Designing with Respect - How a Fish Hook Might Change Your Approach to Advertising

October 1, 2015, 3:48 pm

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By Margaret Stewart, Director Of Product Design, Facebook

Late last year I was touring a new exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum called "Tools Extending Our Reach." It was a collection of ingenious tools crafted by humans throughout history, from prehistoric stone arrowheads to newly available telescopes that allow us to look at the surface of the sun in real time. The collection showed the myriad of ways in which tools can help amplify human abilities.

I like to look back into the history of design for ideas and inspiration. I think we can better understand how to navigate the future by studying the past. While the scale and scope of the challenges we are facing today are new, some of the core problems we are looking to solve remain the same.

One tool in the exhibit particularly struck me - an antique fishing hook designed and used by the indigenous people of Alaska to catch one of their main food sources, the Pacific halibut.



[Photo credit: Halibut Hook - Photo by Donald E. Hurlbert © Smithsonian Institution Collection of John J. McLean:1881 Baranof Island, Alaska Department of Anthropology National Museum of Natural History. Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC, E45990.]

It was crafted in the late 1800s and is in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It may look primitive, but don't be fooled. The design is more sophisticated that many of today's fishing hooks, and here's why: it was designed to only catch fish of a certain size. It left the small fish for future seasons, and it avoided the large fish that were too big to haul into the canoe. Essentially, it allowed the people of that community to practice sustainable fishing, providing them with many seasons of prosperity. That alone makes it a fascinating, inspiring design artifact.

But a second aspect of this halibut hook also captured my imagination: in addition to its ingenious functionality, it also has a beautiful carving that depicts the spirit exchange between the Inuit people and the fish in the sea. This community believed that if they showed respect to the fish they were looking to catch, more would come back the next season.

So what does an ancient halibut hook have to do with the future of advertising?

Earlier this week at IAB MIXX, I spoke about how critical it is that businesses design with respect for the people they are looking to connect with. This is a critical tenet of Facebook's design philosophies - something we work hard to live up to.

Throughout history, people have had to manage the tension between short and long term gains. The businesses and brands who tend to thrive in a sustainable way are ones that look to provide a mutually beneficial value exchange with their customers. We can see that in this halibut hook. However, the way that connections are made between businesses and people is rapidly changing.

Anyone who is working in digital advertising has heard the relentless drumbeat about the shifts in the media landscape. People are spending less time with traditional media, more time with digital media, and increasingly on mobile phones. No surprises there.

This major disruption in the media landscape has important implications for design, in large part because the relationship we have with our mobile devices is qualitatively different than our relationship with other media. They aren't static appliances that sit on a wall or lay in stacks on your coffee table.

Mobile devices help us work and play and connect with our colleagues, friends, and families every day, and many many times per day. There is more computing power in these tiny machines than the ones that landed us on the moon. They are hyper-personalized, multi-purpose power tools and they are being carried around by billions of people right inside our pockets. It's an incredibly privileged place to be and something we should never take for granted.

So how do we continue to earn the right to live inside people's pockets? Here are three key lessons we've learned over the years designing for a global, mobile community.

Design for people where they are. Even though the US is 4 percent of the world's population, it disproportionately dominates technology and design conversation and standards (source: http://www.census.gov/popclock/). In addition to designing for important cultural differences, the diverse contexts in which people live and work, the devices they use, even their data plans and network connections must be a part of our design considerations.

Consider that the cost of data plans is a barrier for many people around the world. To get around this, communities have developed ingenious hacks to minimize the impact of phone usage on their data plan. An example of this is the "missed call" phenomenon, where someone calls another phone and quickly hangs up so no charges are incurred. A single missed call might be a way to say "hi" to a friend or loved one, for free. In Syria, five missed calls in rapid succession means "I'm online, let's chat," and in India, a missed call from a shop or business means "your order is ready." Missed calls are wildly popular in South Asia, the Philippines and Africa. In Bangladesh, for example, missed calls make up about 70% of cellular network traffic at any given time (source: http://www.loosewireblog.com/2010/11/the-missed-call-the-decades-zeitgeist.html).

As marketers, we can build on these hacks to better connect people to businesses. In this case, we developed an ad format incorporating a missed call so people can access information about a brand, product, or service that interests them without impacting their data usage.

Design with people, not just for people. Sometimes innovation is achieved through an intentional, preconceived path. Other times, the world takes us and our products in unforeseen directions. When these unexpected hacks emerge, do we see them, and then do we have the humility to follow our community's lead?

Facebook Safety check is a great example of something that the community invented for themselves. Following the 2011 Tsunami in Japan, teams at Facebook saw how people used Facebook to notify their friends and families that they were OK by posting "I'm Safe" on their Facebook profiles. So the team designed a product which allowed people to do that faster and easier.

Since then it has been deployed for a number of major crises following typhoons, cyclones, and earthquakes. After one of the devastating recent quakes in Nepal, more than 7M people marked safe and 150M received notifications about their family and friends being safe.

The team at Facebook didn't come up with this idea. The community created this experience for itself, hacking the tools we gave them, and we streamlined it on their behalf. There are examples of this all over our industry. In fact, many transformative technologies of the last few decades did not initially set out to solve some of the problems to which they were ultimately applied. The people of the world took things into their own hands, figuratively and literally. We have a huge opportunity to innovate in new ways if we open ourselves up to the ideas and ingenuity of people all around the world and not just those inside of our own organizations.

Design with respect for all. Fundamentally, the key to creating a mutually beneficial and sustainable value exchange between businesses and the people of the world is respect. Respect for people's time, their attention, their values. While popular fiction often assumes that the future of advertising is inevitably invasive-- think about the scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton is inundated with marketing messages triggered through retinal scans--what if the opposite is true? Technology can and should empower people to have control over their experiences, including how they connect with other people and with businesses. People increasingly expect value, transparency, and control, and they deserve to have it.

We launched a product called Facebook Ad Preferences to provide people with transparency around why they are seeing a particular ad in their Facebook feed. It also gives visibility into which targeting categories they are included in and control to remove themselves from topics that don't interest them as well as the opportunity to add topics of interest to them. As a result, people feel in control, and businesses don't waste resources connecting with the wrong people.

By showing respect towards the people we are designing for, we aspire to feed the value exchange each and every day. That being said, with so much changing so fast in the world, it's not always easy to know what path to take. These lessons and the questions they inspire can help guide us:

o Are we designing for where people are, or where they used to be? And are we taking fully into account the context where they live and work?
o Are we designing with people and not just for them? Are we tapping the genius outside our companies? Are we missing the desired paths that are in front of us?
o Are we making respect the guiding force behind our interactions with the people of the world?

These questions can lead us all to find our halibut hook - a way that we can fuel a sustainable and mutually beneficial value exchange with people all around the world. By respecting the people and communities for whom we are designing, we can continue to earn and grow their trust and be worthy of that privileged place inside of their pockets.

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How the Nuclear Deal Will Give a Huge Boost to Iran's Reformists

October 1, 2015, 3:52 pm

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When future generations of Iranians and Americans look back at the deal with Iran over its nuclear program in Vienna in July, they will certainly consider it a victory for dialogical diplomacy and patient policy-making. But they will also remember it as an opportunity for Iranian civic actors to enable and empower Iran's civil society space.

In the last 25 years Iran has been on a course of a major political and societal evolution, as the increasingly young population has become more educated, secular and liberal. An explosive mix of a growing population -- which led to a youth bulge -- combined with urbanization, an increasing unemployment rate and the rapid expansion of university education, produced new sociological actors in Iran who were essentially young and educated (and mostly women, in fact) but with no political, economic or social future. As a result, a generational gap divided Iranian society between moneymaking and powerful conservatives and young rebels without a cause. Iran became a society divided between Donald Trumps and James Deans. On one side are those who use power to make money and on the other side are those who are rebellious against the social and political order.

Iran became a society divided between Donald Trumps and James Deans.

Therefore, it is not strange that the Iranian youth have been at the forefront of support for the nuclear deal because they have suffered much from unemployment and the Iranian currency devaluation as a result of the sanctions. Whether as Internet users or spontaneous demonstrators, the young population of Iran, which represents today more than 60 percent of 80 million Iranians, are well educated and believe in gradual change of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Interestingly, over half of Iranians between the ages of 18 and 24 attend some form of higher education and, according to data from 2003, more than 60 percent of entrants into Iranian universities are women. Also, young people in Iran use the Internet at a far greater rate than in the rest of the Middle East. The civic rebellion of 2009 was arguably the manifestation of such changing attitudes that have been slowly emerging among Iran's young people. This attitude is still present, and it undermines the legitimacy of the theocratic government.

Meanwhile, economic mismanagement and corruption became a common enemy that bound protesters together across classes in 2009. Surprisingly, today, the same solidarity is palpable in support for the nuclear deal. When the July 14 deal was announced, thousands of young Iranians took to the streets of Tehran to celebrate a new chapter in Iran's relations with the world. They held photos of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, not of Ayatollah Khomeini or Ayatollah Khamenei. Some young participants even held up pictures of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two 2009 presidential candidates who have been under house arrest for the past four years due to their opposition to the government.

Since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency in June 2005, Iranian and international observers alike have been studying how and why Iranian civil society space was shrinking and the resulting social, political and human consequences. Analysts almost universally agree on the fact that the antagonist position towards civil society was the defining feature of Ahmadinejad's administration from 2005 to 2013. During this period, reforms made during the tenure of President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) were not only rolled back, but Iranian civil society also experienced threats or challenges in its legal, regulatory and policy environment. Clearly, the outcome of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency was the intensification of the internal crisis between popular sovereignty and authoritarian rule at the heart of the Islamic Republic's political framework. And what became even more visible was a political struggle between the republican essence of Iranian civic policy-making and its clerical counterpart.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of leading opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi protest in Tehran in 2009. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The presidential election in 2009 changed the destiny of the Iranian civil society. The unprecedented protests that followed the elections presented serious challenges not only to the political credibility of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but also to the moral status of the theological sovereignty and its legitimacy in the world. The public anger and the ensuing infighting among the founding architects of the revolution presented the most serious challenge to Iran's clerical regime since it replaced the shah in 1979. Those among the reformists who believed that the system allowed scope for reform found themselves face-to-face with a theological-political structure that used extreme violence to ensure its legitimacy. Others who dared to speak out for Iranian civil society risked imprisonment, torture, rape and execution. The intensified crackdowns on journalists, intellectuals, students and women activists followed by economic difficulties pushed vast numbers of young and educated Iranians into exile.

