The whole podcast linked to here is worth listening to, if only to hear a true infovore’s approach to information discovery and self-knowledge.
Tyler Cowen’s core principles of economics:
- Incentives matter
- There’s always an opportunity cost (aka no free lunch)
you create the conditions for people to do the things they’ve always wanted to do
Seth Godin on the status games aspect of strategy
Forrester has made its 2025 predictions 🔮
In: “Brand smart”
Out: Brand safety
embracing new practices like swapping keyword exclusion lists with lists of publishers to include in their campaigns.
Out: TikTok ban in 2025
In (again): SEO-powered AI
Out: In-housing
In: Agencies (out-housing? (depends on the agency, I guess))
Welcome to the totally predictable ad market circus
Rather than normalcy, we’re finding huge spikes of inefficiency as everybody scrambles to crunch ad campaigns in before the big BFCM weekend.
Most platform cost per metrics are up and brands are trying to make up for lost time.
Customer mindset is boomeranging post-election.
Enjoy some turkey today and slow down a bit.
Beware negative social proof. a.k.a. the “well, if everyone else is doing it…” effect
Definition = if you make an unwanted behaviour seem commonplace, more people will perform the unwanted behaviour.
Negativity is a downward spiral. And one hard to harness.
Be aspirational.
It’s easy to focus on winning but I think have to focus more on how not to lose than you do on how to win.
Because how not to lose is more controllable than how to win.
When you’re trying to win championships you can’t focus on winning championships. You have to focus on what goes into the process of winning but also how can you prevent losing by doing the things that are simplest to do under high duress.
-Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla
It’s looking like inflation is back on the bingo card for 2025.
Using our rule of thumb that every 1 [percentage point] increase in the effective tariff rate would raise core [Personal Consumption Expenditures] prices by 0.1%, we estimate that the proposed tariff increases would boost core PCE prices by 0.9% if implemented
Disposal income might get further squeezed, meaning marketing efficiency will be ever more important.
Interesting to see Google continue to shift features into the third-party realm. This time, it’s ad creation tools for YouTube and Display.
Google will sunset Ads Creative Studio by the end of March 2025, shifting its focus to new growth areas and enhancing partnerships with creative agencies to deliver tailored campaigns at scale.
For YouTube-specific customizations, advertisers are encouraged to engage third-party partners.