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I’ve been searching for the words to describe my feelings towards the current state of adtech. Terms like “stale,” “stagnant,” and “boring” are among the pejoratives that come to mind. But, if I had to be even more descriptive, I’d have to say that adtech is like a grocery storeand not in a good way. Just like a grocery store will sell multiple versions of the same product, adtech too is a cacophony of competing firms each effectively doing the same thing. Break down adtech into its constituent taskslike A/B testing, attribution, analytics, or whateverand you’ll find dozens, if not hundreds of companies all touting the merits of their products. Don’t get me wrong. Some of these companies might actually have good products, or they’re competitive on price. But are they innovative? Are they doing anything wildly new, or tackling an existing problem in an imaginative and helpful way? The answer is, almost always, no. Adtech’s Getting Old To be clear, this isn’t inherently a bad thing. Innovation for the sake of innovation is a recipe for products with no market fit, or with no obvious utility. We see this every time there’s a hype cycle. When crypto was at its most ludicrous towards the late 2010s, there were no shortage of companies that reimagined existing technologies, but on the blockchain. We’re seeing it again with generative AI. Going back to the supermarket analogy, we’re at a point where adtech products are a bit like common household staples. Realistically, there’s only room for a few brands of tomato soup. And there’s no line of VCs desperate to back the next disruptive player in the tomato soup industry. It’s here where I start to get worried. When there are no more frontiers to march towards, no more boundaries to cross, you end up with consolidation among existing players. I believe we’re in the early stages of this process, as demonstrated by the near-total collapse of VC investment into adtech startups over the past decade. In 2015, investors ploughed almost $5 billion into the sector, according to Crunchbase Data, spread across nearly 400 rounds. In the first eight months of 2024, that lofty figure had shrunk to a mere $360 million. The lion’s share of that cash went to existing companies, rather than those in the seed stage. Consolidation (and its sibling, saturation) is, obviously, a factor in this malaise. Adtech is a (relatively) mature industry, and over the past couple of decades, a handful of players have emerged as the dominant forces in their specific niche. These companies are now multi-billion dollar entities, and it’s hard to imagine a successful challenger emerging at this late stage. For an investor, the prospect of a rival to, say, Hubspot or Salesforce, that exists to steal the percentage of customers that are unhappy with their service, and aren’t too locked-in to move, isn’t an enticing proposition. And that’s without mentioning the other factors that have likely complicated matterslike the E.U.’s stringent privacy regulations, the dominance of Google and Facebook in digital advertising, and the general post-pandemic slump in VC spending. A Mirror of Tech I’ve started to realize that what I’ve described isn’t unique to adtech. In the 2000s and 2010s, Silicon Valley set out to build the digital world. Now, it’s largely been built, and the companies that executed best during that period are now leaders in their segments. Most product categories exist. There’s very rarely anything new. Even generative AI, arguably the most “new” thing we’ve seen in recent years, feels somewhat tired. Most commercial implementations are effectively papering on a new technology onto an old ideaand often with questionable, or negligible, outcomes. But as the tech industry writ large treads ever-stagnant water, it’s worth remembering thatat least, when it comes to marketingwe have other options. Stagnancy is a choice, and it’s one that I hope we avoid. The biggest problem with adtech is that it was more “tech” than “ad.” Advertising is, by its very nature, a fundamentally human pursuit. Every successful marketing campaign throughout history has been centered on creative content that spoke to someone, either through imagery, writing, or music. To be successful, you need to think about your audience. You need to understand them, and to think carefully about what things will resonate with them. Tech is, far too often, not particularly human. And that’s especially true for adtech. Think of all the websites that are literally bursting with adtech productsanalytics, ad networks, and so onthat fundamentally degrade the user experience. These products answer one question (“how do we do this one particular task faster, or smarter, or with full automation?”), but leave one unanswered: how will people respond to this? The fact that so many people are “opting out” of advertising, either through ad-blockers or by paying for ad-free subscriptions, because they perceive digital advertising as hostile and intrusive should be cause for alarm within the adtech industry. At a very least, it should provoke some soul-searching. Something which, I’m sad to say, hasn’t happened. Worse, the dominance of the “tech” in “adtech” is actively clouding the judgement of marketers. Far too many marketers are glued to dashboards, obsessing over the numbers generated by their chosen analytics platform. We trust that these platforms are accurate, even though there’s no such thing as “perfect attribution.” Or, rather, not without being able to read the audience’s mind. And so, we’ve forgotten the human aspect of marketing. It’s time to go back to basics. Putting Creative First I’ve been critical of the adtech industry throughout this piece, and not without cause. That said, I do think it’s worth acknowledging that there are some tools that are very good. Everything has its place, and in moderation. The problem is that I don’t see the adtech industry solving the problems of marketers, now or into the future. It’s an industry that’s hit a brick wall, and has no new ideas. Worse, I think that our collective enthralment with adtech has blinded us to the capabilities and limitations of these products, and the fact that, as marketers, our audiences are people. To be clear, this isn’t a kind of adtech luddite manifesto, arguing for a return to a 1990’s way of doing business. For better or for worse, advertising is a digital industry now, and there’s no going back. Rather, it’s a plea for marketers to accept that the tech products they usewhether directly or indiectlyare no substitute for human creativity, and an understanding of the audience. While the adtech industry has made some things better, we need to acknowledge that there’s nothing new around the corner. There’s no new game-changing product category that will make our jobs easier, or our campaigns more successful. We need to start relying on ourselves more. To understand that every conversion starts with a great piece of creative, and work back from there.