However, the socio-political crisis that followed the election was deeply rooted in internal power struggles. Moreover, it represented and continues to represent a crisis over the deep-seated ideological structure inherited from the revolution. On the one hand, those like Mousavi, Karroubi, Khatami and Rouhani -- who have been among the architects of the Islamic regime and the challengers for the presidency or presidents themselves -- believe that the Islamic nomenclature allowed for reform and renewal. Opposing them and their allies in Iranian civil society are conservative and ultra-conservative groups who continue to believe in the rule of the jurist (velayat-e faqih) as the main blueprint for the organization of Iranian society. Among the myriad of Iranian political factions, the conservatives and ultra-conservatives have always played an important role in defending and promoting their key unelected political bodies -- like the Assembly of Experts, the Council of Guardians and the Expediency Council -- against the presidency and civil society. From the very beginning, ultra-conservative groups criticized and sabotaged the Rouhani administration's domestic and foreign policy achievements.

From the very beginning, ultra-conservative groups criticized and sabotaged the Rouhani administration's domestic and foreign policy achievements.

What made Rouhani's election even more surprising was that he was not considered close to Iran's supreme leader, but he received the green light to bring back a spirit of openness to Iran's foreign policy anyway. In fact, Rouhani's main challenge in the past two years has been to maintain a balance between different pressure groups and to prevent any one group from becoming strong enough to challenge him.

But Rouhani also needed to keep up the spirits of Iranian civil society by waging an uphill battle against mismanagement, corruption and the violation of human rights, which have all contributed to the decline of Iranian diplomacy. It is true that nobody expected a sudden reversal in the establishment's stance towards civic actors. But it goes without saying that Rouhani's election was a huge opportunity to ease Iranian civil society out of eight years of political distress caused by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's intemperate rule. Most importantly, Rouhani's election clearly demonstrated that while politics in Iran can be manipulated, it cannot be fully pre-ordained. After his election and the nuclear deal, hope for change in Iran was reinvigorated, leading to greater participation, dialogue and dissent within Iranian civil society.

The Vienna agreement was a major milestone for the geostrategic future of the Middle East, but it was also a breath of fresh air for Iranian civil society. Undoubtedly, gradual relief from sanctions that have suffocated Iran's economy will give breathing space to demands for more rights and freedoms. There is now the possibility of Iranian civil society playing a different and more constructive role in the future of Iranian politics. According to a recent report published by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a high percentage of prominent Iranians representing different professions believe that the deal will have a positive impact on basic rights and freedoms inside Iran. More than two-thirds of respondents said that lifting sanctions would improve ordinary Iranians' economic position, allowing people to focus more on improving civil liberties.

Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani waves to media at the start of a press conference in Tehran, Iran in June 2013. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Any hope for democratic changes in Iran is deeply and directly related to economic improvements after the end of sanctions. Rouhani's government finds itself between two opposing interest groups. On one hand, it will have to manage the expectations of young Iranians by reopening the Iranian market to European businesses and creating new jobs, or face huge disappointment. According to Middle East economics journal Meed, as sanctions are gradually lifted, Iran could double its gross domestic product (which was $427 billion in 2014) by 2030 and attract almost $350 billion in foreign direct investment in the next five years.

On the other hand, Rouhani and his cabinet find themselves under daily pressure from Iranian ultra-conservatives, who are trying to uphold the ideals of the Iranian revolution and continue to have the last word in politics. But conservatives need a strong showing in the upcoming parliamentary elections next year. This is followed by another election, for the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to select the supreme leader and supervise his activities.

For Iranian civil society, therefore, what counts now is to find a way out of economic difficulties in order to reorganize its forces and enter an era of post-ideological politics. That is why, for Iranian civil society, the nuclear agreement marks a new era in politics. We need to bear in mind that this new era is not only fragile, but also marked by the limits of an Iranian civil society that is trying to empower itself by creating a competing and parallel political culture of its own. The fact remains that the majority of young Iranians have moved away from fundamentalist politics and utopian rationalities and embraced pluralism, dialogue with the West and understanding of modern culture and Iranian heritage.

It is certain that the deal will help Iran become more open and more transparent.

It goes without saying that the nuclear deal remains a handsome reward for diplomacy. Though it is too early to say what the prospects and consequences of such a deal will be for the future of Iran's domestic politics, one can say with certainty that it marks one of the great turning points in Iranian contemporary history. Opening up Iranian society to new economic investments and the growth of the private sector will be especially positive in building civic frameworks, dialogue with the state, legal capacities and encouraging societal movements.

Thus, the nuclear deal, in terms of dialogue among Iranian and American governments, offers an optimistic outlook. It is certain that the deal will create a new legitimacy for the Islamic regime in Iran, while making Iran the next hegemonic power of the Middle East. But it will also help the country to become more open, transparent and susceptible to international pressure on issues like the death penalty and the imprisonment of civic actors in Iran.

Although Iran has a long road ahead to achieve true good governance, civil society is poised to take a major role in securing a peaceful and nonviolent change for Iranian politics. But to end its revolution, Iran needs economic and political cooperation with the outside world.

Earlier on WorldPost:

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4 Advantages of Life Insurance

October 1, 2015, 4:31 pm

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Insurance is having a close link-up with uncertainty. As people can't see their future they try to protect with some insurance policy. Whether it is a nonliving product like a car or it about our own health, we don't want take any chances and hence we go to shop for an insurance. In fact we all know that we are going get some kind of benefits out of our investments. Now when it comes to life insurance we people tend to become reluctant. This mainly happens as life insurance is somewhat related to death and people don't like to imagine about their own passing over.

In reality lots of people don't have a proper knowledge about the benefits of provided with a life insurance policy. Once you know it all you will surely buy one for you. Let's check the obvious advantages of life insurance:

• Your precious family worth it: After a long weary day when we come back to our nests we feel relaxed with our family. It is true that we tend to stay blind towards our death, but it is not that we totally forget about it. A sting of anticipation makes us worried about our loving family and their situation after our demise. The moment you take out a life insurance you know that they are have the protection now. Even if you are not around your dear ones have it all.

• Intelligent investment choice for all: If you contemplate your life insurance policy as another investment option, it won't disappoint you. You can do the simple math on your own and you will find that you are getting substantial return on investment. If you calculate the amount you are investing and the amount you are getting back you will be fairly satisfied with your decision. So now you know that your hard earned money is going to the right bucket.

• Benefits you can enjoy within your lifespan: If you think that your family will get the sum out of your life insurance policy after your death then you don't have full knowledge about it. Companies, selling life insurance know that people want enjoy the benefits of their investment while they are still living. So they provide some additional benefits or add-ons with the policy which you can enjoy before you die. These are add-ons or riders basically cover different type of illness such as terminal, chronic, or critical illness. Under these circumstances you get a percentage of the total amount of your life insurance policy and can spend that amount as you wish. Even if you get out of your illness, you are not liable to return the amount you got, it will only get deduct from the total amount your family will get as death benefit.

• Safeguard your finances: We understand our financial situation and work day in day out to make it better. Now this is not wise not to opt for a life insurance while making a stronger financial base. As bread earner of the family it is your liability to protect all you have already earned or else your family suffer. You have a life insurance and everything you have earned is under protection.

Gist of the whole story is, a life insurance plan comes with a total protection for you and your family throughout your life and after your life. You will get cheaper life insurance while you are still younger and fit. So include it in your bucket list right now to gain maximum benefits.

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You Almost Choked. Don't Choke, Learn.

October 1, 2015, 4:42 pm

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A few years ago I was the invited keynote for a private conference in Toronto. It was one of my first big events. I knew the event director and was deeply grateful for the invitation. I prepared diligently. The ballroom was packed to the walls. I had published my first book and was just starting my work seriously to share ideas on stage. I was knowledgable, rehearsed, confident, and relaxed. On stage just before me was a professional comedian. She was disarming and fun. She even sang. She was killing it. The crowd was totally enjoying her opening.

I was sitting near the stage next to the technician who was handling the audio-visual stuff. The comedian started to introduce me. She was warm, vibrant. She made a few jokes about me being American. Everyone laughed. She was just finishing my introduction, when the techie guy next to me said, "Uhh, hang on, your remote and the slides aren't working. Mmm, just go. Go and I'll fix it in a minute."

Good lord. The room was clapping for me. I gulped. My opening set piece was an in-depth story choreographed with a cascade of photographs and rich imagery. I designed the first few minutes to immerse the audience in a tale that would be a metaphor for my key points. But now I had no visuals.

I smiled. I walked the length of the stage to burn a few seconds, and said some ridiculous nothing comment about the wonderful comedian. I had no idea what I just said. My head was clamoring. I could feel my field of vision start to close. I glanced at the technician, who clearly did not have his shit together yet. Or maybe that was me.

I took a deep breath, smiled, found some friendly eyes in the audience, and launched into my story anyway. It was probably only a few seconds of dead air but it felt like an eternity. It worked. As I built the story, I warmed into it. I opened up, revisiting and punctuating each step of the journey. I started to own it. People leaned in. I had just jumped off a cliff and somehow found the rip cord.

