Here’s something I’ve been trying to say for a year, poorly. Skidelsky in his new book, Keynes: The Return of the Master, says it succinctly: Whenever anything goes badly wrong, our first instinct is to blame those in charge–in this case, bankers, credit agencies, regulators, central bankers and governments. We turn to blame the ideas […]
Advertising
First Ever Ad Market
I was out with Josh Grotstein–CEO of Motionbox–last week, and got to talking about how the inefficient market design of our current ad exchanges saps liquidity. OK, maybe I was talking about it. Possibly I was ranting*. Josh wisely changed the subject to an episode of 1987’s Max Headroom, featuring the first vision of an […]
On Regulation and Innovation in the Financial Industry
Yesterday President Obama said We started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings. We saw businesses focus more on rebranding and repackaging than innovating and developing new ideas that improve our lives. But contrast that with this, from November of last year: The Securities and Exchange Commission this week issued […]
Why Bankers Will Continue to Make Just as Much as They Used To
I can understand the brouhaha over banker pay. Bankers make a lot of money. And the seeming unwillingness of the banks to lie low on the compensation front for even a quarter or two makes me wince. Case in point, this New York Times article: After Off Year, Wall Street Pay Is Bouncing Back Even […]
There’s lots of bad economic news, so much that not much of it breaks through the clutter for me anymore, but this did: Tufts accepts 26 percent of pool, suspends need-blind admissions: The admissions office … stopped practicing a need-blind admissions policy toward the tail end of the process, a decision that affected five percent […]
Supply of What?
Why are online CPMs so low? Why is the reader of an article on NYTimes.com worth a third of the exact same person reading the exact same article on paper? Dumb question. Everyone know that CPMs are low because there is an excess of advertising inventory: supply and demand. This can’t be true. Let’s say […]
Bigger Ads Roundup
A lot of disagreement on the new OPA initiative. Only Jonathan Mendez seems as enthusiastic as I am. Some other views below (I should note, if my comments seem snarky, that these are the views of people whose opinions I follow and respect.) Why Super Banners are Lame, Noah Mallin on SearchViews. Let’s face it, […]
You Can’t Brand in a Banner
Members of the Online Publishers Association have decided that bigger is better in their quest for brand-advertising dollars, and 26 members of the group are adopting a new set of three interactive ad units to get agency minds on better creative and off low-CPM ad networks. The publishers, including Martha Stewart Living, Conde Nast Digital, […]
More Capping
Another voice in my crusade (such as it is) to stop paying exorbitant salaries to everyone on the government dole. In the hubbub surrounding President Obama’s decision to cap salaries of commercial-bank CEOs at $500,000 (if they receive future federal funds), the salaries of college and university presidents have been flying under the radar. Some […]
Advertising in a Downturn: Other Opinions
I get a lot of hits from people searching for “marketing in a downturn” or “advertising in a downturn.” I haven’t blogged on that for over a year because there’s no point in trying to predict the present. But for all you searchers, here’s a great resource: the FT’s Advertising in a Downturn page. Supports […]