & our Global Co-Chairs Nisaa Jetha (Founding Chief UK Member), Olivia Dell (Cometa & NOVA Impact), & Sofia Sunaga (Intergen Family Office) who embody and champion logic and impact in their professional and personal lives."
Register

--------------------------------------------------------------
JOBS
--------------------------------------------------------------

OKX
Web3 Ecosystem Marketing Manager
San Jose, California, United States
"OKX is revolutionising world systems through our cutting-edge digital asset exchange, Web3 portal and blockchain ecosystems. Role & Responsibilities: -Identify growth opportunities and channels across CeFi and DeFi products through research using data from key metrics. -Identify and analyze current GTM gaps and strengthen the product ecosystem pipeline in different functions within OKX. -Initiate ecosystem development plans and conduct succession planning initiatives. -Strategize and execute omnichannel campaigns for ecosystem growth with internal and external stakeholders."
Apply

-------------------------------------------------------------
THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
-------------------------------------------------------------

SEND NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

JOIN SERIAL MARKETERS
www.serialmarketers.net

The most important rights reserved. You can have the other ones.
(c) 2023 Serial Marketer

PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

--------------------------------------------------------------
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Serial Marketer #258: The 9 Stages of Coping with Client Loss

David Berkowitz — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 13:25:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 258: The 9 Stages of Coping with Client Loss
Brought to you by: BlueDot’s AI-powered Google Meet assistant
----------------------------------------------------

It’s a rare Monday column. I fell behind on getting this right for Friday, and I’ll just publish this one before the end of the year.

Working for yourself or running your own business?

Losing a client can be hard. If it’s an important client, you may need to grieve the loss.

What I can tell you is that you’re not alone if you feel that way. There are a lot of stages to it, and a lot of the stories I’m hearing out there are a mix of brutal and strange.

Here are the stages, best as I’ve can define them, with a few thoughts about them from someone who’s been there.

1) Denial. “Did this really just happen?” “Did this really happen to me?” If the contract’s done, yes, it really did.

2) Anger. “How dare they? They don’t have any clue what they’re doing! How could they part ways with me?”

3) Bargaining: “My rate's normally $200 an hour, but I’ll do the job for $175. No good? How about $150? What, too expensive? $99 an hour, take it or leave it. Okay, fine, how about $75 an hour, but you throw in a ChatGPT license and a few meals from Chipotle? “

4) Depression: Accepting depression is key. You're allowed. It could be your smallest client or your biggest revenue stream. The financial loss may or may not be bigger than the financial one. Maybe there are relationship factors complicating things. It doesn't matter. You're allowed to grieve.

5) Connection: Who can help you get over the grief? What shoulder can you lean on? Ideally, you'll have a mix - even if it's just two people - of personal and professional shoulders. You’ll also probably need a mix of listeners and talkers – the former to let you vent, and the latter to provide sound counsel.

6) Acceptance: This happened. It happened to you, and it happens to everyone. Stick with your business, and it’s bound to happen again. All engagements run their course. Sometimes, it takes a more jarring turn and it’s a lot more to deal with, whether due to the suddenness, the way it happened, or both. Breathe a little. Clear your head. You’re going to need all the clarity you can get.

I’ll add a quote in here, one of my favorite lines in any movie, from the bartender in “Keeping the Faith” (played by Brian George): “May those who love us, love us. And those who don't love us - may God turn their hearts. And if He cannot turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so that we may know them by their limping.”

7) Action: What do you do about it? How soon do you need to replace the client? Were you already underbilled? You’ve got some options now:

Email/call a small handful of people who’ve been helpful to you in the past
Mass mail a ton of your contacts
Do a mail merge / copy and paste with a larger but select group
Post publicly on LinkedIn
A bunch of 1:1 DMs on LinkedIn
Talk to friends/family where you might be able to get fill-in work with side projects
Any other productive idea that can get you further along

Some steps might be more fruitful than others. What I’ve learned is that if you’re sincere and not obnoxious, you’ll get a lot of slack, and maybe a few offers that can help stop the bleeding, or at least slow it.

8) Gratitude: Acknowledge those who got you a step further along. Thank them directly, but also take a few moments each day to be grateful. We all have our guardian angels, people who look out for us. They don’t always surface the moment we want them, but often they appear the moment we need them.

9) Optimization: What do you do after taking action and reflection? What will you do differently next time? What do rounds 2 and 3 and 4 of your process look like?

I’ll admit this is based in part on personal experience, along with what I’ve heard from peers going through a lot now.

So, yes, I’m open to taking on another project or two, along with funneling any others that aren’t a fit for me to the incredible FOAF.pro fractional CXO network.

You can see a two-pager overview about me here, which you may also appreciate if you want inspiration for a relatively concise way for others to refer work to you.

I can’t just share what I’m up to without making an offer in return.

One thought comes from a LinkedIn post by Nihal Mehta at Eniac Ventures that I shared with a few comments.

Nihal wrote, “1. List your top 10 dream customers. Search LinkedIn for who your strongest node of connection is to each. 2. Email each node a few lines of context why you are interested to connect, with a blurb/short deck. Mention your company in the third person… so this becomes incredibly easy to forward around.”

I added, “If you’re a job seeker, founder, etc and I am your closest or one of your best nodes that can reach the person you need, email me a note in the way Nihal describes, and I will send it on accordingly. Make it easy for the forwarder and clear for the target recipient, and be brief so you show respect for others’ time. Do all that - it’s not much, but it’s a lot - and you’ll make big things happen.”

