Story Behind the Strategy I Marketing Insights

Generic prompt in. AI slop out. As AI makes it easier to produce articles, proposals, and content calendars at scale, it's also making generic content easier to recognize. Using WALL-E as an analogy, I explore why more content doesn't necessarily mean better marketing, how I use AI to support my own writing, and why experience and human judgment remain essential to creating content worth reading.

A funeral home sponsoring a Community Calendar? I sold that. A divorce attorney sponsoring a wellness segment? That, too. After ten years in broadcast promotions, I challenged myself to invent eight sponsorship pairings even I couldn't justify. Unfortunately, I kept finding ways to pitch them. Sometimes the difference between a brilliant partnership and a terrible idea is the story connecting the sponsor to the audience.

I once maintained a list of businesses we absolutely should NOT approach for sponsorship. It started with two columns: advertisers who would appreciate the unscripted chaos of a Facebook Live show, and businesses our hosts had already made fun of on camera. Guess which column was longer? Sometimes the smartest sponsorship strategy isn't finding another advertiser. It's knowing which ones to avoid.

Remember when Meryl awkwardly interrupted conversations in The Truman Show to promote Mococoa? It's hilarious because the sponsorship feels completely out of place. From fictional product placements to the recent Berlin Marathon sponsor change, let's explore why sponsorship brand fit matters—and why getting a brand noticed isn't always the same as making a sponsorship successful.

“Build your network before you need it” is great advice—unless you’re reading it after a layoff. One unexpected referral reminded me that building a professional network isn’t about collecting connections. It’s about creating relationships that still matter long after the original reason you met is gone.

When a creator recommends your product, you aren't just buying access to their audience. You're borrowing the trust they've spent years building with it. From Ray Narvaez Jr. to Fyre Festival, what happens when marketing becomes dependent on someone else's reputation?

Commander Shepard can endorse multiple “favorite” stores on the Citadel in exchange for discounts. It’s a funny video game moment—and a surprisingly useful lesson in affiliate marketing trust, credibility and what happens when every recommendation starts sounding the same.

I signed up for two webinars this week and attended neither. The recordings are sitting in my inbox, but I missed something they can't reproduce. From a live AI course to conference conversations and a surprise connection at a Cardinals game, some of the best learning happens because other people are there with you.

Remote work proved we don’t have to be in the same room to work, learn, build communities, or even run a marathon together. So why are remote-first companies still investing in offsites, conferences, and trade shows? From a virtual Boston Marathon to unexpected conversations over coffee, I dug into what research says about the value of purposeful presence—and what happens between the agenda items.

Did you generate 200 leads, or did 200 people let you scan their badges? From hula hooping at a radio station booth to B2B trade shows and client dinners, measuring event marketing ROI starts with knowing what you showed up to accomplish.

If concerts, conferences and games can all be experienced through a screen, why do we still want to show up? Sing, the Savannah Bananas and one memorable conference reveal how digital content can make live experiences more desirable—not less.

A contest offering a two-year Chevy Cruze lease was bound to generate plenty of entries. The more important question was what we could learn from them. One Big Data presentation changed how I thought about turning contest participation into actionable marketing insights.

Marketing data gives us more numbers than ever, but collecting data isn't the same as knowing what to do with it. Sometimes the most useful marketing question is also the simplest: “So what?”

AI search makes answers easier to find, but good research still depends on asking the right questions. What The Matrix can teach us about AEO, search, and understanding.

Sending an email doesn't mean the message was received, understood, or confirmed. One event sponsorship taught me why effective workplace communication sometimes requires closing the loop—and why “What questions do you have?” can be more useful than “Do you have any questions?”

When executive opinion becomes a directive, marketing strategy can quickly turn into compliance. But who actually has the authority to push back? A look at power, customer insight, and why silence doesn't always mean agreement.

Mean Girls offers a surprisingly useful lesson about consensus in leadership: compliance can look like agreement when people don't feel comfortable saying no.

Job titles can become part of how we define ourselves. But what happens when the title disappears? The work you keep doing when nobody requires it may be a better clue to your professional identity.

Companies already employ people with expertise worth sharing. Employee thought leadership gives those people room to develop a recognizable point of view—building credibility for the organization while creating a professional reputation that can travel with them.

How many followers do you need before thought leadership makes an impact? The Devil Wears Prada 2 offers a surprisingly useful lesson: your most important audience may be forming an opinion long before you know they're paying attention.