Kevin Lee interviews Michael Ferree, CEO and Founder at Lead Generation World, a San Diego-based company that runs conferences for the lead generation industry. Michael is well respected in the industry due to his leadership role at the Leads Council (now the Consumer Consent Council) and for his writings, presentations, and podcasts on lead generation. Kevin and Michael discuss the state of lead generation in 2024, given that the industry is facing unprecedented pressures to evolve in the face of new proposed regulations governing the way that business leads are gathered, processed, and shared among different industry players. They also share insights about how AI is likely to change operations in the industry. Other topics addressed in this interview include:

- Potential regulatory issues for businesses using AI-powered voice calls and text messaging, given that proposed regulatory actions may require opt-in consent for these types of communications.

- The importance of using clear and concise language in voicemails for outbound contact strategies, as these may now be transcribed and read in real-time.

- The need to be thoughtful of how voicemails are left, including the caller ID and the content of the message, to ensure they are easily comprehensible and actionable without picking up the phone.

- How AI is now being used to create personalized voicemails in a way that is potentially undetectable to listeners.

- How the legal definition of a "robo call" may expand to include AI-powered calls and text messaging, which could pose challenges for companies that rely on these methods for business communications.

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Kevin Lee interviews Rich Kahn, CEO and Co-Founder at Anura.io, a company he launched in 2017 to combat the kind of ad fraud he'd been observing for years across his own ad network. Today, Anura.io is one of the most capable ad fraud detection plans in the market, and so I was glad to score an interview with Rich to trade notes on ad fraud, how it's evolving, the kind of costs it exacts on marketers today, and how AI may be strengthening the hand of ad fraudsters, even as it bolsters the efforts of ad fraud detectors such as Anura.io.

This interview covers many topics that will be of interest to anyone doing digital marketing today, especially those whose budgets are spent across programmatic advertising channels.

These topics include:

- The challenge of identifying fraudulent impressions in programmatic advertising, given that the sheer magnitude of data makes it difficult to detect invalid clicks.

- How many of today's ad fraud solutions suites are limited in their ability to detect fraud because of the way they use pre-bid scanning to classify traffic in real-time.

- How fraudsters are increasingly using advanced bots, malware, and human fraud farms to bypass detection methods.

- Why some advertisers are willing to accept a certain level of fraud, viewing it as a cost of doing business.

- Why small advertisers have a hard time seeking funds from large tech platforms when incidents of ad fraud are detected.

- The importance of verifying ad fraud detection software's accuracy and not trusting it solely on the basis of claims made by its representatives.

- The challenges faced by ad fraud software vendors in terms of keeping up with new browser versions and their impact on fraud detection.

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Kevin Lee interviews James Avery, Founder and CEO at Kevel, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based adtech company whose ad serving APIs make it easy for brands to monetize their sites and apps. Kevel’s monetization software can easily be deployed within retail media networks (networks allowing retailers to advertise within their in-store and/or online environments), and Kevel itself has been driving the standardization of protocols and ad unit types through a recently formed industry working whose intention is to establish an OpenRTB Protocol for retail media.

Kevin and James discuss the emergence of retail media as a powerful advertising channel for retailers and chat about how retailers can best take advantage of it. They cover a good number of topics in our talk that will be of interest to retailers, e-tailers, and e-commerce merchants, including:

- Retail media and its use cases in advertising.

- The unique value of retail media, given the rich first-party data retailers possess, including purchase history and information related to customer loyalty.

- Looking at Amazon as an example of a highly optimized retail media network, with over 50% of retail media revenue in the category.

- Why it’s critically important for retailers to link online and offline POS (Point of Sale) data.

- How retailers can use programmatic advertising within retail networks media to delight customers through targeted, relevant ads.

- The potential for retailers to share data with brands, which could be used to create more effective targeted marketing campaigns.

- The potential for upside in retail sectors selling large ticket items, such as Home Depot and Lowe's, and for specialty retailers.

- How the development of an open RTB standard for promoted listings will enable retailers to deliver ads programmatically across multiple platforms and measure performance in a more open and efficient way.

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Kevin Lee interviews Greg Gifford, of SearchLabs. Greg Gifford is an experienced SEO consultant who has presented on the topic of local SEO at dozens of high-profile industry events. (If you’d like to see some of Greg’s excellent presentations, you can find them on SlideShare at the following link: https://www.slideshare.net/greggifford).

Kevin and Greg cover a lot of ground in our interview and address many topics of interest to anyone doing local SEO today. These topics include:

- The possible impact that Gemini, a Google-developed AI app intended to replace voice-based search, will have on local SEO.