There’s more I can offer too, such as access to the AI Marketers Guild and Serial Marketers (a couple of pretty swell communities IMHO), a referral agreement for FOAF, and my undying appreciation.

Also, I’ll now be at CES in January, so let me know if you’re going. I may have some invites to share, and beyond that, it’d be great to see you.

On that note, whatever you have to celebrate or lament going into the holidays, I hope they’re restorative and peaceful for you. I’m optimistic about the year ahead, and the best thing we can do to make 2024 a better year is to be there for each other.

Happy holidays, Happy New Year, and see you in 2024.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

[Main Report] Navigating the Generative AI Marketing Revolution. Access valuable insights from contributions by marketing leaders and experts by immersing yourself in this main report from Generative AI Series. Unearth the strategies for adeptly navigating the landscape of generative AI-driven marketing.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil by Paul Chaney
Pika Launches AI Video Editing App And Announces $55 Million In Funding by Kenrick Cai

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
1/3, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.

TECH & BUSINESS NETWORKING
December 20, New York
"Join us at Obsidian's Tech and Business Networking event, where a happy hour ambiance sets the stage for unparalleled collaboration and networking. Set in a vibrant Manhattan venue, our event combines the informal, engaging atmosphere of a happy hour with the dynamic energy of the tech and business world. Who Should Attend? Our event is tailored for: -Tech Founders and SaaS Creators. -Marketing Mavericks and Real Estate Brokers..”
Register

--------------------------------------------------------------
JOBS
--------------------------------------------------------------

VIRTUALNESS
Marketing Manager
Remote
"We are looking for a rockstar marketing manager. You are a self-starter who loves to nurture long term relationships that create win/wins for both our partners and Virtualness. You are talented at articulating the benefits of a product, educating people on how to use a new product or feature, sharing partner stories, and bringing back to the team insights you are gaining from your conversations and working collaboratively cross functionally to amplify a partnership. You are responsible for building deeper connections between creators, brands, and their communities, while driving the adoption of our platform."
Apply

GHOST
Director of Marketing
Remote
"We're looking for an experienced marketing leader who specialises in product marketing and demand generation to help us tell a better story about what we do and, more importantly, why we do it. Of all the fast-growing companies in the space we're in, Ghost is the only one structured as an independent non-profit organisation. The only one releasing our software into the public domain as open source. Ghost is a full stack web application for running independent publications. It’s one of the most popular modern open source projects in the world, and is used in production by tens of thousands of websites and companies."
Apply

BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA
Senior Manager, Digital and Marketing Analytics
Oakland, CA
"The Senior Manager of Digital and Marketing Analytics at Blue Shield of California will oversee a team of analytics professionals, collaborate with business leaders to apply analytics in achieving their goals, and manage digital and marketing analytics to drive engagement, optimize digital journeys, and assess marketing effectiveness."
Apply

-------------------------------------------------------------
THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
-------------------------------------------------------------

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Serial Marketer #257: 3 LinkedIn LifeHacks

David Berkowitz — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 15:13:09 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 257: 3 LinkedIn #LifeHacks
Brought to you by: WorkReduce’s New Workforce Agility Report
----------------------------------------------------

I’ve been spending more of my time and energy on LinkedIn lately. It’s more productive and less toxic than other platforms, and it often leads me to connect or reconnect with wonderful humans.

It’s not all perfect. When I shared a post saying how I was done with X, one Musk defender commented spouting a line right from the white nationalist playbook, and I responded publicly, vehemently combatting his laments that the white race was under attack. Then I got tired of arguing and blocked him.

As I was writing this, another (former) friend said "no one" actually thought Musk's post was antisemitic. "No one." I told him I was offended, because Musk saying it's the "actual truth" that Jews foment "hatred against whites" sure sounded antisemitic to me, and I sent him a brief reading list, including Fox News describing Musk’s post as antisemitic. He then told me, “Your [sic] getting emotional and it’s clouding your communication.” He clearly isn’t ready for the “unclouded” version of what I wish I could tell him.

Beyond these exceptions, LinkedIn's been a bright spot in my daily media usage. I learn a few things, stay in touch with people who don't DM me with personal attacks, and often engage with others who help make the world a little smaller.

Here are a few ways that you may find it more useful too:

1) Reconnect, even when it feels awkward.

There are some great books and articles about how interacting with strangers (in a positive, welcome way) is almost always appreciated by the stranger, no matter how awkward and scary it tends to seem for the one initiating the exchange.

The same can be true when reconnecting with people who you haven't connected with in ages, especially when you don't have an immediate reason to connect with them.

I decided to try getting over this myself. I dug up a list that I had made of people who I had interacted with during a previous job search nearly a decade ago. I updated it and then had a list four pages long of people I hadn't talked to in years. I didn't have an 'ask.' I just wanted to refresh the connection and hear how they're doing. That was the agenda.

It's been wonderful so far. Sure, many haven’t responded at all yet, and I’m just getting started. But for those who have, I'm hearing some things that they're up to, and there are a few follow-up conversations scheduled. If a few people think, "Why is this guy reaching out to me again?" then so be it. I need to get over that awkward feeling and that concern that they wouldn’t want to hear from me or that I didn’t have a good enough reason.

To paraphrase that renowned philosopher Stuart Smalley, “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you."

2) Your competition is your best source of info.

I can't remember which Marc Goldberg post made me think about this, as he posts about jobs ALL THE TIME on LinkedIn (in a great way... follow him!), but one of his posts brought back memories of a previous job search.

