Strategy & delivery / Selected essay
Why recommendations fail
(and what to do instead).
A good recommendation is a proposed change. What gives it somewhere to land?
Read the essayInsights / Jay Mandel
Question the promise.
Look at the evidence.
Writing on the gap between what organizations say and what people experience—and the decisions that can close it.
Explore the articles
A place to start
Thinking you can put to work.
Why recommendations fail
MarTech / Growth & Innovation
The cost of silence in marketing is too high
Read on MarTechMarketing Accountability Council / Data & AI
How Bad Math and Synthetic Empathy are Ruining Customer Service
Read on Marketing Accountability CouncilThe article library
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9 articles in Media & Attention
MAC · September 1, 2026
Alaska Violet and the Digital Life I Had Never Asked My Daughter About
A Roblox creator shows how personal narrative becomes relationship, and why parents and marketers need to take that relationship seriously.
MAC · July 22, 2026
Why Does Every Content Strategy Just Produce Reheated Nachos?
Why does everything online feel either painfully generic or outrageously over-the-top? This article explores why every original idea eventually becomes reheated nachos.
MAC · June 25, 2026
Eric André’s Survival Guide to Modern Comedy
According to TV’s ultimate agent of chaos, being a comedian is 10% creative genius, 40% corporate warfare, and 50% getting your foot run over by a car.
MAC · June 2, 2026
Social Media Was Once a Community, Now It’s a Casino
And Marketers Must Adapt
MAC · May 31, 2026
How a Smartphone and a Tripod Exposed the Local Media Crisis
While legacy news crews gave up, one creator, my son, Gavin, captured the pulse of the 40th anniversary of the Puerto Rican Day Parade on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx
MAC · February 19, 2026
Welcome to Sky Zone™:Where Childhood Becomes a Revenue Model
I walked into Sky Zone and immediately thought, "This building used to sell shower curtains and offered 20%-off coupons that expired but somehow didn’t." Now it sells trampoline time, tiered memberships, and $6 socks.
MarTech · April 24, 2025
Brand safety is BS (until it’s not)
Examining the decisions behind brand safety claims.
MarTech · February 28, 2025
How digital natives changed the game on legacy media
How digital creators compete with established media.
LinkedIn · November 5, 2019
Reflections from my content marketing crossroads
A consistent and repeatable approach to content marketing connects audience, story, strategy and results.
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The book / Kogan Page · 2023
Brand Strategy
in Three Steps.
Identity. Intention. Implementation. A framework for connecting your values, your offer, and the way you deliver.
Explore the book and sample chapterKeep exploring
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Tell me what you are working through. We can decide together what needs to happen next.