I once had an interview with the magnificent speaker, writer, and marketing guru Seth Godin, who said if he ever gets that rising panic feeling, he takes it as a reminder that he's in exactly the right place. He knows he is in a high-opportunity moment for learning and growth. What he means is that when your palms get sweaty, when your heart rate jumps, when your hair stands on end and you get nauseous, these are all symptoms of panic. And also the conditions for challenge, opportunity, and growth if you choose to see it that way.

Breathe
It's true. The first thing to do to lower your heart rate, calm your nerves, and open your mind again, is to breathe. Breathing is the body's built-in stress reliever. It's ground zero to rebuild your calm. Simply breathing deeply can do everything from resetting your heart rate to changing the chemical composition of your blood. In the practice of yoga, focused breathing is called pranayama, which literally means "control of the life force."

Rehearse Excellence
Last year, Odell Beckham, Jr., wide receiver for the New York Giants, made, what many argue to be the greatest catch of all time. Contorted, and diving backwards, he grabbed the 40-yard pass one-handed between his finger and thumb. It looks like a magic trick out of Cirque du Soleil. But here's the thing: he worked on that exact type of catch over and over in practice. He didn't just summon that move on the spot, unrehearsed. He spent many, many hours preparing for that exact moment.

Competence Creates Confidence
Want to summon confidence? Power posing certainly helps. Amy Cuddy, the TED goddess of Wonder Woman posing has dedicated the last few years of her life to spreading the gospel of striking a power pose. And it does work. When you stand like Superman, you get a shot of dopamine and oxytocin, which spreads a warm cocktail of confidence throughout your brain. But it's a stop-gap. It's the duck-tape of confidence. Go ahead and use it, but real, sustainable confidence is found through developing competence. Tough love, but nothing substitutes for hard work, perseverance and dedicated practice.

And when in doubt, get pronoid. Pronoia is the opposite of paranoia. Pronoia is the belief that the world, and everyone around you, is conspiring for your success.

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Shawn Hunter is the Founder of Mindscaling and author of Out•Think: How Innovative Leaders Drive Exceptional Outcomes. It's about how to lead joyfully in life, and also to lead cultures in your company to drive great results.

Twitter: @gshunter
Say hello: email@gshunter.com
Web: www.shawnhunter.com

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My Car Is All Worn Out. What Should I Do?

October 1, 2015, 5:01 pm

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Question:

Dear Steve,

I need two new cars(used cars) but I don't know if I should fix these old cars or trade them in and buy two used ones. My 2007 Kia Optima has 165K miles on it and won't pass inspection -- it needs a catalytic converter and new tires (maybe $1500?). My ex-wife has a Kia Sedona with 100K miles and needs new a transmission (Maybe over $3k).

These cars are paid off and we both desperately need cars, more so, me. With no car loans right now, I barely pay my bills every month. And I only have a little over $2k in savings.

I also just had a car accident that was 100 percent their fault and received a check for $1500 for damages.

My ex-wife does not do a lot of driving but I do a ton unfortunately. Do you have some financial advice of what my best option to do is for this very stressful situation?

Thanks so much!

George

Answer:

Dear George,

Well, you gave me a couple of important clues. You said you currently do not have any car payment but you are barely getting by and have little in savings. I also get the impression you are not living lavishly and don't have much to trim in the budget.

So we have to piece together a solution that does not increase your transportation costs and still allows you to have reliable transportation. I'm not sure that's possible.

Both of your cars seem to be cared for but have worn out critical components. When vehicles reach the end of their affordable or useful life the options are to fix them up or ditch them. They reach a point where fixing them just gets you a free membership in the Repair of the Month club.

I could not help but notice that you are trying to come up with a solution for you and your ex-wife. You know I'm pretty good at what I do but figuring out an answer for two now separate and divided households is beyond my pay grade.

I'm a big fan of buying used, rather than new cars but your situation is a bit different. In your case, with limited additional resources, I like new cars with good value and awesome warranties.

New car financing from manufacturers can be obtained with really great rates and here is how to do that. A new car will give you the financial protection from a major auto repair over the next few years. Sometimes the advice you always hear about never buying a new car just doesn't apply to every situation.

Not long ago I actually had a chance to borrow and drive one of the least expensive cars available today. Sure, it was laughingly small but all four of us adults fit in the car and it was a surprisingly brisk ride. In fact, I even took a picture of the Chevy Spark we borrowed because it was so unusual.

The car starts at $12,170 (I know, who ever pays the base price?) and the U.S. Department of Energy reports the car gets 30 MPG city and 39 MPG highway. With your insurance check in hand and your beater to trade in there might be a deal to be had on this or a similarly inexpensive car like the Nissan Versa, Mitsubishi Mirage, or Ford Fiesta.

So let's look at the costs and cost savings to see how buying you a new car might make sense and cents.

According to Fuelly.com, drivers with a 2007 Kia Optima like yours generally say their combined fuel milage is in the 28 MPG range. Real drivers in the 2015 Chevy Spark are reporting 36 MPG.

Now you say you drive a lot. In my book a lot would be 2,000 miles a month. Hey, I've got to use some number for the calculations. At 2,000 miles per month your Kia would burn about 71 gallons a month while a car like the Spark would burn 55 gallons. At current prices that would save you about $34 a month and if fuel prices go up the savings are even bigger.

Chevy is offering zero percent financing and if you qualified your payment, based on $13,000 would be $180 a month. But really it would be $146 a month if you factored in fuel savings. You'd have to check on what your insurance costs would be.

According to Chevy, the Spark has a two-year or 24,000 mile scheduled service program so you wouldn't have to pay for any service for the next year or so based on your driving. It also has a five-year or 100,000 of roadside assistance and powertrain warranty.

Look, I'm not suggesting you should blindly run out a buy a new car. But what I am suggesting is that we have to look at a solution where you are not pouring good money after bad and whatever you decide to do allows you a better chance of less transportation problems and costs moving forward.

And I'm also not saying you should buy the Chevy Spark. There are several cars to choose from in the entry level range.

While a new car does increase some of your costs it also reduces some and most importantly, gives you a better chance of having reliable transportation for a longer period of time with a manufacturer warranty to protect your financial risk of major repairs.

As far as your ex-wife goes, have her write to me and I'll tackle her situation separately.


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This article by Steve Rhode first appeared on Get Out of Debt Guy and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

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Why Trump Is Wrong About China, China, China

October 1, 2015, 5:04 pm

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After the devaluation of the yuan and the dive in China's stock exchanges, the blowback on American markets and the presidential candidates lining up to blame China, President Xi Jinping may be wishing he'd booked his visit for another time. But now is the perfect opportunity to set the record straight. The latest round of China bashing -- that China is "killing us," stealing our jobs and money -- overestimates China's clout and distorts our discourse.
 
It's easy to see why we fear China's economic might. Take a walk down the aisle of your local Walmart and just about everything appears to be "Made in China." If China can make anything we can, only cheaper and at the click of a mouse, we must be racing to the bottom in wages, jobs and quality of life. It's no wonder campaign themes like Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" are resonating this election season. We feel like we're on the ropes and China has us beat. Polls like the 2012 Pew Global Attitudes Project Survey confirm this notion, showing more Americans believe China is the world's leading economic power today. 

But China is not the world's largest economy, nor is it the world's second-largest economy, as we hear so often. It only appears outsized because we're looking at China through a distorted lens.  
 
The basis for claims that China has already surpassed the United States is gross domestic product, a misleading metric. It tallies up how much a nation spends over a period of time, but tells you little about an economy's true size. If you wanted to compare your household wealth to the Jones', would you add up how much you spent in a given year?  No, you would compare your assets and liabilities. By that measure,America is, in fact, 50 to 60 trillion dollars wealthier than China, whose national wealth is roughly $21 trillion.



To make matters worse, China's GDP figures are untrustworthy. In an authoritarian government that considers economic growth its top priority, China's official statisticians are famous for fudging the numbers. So much so, that even China's leaders disregard their own statistics.

The size of China's economy, though, is less relevant than the quality of its growth. China's slowdown proves Warren Buffet's saying that when the tide rolls out, you can see who's been swimming naked. Americans imagine China as a manufacturing powerhouse, the world's factory floor. But viewed from the ground, the opposite is true. China struggles to make a toy safely, much less a nuclear power plant. 

Consider the "Made in China" safety scandals. There have been thousands just in the past few years and tens of thousands spanning decades. August's giant explosion in Tianjin was one of more than 300 major industrial accidents from the past seven months. Poisoned baby formula, lethal antibiotics, cadmium-heavy rice, lead-coated toys, collapsing bridges, toppling buildings -- in every corner of China's economy, severe safety lapses are a daily fixture of Chinese life.   

It's not a matter of a few bad actors, as the authorities would have us believe. China's manufacturing and agricultural sectors are hamstrung by systemic risk -- a combination of unsafe raw material inputs; weak corporate governance; long, opaque supply chains; and ineffective government regulation. Each step of the production process adds risk that the finished products will be unsafe.

China's systemic risk presents a real threat to our health, as U.S. inspectors screen only a tiny fraction of imports. We've already experienced firsthand the danger that pervades "Made in China" with tainted blood thinner, faulty auto ignitions, toxic drywall, deadly pet food and more.

The size of China's economy is less relevant than the quality of its growth.

Yet these problems also present opportunities. As China struggles to make things safely, its consumers and companies overwhelmingly prefer American-made goods.  Since China's melamine-laced baby formula poisoned some 300,000 infants, for example, U.S. dairy exports to China have more than quadrupled from $137 million in 2009 to almost $700 million in 2014. Chinese demand for safe, reliable products supports millions of American jobs through both imports and exports.

Let's look at exports first. U.S. sales to China have tripled in one decade, rocketing China up to our third-largest export market behind Mexico and Canada. This export growth is shared across the breadth of our economy -- from agriculture to manufacturing to services -- and across every state in the union. Some states, like South Carolina, have seen their exports to China grow ten-fold over the past decade.

