Shift Happens

Since we first covered the topic in episode one, Google has revealed that it will NOT replace third-party cookies with an equivalent mechanism to identify individual users. Cue anxious marketers asking themselves: "How are we going to do our jobs?!" Fortunately, Dan, Jenna, and Nasser are back to paint a much more vivid picture of our cookie-less future, gliding their hoverboards across talking points including:

• Why are third-party cookies going away?
• User Tracking 101
• Privacy-preserving approaches to real-world problems
• What the FLoC?
• Welcome to cohort party 29056!
• The Three-Step Cookie Doomsday Preparedness Plan™

LINKS: DAC: "Google’s shift away from cookies and personal ad IDs" (Mar 2021) | DAC: "How to be data-driven in a crisis" (Apr 2020) | DAC: "Digital advertising in a cookie-less future" (Feb 2020) | DAC: "Google's 'Privacy Sandbox' invigorates data transparency debate" (Aug 2019) | DAC: "How to respect data privacy in the digital age" (Jan 2019) | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org | "Tape Rewind.wav" by Analog Bleep Ten of Freesound.org

The iconoclastic David Shing (Shingy) is one of digital's most entertaining, fascinating, and polarizing figures—and he remains one of the sharpest minds in the business. Join Dan, Nasser, and Jenna as they chase down AOL's former "Digital Prophet" and see the world through his eyes, casting their gaze at:

• The antagonistic origins of the Prophet
• The best (and worst) pandemic advertising
• Are CMOs unprepared for the cookieless future?
• Three barriers to data-driven insights
• QR codes: A comeback story

LINKS: www.dacgroup.com | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

In the grim darkness of the far future, there's no such thing as websites… or is there? Join Calamity Jenna, Nasser the Kid, and Dan "Just Dan" Temby as they mount their steeds to explore the very real prospect of a websiteless future. Our intrepid trio set the record straight at speakeasies along the way, including:

• Why APIs are the heralds of website death
• Google's war on clicks: Benign or malignant?
• Platformification and the platform economy
• Schema markup's inevitable renaissance
• Will the website disappear or metamorphose?

LINKS: www.dacgroup.com | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org | "twangy electric guitar.wav" by venusiancharm of Freesound.org

Keynote speaker, best-selling author, advisor to 36 of the Fortune 500, seventh generation entrepreneur, certified barbecue judge, divorce statistician, reformed domain squatter... Jay Baer has seen and done it all, and now he's Inside the Funnel's first ever guest! Join Jenna, Dan, and Nasser as they gleefully pick Jay's brain to reveal priceless insights into customer experience (CX), including:

• Kansas barbecue vs. Texas barbecue
• Why do 70% of CX initiatives fail?
• How online reviews have become the dominant force of our age
• Quick, clear, and kind: The three levers of CX
• 600 haircuts, 600 questions
• Delta Airlines and the coveted customer experience

LINKS: www.dacgroup.com | www.jaybaer.com | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

Digital transformation is one of the business world's most misconstrued concepts. It doesn't mean getting a new marketing stack or moving from carbon paper to Excel. So... what *does* it mean? Join Jenna, Nasser, and Dan as they explore and explain why digital transformation is about customer experiences and business outcomes—not just shiny new tech. Inside the Funnel, roll out!

• Jim from The Office vs. Neo from The Matrix
• New tech stack =/= digital transformation
• Why alignment is easier said than done
• The three pillars of digital transformation
• Fundamental, fundamental, fundamental

LINKS: DAC: "The new normal: Accelerating to a digital future" | DAC: "DAC at the Digital Marketing for Financial Services Virtual Summit 2020" | ATTRIBUTIONS: “radio band.wav” by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

Omnichannel was thrust back into the limelight at the tail-end of a crazy year. Why? Because digital is becoming the world's de facto medium for working, socializing, shopping—and engaging with both local businesses and national brands. But what is omnichannel? What *isn't* omnichannel? And have we finally found a topic that Dan finds exciting rather than frustrating? Listen in as Jenna takes the wheel for a whistle-stop tour through:

• Omnichannel vs. multichannel
• Omnichannel =/= attribution analysis
• Dan's delightful bathroom reno
• Step one: Organizational change
• Who owns the customer record?
• "Teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea"
• Last, best experiences

LINKS: DAC: "Google's Local Omnichannel Takeover and What it Means for Your Paid Ads" | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

Sooner or later, artificial intelligence is going to completely reinvent the world of marketing… again. But should we welcome our robot overloads or resist their ascent? What do marketing decision-makers need to know about AI as 2021 approaches? And why is Jenna convinced that machine learning will prove to be the bringer of end times? Drop in on our intrepid trio to find out!

• Ex Machina or The Wild Bunch?
• Narrow intelligence vs. general intelligence vs. super intelligence
• Using AI to do the "thinky bits"
• More than ever before, Google is an AI company
• When early adoption backfires
• The classic AI ethical paradox
• Brogrammers and their inherent bias
• Marketing careers in the AI era

LINKS: DAC: "Google announces passage indexing" | Wait But Why: "The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence" | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

On a scale of "one size fits all" to "borderline creepy", just how personalized should marketing be? Well, it depends, but one thing's for sure: there's no shortage of nuance, distrust, and legislation to contend with. In short, personalization is a hot-button topic—but Jenna, Dan, and Nasser are here to push it.

• The Christopher Nolan Guide to Personalization
• Social's wacky algorithms
• Thinking, Planning, Doing, Feeling
• The choir of positive reinforcement
• Has too much personalization broken the world?
• How poor targeting spoiled Nasser's Christmas
• Hello, Proove Intelligence!

LINKS: Proove Intelligence: "Customer analytics: This time it's personal... or is it?" | www.dacgroup.com | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

Cookies are helpful. But they're also the source of all digital evil... Or are they? There's a lot of misinformation floating around, but Jenna, Dan, and Nasser are here to set the record straight—and define exactly what marketing decision-makers need to know. Along the way, they cover: 

• Cookies 101: A timely refresher 
• Why are third-party cookies going away? 
• Google's search for a "suitable alternative" 
• Consumer cookies: Consent, clarity, and control 
• The "that guy" anecdote 
• Personalization pipe dreams 
• Chicken and egg, or horse and cart? 

LINKS: www.dacgroup.com | ATTRIBUTIONS: "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org

Welcome to Inside the Funnel, the podcast for marketing leaders, nerds, and aficionados who want to lift the veil on the marketing machine (machines wear veils, right?) and get the scoop from actual, real-life decision-makers.

In each episode, DAC's Jenna Watson, Dan Temby, and Nasser Sahlool will share their unique insights into the most pressing topics in marketing, explore the major issues marketers face, and pinpoint the latest cause of Dan's permanent state of frustration. Here's a quick intro and trailer. 

LINKS: www.dacgroup.com | ATTRIBUTIONS: "Wind, Synthesized, A.wav" by InspectorJ of Freesound.org | "record scratch.wav" by luffy of Freesound.org | "radio band.wav" by Paper Jam of Freesound.org