Complicated Advertising Technology Why?

A few days ago the team here at Custom Social attended a pitch from a really cool company that focuses on digital advertising solutions for mid cap and SMBs.  They offer a suite of products focused on CRM, lead generation and paid advertising.  

Smart team and smart company.  And we left the meeting with one question, “Why, why, why so complicated?”

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After 10 years working in advertising technology my brain had turned to mush and the way I spoke was pure gobbly wobbles.  At a cocktail party (remember those pre-covid!?Standing in a room of cool people mildly chatting about life and the world?!) my wife pointed it out after my response to a friendly and benign question, “So, what do you do for work?”.  “Well…. my expertise is in the advertising ecosystem comprised of DMPs, SSPs, DSPs, real time bidding engines and programmatic marketing.” Glassy eyed responses abounded along with a “cool” and our circle quickly dispersed in a shuffle to the bar for more ice or melded into other groups that seemed to be having a lot more fun.

Marketing is cool and it should be.  Marketing is the ocean where three great rivers of thought come together: art, commerce and psychology.  From this intersection has exploded some of the biggest successes of the 21st century; marketing is so integral to our culture and our environment that we implicitly understand it, move through it and see it all around us.  It is the “Force”.  Digital marketing in the last 10 years became transactional, real time, data driven and pursued efficiency and clarity to the point where all the fun was stripped away.  Our mission at Custom Social and our products are focused on putting the humanity back into the process and realizing that digital marketing is still about a product, people and an offer.  Our tools are simple to use, powerful in outcome and empower through direction.  

There is a new wave of entrepreneurs coming online, a combination of side hustle, born out of the freedom of remote working and the necessity of economic change.  We are building tools for this wave and have a very exciting new product launching next month.  The name is ARROW, our tag line is “Empowered through Direction” and it’s a product that any brand owner, business owner or marketer will use to move quickly in the right direction and achieve real results in digital marketing.   Please keep an eye out, it’s a game changer!

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