And imports, which are frequently blamed for U.S. unemployment, actually support jobs across the country, too. You wouldn't know it from the "Made in China" label, but many Chinese imports contain American-made inputs: the cotton in a t-shirt, the pulp in an Amazon cardboard shipping box or even the software and components in an iPhone. The Federal Reserve estimates that over 50 cents of every dollar spent on Chinese imports goes directly to U.S. firms. So Donald Trump's proposal to raise duties on Chinese imports would dampen China's demand for American-made inputs, killing jobs, not saving them.
 
Far from being on the ropes, "Declining America" is still besting "Rising China."  We need to act on the outcomes of the Xi-Obama summit not from a posture of weakness yearning to be "Great Again," but from a position of abiding competitive strength. 

Also on WorldPost:

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From Healthcare to Taxes: The 2016 Elections and its Impact on Small Business

October 2, 2015, 1:58 pm

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While small businesses are a major source of employment in America and huge contributors to the nation's GDP, when it comes to the election, so far they've been a bit of a non-story.

Small businesses need the right mix of leadership, policy and support to thrive. There are about 28 million small businesses spread across America, each with its own set of agendas and priorities, so it is almost impossible to lump them all into the same bucket. None-the-less it's a critical voting bloc for any presidential candidate.

I spoke to small business expert Gene Marks on how the 2016 presidential election is going to impact small businesses.

Jamie: What should small businesses be looking for in a candidate?

Gene: That's an impossible question to answer. There's between 20 and 30 million small business owners in America, they're all from different regions, backgrounds and have their own agendas. If you're in the gun industry, you're going to support a candidate that's backing your industry. You have to ask the questions, what's in the best interest of your business?

Jamie: How do small business owners figure out what their priorities are?

Gene: There's a micro way and a macro way to look at it. The micro way is to look at the candidates who support those issues which affect your business or your region.

Hillary Clinton recently made a comment about pharmaceutical companies gouging their customers and was talking about drug prices. She hadn't released her plan yet but pharmaceutical companies' stocks dropped after she came out with the comments.

On a macro level, a lot of business owners will look at presidential candidates to see what their views are of the economy in general. Particularly around issues like national debt and what's going to be done about that. They know that there are large, macroeconomic issues which will affect everyone in years to come if nothing is done about it.

Right now, our national debt is approximately $18 trillion and our Gross Domestic Product is about $17 trillion so for the first time in history, we've actually surpassed our GDP with debt. We all know that can't be sustained and something has to be done to reduce that debt. It has a long-range impact on this country.

The only way to do that is to raise revenue through taxes or cut costs. All of that stuff disrupts the market and can be a killer for industries and cash flow.

Jamie: What do you see as the big issues for small business which will be discussed over the course of this election?

Gene: Small business, right now, isn't a big political issue for the presidential candidates because, for the most part, they seem to be doing ok.

There are a whole bunch of issues which are affecting small business owners and they're part of the campaign.

Healthcare is a giant one. The Affordable Care Act continues to be very controversial. All the Republican candidates have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act while the Democratic candidates plan to keep it. That's a big issue for small business owners whether you support it or not.

If there is a repeal, it's going to be expensive and disruptive for businesses who have plans for healthcare.

The other issue is some of the recent executive orders that the President has issued the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board. There have been new orders on raising overtime pay across the country, there's a push to increase the minimum wage, there are new orders to increase time off. None of these have become law yet but they're all moving in that direction. Some businesses support these, and some do not. They all have a significant impact on small businesses as they can add a lot of cost.

We went through some significant tax increases over the last few years, a lot of them to fund the Affordable Care Act. There were increases to medicare taxes, increases to the top tax bracket and capital gains as well.

America has been pretty stable when it comes to tax increases and the good news is, there seems to be a lot of agreement in Washington right now about having some type of large tax reform in America to simplify the tax code and to make some deductions, like the cost of equipment, happen right away instead of depreciating it. There's also discussion happening around making things like credits for research and development permanent instead of having to renew it every year.

But none of that's really going to happen until the next President comes into office. Democrats want to raise the capital gains tax again, the Republicans don't, but they do want to lower individual tax rates.

They all agree on simplifying the tax code and getting rid of certain tax loopholes.

Jamie: Despite being the largest job creators in America, the disjointed nature of small businesses means they don't have a combined voice, how much influence and power do they actually have as a voting block?

Gene: As a voting block all together, not much because there isn't one group that represents all small business. Their influence comes through their industry groups. When you ask small business owners what they do, they don't necessarily say "I'm a small business owner" they say "I'm a lawyer" or "I'm an architect" or "I own a gas station or a pizza shop". They associate themselves with the industry that they're a part of.

If you want more say with what happens in Washington, you should get involved with your industry group.

Jamie: What do you see as the biggest challenges coming up to the election for small businesses and the American economy?

Gene: The good news is there is less uncertainty than there ever was. Barring any terrorist attack or any national issues, there's less uncertainty. You've got a lean back president and you've got a congress which is pretty much gridlocked so not a lot's going to happen in the next year, year-and-a-half.

As far as challenges for a business owner, it's about getting your house in order. Making sure you're doing everything you can to keep your costs under control. You've got a year to make sure everything is running as well as it possibly could because the next election is going to have a serious impact on the economy. You've got a brand new President coming in, who may or may not have support of congress, and will want to do some new things, like all presidents do in their first term. All of these things could very well affect your business and affect the economy.

You want to make sure that you're in the best position possible financially to navigate your way and absorb any impact on your business or your industry which might come, depending on who's in office in Washington.

We're in a very low growth environment right now so you need to make sure you're operating as efficiently as possible.

Jamie: Breaking it down, let's talk about the front-running candidates and their policy stances which support small businesses.

Gene: At this stage, anything can happen.

On the Democrats' side, there are three main candidates who are running.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley all do share some principles. They're supporters of the Affordable Care Act, they're supporters of worker's rights, they do support national increases in the national wage. Sanders is even more further to the left than Clinton, he calls himself a socialist.

Hillary Clinton supports national legislation for paid time off and an increase to overtime pay. She also wants to restrict what she calls some of the "abuses" of corporate America, including companies pushing money overseas to avoid paying taxes. But Clinton is a little bit more moderate than President Obama, she's not anti-business by any means but she does support the worker.

On the Republican side you've got Donald Trump. Everyone laughs about Trump but he's leading in the polls. Whether or not he'll be the nominee, that remains to be seen. He's got a business background and there are a lot of concerns with him about how he would negotiate. He's known to be a deal maker. He's a pro-business guy to have in the White House. But he's also supported raising taxes on the rich to pay down deficits, he's not an anti-tax guy. He hasn't come up with any specific policies on tax reform or deficit reduction, yet. He's running on his personality right now.

At the other end of the spectrum we've got Jeb Bush. Bush is more pragmatic, he's an experienced governor, he comes from a family of ex-Presidents and governors as well, so he's got all that baggage of the Bush legacy. He's introduced a very detailed tax plan where he wants to lower both individual and corporate tax rates. He wants to eliminate certain deductions. But he's very pragmatic, he favors a decrease in the capital gains tax rates. He's more moderate when it comes to employee rights and raising national minimum wages compared to Hillary Clinton. He's a typical conservative Republican. Not super right of centre but conservative when it comes to economics. More pro-business than say, Clinton.

It's tough to talk about some of the candidates while it's still so early on. We're really not going to know for another six months or so until we really have a clear picture of who's going to be left.

It's an interesting period that the country is in right now. It's interesting that small business is a bit of a non-story when all these policies affect them. But then, no news can be good news.

Absorb and watch but don't make any decisions yet, gather your information, we've got a long way to go.

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7 Leadership Skills All Startup Entrepreneurs Need to Thrive

October 2, 2015, 2:08 pm

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Obinna Ekezie is the cofounder and CEO of Wakanow.com, the leading full-service, online travel company in Africa. Obinna played in the NBA for eight seasons and was selected with the 37th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies after playing with the Maryland Terrapins from 1995-1999.

There is no direct path to successful entrepreneurship. Whether starting a mom-and-pop pizza shop, a digital marketing agency, or a worldwide travel company, every path leading to success will be different. But one thing is similar: every startup founder needs strong leadership skills to succeed.

Since launching my company Wakanow.com in 2008 -- Nigeria's online travel company that provides customers with everything they need to research, plan and purchase a trip locally and globally -- I've continued to not only polish my leadership skills, but also completely rebuild them as the business grows and changes.

But before that growth is possible, some concrete leadership skills are a must. The more skills one obtains, the more one will accomplish. Based on my experience, here are some of the most crucial ones.

Recruit a Talented Team

During the initial stages of a startup, recruiting a team is a must, but don't settle for second best. Recognize what qualities to look for in others; this will make recruiting future talent much easier. I learned how to recruit talent during my years of playing professional basketball. NBA teams analyze a player's talent down to the finest elements such as attitude off the court, and you should do the same.

Most successful entrepreneurs are obsessive about seeking true talent to build out a team, and there is nothing wrong with this. You are only as good as your team, so be obsessive.

Embrace Public Speaking

Entrepreneurs not only need loads of self-direction for success; they also must present their company's vision and direction to their team or prospective clients/customers. Learning to perfect your public speaking will assist in this feat. I learned by speaking every chance possible; regardless of audience size, constant speaking helps build and maintain a smooth delivery.

When attending conferences and networking, take mental notes from the strongest speakers - and the most successful entrepreneurs. You may have the most optimal message and product/services, but if you can't clearly and concisely explain them, your brand may suffer.

Adapt to Change

Humanity would have never survived without adapting to change. This is also true for a business; it will slowly dissolve if you refuse to adapt to change.

The attitudes of entire industries can change quickly, whether it's because of a new technology (think of the electric car in the automobile industry) or some radical mindset change in the marketplace (think of implied health benefits of organic foods in the food industry).  Learn to adapt to these changes, and if you can, work on predicting them.