Sure, you want to talk to as many people who could be helpful, and those usually seem like people who could hire you or who could introduce you to hiring leads. Do that all day long.

But don't neglect your competition. You know who some of the best sources of info are? Fellow job seekers.

Such seekers are the ones you're with on the Oregon Trail. You get to the trading post, and you're trying to survive, even if gold is hard to come by and there are no bison to hunt.

Find out what job boards they're looking at. What recruiters they're working with. If any resume tips helped them. Who has been a good source of inspiration. Where there might be some leads for temporary gigs.

It's fellow seekers who will have the most current info, even when you're competing for similar roles. I once even sent a friend all my notes on a company, including my presentation to their management team, when I learned he was interviewing for the role that I was pretty sure I was no longer in the running for. Keep that competition close.

An aside: my job resources are https://bit.ly/marketerjobs, and I updated them recently if you haven’t checked there in a while.

3) Workshop your voice.

LinkedIn has a great new feature, Collaborative Articles. that I only started exploring thanks to my client Zack Rozga at Thece.

Have you tried this yet? For writers who love sounding off on any topic remotely in their ballpark (guilty), it can be addictive. I've started commenting on posts in topics like social media and AI, and once I see some people like my responses, I have to keep coming back for more.

You can see what I wrote here, for instance, in response to a thread about how Twitter can help you reach more readers. Ahem.

The biggest downside with the whole concept is that most people will probably use ChatGPT to generate their answers and spam the lists. Zack and I were applauding each other for NOT doing that, but we may already be in the minority.

The Collaborative feature offers a great low-stakes way to start crafting your voice and workshopping ideas. People will see it, but not as many people as who will see your regular posts. I'll be curious how it works for building credibility and forging new, meaningful connections. But it's worth trying so far, and with topics being formulated by AI, it's a good example of AI-generated and human-generated content living side by side.

I've been more vocal in general on LinkedIn lately. Maybe it's because I left X and need a new outlet, but largely it's because the relevant engagement there keeps luring me in. You get some immediate feedback on whether your ideas are catching on too. If you don't delete a dud of a post of yours once in a while, it's probably because you're not experimenting enough.

I had no clue if anyone would get a kick out of my custom GPT that spoofs Twitter's CEO and her now-famous non-apologies, but even some experiments like that are finding an audience. And they allow me to get real-time feedback for some things I’m working on.

Having a voice means some people won't like your voice. And that means you'll have to choose some battles too. For me, I'm good with healthy disagreement but will call out racism and won't take kindly to gaslighting. Those battles can come up even when you say something that isn't all that controversial -- like how no one should do business with someone who tells their most important customers to "GFY."

As for my friend who thought I was too emotional, I wanted to tell him (SO badly), "GFY," but the last words I wrote to him instead were, "Bless your heart."

You get it, right? It means the same thing if you understand the context.

Context matters. Words matter. Using them wisely remains a challenge for the ages, and maybe we can collaborate on how to best do so.

David

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
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Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

[Main Report] Navigating the Generative AI Marketing Revolution. Access valuable insights from contributions by marketing leaders and experts by immersing yourself in this main report from Generative AI Series. Unearth the strategies for adeptly navigating the landscape of generative AI-driven marketing.
AI is about to completely change how you use computers by Bill Gates
How AI-driven contextual targeting helps advertisers beyond cookie deprecation by Digiday

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Serial Marketer #256: Culinary Cats and Other DIY GPTs

David Berkowitz — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 13:04:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 256: Culinary Cats and Other DIY GPTs
Brought to you by: WorkReduce’s New Workforce Agility Report
----------------------------------------------------

Do you need to create your very own GPT?

Probably not.

Should you, using the new DIY "Create a GPT" feature in the paid version of ChatGPT?

Probably, and I'll show you a few reasons why.

Will you default to using others' GPTs instead of ChatGPT's default?

Too soon to tell.

"Create a GPT" falls into that genre of tech experiences that's like one of those "minutes to learn, a lifetime to master" genres.

My 9-year-old daughter made her own GPT, the Culinary Cat Companion. It's about her two favorite subjects: cat care and cooking. However, ChatGPT frowns upon someone combining the two.

The GPT said, when I asked, "Oh whiskers! That's definitely not on the menu. In the world of culinary delights and feline friends, we keep our cats as cherished companions, not as cuisine."

Also, ChatGPT did not like when I tried to get DALL-E 3 to generate a funny image of someone trying to eat a cat. Alf would be SO over it.

My daughter, upon seeing my atrocious behavior with her GPT while writing the column, told me that I'm not allowed to use it anymore.

If I can't use that, at least I have others, like Stage Spotlight. I based this one on some of the ways my partner uses ChatGPT when preparing for auditions or readings. Due to a bit of subtle programming, it has a habit of routinely recommending my favorite actor. Here's what it said, in the middle of a top 10 tips list, when I asked for advice on playing Iago:

"Study Lindsay Brill's Approach: Lindsay Brill, known for her deep character studies and expressive acting, might approach Iago with a focus on the psychological underpinnings of his actions. She would likely explore the character's backstory and motivations in depth to create a compelling and realistic portrayal."

Why, yes she would!

I played around with the tone of responses in another, trying to make one GPT more ornery -- hence the debut of Grumpy McGrumpersbot.

The most involved one I tried relates to FOAF, the fraction-of-a-fractional CXO network. When you go into the Create a GPT editor, it defaults to the "Create" tab which involves a number of text-based prompts so you can bring your GPT to life. It's like using ChatGPT to create a GPT.

The second tab, "Configure," allows for some advanced prompts. A key area here is the "Knowledge" field below where you can attach files.

