Featured Writers

You know what really irks me about our industry? It’s a myth that too many buy into, and something that holds too many of us back. “No one likes creativity by committee. It never works.” This is so not true! Collaboration can and does work. In fact, it’s the best way to work. But the Continue Reading →

The Occupy Wall Street movement must be looked at from both a historical and future perspective.  If you have just received your information through the main stream media of this movement you do not have a clear picture of its significance. Occupy is a historically unprecedented movement.  In one month it went from several dozen Continue Reading →

I recently heard two folk singers inadvertently provide excellent career advice at Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY, the longest running coffee house in America. Roy Book Binder, who’s been on the folk circuit for about 40 years, sang these 4 gems: 1)  “I wish I knew back then what I know now.” I’ve used a Continue Reading →

Looking for the current example of chicken-and-egg communications dilemma? Look no further than 3D television. With less than a month remaining in 2011, 3D’s on track to add between 3.5 and 4 million households to the community with such a set to watch, according to Consumer Electronics Association stats. Set prices are the lowest ever, Continue Reading →

Price Waterhouse Coopers just released a report finding that cyber crime against businesses has soared in 2011.  While Cyber Monday might be over, the online shopping discounts will continue to get better and better as Christmas approaches.  In essence, the holiday ad bombardment won’t stop until the New Year bells have tolled. The press gives Continue Reading →

Media companies would do well to follow the lead of the Walt Disney Company and its top revenue-producing subsidiary, ESPN, and institute rational succession planning. This past week Disney and ESPN announced that ESPN president George Bodenheimer would move up to Executive Chairman, and executive vice president for content, John Skipper, would become president of Continue Reading →

It has been about a month since YouTube announced that they want to get into the programming business in a big way.  That is, they are planning to offer their own lineup of channels.  So, they are going to be a bit of a hybrid, somewhere between Hulu and an MSO.  The difference is that Continue Reading →

Cyber Monday — which for many stores begins Sunday — is almost upon us. That means that more than any other time of year, we’ll be bombarded with sales and deals and notices and ads. One study found 84 percent of retailers saying they would email consumers about holiday-shopping deals. Your email inbox will be Continue Reading →

In past television lives, Larry Aidem ran Sundance Channel and Michael Hirschorn led the programming charge at VH1. Both accomplished plenty in their respective tenures. Now they’re connected, along with dozens of enterprises big and small, headed by big names and no-names in media, out to create the new generation of TV via YouTube. Over Continue Reading →

When I started in the ad biz in 1987, the largest account at our agency was State Farm. For like…forever, State Farm had worked with what is now DDB Chicago to leverage its agents as a point of difference. “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” (Fun fact: Barry Manilow wrote the jingle!) I Continue Reading →