Appreciate Constructive Feedback

Constructive feedback is a natural byproduct of running a business. Learn to embrace feedback from others who have succeeded before you -- especially within your industry. When starting Wakanow.com, I listened to what others were saying within the travel industry, embraced their constructive feedback, and used it to offer better solutions for my customers. Note that feedback should not be interpreted literally; take from it only what will make you a better entrepreneur with a more successful business.

Learn From Failure

Unfortunately, failure is quite common in entrepreneurship -- it's something I learned in my early years of building Wakanow.com. However, how you deal with failure, or not achieving a particular outcome as expected, is critical to your success. Specifically, failure is an opportunity to learn and minimize the likelihood that you will fail the same way again. Embrace it and study what you did wrong. Learn to not make the same mistake twice.

Frequently Review and Update Plans

When just starting up, plans change often. Just when you think a plan is solidified, something else happens. Don't get caught unaware. Frequently review your plans and outlook, weekly if you can. Daily focus makes keeping plans current much easier. I awake every day at 5:30 a.m. and spend an hour planning my day, when my mind is freshest.

Balance Work and Home Life

Too many entrepreneurs obsess over all business details and spend nearly all of their time thinking about the business.

Keep your work life in balance with your home life. Family should always come first -- especially when children are involved. Take some time for yourself too by playing your favorite sport, reading a non-business related book, or participating in anything that keeps you mind off the business.

While starting Wakanow.com, all of my thoughts were always on the business. This is a natural inclination, but it's imperative to take time off and allow the mind to refresh. Once I learned to fully relax, my head was clear, which gave me the clearest perspective of Wakanow.com and ultimately the future success of the business.

While being an entrepreneur will pull you in many directions, these tips will ensure you can consistently adapt to change and bring your business ahead in whatever direction your industry may take you.

 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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What Tom Brady Can Teach Us About Business

October 2, 2015, 2:15 pm

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Love him or hate him, Tom Brady is a winner. Regardless of "Deflategate" or "Spygate" you can't blame the man for using every possible strategy to win. Now you might be thinking to yourself "Jeff, are you telling me to cheat?" No, I am not telling you to cheat, but there's nothing wrong with pushing the envelope and limitations set by others. Better yet, define your own rules! Tom Brady may have been accused of cheating in the past, but there is no getting around that he is still an amazing athlete that blocks out the media, and shows what he can do on the field. People could take what Brady does on and off the field and apply it to their businesses.
At the beginning of last season, Brady had been written off as past his prime. He had a horrible beginning to the season and the obituaries began to show up. People, thinking his career was over, would send him actual condolence emails! He would respond to those emails by saying, "Nobody died or anything, it was just a loss." Now, that's something you can respect! Controversies or not, he still led his team to the Super Bowl and won it all -- and once again became a champion. How's that for thinking big and acting bigger? Here's what you can learn from Brady, and how you can apply it to your business.

Nobody Died

Say it with me: "NOBODY DIED!" When you misspell a word on social media for everyone to see, nobody died. When you forget to attach that very important business proposal in an email to a potential client, nobody died! When you forget your wife's birthday... NOBODY DIED! Don't quote me on that last one. Joking aside, how true is that statement? Now, can you make the same mistake multiple times? Probably not. My team and I use that phrase all the time, not because we're mistake-riddled, but instead we use it as a way of saying, "we have a plan" or "we will recover." Own your mistakes -- that's maybe the most important part when you do make a mistake. Don't point fingers, take charge and admit your wrongdoing. That's the part I care about the most. When someone from my teams owns up to a mistake, I tell them, "Get smarter! Nobody died." This lets your team get past their mistake, first by not dwelling on it, and them from learning from that mistake. I guarantee they will not make the mistake again.

Passion can override obstacles, but...

Passion is a powerful motivator and can even fuel your momentum, but passion alone cannot override facts. Tom Brady has a passion for football, that much is obvious, otherwise why do it? Like me, I'm sure he enjoys the challenge! I've bought and sold over 250 companies. I make a good living, you could say, but I don't care about the money. It's the challenges of starting something new and putting everything you have into a business that gets me excited! That's where my passion lies. I don't care who you are -- you can be the best speaker in the world, the best passer in the NFL or the best sweet talker ever. That doesn't get you into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame. It won't get you a Super Bowl. And it doesn't guarantee you a happy life with a happy wife. The things that I have been successful at today came because of the passion I brought and the hard work I put into it. Without passion you'll never have the conviction needed to deliver on your promise to think and act big. While passion is the first part of the equation, it must be combined with talent, smarts and a little bit of luck!

Haters Gonna Hate. Let Them

It's all about the attitude. I refuse to conform to business as usual and will always have that fighting spirit. I had to fight and claw my way from a place only a few know as merely a dot on a map: Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I changed and adapted to my surroundings while putting the haters to shame, much like Tom Brady has done. When I first started speaking, everyone told me that I wasn't going to get anywhere -- that I was too bold, too brash, and yes, even too conceited. While I believe you must have a healthy sense of awareness, you must tune out the excessive noise from the haters, put them to shame and work harder to achieve your goals. Think big and act bigger is an attitude and anyone is capable of having that proverbial chip on his or her shoulder. Why? Because we can!

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Why "Cheating" Brands Break Customers' Hearts

October 2, 2015, 2:27 pm

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By Scott Gillum, President, gyro Washington, D.C.

The Volkswagen scandal has already claimed the CEO. But could the damage also take down the company, or be the nail in the coffin for diesel automobiles in the US? Some are starting to think so: VW stock has fallen 30 percent since the scandal broke, and there are broader concerns about the impact on the reputation of Germany's automobile industry. How could something that has the potential to be so damaging to an organization, and industry, happen?

At some point, someone in the VW organization decided to cheat, and others within the organization approved that decision. And with that, it set in motion a chain of events that would reach across the organization. Someone designed the "defeat device" that could sense when the car was undergoing emission testing; another group tested the software to ensure it was working properly.  Others submitted data to governing organizations using the deceptive and/or outright false data and so on (you get the picture, and it's not pretty).  VW's corporate culture condoned this behavior.

"Big deal," you say. "Things like this are probably going on in big global corporations all the time, all over the world. CEOs are out to win at any cost." Not so fast. Research from the FORTUNE Knowledge Group and gyro found that sixty percent of executives prefer to do business with companies that are intent on doing what's right, even when it doesn't necessarily maximize revenue.

And don't think that CEOs aren't paying attention to a company's reputation. When choosing a company to do business with, 70 percent of executives in the study cite company reputation as the most influential factor, with the company's culture being the top driver of reputation, according to 53 percent of executives surveyed by FORTUNE and gyro.

Not only will VW take it on the chin from consumers - especially customers who own their diesel cars - but they are also going to feel the repercussion on the business side as well. Key decision makers, from suppliers to dealers, are going to be distancing themselves from the organization. This could potentially hurt the company's ability to repair its reputation, which, according to a 2013 study by Deloitte, is the "number one strategic risk for large companies."

The lesson: If you cheat, you will eventually get caught. Even though you may be able to avoid punishment (like a certain football player), you will not escape having your brand and reputation damaged. For some brands, that could represent up to two-thirds of the company's value.

When an organization deceives us, they betray our trust and it's deeply personal. It doesn't matter if it's a friend or a car manufacturer, our brains trust brands the same way we trust our friends, according to research from the Institute for Experimental Business Psychology at Leuphana University in Luneburg, Germany (of all places).

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Why the Hardest Part of Coding Is Getting Unstuck: 4 Tips

October 2, 2015, 2:30 pm

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Businesses are hiring great web developers. Like Crazy. But it's not easy finding talent, which is where the need for coding bootcamps has helped fill this gap in the education and hiring sector.

To address the lack of available talent, coding bootcamps, which teach students how to write software, have become very popular. Course Report's 2015 market study estimates that revenue from schools in the US will be $172 million in 2015, up from $52 million in 2014.

Every student struggles. When they try to guess what will be the hardest parts of their journey, they usually describe configuring servers, learning how memory works, or writing code to save information.

But the hardest part is less technical and more psychological.

The hardest part is getting unstuck.

The experience of encountering annoying and unexpected problems is a daily occurrence for software developers, and a lot of beginners are simply not aware of these challenges that will arise.

Without the right mentality, a regular barrage of difficult and surprising problems can make learning how to code frustrating. Some developers even start to doubt their own abilities, which can feed into impostor syndrome.

Books, online tutorials, and group classroom-style training don't teach as effectively as mentorship. These resources cannot tailor an individual student's learning. They don't teach students how to ask the right questions or how to break down complex problems and think about them in different ways. And they aren't good at keeping students on track, accountable, and motivated.

The Internet has some wonderful resources for getting started on this skill yourself. Read about the most effective way to improve programming skills on Programmers Stack Exchange. Quora discusses the appropriate length of time to be stuck on a problem.

Write your question down succinctly

Describe your MCVE. An MCVE attempts to reproduce the problem in the smallest amount of code possible. This helps isolate the cause, and narrow down exactly what you're trying to solve. Oftentimes, just understanding what is the exact problem is the biggest step toward getting unstuck.


Describe the problem aloud

It's so easy to get stuck in your head when you're programming. Sometimes, simply talking out your problem will help you think more clearly, and find a logical solution. It frees up your brain, and can be the simple solution to getting unstuck.


Search and post on Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is a developer's best friend. More likely, your question has been asked and answered on the site, so make sure to do a quick search before getting too hard on yourself. Everyone gets stuck, and Stack Overflow proves it. If you're looking for something more hands on, I recommend Bloc's online coding bootcamp. Their camps are an amazing way to work with a world-class curriculum and 1-on-1 with an mentor that'll help teach you how to get unstuck, and techniques for becoming a more thoughtful programmer.


Take a break!

Often, stepping away from your monitor and freeing your thoughts will bring you new perspectives on how to solve a problem. This is especially true when coding. Get your mind away from the issue by going for a walk or participating in an unrelated activity.