- The role that Google Home may play in terms of serving as a platform for testing and training AI to answer questions conversationally, potentially changing how people use voice search at home.

- How creating and syndicating high-quality content across various platforms, such as Yelp and LinkedIn, can help improve local SEO and AI visibility.

- The degree to which writing better content for one's website can help improve search engine rankings as AI becomes more integrated in the search experience.

- The importance of optimizing videos for YouTube, as doing this can lead to more visibility and leads in the long run.

- The importance of optimizing Google Business Profiles for local search, particularly in regard to selecting relevant categories for the business.

- Why businesses need to take steps to ask customers for reviews to increase the chances of getting good reviews (even if doing so means getting more bad reviews).

- The fact that that no amount of marketing can overcome a bad user experience.

- Google's recent efforts to improve local search experiences, including new verification processes and reinstatement procedures.

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Kevin Lee interviews Kevin Rowe, Founder and Head of Digital PR at PureLinq, a Florida-based agency focused on digital PR for SEO. This talk covered a lot of topics of relevance to anyone doing SEO, PR, social media, or any kind of organic optimization today: they include:

- The importance of storytelling and social media in SEO.

- The importance of producing trustworthy content in a world where AI-generated content is becoming more prevalent.

- The importance of understanding the different layers of expertise and reputation in SEO, and how Google is now able to recognize and prioritize these factors.

- The crucial role that voice assistants like Google Home will play in the future of search.

- The possibility that the recent Helpful Content update in Google may have been influenced by AI, given that the update prioritizes unique and human-generated content over AI-generated content.

- How to use AI to thwart "Creator's Block" (formerly known as "Writer's Block")

- Potential loopholes in ChatGPT's training data, including the use of human-generated content to train the AI and the potential for abuse.

- The importance of measuring the value of PR and digital content placements beyond media equivalents.

- How brand search volume and direct navigation volume can be used as a leading indicator of paid media success.

- The growing demand for digital PR and SEO services, as indicated by a 10x increase in Google Trends search interest over the past 5 years.

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Kevin Lee interviews Grace Watkins and Holly Rawlinson, of Click Media, on the topic of the evolution of the influencer industry. They cover many topics that will be of interest to brands seeking to reach audiences mediated by influencers, and by influencers and creators seeking to work more successfully with brands. These topics include:

- Misconceptions regarding gamers and gaming audiences that can prevent brand managers from appreciating their value.

- The role played by platform algorithms and meritocracy in terms of surfacing top creators.

- The shift in power away from traditional Hollywood agencies and studios toward independent internet-based creators and influencers.

- The challenges faced by brand managers when seeking to reach audiences mediated by gaming influencers.

- The importance of considering multiple KPIs when working with creators and influencers, such as website clicks, downloads, and engagement, rather than solely focusing on sales.

- The fact that creators with existing friendships can amplify each other's content and increase virality.

- Instances where brands have successfully worked with a group of creators in a way that resonates with their audiences, thus leading to more organic and authentic content that can often exceed contractually obligated content.

- Why brand managers may struggle with giving influencers and creators sufficient creative freedom to create content that truly resonates with their audiences.

- How influencers are becoming more sophisticated in their approaches to building personal brands, recognizing the importance of having multiple touchpoints with their audiences.

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Kevin Lee interviews Etai Rahmil, Founder & CEO of Pure Over, a company manufacturing all-glass pour-over coffee makers. Unlike conventional pour-over coffee makers, Pure Over's do not require the use of disposable paper filters.

Kevin and Etai discuss Pure Over's origin story, its marketing positioning, and its efforts to build organic online support for the product. As Etai observes, "we've developed amazing relationships, organic relationships that don't want to get paid by us to say talking points, they partner with us, and they spread Pure Over knowledge because they genuinely love it. And so that has been a huge part of the reason why we've been able to get the product out to so many people. We're in over 16,000 homes currently. And we can directly attribute that to word of mouth and, you know, letting people know, on TikTok, that the people that they trust in coffee, trust Pure Over."

Kevin and Etai discuss the sustainability benefits Pure Over's plans for additions to its product lines, and future marketing plans. As Etai notes, "taking a deep dive into digital ads is going to be huge. But not only that, I think it's doing more on the ground event sponsorships and leaning into collaborations. I think in the last couple years, just getting a hold of the logistics of the business was super important. And now that we're really feeling comfortable in that area, I can start you know doing some of the fun brand collaborations artists collaborations to just get our word out, get our products out in new ways to new audiences. That wouldn't have found us in our traditional marketing as of right now. So collaborations are super-exciting and we have some in the works. Some have taken a little bit long to come to fruition as we've been focusing on some of the not as fun stuff like supply chain and logistics. But now we have a good hold on them so some of these other more fun aspects can can come to life."