I have a ton of FAQs, sales materials, and other collateral for FOAF that I used to inform what became FOAFbot. It can also pull info from a site, and there are a few other more advanced actions that can soup it up. I'm a writer and marketer, not a programmer, so you'll have to find someone else in AI Marketers Guild to give the advanced class.

Adding files is a game-changer. It's what gives your GPT custom knowledge beyond all the information that ChatGPT has been trained on, and it can give your GPT unique content that doesn't exist anywhere else, at least in conversational form.

When chatbot development tools first came out, I spent hours trying to train a bot to give responses to the most basic phrases, from "What is your website?" to "Are you named after a serial killer?" (You can relate, right?)

Now, "Create a GPT" has covered all the standard language inputs but can also become your surrogate, or your knowledge management system.

I'd be wary of putting anything confidential or sensitive in there. You're probably not going to use a tool that costs $20 a month to replace an entire corporate intranet. But it can be a time-saver for your team or customers.

Most of these GPTs won't actually be used to create billion-dollar businesses (sorry). You may try a bunch and then delete the lot of them just so they don't take up space on your ChatGPT dashboard. And for paying users, ChatGPT just got way more useful without this upgrade given that it allows multimodal access to Dall-E 3, file analysis, and plug-ins all within the same stream, so you don't need to pick which flavor of ChatGPT you use.

That means for the vast majority of ChatGPT users, even paying ones, you'll default to regular GPTs. And for specialized knowledge management, AI will either be built into the enterprise-grade tools you already use (that's most likely) or you'll use some specialized offerings that are more robust (and at least have the feeling of being more secure) than a quick project rigged up using a major LLM.

It also points to how quickly we get accustomed to major leaps forward. A development like "Create a GPT" would have sounded unfathomable to most people a year ago, before ChatGPT's debut. Now, we either need to see the wow factor or an immediate use case to pay attention.

That's alright. Folks like me are keeping an eye on this stuff so you can have some filters. I even pre-ordered the Humane pin, skeptical as I may be as to its utility, to experience all this first-hand.

If you did create a GPT of your own though, I'd love to see it. I may ask it a few inappropriate questions though -- all in the name of science. You just might not want to send me any GPTs about your pets.

David

PS1: Thanks Daryl Pereira for interviewing me on IBM's Business Schooled podcast. You may be shocked to hear the topic: AI and marketing.

PS2: Congrats to my friends at WorkReduce on the launch of their eye-opening report on Workforce Agility. There's a fascinating paradox explored here -- people like returning to the office when they're back, and it's good for their careers, but they largely don't want to go. Read more in Adweek too.

PS3: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wish I could write thousands of thank you notes to everyone, and maybe sometime soon, AI will make it look like I did. But I'm grateful for every millisecond someone spends with a missive like this. Whether we know each other well or you just stumbled on this through six degrees, I appreciate you, and I'm here for you in any way I can be. To Americans the world over, a happy Thanksgiving, and may all of us find at least a little something to be thankful for in the days, weeks, and years ahead.

David

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Serial Marketer #255: The Cultural Prism

David Berkowitz — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 13:05:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 255: The Cultural Prism
----------------------------------------------------

I’ve been meaning to pass on a gift to you, or one I hope is a gift, as I’ll share a few reflections on one of the best business books I’ve read in years.

I received “For the Culture” by Dr. Marcus Collins as a gift from the Suzy AI Summit in July where Dr. Collins keynoted – it was a fireside chat with Suzy CEO (and my old boss) Matt Britton where you just had to tune in and be present. I didn’t see anyone looking at their phones during this one.

This is a print book, so I had a lot of notes written on the blank page in the back, and then I revisited it when I was done so I could write it up in my book report journal – a hobby I still keep up, jotting down thoughts on the 50 to 70 books a year I read and listen to. DALL-E 3 hasn’t made me give up pens just yet.

I misread one of my notes – the curse of having the handwriting of a doctor’s son – because I couldn’t find a reference to a “cultural prism” on page 21, and I thought the term was a little bit odd in the context anyway.

But then I found it: “cultural program,” in a reference to cultural scholar Raymond Williams. Dr. Collins wrote:

“Williams defined culture as a realized signifying system, a system through which we interpret the world and make sense of it. This system, as Williams argued, is a whole way of life for people – a program for everyday living… Culture is a realized meaning-making system. More accurately, it is a system of systems…”

So it’s a program, not a prism, and yet…

What is a prism?

On the surface, it’s a transparent, triangular object that refracts light into its constituent colors. Shine white light into a prism, and you can see what it’s really made of.

The book is indeed a guide to a cultural prism. Shine light into a person, and you can see the tribes and congregations that they’re made of.

After all, even a nomadic hermit, against their will perhaps, becomes part of the nomadic hermit culture. But more commonly, we associate with each other, and we associate into tribes.

One argument Dr. Collins delves into is persuading marketers to stop targeting audiences and demographics and to start targeting congregations:

“Through this lens, segmentation and targeting become very clear. We divide the market into two segments: those who believe and those who do not. We then target the believers, who are more inclined to move, and move on past the nonbelievers. And, oh, by the way, there are probably more believers out there than you are aware of. Remember, multiple tribes combine to create congregations.”

