Jason McDonald

No, no, and NO! Walled Gardens are NOT the answer (to 1st party data woes). The thought is cringy and the path is disempowering. Walled Gardens do have performance but the cost is bigger than transparency (at least Matt Kilmartin's criticism hits that nail). Locking yourself into a WG's approach, roadmap, limited (yes limited!) supply and channel expertise, and questionable ethics is not the panacea for long term success. Perhaps it's because many desire an easy button and become addicted to it. 🤷‍♂️ If you are responsible for your companies 1st party data, the conversation needs to start with TRUST, then performance and transparency. With a little effort, you can find privacy safe, multi-platform, multi-channel audience experts to do the heavy lift of 1st party data insights and optimization. #firstpartydata #1stpartydata #walledgardens #audiencedata https://lnkd.in/eP7KkHM9

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Why is video the future of #B2B marketing? 📈 Merkle's Sonya Hand and other execs reveal how video is helping brands break through the noise and connect with decision-makers in new ways. Explore the full discussion in The Drum: https://bit.ly/3XdzgPf

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AI Video will change the way brands approach video marketing. My thoughts in the article below.

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ZI Labs is headed to Seattle and Chicago this week—are you around? Join us this week for two amazing events: 1) Seattle: GTM Plays Cooking Class Wednesday Oct 16th, 6 pm PT Millie Beetham and I believe in the power of signals and storytelling in GTM, much like a classic recipe. Just as cooking requires the right ingredients, timing, and techniques to create a memorable dish, a successful go-to-market strategy demands the same attention to detail.  Join us for an amazing evening of cooking, dinner and learning. We’ve got 12 amazing GTM Leaders signed up from Stripe, Outreach, Highspot, Airtable, Salesforce and more!  Have one more spot. Who is in Seattle we should know about? 2) Chicago: AI + GTM Masterclass (and then dinner), Thursday Oct 17th, 3:30 pm CT Join us this Thursday for an AI + GTM Masterclass, where we’ll explore how to blend AI into your strategy. We’ll create a recipe for success that fosters innovation and connection, moving beyond just AI copywriting. Discover how AI can save time for your sellers, brainstorm opportunities within your territory, and streamline your team’s GTM efforts. What You’ll Learn: 🔍 AI’s Impact: Discover how AI is reshaping the B2B arena and how you can leverage its power. 🛠️ Blueprint for Success: Develop a comprehensive AI readiness framework to assess your capabilities, identify gaps, and implement effective strategies. 🤝 Network & Collaborate: Connect with like-minded leaders from the Chicago area, sharing experiences and insights in a dynamic environment. 2 spots left, so don’t miss out! DM me or tag someone in Seattle or Chicago if they should join us. Let’s unlock the potential of AI together! #AIMasterclass #GTM #AI

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I'll be speaking at Programmatic IO on May 21st! If you want to learn more about custom algorithms, when you should consider them, and how you can implement then, this session is for you. https://lnkd.in/euNZNjG6

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The latest ICONIQ Capital benchmark on "Marketing Budgets & Productivity" is a must read. One takeaway, that we heard echoed in the keynote from Sangram Vajre the SF GTM Partners event last week: "Despite the allure of bottoms-up and PLG models, we believe it is imperative that companies do not over-rely on these motions. While bottoms-up models will remain an important strategy, we believe maturing a direct sales motion is critical for long-term growth for most companies. We predict that SaaS marketing teams will be increasingly faced with the challenge of supporting multiple growth strategies across PLG and SLG, direct and channel, and top-down and bottoms-up approaches in the coming years" https://lnkd.in/ggk_ADgm

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Recommender Systems: Modeling Long-Term User Preferences and Interests The TWIN-V2 framework models users based on long-term interaction sequences, extending beyond 10^5 events. These sequences capture lifelong interactions, providing a comprehensive understanding of user behavior over extended periods. A/B testing reveals significant improvements in video recommendation performance, with notable gains in watch time and content diversity. https://lnkd.in/g6A7Y52H

