Beware the Absurd Pseudo‑personalized LinkedIn Pitch Epidemic
Serious question: Is there some “MarketingGuru” secret playbook being offered (only if you DM them in the comments) that promises that the vague DM'd question thing actually works? I’m talking about the "Pseudo-Personalized Pitch" that’s currently a pandemic in our inboxes. You know the one: It asks a vaguely relevant question about a "trend." It references a LI profile company you haven’t worked at since the dial-up era. It offers a "15-minute sync" that sounds like a hostage negotiation. A little like this.... This is one that I got that I enhanced.. only a little... "Robert, I’ll keep this short. I noticed Seventh Bear is leading the way. We’re seeing a trend where Fractional Smashed Potato Leaders are struggling to scale their Unified Data Gravy - is that a trend you’re seeing in Los Angeles Metropolitan Area? I’m free for a quick 165-minute Google Meet at 3:15 AM this Tuesday. I’ll bring the Vaporware. Worth a chat to see if we can get you ~6 hours/week back to spend on more generative audio? Signed, An Automated AI Bot pretending to be a 'Growth Ninja'" To quote The Green Mile... "I'm tired boss...." Please make it stop.
Skipping Junior Marketers Undermines Future Marketing Talent
The AI Tech ad says cut junior hires in marketing, the magical marketing box will make it work for you. They are wrong. This week is part two of my series on covering the 2026 Content Marketing Institute research on...
Measure Content by Relationship Depth, Not Speed
So - I'm wrapping up my March series on Content Marketing Measurement with a wider lens look at how we design a measurement framework to begin with... Most content marketing measurement today is like evaluating a symphony orchestra based on...
Strait of Hormuz: Tiny Passage, Massive Oil Impact
I’m wondering if the news media can muster up an article or report about the Strait of Hormuz, how big it is at its narrowest point and why it’s such a critically strategic waterway to oil trade…. I haven’t heard...
Anthropic's Brand Pivot Makes Claude #1 App
I talk a lot about Brand Storytelling - and getting to a distinctive story.... And, admittedly, it gets really esoteric at times... It can be really hard to see how all the pieces fit together... But - look out... Anthropic...
Gravity Beats Reach: Redefining B2B Branding in 2026
So - remember those old TomTom ads? “You are not stuck in traffic. You ARE the traffic.” Yeah, well the same applies to the sea of beige B2B content we’re all drowning in. If you’re complaining about "slop" while hitting...
AI‑driven Polish Makes B2B Content Beige; Stand Out
You’re not suffering from incompetence. We're drowning in the opposite. Welcome to the Beige Wall - B2B marketing in 2026. Look around. Everything is now polished. Everything is articulate. Everything is grammatically perfect. A two-person startup in a garage now...
Act Now: Marketers Must Navigate a Fractured Reality
"A long time coming, but I know... A change gon' come... Oh yes, it will" - Sam Cooke This a special edition of my newsletter - which if you're interested, you can subscribe here. Hello friends. It is Martin Luther...
Don’t Normalize AI Risks: Tackle Boring Work First
What if the most dangerous moment in innovation isn’t failure…but the moment we decide the failure cost is “acceptable”? Here's the funny thing - that's just Wednesday. We do this for every innovation. This video kicks off a new chapter...
AI Denialism Ignored: Technology Advances Faster Than Skepticism
A Response to The Rise of AI Denialism Over the holiday, I caught Louis Rosenberg’s “ The Rise of AI Denialism” article in @BigThink(big hat tip to my friend Ian Truscott for sending it to me) and I was struck...
Marketing Channels Keep Dying, yet Platforms Never Deliver
Same Enshittification, Different Day. So - every few years, the internet declares something in marketing “dead,” drags the body into the street, and asks marketers to please clap. Blogs? Dead. Email? Dead. Social? Died, frankensteined (yeah that's a verb don't...
Fear and Guilt, Not Strategy, Drive AI Adoption
Why do we HAVE TO implement AI…? This year, everything in marketing seems wrapped in the language of productivity and acceleration. Yeah, I know that’s every year. But this year in particular feels like marketing and content teams became Hogwarts...
Avoid Content Sameness: Build a Strong Marketing Operating System
Let's talk about content marketing in 2026 for a sec... So - here's your Tuesday existential question: if every brand pumps out the same AI-glossed content at the same time… does any of it actually exist? Or does it all...
Marketing Returns to Fundamentals Amid Planning Season
You can always tell when it’s marketing planning season. Not because of the leaves changing - but because the air smells faintly of pumpkin-spiced Excel spreadsheets. That potent blend of caffeine, desperation, and conditional formatted pivot tables can only mean...
Managing Up Now Means Coaching Your Boss
You know that feeling when Hollywood announces another sequel nobody asked for? Did we really need a Happy Gilmore 2? Now that we’ve survived Freakier Friday, should we brace ourselves for Freakiest Friday? Well lately with my consulting clients I've...