There’s also a great little diagram a bit further on that goes something like this:

Target an audience (start wide and narrow it down):
OOOO
OOOO -> OOOO
OOOO -> OOOO -> OOOO
OOOO -> OOOO
OOOO

Target a congregation (start narrow and they’ll evangelize you’re message):
OOOO
OOOO -> OOOO
OOOO -> OOOO -> OOOO
OOOO -> OOOO
OOOO

The last page of each chapter gets real with a section called “From Know-Why to Know-How.” The one at the end of Chapter 3 builds on the previous exercise where you get at the soul of the brand with a “we believe” statement.

This one then says, “Once you’ve communicated the soul, then end with the sale. ‘We believe ____, so we created ____ to realize this belief.’” The context from the book is way more helpful, but this is a starting point.

A few other gems that I loved, again without all the proper context, but they’re too good not to share:

“We’re not rational human beings; we’re rationalizing human beings.”
He looks at the difference between “fast culture” which explains what people do, and “slow culture” which explains why people do it.
He makes a great distinction in the end between brands that practice cultural appropriation and those that practice “cultural appreciation.”

That’s a brief prism of the book so you can see some of the light that shines through. Read it to appreciate it in all its color.

David

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FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence | The White House by The White House
Four Marketing Strategies You Can Steal From Taylor Swift by Ash Jurberg

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USING GENAI TO MOTIVATE CONSUMERS THROUGH THE ONLINE BUYING JOURNEY
November 14, New York
"Generative AI (GenAI) has proven to be valuable in creating efficiencies in content creation and saving time and resources. But marketers are looking for new applications for GenAI that not only solve for efficiency but also efficacy. When it comes to GenAI, how can we use it to achieve business metrics such as customer acquisition, loyalty program enrollment, and increasing shopping cart conversions? What are other impactful applications of GenAI and where is the technology heading? In this executive roundtable dinner, a small group of retail and e-commerce execs will discuss where AI is having an impact on their business and digital customer experience today and where they expect it to have an impact in 2024 and beyond."
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Hicksville, NY
"Horizon Healthcare Staffing is searching for a Marketing Manager / Marketing. Director for our corporate office in Hicksville, NY. Horizon Healthcare Staffing is a leading healthcare staffing agency serving the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan area. With a staffing history spanning over 30 years, we take pride in providing exceptional staffing solutions for healthcare clients, while also assisting job seekers in finding rewarding employment opportunities. Our commitment to both the clients we serve and the healthcare professionals we support sets us apart as a trusted partner in the industry."
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Serial Marketer #254: Your AI Reading List

David Berkowitz — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:02:00 +0000

----------------------------------------------------
SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 254: Your AI Reading List
Brought to you by: Compete Week
----------------------------------------------------

I’m writing this from Austin, where I was been speaking at the HGS Build for the Future Summit. It’s both fun and humbling to feel like such a novice in a room full of brilliant folks tackling customer experience (CX) challenges or applying their other areas of expertise.

I made up for my relative lack of knowledge with the sheer volume of content I was trying to cram into a 20-minute talk (well, it should have been 15 — sorry, Eric Schwamberger, a long-time kindred spirit from the agency side who’s at HGS and invited me).

I’ll keep today’s missive lighter on original content but richer in the aggregated variety, as it’s been quite a stretch getting to this point. While the slides lack voiceover, there’s a lot of material that may be good for your bookmark stash. These links cover most of it:

Steal these slides from the HGS talk: bit.ly/aimarketingfunnel
AI in the Customer Journey: A Comprehensive Review: bit.ly/aijourney
A.I.M. Framework for Evaluating New AI Technologies:
bit.ly/aimframework
20 AI Marketing Tools… That You’ll Actually Use (I shared this on LinkedIn recently, and the kids there love it): bit.ly/20AItools

A big theme of my talk, largely about AI’s role in supporting the marketing funnel, was captured in the adorably illustrated slides (thanks DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT) that said, “Ask not what job you can do with AI tech; ask what job you want AI technologies to do.”

Okay, Kennedy said it better, and more handsomely, but the idea is right now you can probably find AI-centric or AI-supported tech to do some or all of literally any marketing job. And when you hear about some weird things I share, or that come up in AI Marketers Guild (AIMG), you should try whatever moves you. But when it comes to your day job, first figure out the job you need to be done, and only then see how AI can help — or IF it can help. As Judy Shapiro noted on a recent AI Insiders call, AI needs to earn your trust.

Speaking of which, AIMG continues to shape up to be THE community-led organization for marketers trying to make sense of AI, and the weekly calls, now regularly with subject matter experts and demos, is fantastic. We have a mix of brand, agency, tech, association, and academia folks learning tons from each other, and you should make one of our upcoming editions, always Wednesdays at 12pm EST.

Our upcoming lineup includes:

11/8: Paul Greenberg on using AI for video creation
11/15: Dana Hork of Beers with Friends and MK Luff on AI tools and processes that help run agencies
11/29: Michelle Vincent, CEO, Mofilm
12/6: Startup Showcase demos
12/13: Tameka Kee, Ad Futurist on how marketers can apply AI in 2024

Really, they’re amazing, and if you need a speaker for any AI topic, I’m keeping a running list. I’d love to join you myself if appropriate, but I can also recommend others.

Hope to see you at one of those. Let me know what you think of the resources shared, and send any tips for resources you recommend.

If you’re not in the community yet, I’d love to have you there too. Just reply and I’ll get you right in — until I figure out how AI can automate all that.

David

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY: COMPETE WEEK
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Learn from CMOs at CompeteWeek2023

Learn from top CMOs that are competing within saturated markets at Compete Week 2023 on Nov. 8-9 hosted by Klue (one of LinkedIn’s Top Startups).

