The Day the News Died

My monthly MediaPost column (again) sparked a firestorm of controversy. Here is the article in its entirety:

Enjoy.

November 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Do We Matter?

Do we matter?

That was the simple question I posed to those in the online advertising industry. Here is the article for August's MediaPost column:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=112017

So do we? :)

August 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dell makes it right

This is an update to my previous post.

Much to their credit, Dell was all over the problems I had with my new laptop.

Dell's SMB team got a tech out to my office and had the four problems all corrected. The replacement parts were refurbished, and to account for this, they offered to send me a second brand new laptop free to ameliorate the situation.

I still believe that Dell's consumer division has a long way to go to improve their customer service. It is not in their, nor their customer's best interest to have three hour support calls. That said, the SMB unit is on the top of their game.

A very classy response, and a very positive resolution.

August 7, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Could Dell support be any worse?

I am in the middle of the most absurd technical support situation ever.

I bought a new computer online at Dell.com.

Two weeks later, the computer arrived and they shipped me an incorrectly configured computer. Three parts are incorrect (the case, the network card, and the audio are all wrong), and one part arrived broken (the power supply).

For the moment, let's leave the awful quality assurance process aside.

Right now, all I need is a technician to come out and swap the parts for the correct ones. Sounds simple, right? Not with Dell.

I have been ping-ponged around between eleven support people (and counting). Each one says it is another department I need, and then transfers me. None of them really understand English, and not a single one seems to have even the slightest idea about how to get something as simple as a parts replacement done.

I have been on the phone for more than THREE HOURS, spending my Sunday repeating my order number, my name, my service tag, and my express ID over, and over, and over, and over again.

Each person says they need it for security purposes. Even my bank doesn't require me to provide my identification nine times.

Worse, they had no ability to look up my order and made me email THEM the Dell configuration email that they sent me. How is it possible that Dell needs their customers to send Dell back their own order emails???

Finally, I had to teach them what Device Manager was inside of Windows, and email them a screenshot, because they were mystified how I knew that my network card was wrong.

We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with Dell. Making their customers go through processes this painful for simple things is a great way to lose customers. IBM and HP are looking better.

Dell, you're on notice.

August 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Vigilantism!

Some jerk broke into my car and shattered my window in a rain storm to steal a $139 GPS!?!

Time for some good old fashioned vigilantism!

I posted the video on YouTube and am offering a $100 cash reward to the first person who can give me his name and address :)

Let the games begin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDqCSnEdc2E

July 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

There is No Excess Inventory, There is a Shortage of Intent

They just published my May MediaPost article.

I wrote about the flaws in delivering intent in display advertising.

DK.

May 9, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Firestorm of Praise and Criticism

My most recent MediaPost column drew an enormous amount of reaction from the industry. The article got tweeted and re-tweeted. I even got hate mail and fan mail.

Ad Networks Are For Idiots (and the math to prove it)

Enjoy,

DK.

April 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

My Blog Named to "Top 100 Blogs for Young Entrepreneurs"

I am really honored to be named one of the Top 100 Blogs for Young entrepreneurs!

You can see the whole list here:

http://onlinecollegedegree.org/2009/03/12/100-best-blogs-for-young-entrepreneurs-2/

March 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

8 Things I Hate About You (My Monthly MediaPost Column)

My March MediaPost column published today and drew a huge response of both compliments and criticism. You can read about it here:

Eight Things I Hate About You

March 13, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Absence Of (proof)

The most incredulous part of the finale of the Bush presidency has to be the argument that his crowning achievement was "keeping us safe."

The idea that the absence of something happening is proof he did a good job is completely absurd.

In his tenure, we also did not have an ice age, a meteor destroy Earth, or Mel Gibson finally attack. Yet we rightly do not credit him for these things not happening either.

There has been no attack like 9/11 on US soil before, yet no other president has stood up and taken credit for what has not happened.

George Bush did more to alienate the rest of the world than any president in the last hundred years. He singlehandedly antagonized our enemies, and ostracized our friends.