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Holding Companies: 10 Predictions

October 2, 2015, 2:31 pm

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By Jon Bond, TOMORRO

The holding company model has been virtually unchanged for decades until now. Here are advertising legend, Jon Bond's 10 predictions for the future of holding companies:

1. Their core business will become managing complex systems. Marketing isn't getting any simpler or easier.

2. The FTE will go away and be replaced by deliverables-based compensation, and eventually results-based.

3. Holding companies will stop taking kickbacks and opaque billing practices will disappear. However, they will soon learn to game the system in results-based compensation and devise clever ways to fake results or take false credit for success- much like the way the Mafia moves from drug running to prostitution when the DEA puts the heat on.

4. Holding companies will reduce their overhead by 75% and tech people will replace most of the finance people in the center. Tech will be centralized across all agencies. Holding companies will leverage the enormous volume of revenue they can drive to firms through corporate stock deals, since cash based billing will have become impossible.

5. The brand will replace AOR with TOR (tech of record) and the marketing tech stack will be the base with agencies variable.

6. A tech company will purchase a major holding company.

7. In a results-based compensation model, high performing Agency personnel will make 10x more than low performing personnel with the same experience level-mirroring Wall Street.

8. The creative director role will transform into head curator and creative will move from closed to open systems.

9. A holding company run by talent/practitioners will form, similar to Dream Works.

10. Niche holding companies will form to provide specialties at scale versus all of them being pretty much the same.

11. A "virtual" holding company that doesn't own anything will emerge with the competitive advantage of objectivity, low overhead, and enormous scale; similar to the way Uber and Airbnb have disrupted the travel and transportation industries.


TOMORRO\\\ is a Virtual Holding Company that operates as a consultancy, working directly with advertisers to solve their biggest pain points and setting up unbiased solutions to implement anywhere in the world.

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Growth Doesn't Happen Behind Iron Curtains

October 2, 2015, 2:33 pm

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By Jason Fairchild, Co-Founder and CRO of OpenX

Churchill's reference to the Iron Curtain in 1946 was meant to create a dark and gloomy picture of what would happen when the eastern bloc was cut off from choice, innovation and the efficiency of open markets. Dramatic and accurate, his point that limited competition leads to limited growth played out precisely as predicted.

A similar danger exists in advertising technology today. Publishers are led to believe that they must choose one technology partner for all solutions or lose the benefit of tight integration and access to "unique demand." The problem in that scenario is that the publisher gets cut off from choice, innovation and access to the open market. Sound familiar?

The Power of LoveProgrammatic Choice

Programmatic powered marketplaces provide participants with more competition and control
than ever before. While there is always room for improvement in any system, both sides can now see a much clearer picture of what's available when, and at what price. Sophisticated programmatic exchanges provide access to more demand; the increase in competition drives higher yield.

This kind of virtuous cycle is driven by open competition and can only exist in an open environment. Publishers in closed environments, behind iron curtains or restricted to a single-stack solution, are left with a single path to profit.

Cui bono

Technology providers who restrict publisher partners to a single path to profit have a solid reason for doing so: their technology is often built to exclusively benefit their media business - at the publishers' expense.

We see this conflict of interest today when technology providers exclusively bundle their ad exchange with their ad server. It often just so happens that the majority of demand on that ad exchange is generated by the tech provider's media business, and there is often no transparency around how inventory pricing is set and shared with the publisher. Getting locked in behind the curtain means getting locked out of the open market.

The only way to overcome the inherent inequity and conflict within closed systems is for publishers to engage with platform providers and marketplaces that deliver the option of access to market demand.

Open Season

"Open" is not only in our company name, it's in our company DNA. We are dedicated to the perfection of marketplaces that securely facilitate increased competition for our publisher partner inventory because we believe it is the only way to ensure publishers are seeing and receiving the highest value for their inventory. We are relentlessly driven to create full access solutions because we know that iron-curtain barriers limit publishers' ability to generate maximum competition, and as a result, maximum yield for their inventory. A great example of where we've pioneered a circumvention of closed ad tech environments is our Bidder product, introduced 18 months ago, roughly a year before anyone else. Bidder allows publishers to implement a monetization solution that opens up access to more demand within traditionally closed environments. For every single one of our Bidder clients the access to increased demand across platforms has increased competition for their inventory, driving up prices and yield.

Publishers want openness. In fact, in recent research conducted by OpenX we found that 80% of publishers surveyed were hesitant to operate with a single-stack solution, correctly concerned that doing so would limit their ability to grow their business. As new programmatic technologies are being adopted to address mobile, video, Programmatic TV and the Internet of Things, publishers should avoid getting locked into yet another closed system.

Tear down this wall

Winston Churchill once said: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." We couldn't agree more. That's why we're committed to creating and scaling open marketplaces that are vibrant, healthy and unconstrained by walls and curtains. And that's also why we encourage publishers to learn the valuable lessons from the "Iron Curtain" tech stack era, and embrace free and open tech stacks that provide open access to all marketplaces. In other words, "Mr. Publishers, tear down this wall!"

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

You are What You Eat: How Poor Data is Sabotaging Your Marketing Well Being

October 2, 2015, 2:35 pm

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By Yosha Ulrich-Sturmat, Neustar

Cheap, plentiful, and easy to get, today's vast quantity of available marketing data is seductive--but it's also self-destructive. Even as our obsession with data grows, the truth is that more is simply not better. In fact, overconsumption and inertia are as dangerous for your marketing health as they are for your personal health. But just as it's sometimes challenging to know which foods to avoid, it's difficult to distinguish between good data and the stuff that undermines our best-laid marketing plans. So it's important to recognize the key symptoms of unhealthy data consumption and to understand a few of the critical changes you can make for the better.

Stop Consuming Junk

Online behavioral data is every marketer's favorite junk food because it's easy to get and easy to execute on. But beware: this data contains a lot of empty marketing calories. If you target every visitor to your luxury sports car website, you'll waste a lot of ad spend on college-aged car aficionados who are unlikely to move your bottom line. Higher-quality data from real-world sources can help you avoid that spend, so make sure you're looking at online and offline data to get a more accurate and complete picture of your site's biggest fans. This allows you to recognize, for example, when visitors index low on income and high for textbook purchases, so you can make more nuanced choices about whom to target.

Don't Touch the Stale Stuff

CRM data can make your marketing more powerful. It can also be as stale as a 4-day-old salad because it remains static as people move, change phone numbers, or get new email addresses. Marketing against stale data poses multiple risks: you waste dollars on moving targets, fail to message consistently across multiple channels, and miss customers with a high propensity to purchase. That car aficionado will eventually graduate and get a job, but your CRM might still think he makes under $10,000 a year. You need customer data that's onboarded and matched against an authoritative data set, using an identity framework that's regularly refreshed and corroborated. This allows you to power marketing decisions that are current, relevant, and consistent across channels. Treat that data like produce: if it's not fresh, don't touch it.

Use the Right Measuring Stick

To gauge true progress, marketers need access to unbiased measurement. By accurately crediting leads, sales, and conversions to individual campaigns, you can learn which channels, audiences, and messages most influenced sales. This kind of insight is critical to improving future campaigns. But it's only valid if you use neutral insights to understand the effectiveness of your marketing activity, and ensure that these insights are not tied to and biased by your media or data buys. Put another way: if a fast food chain offers you a special scale so you can measure your health progress on their nutrition plan, you'd raise an eyebrow and decline. Do the same when it comes to marketing and opt for neutral insights instead.

In the end, it's important to look closely at what makes marketing tick and take a holistic approach to long-term success. As a marketer, you need accurate and complete portraits of your customers and prospects across all touchpoints, online and offline. Whether you resolve them with authoritative identity, an identity graph, or something else, these portraits must include online interactions, authoritative and linked offline data, and fresh and verified CRM data. Only then will they power relevant and consistent cross-channel and cross-device marketing.

Whether we're talking lifestyle habits or marketing strategy, it's not about more; it's about better. Authoritative identity enables you to acquire high-quality data and resolve it with your existing data to generate the insights needed for robust and disciplined marketing. This healthier strategy will lead to a more personalized approach, making both you and your customers happier in the long run.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Loyalty is Overrated: The Rise of the Undecided Consumer

October 2, 2015, 2:37 pm

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By Caroline Krediet, Partner and Head of Strategy, Figliulo&Partners

Advertising Week is here again, when the marketing great and good convene in midtown Manhattan to discuss how to capture American hearts and minds on behalf of today's leading brands. The conversation will be wide-ranging, with this year's most intellectually glamorous themes being ad tech, podcasting (all hail, Ira Glass!), the art of brand storytelling, behavioral economics, the Internet of Things, big and small data, Facebook's dislike button and the hot potato of digital ROI.

Yes, advertising people are smart cookies and we are getting better at surrounding an audience and measuring impact. But for all the media whiz bang, we're neglecting something fundamental: that changing minds is hard.

We still haven't mastered it and it's interesting to me that, as marketers, we don't often acknowledge this fact in how we think about our consumers and their attitude to our brands and categories. Are they loyalists, detractors, passives or on the fence?

Loyalists are largely retained by product consistency. Fighting the naysayers is an expensive uphill battle, and good luck with the people who are outside of the category anyway. Where I see the most significant opportunity - and our research proves it - is among people who are category involved, yet brand agnostic. At F&P, we call them the "Undecideds," and their category-first mindset is reshaping the consumer journey.

When Joe Maciariello, automotive practice lead at Google, talks about the morphing of the classic purchase funnel, he describes a world in which buyers no longer have a fixed set of options that get winnowed down as they spend more time researching. On the contrary, the more time they spend, the more brands they consider, creating a bulging mid-funnel. Most marketers focus on the top and the bottom of the funnel - investing in awareness driving and retail.

