by Mark O'Brien | Mar 27, 2015
I hope I don’t disillusion, disappoint, or disaffect anyone. But this needs to be stated overtly: Advertising is not a dance. That’s not to say every business needs to advertise. There are many businesses with strategic, managed growth plans that can do...
by Mark O'Brien | Mar 25, 2015
Dearly Beloved, We are gathered here on this solemn occasion to mark the untimely and unfortunate passing of something long held in the highest esteem by those who conducted it and by those who benefitted from it, be they in the hallowed halls of academia or in the...
by Mark O'Brien | Mar 24, 2015
For living in a world obsessed with communication, we don’t seem to be paying much attention to language. Think about the language of marketing: First, we speak impersonally. We talk about industries, markets, verticals, and accounts. Those referents...
by Mark O'Brien | Mar 23, 2015
I wonder if all of us think more about time as we grow older. I’m sure we’re aware of its passing. I want to know if we share a preoccupation with what we’re doing with our time. We have such a perverse relationship with it. When we’re young, there seems to be too...
by Mark O'Brien | Mar 20, 2015
Brands, like websites, are most effective when they’re not allowed to be static. Brands — and their graphic marks, in particular — shouldn’t be as dynamic as websites, of course; that is, unlike the constantly evolving content of websites, graphic marks...
by Mark O'Brien | Mar 19, 2015
On LinkedIn alone there are so many apparent obituaries being written for the CMO, I pulled my black suit out of mothballs for the funeral. But when it occurred to me that none of the pieces I’d been reading had given a cause of death, I decided to do a little...