One cannot help but be reminded when he tells us he "kept us safe," that he presided over the embarrassing response (or lack thereof) during Katrina. He barely found the time to fly over the chaos days laster, and left our fellow Americans to suffer.

The downfall of every great civilization in history has been the hubris of believing that they were invincible. Every day, the world grows smaller, and more interdependent.

I sincerely hope our new president will focus on repairing relationships with humility and transparency.

January 19, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Secret Lives of Buyers

My monthly column for MediaPost published this week:

The Secret Lives of Buyers

I hope you enjoy!

January 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Incompetence in Aviation

I am on the US Airways flight from Rochester to Laguardia right now, and tried to buy a drink with a $5 bill. She refused to sell it to me because they don’t carry change.

It is really scary flying on an airline too inept to realize that if you are going to nickel and dime your customers by charging them for drinks, and only take cash, you need to be able to break a five dollar bill.

When did humanity in aviation become optional?

p.s. for extra credit it took them 15 minutes to figure out how to open the baggage door. Yep. 15 minutes. To open a door.

October 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Stop Blaming the Economy

Nothing is more frustrating than listening to CEO's blame the economy. It is the CEO's job to anticipate economic slowdowns, and make proactive adjustments.

Here is my monthly MediaPost column on how it impacts advertising:

Stop Blaming the Economy!

Enjoy.

October 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September MediaPost Article

My September MediaPost article about the online video industry:

The Only Online Advertising Market TRYING to Grow Slowly

September 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

The same people who got us into this mess, won't get us out of it...

Every day the news coming out of the financial sector seems to get worse.

Today, Bush asked for $700 Billion dollars to bail out the mortgage business. Last week it was an $85 Billion bailout of AIG.

Our tax dollars paid for government regulators to sit in these bank offices, watch their transactions, and assess their risk.

And they failed miserably.

Why is the administration that mismanaged the financial sector to the point of a $1 Trillion dollar problem, the same administration we are trusting to fix it?

September 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Three Very Cool Places

Finding a truly great store is always a wonderful surprise.

A place where the employees are really passionate about what they do, and the products and service reflect that. If you get a chance, here are three fantastic stores worth your time:

LuckyScent:
LA is lucky to have this great perfume and cologne store that has amassed a collection of the coolest brands from Europe, Asia, and the US. The cute Asian girl who works there knows an unhealthy amount of information about cologne. Bottles range from $50 to $300+, and you get to not be the 50th guy that night who smells like Acqua di Gio  (www.luckyscent.com)

Cocoabella:
I love artisanal chocolate makers. San Francisco's Cocoabella is probably the best in the country with Amedei, Michel Cluizel, Christopher Elbow, Knipschildt, and more. With over 300 fresh truffles on display and white glove service, these guys are the new baby blue box. (www.cocoabella.com)

Blue Bottle Coffee:
Brewed in Oakland, sold in San Francisco at the retailer and at a kiosk at the Ferry Building. Their Japanese drip is unbelievably smooth, and their Retrofit Espresso is the best I have ever had. The $10,000+ Japanese machine that uses halogen light to create suction to purify the coffee is insane. I have friends I like less than Blue Bottle. (www.bluebottlecoffee.net)

Are there great stores you love? Tell me in the comments.

August 15, 2008 in Travel | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Please Stop Talking

I published my monthly column in MediaPost today, and got a firestorm of both compliments and criticism. It appears I struck a very sensitive nerve.

My underlying premise is that we have allowed the technology medium to become more important than the conversation itself. The article is available here:

MediaPost: Please Stop Talking

As Albert Einstein so brilliantly stated, "it has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

Well put.

July 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Latest MediaPost article

This month's MediaPost column managed to create a firestorm of debate. Here is the article:

The Devil in the Details

Your thoughts?

June 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Brilliance of Artisanal

There is a fascinating trend happening in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, and New York: impassioned artisans are creating handmade products in micro batches with unprecedented demand. There have always been people making hand-made product, but this dramatic rise of village artisans is unique in terms of the community support by equally fervent customers. More than ever, in the era of mass production, people are clamoring for the unique, the handmade, the enlightened.

