Meet the Author

Regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on, I think we’d all agree that we’re living in tumultuous times.

It’s not a surprise that anything seemingly kumbaya is met with opposition and backlash. But here at Nebo, being kumbaya is pretty important to us. We believe that diversity and inclusion are what make our country, and our company, great.

This is an amazing time to be in marketing and advertising. We can understand and target consumers in ways we’ve never dreamed of. It’s powerful. It’s precise. It’s personalized. It’s like being a kid in the candy store, and the store is full of target audiences just waiting to be served with ads.

We have the ability to combine demographic, psychographic and behavioral targeting into our social campaigns. We have incredibly precise geo/local targeting capabilities that can be layered on top of intent, demographics and device. We have programmatic media buying that is powered by AI and lookalike consumers, combined with actual behavioral data to maximize our awareness budgets.

We have a second chance to make an impact with retargeting. We have ad platforms that target based on what’s in your inbox. We have personalized and behaviorally targeted emails using algorithms that continuously learn. We have personalized website experiences. We can use consumer offline behaviors to inform online strategies. We can reach people through the apps they use. We have multi-channel analytics and measurement.

Basically, we have everything we’ve ever wanted. We have the consumer in our sights and can be a part of their lives in ways they never imagined.

But we need to be careful what we wish for. Because sometimes — many times — what we want isn’t what we need.

I’m a terrible listener. I’m not just bad at listening — I’m really, really bad at listening.

Now you may be asking yourself, as the reader, why should you care? Maybe you shouldn’t. But, if you’re in a leadership role, or will be one day, you can potentially learn from my mistakes. If you’re not in a leadership role, then you can better understand why others don’t listen well. And if you can peek into their mental universe, maybe you can help them change.

In order for me to get to the root of my own listening issues, I need to focus on two questions: why am I a bad listener and can I change?

When the British government levied another tax on tea entering the new world, American colonists decided they’d had enough. Gathering in Boston Harbor on a cold December night, the protesters boarded an East India Company ship and hurled 342 chests of tea straight into the harbor.

Before there was an America, or even an American Revolution, there was a single protest and a catchy slogan: “No taxation without representation.” An emotion took hold and an idea took flight, spreading through the new world.

But this feeling wasn’t unique to the Boston Tea Party. In fact, most great movements begin the same way — with powerful messaging that we think of as PR and advertising.

Brendan is 16. He lives in a major US city. He’s thinking about girls and college. He watches football and soccer. He plays video games. He’d rather text than talk on the phone. He’s also exposed to about 5 million ads per year, which he completely ignores. He has a laptop, iPad, smart phone, smart watch, and an Xbox. He’s always connected to more than one device. He’s part of Generation Z. He’s optimistic, and the future is an ever-expanding place that he wants to explore.

He consumes most of his “TV” content across his many devices. He’s never clicked a display ad. He reluctantly has a Facebook profile, but lives on Snapchat, Instagram, and apps that connect to the things he values. He doesn’t trust advertisers or brands.

Instead, he trusts his friends. He doesn’t understand when his experiences aren’t personalized and he’s disappointed when thinking of the lack of offline and online convergence. He expects instant everything, a connected everything.