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Finding the right customers for your brand and ultimately converting them to buyers at the most efficient costs possible is the holy grail for marketing teams. In case you missed it live last week, catch this on demand webinar where I share how Gregory Welteroth Advertising leverages Alteryx to refine customer targeting and optimize marketing ROI. Plus, gain insight into how we used automated analytics to save DECADES worth of labor. Don't delay, watch now! https://lnkd.in/e6C7sbmX #Alteryx #Marketing #AnalyticsAutomation

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Not to be outdone by AI search engines like Perplexity, Google is once again revolutionizing the search game. Elizabeth Reid, Google's Head of Search, announces full-page card-based results, video search with Google Lens for interactive questioning, and the rollout of ads in AI Overviews in the US in the blog post below. In other news, Cloudflare recently introduced AI Audit, which promises content creators insight into and control over AI model access to their websites. Tools like this will aid SEO enthusiasts in grasping optimization in an AI-centric search landscape. https://lnkd.in/gHiDqWt4 #Digital #Marketing #Search #AI

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Wednesday musings on a recent session between Segment VP of Product & UX Robin Grochol and David Raab, Founder and CEO of the CDP Institute. What’s really clear to me: CDPs are increasingly becoming enterprise-wide tools managed by IT and data teams rather than just marketing. Why? Because great companies put their customers at the center of their decisions.. and customer data is essential to nearly every team. IMHO customer data is the great unifier of company silos and CDPs can be used to unify disjointed tech stacks. Removing barriers between teams has never been more important to meet and exceed customer expectations and track the ROI of your efforts.

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The best part about working in data at Ramp is the context and visibility we have into how companies spend money. One of my favorite cuts is “New Vendor Spend”, which shows when an existing customer starts spending on a vendor for the first time. 🆕💸 Check out our SaaS Vendors list to see the top tools Ramp customers purchased in June, based on over a billion dollars a month in aggregated, anonymized transactions. 🚀 Only one vendor was in the top five by new customer count and new $ amount… any guesses? 👀👀

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This is the way to buy (and sell) media - with insight and strategy. https://lnkd.in/gE2nvBSD

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Looking for answers on how to overcome GA4 reporting challenges in the UI? Join Jared Fisher, Trisha Dhotkar, and Victoria Kalyniuk on 7/16, as they explain how using powerful strategies with BQ, the GA4 data API, and Looker Studio can address those challenges. #google #ga4 #reporting #bigquery #challenges

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Looking to build successful campaigns but need some guidance? This is a great piece from Acxiom and Digiday about the things every brand needs to consider as they navigate the complexities of a data strategy.

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Why do we need deterministic builds & why is Nix the solution? In this episode, Timothy Chen and I chatted with Ron Efroni  (CEO of Flox) about why Nix is the future of software development, what he learned while building Facebook's internal platform, and how Flox makes Nix easy to use.

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How many email addresses do you have? Using them for different accounts and logins presents a challenge for marketers who want to accurately target consumers with relevant ads and offers. In the latest episode of Here’s the deal… LiveRamp's Daniella Harkins talks “identity,” and how connecting those emails (and other identifying information) is the best way to create the personalized experiences your customers crave.

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What *should* your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) be? Well, one argument is that it should be as low as possible – less transactional (and thus lower ROAS), more brand building. This thread (from an ecommerce brand) is excellent reading. https://lnkd.in/gwDDkheA

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We’re in the run-up of the hype cycle now, but the cliff is in sight. Inserting an “AI add-on” in your SaaS isn’t a strategy that’s likely to work for very long. It needs to enable a feature that drives consumer value. Basic generative functions like these are going to be at the operating system level. (e.g. This is what Apple will have for free this fall across all devices) As product leaders, we need to fight the temptation and pressure to just slap “AI” on a sku and to figure out how to use the tech (if at all) to fulfill the jobs to be done out there in people’s everyday lives. #product #productmarketing #hypecycle

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Looking forward to this session with Michael Rainey and Nidhi D on how AI can enchance your data clean room journey.

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