Top GTM leaders from Apollo, Hubspot, and Salesforce sharing what they’re doing to make their teams more efficient, how they’re using competitive intel to generate demand, and help revenue teams close what’s in their existing pipeline. Including sessions and speakers like:

- Sydney Sloan on lessons from a career competing for mindshare leading teams at Adobe, Salesloft, and now Drata

- Meagen Eisenberg on where competitive intel fits into her portfolio as a CMO

- Jarod Greene on the programs he runs to keep the C-Suite on top of the competitive landscape

Save your seat!

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WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
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Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

The Ever-So-Ethical OpenAI Just Replaced Its "Core Values" With Completely Different Ones by NOOR AL-SIBAI
Default No to AI Training on Your Stories by Tony Stubblebine
Inside the Strike-Breaking WGA Contract: AI, Streaming, and Staffing by KALIA RICHARDSON

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HOW TO SHARE
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Thanks to James Gardner, Cary Munk, Dan LaFontaine, Andre Archimbaud, Devin Brown, Justin Dank, Pauline Echols, Paul Robinson, James A. Gardner, Seth Girksy, and Michael Winter for spreading the word about the newsletter recently.

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EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
10/26 (via Zoom): The 2024 Ad Industry Talent Outlook
11/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
11/15-16 (partner event, virtual): Join the AI Marketers Summit this fall. Register by 8/24 for the best discounts.
11/29 5-7pm (NYC): Join our final Stacked Startup Showcase of the year and kick off the holiday stretch with your friends in AIMG. Reply here if you want to demo.
12/6, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.

ASCENT CONFERENCE
October 30, New York
"The Ascent Conference is all about Elevating Ideas & Inspiring Innovation. Join 600 industry thought-leaders. Designed for CEOs, CMOs, CROs, VPs and Directors of $5M-to-$1BN companies looking to immerse themselves in a knowledge-rich experience. Supplement the information you gain from the sessions and take a deep-dive into the specific topics and challenges you’re facing today at work. Together, we will shape the future and ascend to new heights of success. By attending the only C-level, VP-level, and Director-level SaaS conference in the US, you’ll walk away with the actionable insights and strategies that you can immediately implement for sustainable growth."
Register

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JOBS
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STRIVE
Chief Marketing Officer
New York, NY
"STRIVE seeks in its first ever Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), a world class communications leader ready to architect, build, and institutionalize an ambitious and comprehensive marketing strategy that is simultaneously national in scope and bespoke in local execution. Supported by critical investments from Blue Meridian Partners, MacKenzie Scott, Ballmer Group, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and many others—STRIVE is excited to welcome an inaugural CMO to provide vision, expertise, and enterprise-wide marketing and communications leadership amidst a watershed moment of growth. For nearly 40 years, STRIVE’s mission has been singular: Break cycles of poverty by equipping the underserved for meaningful and lasting employment."
Apply

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David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

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PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 252: Ditching My X
Brought to you by: Ramp (“spending made smarter”)
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The Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel upended the nation, region, and world in all kinds of devastating ways. While I stand with the victims of terrorist attacks, I have a hard enough time making sense of topics like marketing and AI, so the Middle East is above my pay grade. If you'd like to read more about that, I recommend more astute writers like Daniel Gordis, author of the Israel from the Inside newsletter.

We will cover an ancillary event to the attacks, one that is not so important -- but one that I at least am qualified to write about.

This week marked the first time in more than a decade, probably at least 15 years, that I didn't follow a major breaking news event on Twitter.

In large part, that's because Twitter has ceased to exist. It's hard to follow something somewhere that isn't real.

Granted, I'm confused that twitter.com as a domain continues to exist. And when I type x.com into my browser, it redirects to twitter.com. For a company trying to kill off its former brand, it's doing a terrible job.

It's only been the past week where I started to be comfortable calling the platform X. "It'll always be Twitter to me," thought I.

But then, I accepted that it isn't Twitter anymore. Twitter had to feel like an ex before I could call it X.

I didn't check X once last weekend as word of the massacre spread. Checking Threads and supplementing that with the NY Times live blog worked just as well, and I didn't come across any misinformation or disinformation.

Threads may finally prove to be enough of the not-Twitter version of Twitter that people need -- reliable, mainstream, a short learning curve, and ultimately run by someone who may not be a saint but keeps his own opinions out of the platform's daily discourse.

Over the past week, journalists and other influential voices have been joining seemingly en masse and have been reporting surges in follower counts. I was most surprised by this post by legendary tech reporter Wall Mossberg:

"The reason to quit Twitter (X) isn't that it's apparently collapsing financially, or killing important features. It's a moral and ethical issue. Not only are Nazis, racists, antisemites, misogynists, liars and conspiracy theorists being welcomed back, but the owner seems to be actively supporting this. I gave up a 16-year account with over 800,000 followers because I couldn't associate myself with this haven for hate and lies. You should too."

You can agree or disagree with Mossberg's characterization of X. Take that up with him, not me (you'll have to comment on Threads). The third sentence is what is most impactful. If someone so respected can give up an account that they nurtured for nearly two decades while amassing nearly a million followers, and then join a smaller, much less influential platform, so can you.

Maybe you don't want to. I'm not judging. Well, not too much.

But for those on the fence, and for those seeing more folks they follow abandon X, posts like this matter.

Such posts are easier and easier to find.

Consider Peter Shankman's bio on X now: "I'm not here anymore. Musk poisoned Twitter and it's useless now. Find me on Threads. https://threads.net/@petershankman."

Or, for good measure, there's my bio: "Find me on Threads or practically anywhere but here: dberkowitz."

