Over a decade ago, I attended a lunch and learn with RocketFuel to understand programmatic digital advertising. Promising precise ad placement in milliseconds, RocketFuel and MediaMath introduced AI-driven real-time bidding, revolutionizing digital ad buying. Today, there are countless DSPs offering similar capabilities. The question now is not whether to buy media programmatically, but which DSP is right for your needs.

In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll explore demand-side platforms, their selection process, and the best providers for your business.

Many advantages come from the modern marketing landscape due to the technologies and data that marketers possess. Unfortunately, truly fair lenders can potentially put themselves at serious risk by unintentionally excluding certain populations from their marketing offers as a result of targeting what they view as desirable audiences. In this installment of Compound Interest, we will examine how financial institutions can steer clear of redlining risks from purely a marketing perspective.

Whether you are a small business owner or a marketing lead in a larger company, 2024 looks like a pretty sunny year for many businesses. The economy looks set to grow, and businesses that put in the extra effort should have a pretty good year. And the good news is that growth doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss free, cheap, or affordable things you can do to market your business better (and a few that might require extra help).

As a full-service agency with more than 80 clients, we often get asked our opinions on which CRM solution is best for a given client’s situation or if a certain CRM software is any good. While we have our favorites and can often provide insights on which is best for a client’s needs, the answer is they are all pretty good. The secret to getting results from your new CRM is in its implementation! In this edition of Plain Talk, join us as we take a deep dive into implementing a CRM system the right way.

On December 6, members of Google’s “Internal Access” program (early adopters, influencers, employees, and researchers) flooded the web with videos of Gemini as the “CHATGPT slayer.” And then, just as suddenly, it fell silent as the public availability of Gemini was pushed to a later date in 2024. With details of the sudden change limited in online searches, we looked for answers by interviewing the one source we were confident would have the answers, Google Bard. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll find out what Bard had to say about the Gemini launch and the future of AI in marketing applications.

Peanut butter and jelly. Taylor and Travis. Sun and sand. Coca-Cola and the Olympics. Lowes and Building Homes for Heroes. Some things just go better together. For nonprofits and corporations yet to form a strategic alliance, a considerable opportunity awaits. There are many obvious (and less obvious) benefits, including brand perception, social impact, improved employee retention, and heightened community engagement. Forming the right partnership can provide incredibly important benefits to both the nonprofit and the corporate sponsor. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll delve into nonprofit-corporate partnerships. Find out why nonprofits and corporations should partner, why these relationships are mutually beneficial, and learn what criteria each should consider in their selection.

Silent attrition, also referred to as silent switching or silent churn, is when customers of a bank fragment their banking activities by using secondary institutions for financial services offered by their primary institution. This growing phenomenon is tough to detect because the customer doesn’t close their account at their main institution, so unlike when a customer moves their account from one primary bank to another, the losses incurred from silent switching are more gradual and frequently fly under the radar. In this Compound Interest, we’ll examine silent attrition and what to do when customers stop doing business without closing the relationship.

We’ve all seen them—60-second commercials that pop up during our favorite TV shows. In these commercials, everyone seems to be dancing, mountain biking, or kayaking to happy music while the list of potential side effects is described in the background. With revenues exceeding $600 billion, it is not surprising that pharmaceutical companies spent almost $8.1 billion last year on paid advertising, according to Endpoints News. Seventy percent of that was spent on linear TV. The top 10 pharma advertising brands alone contributed to a combined total of $1.68 billion in ad spend. But are they necessary? Do they work? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll address those two questions. We’ll also explore what the rest of us marketers can learn from pharma advertising—TV advertising’s fourth-largest industry.

Does Gen Z spend their tax refunds differently than older taxpayers? The simple answer is, yes! Is now the time to talk about how tax refund season can fit into your marketing plans? Also, yes! After all, you know the old saying, “In this world nothing is certain, except death and taxes.” So, in this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss Gen Z spending and how this generation spends (or pre-spends) their tax refunds differently from Millennials and other Americans. We’ll also discuss whether you should target their refund and how to best align and market your products or services to them during their annual influx of cash.

In healthcare, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff had no choice but to be present on the frontlines 24/7 during the pandemic, leaving them exhausted, in a state of burnout, and feeling under-appreciated. Healthcare workers left in droves, only worsening existing staffing issues caused by an aging patient population and healthcare retirements. In the healthcare industry, it is more important than ever before to retain these medical professionals, which is where internal marketing can be crucial. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll explain how a plan for better employee engagement in healthcare could lead to a happier workforce and possibly greater retention.