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Kevin Lee interviews Phillip Lomax, Executive Vice President at MediaScience, a leader in media and advertising innovation research. Kevin and Phillip discuss MediaScience's origin story, what's new and compelling in audience research, as well as chat about new ad formats, the value of short and long-form content, and, naturally, the role of AI in the audience response measurement space.

They converse about the power of short-form advertising of the type increasingly used on social media platforms such as TikTok. As Phillip notes, "MediaScience was the first to discover the impact of six second advertisements, which is very prevalent today. Very short, it's 20%, of a 32nd ad. And what we discovered within our research is that we could achieve 60% of the impact in six seconds of a 32nd ad. So I can achieve 60% of the impact and just 20% of the amount of time."

They delve into the power of storytelling in an advertising context and best practices for getting attention. As Phillip notes, "what we found is featuring the brand's distinct assets, early in advertisements gives us a greater ability to create memory structures. And this doesn't necessarily mean that we need to plaster a logo on the screen within the first three seconds, which is what a lot of research companies say we should be doing right, it means we should be looking very distinctly at the shapes and forms and distinctive assets that make up a brand and the associations that we have with these brands, and then trying to find clever ways of integrating those distinct assets early within our advertisements."

Phillip and Kevin also talk about brand safety, which Phillip regards as one of the greatest problems currently facing publishers today, AI, and touch upon the fact that in-game advertising continues to fail to get its proper share of ad budgets.

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Kevin Lee interviews Dan Reich, a serial entrepreneur, investor, writer, and President and co-founder of DIBS Beauty, a makeup brand "that reimagines everyday beauty staples, making them easier, mood-boosting, and worthy of desert island status." They discuss DIBs' origin story, Dan's investment philosophy, the increasingly important role of influencers in marketing, and the big, AI-driven changes rippling through e-commerce.

Along the way they cover how social media has changed the influencer landscape. As Dan observes, "years ago, there weren't really influencers, the influencers were these big media companies and publications. They had eyeballs, they had attention through those eyeballs and attention, they would monetize that with advertising dollars. So brands would give them things for those media companies to tell the world about which in turn drove sales, awareness and so on. And I think and know as a result of social media, that paradigm shifted, and now we see people that we call sometimes influencers I think about the more like entrepreneurs, they have many of these people have more eyeballs and engagement and, quote, influence than those media companies did."

Dan is excited about the possibilities that AI will unleash from both an investment thesis perspective and from a brand-owner perspective. He notes that "we're in this bit of a hype cycle where there's a ton of people ton of money rushing at the first incarnations of what these solutions can look like. It's everyone's got to hammer now in search of a nail. But I do think that give it 12 to 18 months, we're gonna see some really incredible and we already are, but really, really incredibly different, unique and differentiated solutions for all sorts of things, whether it be accounting, tasks, health care, marketing, you name it."

Dan also has some great advice for founders seeking to acquire companies. "Don't break it," he advises. "Keep it autonomous; help where you can help. Don't be overbearing."

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Kevin Lee interviews Manish Chowdhary, founder and CEO of Pulse Commerce, a leading mid-market order and inventory management system for brands and retailers in the omni channel space, and founder and CEO at Cahoot, which specializes in e-commerce optimization with a focus on delivery and logistics. discuss Pulse and Cahoot's origin story, and how these companies' services solve problems for e-commerce brands.

Along the way they touch on other important issues relevant to e-commerce, including the rise of 3rd party marketplaces. As Manish observes, "from the consumer standpoint, consumers trust marketplaces, because it's a competitive environment, which allows which requires brands and retailers to compete in order to win the consumers business. And consumers feel that they have an independent third party, who's going to keep both parties honest. Which means if there's a problem with the merchant, the marketplace will arbitrate that. So we are, we're seeing a massive adoption of marketplaces from a consumer standpoint, consumers love it, consumers want to be there. And also because it's a competitive environment."

Manish and Kevin chat about current marketplace trends and the crucial importance of understanding customer acquisition costs and LTV. They trade notes on big movements in the space, including Overstock.com's acquisition of Bed, Bath & Beyond. They touch on the continuing relevance of SEO in e-commerce, and pivot to the rising importance of AI in marketplace operations. As Manish notes, "it's one of those massive changes, you know, from web 1.0, to web 2.0, then to mobile. And now we're entering the age of AI. So perhaps I would classify this as the biggest revolution since the launch of the iPhone, which revolutionized mobile."

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