That's not totally true. You won't find me active on any of the other Twitter also-rans. I tried them all, and I also ran.

I still sometimes check X to see what's bubbling up there. Most of my favorite accounts to follow are now on Threads, and a larger share of those accounts are actively using it. Often, when I’m X, I'm procrastinating or doomscrolling. And I do it less and less. I haven't engaged with anyone there in more than a month and will occasionally follow up with someone over DM, invariably telling them I'm no longer there much.

The biggest thing I miss about X is some of the people I used to enjoy following and engaging with there.

But I'm reminded of a line I heard on an AI panel recently hosted by Knotch, one of my favorite lines in part because the speaker spelled out such an obvious point. When we were talking about using AI for content generation, Jamie Roô, Head of Wealth Management Digital Content at Morgan Stanley, said something like, "Our customers don't need more content."

Most of us don't need more content, more people to follow, more news sources, or more connections. Most of us don't even need more of an audience; we just need to better engage with those we're reaching or provide more value to them.

There's a lot I miss about Twitter. There's far less I miss about X. There's some opportunity cost for not being there, but there are also already too many places to be. I'm also someone who has a weird habit of starting communities and being active in several others I love.

What matters is cultivating deeper, more meaningful relationships. That's why I bristle at all of those LinkedIn requests that say, "I see we have ## connections in common. Let's connect here too!" By that logic, you'd connect with everyone, and then it means you provide value to and get value from no one.

And if you're still not convinced, there's always the example of Jesus. With 12 of the right followers, he changed the world.

Who needs 800,000?

Peace to you wherever you are. May perpetrators of terror worldwide meet the swiftest kind of justice, and may no more innocent, civilian lives be lost in Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and other war-torn areas.

Stay safe, and however deep or tenuous our relationship is, reach out if there's ever anything you need.

David

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY: RAMP
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WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

Retain BIPOC Talent With Support and Recognition by Argelia Martinez
New LA Agency Candor Debuts With Human Sciences-Based Approach by Kyle O'Brien
Learn How Forever 21 Got 11x ROAS Using Zembula by Zembula

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
10/12, 6-8pm (NYC): AIMG’s Stacked Startup Showcase featuring demos and conversation with leading AI & marketing practitioners
10/26 (via Zoom): The 2024 Ad Industry Talent Outlook
11/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
11/15-16 (partner event, virtual): Join the AI Marketers Summit this fall. Register by 8/24 for the best discounts.
12/6, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.

HOW TO BECOME AN AI-NATIVE BRAND
October 19, New York, New York
"Join us for a night of cocktails, conversation, and enlightening education hosted by Sightline at Horizon Media’s Tribeca headquarters. We'll be joined by experts in the fields of AI, Venture Investing, and Marketing to discuss how Brands are implementing AI to drive business impact, plus the challenges of becoming an AI Native Brand. The evening will kick off with a panel featuring these experts and moderated by Sightline leadership. We’ll encourage interactivity throughout the panel Q&A, and all attendees should be ready to continue the lively conversation over drinks on Horizon’s stunning terrace space (complete with views of the NYC skyline)."
Register

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JOBS
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TEQUILA SUNRISE
Email Marketing Strategist
Remote
"Tequila Sunrise is a fast-growing marketing agency focused on growing eCommerce stores with Klaviyo email marketing and SMS. We are looking to hire an A-Player to grow our sales and marketing department. Hiring an email marketing strategist to help in the sales and marketing department of Tequila Sunrise. In this role, you won’t be drinking alone. You will have an SDR to help you with following up with your leads / managing your pipeline, a copywriter to create sales assets for you and a designer to create email mockups to help you close even more deals."
Apply

TEAM&TONIC
Marketing Manager
Remote
"Our client is a US company that is democratizing preventive health and making it accessible to everyone. This is an early-stage startup that is creating an all-inclusive experience to provide a 360° preventive health package to everyone. This company aspires to be the next leader in the preventive health space. You’ll contribute to changing people’s lives and help them live longer. The company's success will depend on you as you’ll be their first marketer. You are a thinker and doer who can set up the strategy, refine the value proposition, set up the campaigns, measure, refine, and repeat. Your expertise lies in setting up highly effective campaigns across various platforms such as LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook/Instagram. You will collaborate with a marketing advisor, the founders, web designers, and our team at team&tonic to shape and execute marketing strategies that drive results. "
Apply

BILT REWARDS
Customer Experience Associate
In-Person - New York City, NY
"Bilt Rewards boasts one of the highest value rewards programs on the market today, including one-to-one point transfers to twelve loyalty programs allowing members to travel across more than 100 major airlines and hotel partners; fitness classes at the country’s top boutique studios; limited-edition and exclusive collections of art and home decor through the Bilt Collection, and the ability to use points for rent credits or towards a future downpayment. In this role you will: -Provide comprehensive payment and program support to our members within the Bilt Rewards platform. -Triage incoming tickets and identify emerging trends, forwarding them to relevant internal departments for resolution. -Collaborate closely with internal teams to address and resolve member issues effectively... The salary range for a Customer Experience Associate is 65 - 75K and will be eligible for equity and an annual performance based bonus."
Apply

-------------------------------------------------------------
THE FOOTER YOU WON’T READ
-------------------------------------------------------------

SEND NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
David Berkowitz, publisher
david@serialmarketer.net

JOIN SERIAL MARKETERS
www.serialmarketers.net

The most important rights reserved. You can have the other ones.
(c) 2023 Serial Marketer

PS: Thank you so much for reading this.