The mid-funnel, then, offers a huge opportunity for marketers to invest and reap rich rewards. The best examples are targeted, geared toward educating consumers, and often highly comparative. Comparison is an anathema to brands, who usually want to project themselves as unique. (I find this is ironic, because brands are inherently comparative. A brand with no peer set has no need of a brand. It is a product).

In order to feel that you have made the best selection, savvy consumers need to know what their options are. Our desire to compare and contrast, to dig deeper for more and better information explains the success of aggregator sites like Kayak and the enduring popularity of the unsexy (but solid) US News and Report's powerful media proposition: "Life's decisions made here."

Just think what might happen if brands acknowledged the truth that decisions are as complex and non-binary as the humans that make them. Imagine if they spent as much on creating compelling, journalistic content that help potential customers get educated, and actively encouraged comparison and contextual information. Imagine if, instead of 30-second spots running on cable and YouTube, we had dedicated brand information channels, along with "brandcasts" or "prodcasts" produced and created with the same absorbing editorial skew as a top rated NPR show.

Most most humans like to evaluate things in relation to one another. This is a key learning from behavioral economist Dan Ariely and his experimentation with anchoring. Absent a comparative context, we create artificial ones. Today's enlightened brands should embrace this reality by building, defining and investing in increasing demand not just for the products they make, but the information about them, and what makes them different and special in the context of all the choices people have now.

The world is a comparative place. When brands start to act on that fundamental truth, we might start to get really good at changing minds.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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It's Make it or Break it Time for the Fall TV Season

October 2, 2015, 2:39 pm

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By Bob Ivins, EVP, Cross Media Business Development at comScore

September is here and with it comes fall foliage, back to school sales and the much anticipated start to the new TV season. Between now and December, networks will premiere almost 40 new programs in an effort to catch our attention and create this season's breakout show. However, if last year is any indication, quite a few shows will not make it to Christmas and even less will survive until the September 2016 season. As an active observer of the industry and a consumer excited about a few of the new shows, I am interested in understanding how decision makers will determine which shows make it to a second season when how we watch TV is turning existing business models upside down.

New technology like OnDemand, DVR and OTT services like Netflix and Hulu not only give us control over what we watch, but also when, where and how we watch video programming. This flexibility is of course important to consumers, but is giving industry executives anxiety as they try to monitor which shows are gaining traction.

A generation ago, when we were all required to sit in front of a TV set on a specific day at a specific time to watch a show, studio chiefs would pour over TV ratings data weekly to see if the show achieved the audience goals they set and was building a loyal following. Advertisers and their agency representatives, would also scrutinize the same data to calculate how many consumers they reached with their brand messages. Today's environment is very different. Because we are no longer required to be at home in front of the TV on a specific day at a specific time, those traditional metrics don't tell the whole story and therefore aren't equipping decision makers with the information they need to determine whether a show stays on air or gets pulled.

Telling the whole story of TV and digital viewing

In general, broadcast networks experience up to an eight percent increase in audience reach when including audiences who watch shows digitally, whereas cable networks see up to a 50 percent jump in audience reach when digital consumption is added to TV-only viewing.

Digital viewers are no longer a bonus audience anymore -- they are an essential part of how content is consumed today. New devices in particular are driving significant usage, warranting a need to account for digital consumption beyond just desktop computers. On average, publishers experience a 56 percent lift in their purely digital audience reach when they include smartphone and tablet consumption compared to desktop-only audiences. Additionally, when measuring over-the-top video consumption on connected living-room devices, such as Smart TVs and gaming consoles, on average we've seen a 100 percent lift in digital reach compared to desktop viewing.

So the question is, are networks accounting for all consumption that takes place before they decide what's considered a success and what's a dud? The Mindy Project is a good example of a show that had relatively low TV ratings, yet a loyal online fanbase. The move of the show from primetime to Hulu delighted fans, and created opportunities for the media owner, the distributor and for advertisers. As a result, The Mindy Project ranked as the top show on Hulu after its online premiere earlier this year, proving that digital has the power to command audience attention.

Completing the picture

Knowing that TV show success is based on the metrics, viewers play a pivotal role in determining the future of the new fall line-up. We vote by tuning in - whether that's live, time shifted or online. It's time for networks to have the insight into who is watching what shows, where they are viewing them and when in order to make smarter decisions about their programming schedule - and keep the best shows running regardless of the platforms where they are being viewed.

What new fall shows do hope make it past Christmas?

Data Source: comScore Xmedia, U.S., June 2015

This post is part of series produced by The Huffington Post for Advertising Week 2015, in conjunction with the Advertising Week conference (New York, Sept. 28-Oct. 2, 2014). To see all the posts in this series, read here. To learn more about Advertising Week 2015, read here.

About the Author

Bob Ivins serves as the Executive Vice President of Cross Media Business Development at comScore.

Bob is a recognized innovator and leader in the media and marketing research space who plants one foot in data and the other in product development, strategy, sales and business development. He has 25+ years of experience at some of the biggest brands in our industry including: Mindshare, Comcast, Yahoo and Nielsen.

Most recently Bob was Chief Data Officer at Mindshare where he drove an initiative to "put data at the center" of the media buying agency by building our data rooms. Bob was previously the VP of Data Products and Business Intelligence at Comcast. He drove their advanced advertising initiative by building a database to fuel cross platform addressable advertising and founded their business intelligence organization. Prior to that, Bob was in London for 10 years with half that time running comScore's non-US activities and have half at as Yahoo Europe's Research Director.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Get Your Meeting Mojo On: 7 Steps You Can Take to Change the Culture of Meetings

October 2, 2015, 2:42 pm

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How many times have you sat in a meeting and grown increasingly frustrated? Everybody talks at once. People interrupt each other and speak at cross purposes. Some are checking their phones, others look half-asleep, and a few with loud voices control the discussion. Worst of all, when the meeting ends, few decisions have been made, and the call to action is often, "we need another meeting."

What can you do to change this unproductive and debilitating culture? Lots! There are seven steps you can take to get your meeting mojo on and shine as an example to others in these daily interactions.

Step 1: Keep the Meeting Focused

If you're leading the meeting, keep the group focused on clearly stated goals. Present an overview of goals in your opening remarks, and provide an agenda. Then make sure the discussion stays on course. If someone deviates from the subject, get them back on track by saying, "That topic is for another day."

Step 2: Listen Fully

Whether you're chairing the meeting or simply a participant, listen with your mind fully engaged. Listening is more than hearing the discussion with your ears -- which certainly is a step up from what most people do. The kind of listening I'm talking about is listening with your mind fully engaged. As a Harvard MBA student put it to me: "Our professors call on us at random all the time, so I have to be in the ready position during the entire class. I can't let my mind wander."

This is a good rule to follow in meetings: stay attentive so that at any given point in the discussion you can respond to a question or provide insight. You'll also be able to draw together the various strands of the discussion and synthesize ideas that have been put forward. This is a critical meeting skill, and one that shows tremendous leadership.

Step 3: Speak Clearly

Make your points clearly and succinctly. Begin each contribution with a short statement connecting yourself to the theme or previous speaker. For example, say "I'd like to build on what Joe said," or "Our discussion about timing raises another crucial issue."

Then state your message in a single sentence beginning with "my view is that" or "my point is," or "as I see it". It's critical to have a single sentence message that shows others you are focused and have something to say.

Follow your message statement with several proof points to drive home your argument. These need only be one or two sentences each. Don't drag your audience through detail.

Help others, too, get to their point. If you hear someone rambling on, why not say, "Peter, if I understand your point, it is that." Others in the room will be grateful for your intervention.

Step 4: Convey Presence

Project presence in meetings. Often clients ask me how they can gain "executive presence" when giving a major speech or presentation. But projecting presence is equally important in meetings. Presence literally means being fully present. If you have presence in meeting, people will see you as being engaged, thoughtful and committed.

Strong eye contact is fundamental. As you talk, don't look randomly at the room, but make deliberate eye contact with individuals. And when you are not speaking, make eye contact with the speaker, turning your head and body in the direction of the speaker with a receptive look on your face. Sit up straight, with your arms open. Avoid slouching, crossing your arms, or that bane of modern meetings -- focusing on your phone. Finally, eliminate the clutter around you -- bottles, papers, purses or food will make you look less polished and focused.

Step 5: Draw People Out

Give everyone a voice. This is particularly important for those leading the meeting, but everyone can invite participation from others.

Cast your eye over the room, and do your best to include everyone who is there in the discussion. Draw out women, visible minorities, and junior staff - individuals who may not feel that their voices will be heard if they speak up.

Say, "I know Nadia has led a similar program at her last firm -- let's ask for her advice." Remember: the more inclusive the discussion, the more depth it will have and the richer the outcome.

Step 6: Encourage Respect

Define a new level of discourse -- one that reflects polite conversation rather than the "free-for-all" that can characterize meeting dialogue. Discourage interruptions, speaking "over" others or aggressiveness. If someone does interrupt another person, say "I believe Nadia was not finished." If there is cross-talk -- two or more people speaking at the same time -- the meeting leader should halt the discussion and say, "let's have one person at a time."

Step 7: Close With Action

Close the meeting with a summary of the progress that has been made -- and a call to action. The meeting leader typically should do this, but if he or she doesn't -- or if it is a roundtable discussion -- go for it!

All these pointers are elaborated in my book, Speaking as a Leader: How to Lead Every Time You Speak. Follow these steps and you will not only shine in meetings, but you will help change the culture of these every day interactions.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Real-Time Social? Guess Again.

October 2, 2015, 2:53 pm

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By Allie Wassum Manager, Social Strategy

We can agree that when it comes to social media, we're all panning for real-time gold. We're tirelessly keeping up with the trends and coaching our clients (or bosses) about the importance of being in today's conversation - which isn't necessarily the one we planned on. Reach just isn't possible without super smart real-time executions that propel our brands into the now, especially when paid dollars aren't on the table.

