Startups are ideas searching for a business model.

-Jonathan Fields

Or, as the curious marketer might say, stories in search of their audience.

Of course with startups it gets weird because the first audience is investors and the second is customers. What both those audiences want and need are very different. But starting with audience 1 changes the way you approach audience 2.

It not just about finding AN audience, it’s about finding THE audience.

The one that wants to tell the same story—that wants to co-create a story. With you.


Google Analytics is improving privacy features in anticipation of third-party cookie deprecation next year.

  • Protected Audiences (formerly FLEDGE & who knows how many other acronyms)
  • Enhanced conversions
  • Consent Mode (not new, but more important)

The cookie is about to actually crumble


Nuggets from Mickie Kennedy

One of the most important things that small businesses ignore is their own story. What they do that’s unique and different from everybody else. And how they came up with that as a business model.

&

You want to ask meaningful questions that are very timely and specific to right now.

& from (host) Travis Albritton

Your marketing can’t just be about you and your own selfish interest if you want it to resonate with people that you want to interact with your business in a positive way.

Brands Are Narratives


Not many surprising predictions in this piece, but I’ve been waiting for this:

The fastest-growing media channel in 2024, according to Forrester, will be in-game advertising. Almost half of online US adults who use smartphones said they regularly play games on their phones, and although “gaming remains a laggard medium for advertisers,” media giants like Microsoft and Sony are leaning in, which could help convince some advertisers to follow suit

Could be a way for Microsoft to carve out a unique niche with advertisers.

Will 2024 be in-game’s QR moment?


This would be a welcome Christmas present:

prices fell 2.6% [this past October] from a year earlier, marking the fifth straight month prices for durable goods experienced deflation

Morgan Stanley economists expect the deflation trend to continue through at least the midway point of next year due in part to strengthened supply chains, a projection that jives with stabilization tracked by the New York Fed’s Global Supply Chain Pressure Index.

In fact, deflation may remain so strong, it unwinds much of overall inflation all on its own