Category:
E-Commerce
This week in branding news, a 10-year-old meme appeared as the face of a new federal department, Tumblr launched a TikTok-esque feature, and Crocs made some clogs inspired by the Beatles. Heres what you need to know.Various iterations of doge.gov from the week of January 20, 2025 [Screenshots: doge.gov]DOGEs WIP logoThe news: Directly after taking office on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rebrand the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (sigh). The new department, set to be headed by billionaire Elon Musk, has been pitched as an outside advisory group that would recommend government reforms and find $500 billion in annual spending to cutbut its looking more and more like the USDS with a new, meme-ified name. Now DOGE seems to be having trouble deciding on a logo that wont turn it into a laughing stock.Big picture: DOGEs name is a nod to a meme thats more than a decade past its prime, which featured a photo of a Shiba Inu with a misspelled caption. The meme is also the face of the joke-turned-real-cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which Musk has financially supported.When the doge.gov website debuted on Monday, it displayed an AI-generated Doge meme as its official logoa reference to the deluge of AI slop that hit the web after Musk initially announced the project. Shortly afterward, that first logo was replaced with a more classic version of the meme. And, as of this writing, the website has no logo at all.Why it matters: Its unclear exactly why the Doge logos were taken down. What is clear is that elevating a concept that started with a meme into an actual federal department is merely an escalation of the new Trump administrations rejection of convention in favor of all things absurd and, often, troubling. [Screenshot: Tumblr]Tumblr tries to go TikTokThe news: Ten years after it first teased the concept of Tumblr TVa tab dedicated to discovering new GIFs (how very 2015)Tumblr has finally launched the feature as a kind of TikTok wannabe. Big picture: Tumblr TV (which, in its modern form, also supports video content) comes during a moment when plenty of TikTok users are searching for potential alternatives amid the apps uncertain fate. Lemon8 and RedNote have both seen a massive spike in users; meanwhile, some former TikTok users are buying phones with the app pre-downloaded on eBay, as its no longer available on the App Store.According to TechCrunch, Tumblr was also a destination for TikTok dupe seekers: A spokesperson reported that the platform saw a roughly 35% increase in iOS app installs and a 70% increase in new users joining Communities, a feature that allows users to join various groups focused on specific interests.Why it matters: Tumblr TV might serve as a TikTok alternative if you were, say, stuck on a desert island with only one app downloaded to your phone, but as of right now, its just not cutting it. The interface is still quite GIF-focused, the video quality is subpar, and the default grid setting means that vertical swiping isnt as smooth. In 2015, this might have blown our minds, but in 2025, it feels more like a blast from the past. [Photo: Crocs]A new Crocs collabThe news: A new Crocs collaboration might just take the cake for the wackiest shoes the brand has ever released. Big picture: The new two-clog Crocs collection is a tribute to the Beatless 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. One pair features the classic Croc silhouette decked out in the flattened, psychedelic aesthetic that defined the film. The other pair is designed to look like a literal yellow submarine, complete with portholes (through which each member of the iconic band peeps up at the wearer), tiny propellers, and a raised tower on top of the vessel. The shoes will be available online on January 28.Why it matters: Crocs continues to demonstrate its innovative dominance with a strategy that purposefully defies expectation. One moment, the brand is making serious moves for the climate by going bio-based and recycling old clogs into new clogs; the next, its entertaining silly collabs with McDonalds and making clogs for dogsall while launching the occasional high-fashion silhouette, like the popular Salehe Bembury Crocs and punkabilly-inspired leather Crocs. Its the brand that keeps us on our toes, literally.