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DID YOU GET THIS FROM A FRIEND? THANKS, FRIEND! SUBSCRIBE HERE!
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Serial Marketer #253: Imagining the Ad Week Unconference

David Berkowitz — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 12:28:00 +0000

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SERIAL MARKETER WEEKLY
Issue 253: Imagining the Ad Week Unconference
Brought to you by: Compete Week
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The Unconference Banner, created with DALL-E 3

Happy Advertising Week, everyone. And Happy Tech Week. And Happy Ad Tech Week.

The first two did take place in New York City this week. The third is made up. Ad Tech Week would be pretty dull anyway; they’d sell all your registration data to the highest bidders and then recommend panels for you that you either already went to or would never attend.

Did you attend any of Ad Week or Tech Week? How was it for you? For Ad Week, I have a few thoughts on how to make it better.

This year, the main Advertising Week hub was in the Manhattan Mall, whose anchor tenant used to be JCPenney; it was also one of the last places in America to experience KB Toys. The venue led to some surprising conversations, like with the guy who told me, “I kept getting distracted in the session by the Intimate Apparel sign hanging there.” That was probably from JCPenney, not KB Toys. Either that, or I really don’t remember what kinds of toys KB stocked.

Ad Week reminded me that no matter how brilliant and experienced and witty the speakers are – and there was no shortage of them – I have little patience sitting in a dark room for 40 minutes watching people 50 feet away cover topics that may not even be of interest to the moderator. While I did catch a few great speakers, I learn way more in the halls outside.

One problem with holding a conference in this former mall is that this mall was a great spot to get lost in and a terrible spot for seeing who was there. If this mall was once supposed to resemble a town square, it was a town square designed by Kafka.

Also, a point of irony: unlike last year’s Ad Week held at Essex Market, this year’s included nothing resembling a food court. Almost every booth that had any food was serving dessert. Thanks, Canva, for their juice bar as the lone spot bucking the trend.

The best part of Ad Week? (Beyond the juice?) It’s who I got to see in the halls, or the dressing rooms. If only it was easier to find people at the right time, especially scattered across four levels of the JCP-KB Industrial Complex.

Most of those run-ins happened outside of Ad Week proper, in large part because Ad Week is so top-down in how they organize it, and the real estate goes to the highest bidder. So as much as I appreciated the installations from Google, Snap, Netflix, Canva, Yahoo, Amazon, and others, and as much as I enjoyed quite a number of conversations I had with paying delegates, there was way more to take in all over town.

Also, I’m not here to snack-shame, but let’s just agree not to talk about that protein-packed Pop-Tart knockoff. “Red velvet” is what my tongue felt like for hours after eating it.

What would I love from Ad Week going forward? Beyond better culinary options?

They need to tap into the unconference spirit, a vibe that got lost along the way well before anyone started using the word “vibe” again.

What if there were times and places where marketers could meet each other by interest, whether it’s retail media, programmatic advertising, AI, or others?

What if there were impromptu workshops led by subject matter experts who weren’t on the speaker roster?

What if communities – yes, like Serial Marketers and AI Marketers Guild, but also Mosaic, Yorkseed, OldTimers, MadTech, and lots of others you may or may not know – were given space and time to have their members meet?

What if there was a networking-only pass for those who want to meet attendees and exhibitors but can forgo the sessions? It could even be a companion to the Digital Delegate pass ($125) for someone who wants to watch the sessions but prefers to do so remotely; it’d be priced well below the $699 Delegate pass.

Or what if a brand involved with Ad Week or wanting to reach a similar audience offered a community space ‘rental’ at a spot near the main hub? Request the space free for an hour or so to have a meetup in return for promoting the branded experience to your list. You know how many community organizers and industry influencers would jump at something like that? Even if there were typically high no-show rates for gatherings during such a crazy week like this, the hosting company would get all the signup info anyway.

After quite a week, I’m left wondering how to make this ad industry tent pole event more inclusive so that it can attract even more people to foster more education and collaboration.

If anyone’s up for coming up with plans to do this now in 2024, let’s talk.

Otherwise, I’ll still see you at next week’s conference — just as far away as humanly or inhumanly possible from any fake red velvet Pop-Tarts.

David

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY: COMPETE WEEK
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Learn from CMOs at CompeteWeek2023

Learn from top CMOs that are competing within saturated markets at Compete Week 2023 on Nov. 8-9 hosted by Klue (one of LinkedIn’s Top Startups).

- Sydney Sloan on lessons from a career competing for mindshare leading teams at Adobe, Salesloft, and now Drata

- Meagen Eisenberg on where competitive intel fits into her portfolio as a CMO

- Jarod Greene on the programs he runs to keep the C-Suite on top of the competitive landscape

Save your seat!

--------------------------------------------------
WHAT TO WATCH & READ:
--------------------------------------------------
Recent content shared by Serial Marketers and friends:

Adobe created a symbol to encourage tagging AI-generated content by Emilia David
Retain BIPOC Talent With Support and Recognition by Argelia Martinez
Building in the long/short term as a small team by Kayla

--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS:
(times EST unless otherwise specified)

Weekly on Wednesdays at 12pm: AI Insiders -- join this event series from AI Marketers Guild to discuss new developments and trends with AI
10/26 (via Zoom): The 2024 Ad Industry Talent Outlook
11/1, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.
11/15-16 (partner event, virtual): Join the AI Marketers Summit this fall. Register by 8/24 for the best discounts.
12/6, 5-7pm (NYC): Join us at our next First Wednesday event in NY to meet fellow Serial Marketers in person in this fun, relaxed setting.