As VP of Media Technology & Analytics, Josh Dreller ensures that Fuor Digital stays on the cutting edge of all online marketing technology. He is passionate about media measurement and how marketers reach consumers with multi-channel web strategies. He recently sat down with us to share his take on the industry and where he sees genius.
1. You might know more about analytics than anyone in the digital industry. At the end of the day, how does search data help marketers do their jobs and reach consumers?
Ha! First, let me thank you for anointing me king of analytics. I’d love to accept that title, but some of the pure analytics folks who only work on that side of the industry might debate that. As a media technologist, it’s important for me to stay well versed at a high level on many disciplines in digital marketing; obviously analytics are an important piece to the puzzle so a good deal of my foundation has been immersed in thinking about measurement and its practical application.
In terms of search, you just can’t do it right without the data. Sure, anyone can load a Google AdWords campaign and bid on some keywords, but they’re not going... Read more
Archive for Josh Shatkin-Margolis 
All Marketers Are Geniuses: “Smart is In”
All Marketers Are Geniuses: “Cut the B.S.”
Jeff Rosenblum is a force to be reckoned with. A self-declared “pain in the ass,” Jeff is constantly pushing the envelope and challenging the digital marketing industry to evolve and adapt to today’s consumer. It is this outgoing personality that has earned Jeff and the advertising agency he co-founded, Questus, a solid (and proven) reputation for developing industry-changing campaigns and results for leading brands, including Capital One, General Mills, The NFL and Suzuki Motorcycles. Jeff took a break from his current endeavor—a documentary on advertising to share some of these insights with us.
1. If you weren't a marketer, what would you be?
My grandfather was a rum runner. My father is a salesman. My mother is a shrink. When you think about it, you realize that I was bred for this career. I’ve never considered anything else. Not once.
2. How are agencies transforming and innovating with creativity and messaging?
Agencies are completely transforming and innovating through both creativity and technology. Most importantly, advertisers can’t bullshit people anymore. We can’t create fictitious stories told by smiling actors with fancy jingles.
Agencies need to create experiential platforms that enable brands to create a two-way dialogue with customers. Traditional advertising still plays a role in these... Read more
All Marketers Are Geniuses: You either have it, or you don’t
Rob Griffin is arguably one of the most knowledgeable and expert search executives in the world. As the current EVP, global director of product development at Havas Digital, he’s driving product and service development across the agency’s global network. After spending more than six years building out the agency’s search and analytics capabilities, Rob now drives the agency’s digital capabilities in emerging specializations like online video and social media while still keeping a focus on analytics and search. Rob recently sat down with me to answer questions as the second installment in “All Marketers Are Geniuses.”
1. If you weren't a marketer, what would you be?
An advertiser. Seriously. I have always had a fascination with the actual ad side of the business. Even as a kid when I thought I might want to be a jet fighter pilot, I would sit at home and talk to my family about what was “cool” or “not cool” about one ad or another. Then, even through my university days when I was studying in veterinary sciences, I would always debate “good” vs. “bad” ads. When I decided being a vet wasn't for me I found nowhere else to go. Next thing... Read more
All Marketers Are Geniuses: How to Leverage (and Streamline) Data for Marketing Success
As an industry, we seem to think that we can cram all of this stuff on a dashboard. If we did this kind of dashboard-cramming in today’s cars, my Subaru would look like the cockpit of a 747. We need to get better at understanding what marketing problems are solvable, which ones we want to solve (and in what order), and what data we don’t need.
All Marketers are Geniuses: An Introduction
Despite the fact that I majored in computer science and electrical engineering at MIT, I remain the black sheep in my family. I’m the only one amongst my extended family without a graduate degree; a middle child between a surgeon and a Johns Hopkins professor. Surrounded by these crowds, I have come across my fair share of intelligent people. But never have I seen a group as collectively intelligent as marketers.
Sure, software developers are skilled, doctors are very knowledgeable and lawyers are astute thinkers. Surgeons have developed laser surgery. Lawyers have mastered the art and science of the criminal mind and the nuance of law. And marketers have developed neuromarketing in which even the brain waves of targeted customers are measured. In a world where the consumer is inundated with messages, marketers have maintained and even advanced the ability to influence purchase intent and brand image. In fact, marketers have developed laser-like audience targeting capabilities. According to Yankelovich Research, an average person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day. Today, that number is up to 5,000 and we still keep finding a way to cut through that clutter. That, I would... Read more