But here's the problem: our highly regulated, bureaucratic world isn't suited for the quick movements necessary to make real-time possible. And it's not the fault of the process. There is so much compliance involved that large companies are rendered motionless until they're given the go-ahead from their legal departments.

But trends die out as quickly as they catch on, and in the time it takes to get something approved, your real-time relevance is gone with the wind.

So, the only times we're able to hop on a trend or be part of a live conversation is when:

1. We've anticipated almost every possible conversation, developed messaging that makes sense for each and gotten all of these approved ahead of time. Sounds efficient, right? No. But when it works, it works. For instance, this awesome tweet from Beats by Dre during the 2013 MTV VMAs:
   
   
   
   Beats by Dre anticipated a conversation around Lady Gaga's arrival and capitalized on it. The result? A shout out from Miley Cyrus...organic reach like whoa.



2. We're able to identify a conversation early enough that we have time to not only develop content, but get that content approved both internally and by our client and get it in front of legal with enough time to publish before the conversation ends. Have you rolled your eyes yet? Yes, definitely tough to overcome, but somehow brands have figured out a way to work around it - think Oreo and the #SuperBowl XLVII power outage:
   
   
   
   Did you see that? Yep, this singular tweet received over 15,000 retweets. And it came as the result of a LIVE collaboration between agency and client, creative and listening, strategy and account.  All branches coming together, likely in one room (the "war room"), to monitor and brainstorm together with their legal reps. It takes a lot of people and a lot of effort, but, in this case, the brandlive/war room approach was well worth it. But is this realistic for every brand?



3. The stars have aligned and the current convo magically fits 100% into our scheduled content. We can then simply slap a hashtag on it and publish early. Yes, there are ways to strategize and help make this a reality, but it's not a model that can sustain itself.
   
   Without a hero's commitment and Oprah Winfrey pockets it's almost impossible to carry any of these out. No matter the amount of relevance, if there's no media budget for this extreme effort in relevance, no one will see it. It's actually likely to get less traction than one of your regular promoted posts.

There's only one exception that my colleagues and I can agree upon, and that's Instagram. Not only do hashtags seem to trend for longer on Insta (remember #nationaldaughtersday? Yeah, it lasted for three days), but paying attention to them is actually pretty posh. However, their recent push into the advertising spotlight is likely to change that reality as well.

So what's the solve? How do we ensure that social is truly interactive when we live in a highly regulated world?

My prediction (and maybe my childish dream), is the rise of social compliance agencies that are dedicated to learning the ins and outs of specific industry regulations and how they apply to social media. Agencies with staff members dedicated to 24/7 support who can deliver short turn around times, and, most importantly, who have their asses covered with the best legal teams in social.

But we're trying to be real...right?

So, for the purists out there, keep trying to jump over hurdles to win your insta-gold medal. And prove me wrong by getting some ROI out of these extraordinary efforts. Until then, we'll all settle for as real as real-time can get.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Is Content the Answer to Ad Blocking?

October 2, 2015, 2:56 pm

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Patrizio Spagnoletto, CMO of SteelHouse

There is a thought in the industry that publishers are swearing off display. But are they really? With the rise of content marketing, native ads, viewability and ad blockers, it's safer to say that publishers and users alike are getting tired of intrusive ads.

Who Gave Display a Bad Name?

Is the negative stigma attached to display warranted? Maybe. But it's not the fault of the ads or the technology behind the ads, rather the publishers that killed the user experience. By their very nature, display ads are not completely intrusive.  As publishers began saturating their sites with ads, they made more money, but turned off users in the process.

Not surprisingly, the overuse of ads has opened the door for ad blockers. Although adoption of ad blocking technology currently is low, the topic is top of mind for marketers. And Apple is signaling a big change by allowing ad blocking via apps. With more people consuming content on their mobile devices, it's easy to see how display revenue will suffer -- combine limited real estate on a mobile screen with slow loading ads and it's no surprise this is going to be an issue.

So what next? Is the answer simply just to put more dollars behind content marketing?

Content vs. Ads

Content marketing is nothing new. It's been around as long as print itself. If done well, content marketing and native ads are a seamless part of the user experience, adding value for users.

With the billions of dollars spent on content and the rise of the native ad unit, advertisers and publishers have found a viable replacement for display. It even sounds better. It's not a coincidence that it's called marketing instead of advertising.

The key here is to avoid the same downward spiral publishers created with display. If publishers start loading up on poorly written and irrelevant content, content marketing will suffer the same fate as display - annoying consumers. Anyone who has recently looked at their Facebook News Feed would probably agree.

How to Value Your Users (and Drive Revenue)

If you look at television, it consists of stated ads (aka commercials) and sometimes product placements, both complementing each other and most successful when executed in moderation. The same principles should be applied to digital advertising by keeping current ad revenue streams and then adding in new ones, but all in moderation.

With this model, you have distributed revenue and the experience won't drive users to block or leave the site. Successful sites and campaigns will cater to their valued audience by making balanced decisions that look beyond just short-term success, and instead to long-term viability. This balancing act, the short-term vs. the long-term, is nothing new to ad tech or any other industry, but it's something that is easily lost in a constantly evolving and fast-paced environment.

The perception of ad tech only improves once publishers and marketers alike start to value the user experience alongside revenue. Of course, there are sites and advertisers that do this well right now, but maybe it's time for everyone in tech to see their customers and visitors as more than a means to an end.

Looking Ahead

It's easy to forget that in the grand scheme of things, we are still just getting started with social, programmatic, mobile, video, and content marketing. An unbelievable amount of change in recent years has not only created great opportunity for advertisers, users, and publishers, but also lots of problems. Attribution, creative development, campaign set up, and an explosion in the number of companies providing ad tech services are just a few of the issues facing advertisers and publishers.

Looking ahead, I see only more ad formats, on more devices, and more issues for ad tech. However, if you adopt the mentality that more revenue streams in moderation create a better experience and higher value for customers, then change will need to take place. I think the natural progression will be around vendor and service consolidation, as we're already starting to see marketers experience major fatigue from working with too many providers, and those headaches will only turn into migraines as more options arise.

It will be interesting to see how the industry and publishers evolve and adapt, but the inevitable conclusion very well could be a consolidated platform approach. And as for dumping the bad rap, if you ask me, ad tech will need to give marketers a much more efficient way to spend their budgets and build meaningful campaigns, all while giving users the best experience possible.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The Cult of Accountability

October 2, 2015, 2:58 pm

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Bryan Noguchi, SVP, Media Director, R2C Group

With so shockingly few converts, it's easy to believe that the mantle of "accountability" in television advertising (really, advertising in any of its forms) would feel like a fringe form of faith.  Mostly, this is a by-product of our tolerance and acceptance of inferior or outdated ideas of what "accountability" even means.  So let's be clear - for our purposes right here, right now, I mean proof of efficacy relative to business and/or advertising objectives.

GRP as Scapegoat

Let's take our most beloved base unit of measure: the Gross Rating Point (GRP).  If my objective is to reach a percentage of an audience at a certain frequency, then the GRP is a good measure of accountability, since it is an expression of both reach and frequency relative to audience.  If my objective is "awareness" or "sales" the GRP leaves much to be desired - it is at best a poor proxy for fractions or parts of key indicators that might point to performance against those goals.  I'm not faulting the GRP - it is what it is, and it's not responsible for being misused or misrepresented.  But when we talk about metrics in advertising, we tend to be overly comfortable with poor proxies:  it's akin to using "centimeters" to measure time, which can work if you know what the circumference of the clock face is, but really it's more practical to use minutes and seconds (which, by the way, eliminates the conundrum of people having clocks of varying diameters, so kudos to the inventors of telling time!)

Want and Need

Basically, a chasm tends to exist between what I can reliably express as a metric, and what I need to be measuring.  Television advertising has tended to be measured from two poles: response (as in Direct Response TV) and delivery (as in audience delivery, i.e., the GRP.)  The thing is, these aren't mutually exclusive positions, and the reality is that response is largely dependent upon delivery, though this tends to be overlooked because cost often gets tied to action rather than delivery.  Plus, as it turns out, delivery alone tends to be a poor indicator of response performance, which underscores the fact that the third variable (cost) is pretty freaking important.  This is actually a super exciting point because now I have a holy trinity on which I can base my new cult!

Cost.  Delivery.  Response.

Someone tell me what these three words are in Latin, and we can chant them together - it'll be like those monks in Monty Python and the Holy Grail who hit themselves in the head with boards!  Seriously, these are the blocks with which we can now iterate almost endlessly against hard objectives: cost per action, response rates, relative media efficiency.  But we can also start to deal with more abstract problems, for example, the relationship between the relative cost of inventory and response - a potential proxy for impact and media quality.  I feel like a jerk for devoting so much energy to these basics, but I happen to believe that we're in an era where losing sight of the fundamentals is part of the standard operating procedure.  I think this is because the technologies at our disposal are so fantastic - how could we not be able to answer the basics?!  We believe truth lies in the data we generate, and while that's probably correct, we generate so much of it, we've become sort of bad at interpreting and presenting it.  As a result, I think we're not establishing good causal relationships between performance and our campaigns.

The Quest

That leaves one thing we all really need to solve for:  Attribution.  There's "direct attribution" which is basically "this click" or "this exposure" resulted in this sale: maybe you had a unique 800 number on your commercial, or perhaps someone did indeed click on a digital banner and completed a transaction on your site.  Or "advanced attribution" which effectively says that "this click, which resulted in this sale" is actually the culmination of a series of exposures across various channels at a variety of frequencies, and each touch point deserves a fraction of credit for that sale.  So, speaking of grails, this is where we ultimately need to net out: understanding how our advertising contributed (individually and as part of a whole) to tangible business objectives.  Every medium or channel I leverage, every ad I place has some effect on a final outcome, and we won't be able to quantify this without first committing ourselves to accountability.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.