Several years ago, I began getting interested in artisanal food makers. On a flight to Paris I read an article titled “The 50 Best Chocolatiers on the Planet.” I visited the four in Paris on that trip, and five years later have sampled 47 of the 50. I have grown an immense appreciation for the people that source the beans, develop the flavor combinations, and form the truffles. If you ever get a chance, visit Cocoabella in San Francisco, which has elevated the neighborhood chocolate shop to an art form. The Hannah liquid caramel with Hawaiian sea salt

If you like coffee, there is no Mecca quite like Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco. They roast their own beans, and brew the coffee in a $12,000 coffee maker called The Clover, so incredible its fans create YouTube videos of the brewing process. Blu Bottle’s 11 hour Japanese drip will leave you wired for several days.

When I visited Microsoft in Seattle, I used the few hours before my red-eye home to stop by Pike Market, one of the coolest food places in the country. Hundreds of small makers create everything from Lebanese whipped garlic (a must try, but bring gum for after), to Russian cakes.

The Ferry Building in San Francisco is equally impressive with vendors selling everything from organic cheeses to more than two hundred varieties of mushrooms.

This weekend in Manhattan I ended up gaining an appreciation for a new artisanal product: honey. I purchased a half dozen varities of honey including raw honeycomb, rare white honey, honey from bees that use lavender trees, and honey with Italian truffles. It is incredible how many varieties of honey there are, as each tree the bees use creates a unique flavor, and varying processing techniques create endless varieties. It will take me my whole life to eat the amount of honey I purchased this weekend. I may even have to gift it in my will.

I think the artisanal food trend has broader implications. I believe that people are going to increasingly crave customization, personalization, and rarity in their lives to counterbalance the Wal-Marting of society

Are there any artisanal food (or other trends) you are passionate about?      

May 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Bubbles are Caused by People Bad at Math

Invariably, financial bubbles get created because people ignore fundamentals and start using questionable math to justify their own logic.

The rest of us sit below the ether trying to make sense of it all, while being told we "don't get it."

Maybe.

Or maybe it's because every time a new business model gets created in the technology industry, people make up a whole set of useless metrics to measure it that never seem to track back to revenue. Or profit.

The flavor du jour is widgets, and nothing captures the essence of absurd math better than this "article":

Widgets: The Marketer's Recession Survival Tool

Ignoring for a moment the obvious conflict of interest from the author (he's the CEO of a widget company, and references his own company in the post), here are three basic economic reasons this article is totally bogus:

1. Value is NOT a function solely of cost. The fact that social networking inventory is cheaper than other advertising options does not inherently make it a good value. Value is measured as cost versus return. Perhaps it is cheaper, because it doesn't perform as well. Many articles have been written about advertisers getting negative ROI from social neworking. The reality is that quantifiable ROI measurements (read: driving revenue, not clickthroughs) do not exist.

2. The success of an industry cannot be measured by a venture capital investment.  Slide may have raised money at a high valuation, but so did Kozmo.com, PointCast, Flooz, Boo.com and countless others. Like any other industry, not all investors are smart, and even the smart ones make stupid decisions every once in a while. A venture capital investment should be taken for what it is: one person's opinion. An opinion that is statistically wrong 70-90% of the time.

3. ALL marketing drives consideration and preference. Forrester Research who crafted the ridiculous "research" report, argued that widgets "have a measurable impact on prospects' decisions in the consideration stage." The analyst has an incredible grasp of the obvious. This is like arguing that eating food will impact hunger. The entire marketing industry is built on impacting awareness, preference, and ultimately spend. All he argued here is that widgets are, in fact, advertising.

These type of articles are very dangerous. They offer very little in the way of fact (what are the metrics for measuring ROI? What were the actual results?) or substance, yet can sway public opinion.

Only two things in the whole article make any financial sense:

Forrester is trying to sell research reports, and Michael Jones is trying to sell widgets.

And neither makes a compelling argument.

April 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)