Category:
E-Commerce
Americans are struggling to afford a place to live. Homes cost more than five times the average salarycompared with just three times the average salary in the 1960s. Over the same period, inflation-adjusted rental prices have risen by 64%, far outpacing inflation. Meanwhile, new housing starts continue to fall, including a more than 20% drop in multi-family construction in November 2024 alone. The simple fact is that were not building enough affordable housinghomes at prices families can really afford. And if the housing market is straining the finances of many families now, just imagine what the market will look like as surging ranks of Gen Z buyers enter the market. Countless dedicated teachers, nurses, and carpenters are already unable to live in the communities where they work; how much farther are they supposed to commute? Housing insecurity in the U.S. is obviously a long-developing and complex problem, and theres no magic policy wand we can wave to eliminate it. But as a starting point, three major contributing factors can be addressed right now to ease the pressure on home prices. If were serious about affordable housing, its time to have serious conversations about these three priorities. Let Gen Z help ease the skilled trades labor shortage Housing affordability is often discussed as a matter of supply and demand: All we need to do is build more houses. But what if the houses were building are still too expensive for many buyers? After all, developers have to cover their costs. And those costs are currently being inflated by a significant labor shortage in the skilled tradesa problem of our own making. For years, parents and career counselors have been telling young people that a college degree is essential for a successful life, and theyve been listening. This meant that as builders, electricians, and masons retired, there just werent enough millennial and Gen X aspirants to take their place. In fact, 95% of skilled trade professionals on the Thumbtack platform report their top concern for the future is the ability to find workers to hire. But now we have an opportunity to reverse that trend. A recent survey from my company found that a full two-thirds of Gen Z generationincluding 78% of those with a college degreeexpress a growing interest in skilled trades professions, fueled in part by social media content. More than half of Gen Z are now considering a skilled trade career, up 12% over the past year alone, including 72% of those with a college degree. Unfortunately, this appetite to learn trade-related skills is not matched by the opportunities available. Only 41% of Gen Z had access to trade programs in schoolthough 83% of those who did take shop class called it their favorite subject. Thats why comprehensive policy to address this issue has to include expanding the talent pipeline for Gen Z skilled tradespeople. Beyond restoring shop class, we need to build training, mentoring, and apprenticeship programs that prepare young people to enter the field ready to do quality work from day one. Loosen restrictions on housing development Exclusionary, single-unit zoning policies are the definition of NIMBY: This part of town is for families with quarter-acre lotslet other families find somewhere else to live. As the population grows, that somewhere else is getting further and further away from established communities and their infrastructure, while the prices of existing homes spiral. In fact, young adults who grew up in these spacious suburban spreads can rarely afford them by the time they enter the market. Nobody is saying we should outlaw picket-fence bungalows and ranch homes, but if theres land and capital available nearby to build affordable multi-unit housing, why should local governments impose barriers? States across the U.S. are already moving in this direction, from Oregon and California to North Carolina and Connecticut. And some cities are also stepping in to build affordable housing. For that matter, why are towns and counties even allowed to determine what people are allowed to build on their land? Restrictions on industrial uses are understandable, but when it comes to residential housing, the market should decide what goes whereand the market is calling for affordable apartments and townhouses wherever theres room to build them. Take highways out of the equation The housing shortage is most acute in our urban centers, where young people want to live and companies want to hire. Theres only so much we can do with infill developmentthough we should be doing all we can there, too. The greater opportunity is to help people access these places more easily while living further outwithout soul-crushing gridlock. A century ago, the first wave of suburbanization was enabled by the rise of widespread car ownership and a massive investment in roads to carry them. As commute times grow and daily drives slow to a crawl, we need to shift focus to transit-oriented development (TOD) policies. In many cases, that infrastructure already exists in the form of light rail. To make those investments work harder for homebuyers, we should rezone areas near transit stations for higher residential density, complemented with expanded park-and-ride lots and development incentives for affordable housing. The Federal Transit Administration offers grants under a TOD pilot program to support community efforts to improve access to public transportation. In 2024, applications with a significant affordable housing component were eligible for up to 100% federal support. That kind of vision and commitmenton the part of both regulators and the communities participating in the programwill be essential to solve this crisis. Housing is one of the most fundamental human needsand America is falling short of ensuring that our families can achieve it. By taking practical steps to lower construction costs, make more land available for multi-unit development, an expand the inventory of transit-friendly homes, we can ease the pressure on home prices and help more Americans afford a secure foundation for their families.
Category:
E-Commerce
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