Insights from Nebo

The first Super Bowl I ever watched was the 2nd Super Bowl rematch of the Cowboys versus Steelers. The Cowboys lost. My toddler heart was broken, and I thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen.

I loved the Dallas Cowboys. Each year, I’d circle Cowboys and Steelers figures in the JCPenney catalog before Christmas, hoping Santa would put them under the tree (along with other potential Cowboys presents). 

Every day, my toy Cowboys defeated the toy Steelers on my bedroom floor.

We tend to view history as a straight line of progress: an evolution from primitive to modern. But, new technology often causes us to retrieve past forms of culture in unexpected ways.

In the mid-70s, philosopher Marshall McLuhan proposed the Law of Reversal, arguing that when a medium is pushed to its extreme limit, it doesn’t just break — it flips into its opposite. 

Tuesday, January 22, 2008. “Low” by Flo Rida and T-Pain was number one on the charts and dominated the speakers of the old Nebo office. MySpace was defending its turf from a new website called Facebook, and we were all logging out of AIM and signing up for GChat. 

Businesses hadn’t made it to Facebook yet. But if Nebo had a status, it would have been this: “Nebo is about to be changed forever.” Because that day, a brand new intern walked into the office for her first day of work. 

Enter Jenn Vickery.

Imagine walking down the sidewalk and seeing an ad on the bus stop for the exact knee-high polka dot socks you’ve been on the fence about buying.

How is this even possible? It’s not a coincidence - it’s the magic of digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH). 

Gone are the days of spray-and-pray billboards. Today’s out-of-home ads are highly sophisticated, hyper-targeted, and cross-channel capable, making them a vital part of every marketer’s arsenal.  

The past few years have been… a lot. 

They’ve been exhausting. This is true for everyone, regardless of where you come from or what you believe. And while most of us have lived through trying times before, the present moment feels especially unstable. Not only do we have the uncertainty that we’ve all collectively experienced in the last several years, but now we have political anxiety, unpredictable economic changes, and the uncertainty of AI. 

It’s no secret that ads on social media are a divisive topic. And I get it — in my time scrolling, I’ve come across some truly terrible targeting. But when an ad hits, it hits. So yeah, I’ll admit it: as a consumer, I LOVE my targeted ads. I’d even go as far to say that I look forward to seeing them. I’m here to say that, when done right, targeted ads can improve your experience on social by introducing you to new products you never would’ve stumbled upon — ones you actually want to see.