Digital Marketing Comes of Age: We’re All Futurists Now
Tom Burg, a twelve-year veteran of Silicon Alley, blogs for us about marketing, the digital economy, and how social media is transforming the way we all communicate.
Back in the mid-90s, when I started my marketing career, just about everything I knew I learned through textbooks and classes taught by marketing professors who’d last seen the inside of a boardroom back when Bic pens came to market. Marketing itself was heavily based on case studies and focused on market share, with big budgets tied up in campaigns with a life cycle of six months or more. Unless you worked for a company with virtually unlimited budgets, there was no incentive to do quick tests and refine marketing approaches. Incremental progress was limited at best.
Moving to New York City a bit later to pursue a marketing career in the “Internet” seemed like a pretty safe career bet. I got to conceive and explore new business models; it was great fun. Unfortunately, many of those late-90s ideas were either before their time or required what (seemed back then to be) unfathomable amounts of capital to make work. Then came the bust. Read More →
