Marty Note
Wait long enough, or in my case live long enough, and it gets to be YOUR TURN (lol). I loved this Justin Gray post on Forbes explaining that MARKETING is the last thing an online play needs.

Couldn't agree more.

I was trained in a different kind of marketing than we practice now at our startup Curagami. I was trained to invade Russia in the winter. THEN messages were few enough and far enough between capturing territory and holding it was possible.

Not so much anymore.

These days capturing hearts, minds and loyalty is the game and everything is happening all at once all the time. The skills needed to play this game, as Justin so astutely notes, are different. Here is an excellent summary of those skills from his Forbes post:

• Content creators. In an era of shrinking attention spans, the ability to craft compelling stories into engaging online content is key. That’s why marketers need the same skills as a journalist: ideation, writing and editing.

• Analysts. Marketers need to know how to extract insights from data and use it to make meaningful decisions. They also need to create models to collect data and feedback easily.

• Designers. Modern marketers must have an eye for aesthetics and be able to capitalize on trends in real time. Look for candidates who can create high-quality, consumer-facing assets at a rapid pace.

• Planners. Marketers engineer a brand’s interface with the buyer, including when, how and where they’re interacting. That means creating workflows and campaigns based on buyers’ behaviors while paying attention to other messages and campaigns.

AGREE and not just because I'm benefiting from such an analysis. I imagine EVEN if I was still working for one of the largest Consumer Products companies as I did a lifetime ago (P&G, M&M/Mars) we wouldn't be invading Russia in the winter anymore.

UNLESS, we were invading with a tribe of brand Sherpas, telling the story as we went and watching our analytics and pivoting based on what we learn in near real time.

Via Martin (Marty) Smith